MEchanics GAthering –MEGA- Seminar: Investigating surprising phenomena at a liquid interface
Event details
| Date | 15.05.2025 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:00 |
| Speaker | Benjamin Apffel (LWE, EPFL) |
| Location | Online |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
Abstract: During this seminar, I will present several surprising phenomena that can occur at a liquid interface under suitable experimental conditions. In a first part, I will show how high frequency vertical vibrations can be used to stabilize a liquid layer above an air cushion. Buoyant objects can moreover float at the lower interface in a way that will be discussed. Some generalization with non-vertical or spatially inhomogeneous shaking will also be considered. In a second part, I will show how an object performing circular trajectories can be brought closer from its rotation center when the rotation speed increases. Such effect occurs when one stirs the water surface with a small floating ball attached to a deformable string. The combination of the string’s deformation and fluid’s action leads to a wide variety of ball’s trajectories that will be described. In particular, I will discuss the existence of robust self-trapped states, in which the ball traps itself at the rotation center.
Bio: Benjamin is a postdoc at the Laboratory of Wave Engineering at EPFL, where he explores the interplay between topology and nonlinearities in wave physics, with applications in parametric instability control. He completed his PhD in physics at the Institut Langevin (ESPCI-PSL), where he developed experimental platforms for studying time-varying media using electrically controlled water waves, and investigated high-frequency vibration-induced stabilization in fluids. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the ICFP program at École Normale Supérieure (Paris), with a focus on quantum mechanics.
Bio: Benjamin is a postdoc at the Laboratory of Wave Engineering at EPFL, where he explores the interplay between topology and nonlinearities in wave physics, with applications in parametric instability control. He completed his PhD in physics at the Institut Langevin (ESPCI-PSL), where he developed experimental platforms for studying time-varying media using electrically controlled water waves, and investigated high-frequency vibration-induced stabilization in fluids. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from the ICFP program at École Normale Supérieure (Paris), with a focus on quantum mechanics.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- MEGA.Seminar Organizing Committee