(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2011-01-14)
Ding, Yang; Gravish, Nick; Goldman, Daniel I.
Laboratory experiments and numerical simulation reveal that a submerged intruder dragged horizontally at a constant velocity within a granular medium experiences a lift force whose sign and magnitude depend on the intruder shape. Comparing the stress on a flat plate at varied inclination angle with the local surface stress on the intruders at regions with the same orientation demonstrates that intruder lift forces are well approximated as the sum of contributions from flat-plate elements. The plate stress is deduced from the force balance on the flowing media near the plate.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-09-06)
Gravish, Nick; Umbanhowar, Paul B.; Goldman, Daniel I.
We use plate drag to study the response of granular media to localized forcing as a function of volume fractionϕ. A bifurcation in the force and flow occurs at the onset of dilatancy ϕ [subscript c]. Below ϕ [subscript c] rapid fluctuations in the drag force F [subscript D] are observed. Above ϕ [subscript c] fluctuations in F [subscript D] are periodic and increase in magnitude with ϕ. Velocity field measurements indicate that the bifurcation in F [subscript D] results from the formation of stable shear bands above ϕ [subscript c] which are created and destroyed periodically during drag. A friction-based wedge flow model captures the dynamics for ϕ >ϕ [subscript c].
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2010-06)
Ding, Yang; Gravish, Nick; Li, Chen; Maladen, Ryan D.; Mazouchova, Nicole; Sharpe, Sarah S.; Umbanhowar, Paul B.; Goldman, Daniel I.
Terrestrial locomotion can take place on complex substrates such as leaf litter, debris, and soil that flow or solidify in response to stress. While principles of movement in air and water are revealed through study of the hydrodynamic equations of fluid motion, discovery of principles of movement in complex terrestrial environments is less advanced in part because describing the physics of limb and body interaction with such environments remains challenging. We report progress our group has made in discovering principles of movement of organisms and models of organisms (robots) on and within granular materials (GM) like sand. We review current understanding of localized intrusion in GM relevant to foot and body interactions. We discuss the limb-ground interactions of a desert lizard, a hatchling sea turtle, and various robots and reveal that control of granular solidification can generate effective movement. We describe the sensitivity of movement on GM to gait parameters and discuss how changes in material state can strongly affect locomotor performance. We examine subsurface movement, common in desert animals like the sandfish lizard. High speed x-ray imaging resolves subsurface kinematics, while electromyography (EMG) allows muscle activation patterns to be studied. Our resistive force theory, numerical, and robotic models of sand-swimming reveal that subsurface swimming occurs in a “frictional fluid” whose properties differ from Newtonian fluids.