# Elastohydrodynamic lift at a soft wall

Abstract : We study experimentally the motion of non-deformable microbeads in a linear shear flow close to a wall bearing a thin and soft polymer layer. Combining microfluidics and 3D optical tracking, we demonstrate that the steady-state bead/surface distance increases with the flow strength. Moreover, such lift is shown to result from flow-induced deformations of the layer, in quantitative agreement with theoretical predictions from elastohydrodynamics. This study thus provides the first experimental evidence of soft lubrication'' at play at small scale, in a system relevant {\it e.g.} to the physics of blood microcirculation.
Document type :
Journal articles

https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01652253
Contributor : Lionel Bureau <>
Submitted on : Friday, March 2, 2018 - 4:49:26 PM
Last modification on : Friday, November 20, 2020 - 12:00:08 PM

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### Citation

Heather Davies, Delphine Débarre, Nouha El Amri, Claude Verdier, Ralf P Richter, et al.. Elastohydrodynamic lift at a soft wall. Physical Review Letters, American Physical Society, 2018, 120, pp.198001. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.120.198001⟩. ⟨hal-01652253v2⟩

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