Browsing by Author "Clark, M. T."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
  • Thumbnail Image
    Coupled motion of microscale and nanoscale elastic objects in a viscous fluid
    Paul, Mark R.; Clark, M. T.; Cross, M. C. (American Physical Society, 2013-10-24)
    We study the coupled dynamics of two closely spaced micron or nanoscale elastic objects immersed in a viscous fluid. The dynamics of the elastic objects are coupled through the motion of the surrounding viscous fluid. We consider two cases: (i) one object is driven externally by an imposed harmonic actuation force and the second object is passive and (ii) both objects are driven by a Brownian force to yield stochastic dynamics. Using a harmonic oscillator approximation for the elastic objects and the unsteady Stokes equations to describe the fluid dynamics, we develop analytical expressions for the amplitude and phase of the displacement of the oscillating objects. For the case of an imposed actuation we use an impulse in force to determine the resulting dynamics over all frequencies. For the Brownian-driven objects the stochastic dynamics are found using the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. We validate our theoretical expressions by comparison with results from finite-element numerical simulations of the complete fluid-solid interaction problem. Our results yield interesting features in the amplitude and phase of the displacement of the elastic objects due to the fluid motion. We find that the dynamics depend on the separation of the objects, a measure of the mass loading due to the fluid, and the frequency parameter which acts as a frequency-based Reynolds number. Our results are valid over the range of parameters typical of micron and nanoscale elastic objects in fluid. The range of dynamics found can be understood in terms of the interplay between the viscous and potential components of the fluid flow field described by the unsteady Stokes equation for an oscillating cylinder. For small values of the frequency parameter, typical of nanoscale elastic objects, the dynamics are overdamped due to the dominance of viscous forces over inertial forces. For moderate and large values of the frequency parameter, typical of micron-scale elastic objects, we find that the dynamics of the fluid-coupled objects exhibits an interesting mode splitting to yield a bimodal signature in the amplitude-frequency plots. We find that the mode splitting can be described using a normal mode analysis containing only potential fluid interactions between the cylinders.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The stochastic dynamics of rectangular and V-shaped atomic force microscope cantilevers in a viscous fluid and near a solid boundary
    Clark, M. T.; Paul, Mark R. (American Institute of Physics, 2008-05-01)
    Using a thermodynamic approach based upon the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, we quantify the stochastic dynamics of rectangular and V-shaped microscale cantilevers immersed in a viscous fluid. We show that the stochastic cantilever dynamics as measured by the displacement of the cantilever tip or by the angle of the cantilever tip are different. We trace this difference to contributions from the higher modes of the cantilever. We find that contributions from the higher modes are significant in the dynamics of the cantilever tip angle. For the V-shaped cantilever the resulting flow field is three-dimensional and complex in contrast to what is found for a long and slender rectangular cantilever. Despite this complexity, the stochastic dynamics can be predicted using a two-dimensional model with an appropriately chosen length scale. We also quantify the increased fluid dissipation that results as a V-shaped cantilever is brought near a solid planar boundary. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.
  • Thumbnail Image
    The stochastic dynamics of micron and nanoscale elastic cantilevers in fluid: fluctuations from dissipation
    Paul, Mark R.; Clark, M. T.; Cross, M. C. (IOP Publishing, 2006-08-21)
    The stochastic dynamics of micron and nanoscale cantilevers immersed in a viscous fluid are quantified. Analytical results are presented for long slender cantilevers driven by Brownian noise. The spectral density of the noise force is not assumed to be white and the frequency dependence of the noise force is determined from the fluctuation-dissipation theorem. The analytical results are shown to be useful for the micron scale cantilevers that are commonly used in atomic force microscopy. A general thermodynamic approach is developed that is valid for cantilevers of arbitrary geometry as well as for arrays of multiple cantilevers whose stochastic motion is coupled through the fluid. It is shown that the fluctuation-dissipation theorem permits the calculation of stochastic quantities via straightforward deterministic methods. The thermodynamic approach is used with deterministic finite element numerical simulations to quantify the auto-correlation and noise spectrum of cantilever fluctuations for a single micron scale cantilever and the cross-correlations and noise spectra of fluctuations for an array of two experimentally motivated nanoscale cantilevers as a function of cantilever separation. The results are used to quantify the noise reduction possible using correlated measurements with two closely spaced nanoscale cantilevers. © IOP Publishing Ltd.