Computational experiments based on the direct numerical simulation of turbulent channel flow reveal that the skin friction can be reduced as much as 70% by the action of a localized steady force acting against the flow close to the wall. In addition, the excessive shear stresses observed during the laminar-to-turbulence transition can be substantially reduced. For a sustained reduction in the s...

The majority of textile interaction with the human body is by skin contact of clothing. The human skin is the largest organ of the body with a multitude of functions and the largest representation in the brain. This presentation presents first results of a neurophysiological study on subconscious textile perception and the influence of friction on perception as well as on mechanical skin irrita...

Surgical wounds generally heal by primary intention with few complications (Ousey et al, 2011). However, certain patient factors and surgical types may predispose postoperative incisions to skin blistering, particularly if an unsuitable postoperative wound dressing is used. Skin blistering occurs when the epidermis becomes separated from the dermis and results from continued friction on the ski...

In this paper the steady laminar magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convection boundary layer flow towards a vertical stretching sheet with variable fluid viscosity, radiation and in the presence of Dufour’s effect have been investigated. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into set of ordinary differential equations using similarity transformation, and then these equatio...

The very light contact forces (∼0.60 N) applied by the fingertips during tactile exploration reveal a clearly optimized sensorimotor strategy. To investigate the cortical mechanisms involved with this behavior, we recorded 230 neurons in the somatosensory cortex (S1), as two monkeys scanned different surfaces with the fingertips in search of a tactile target without visual feedback. During the ...

When touched, a glass plate excited with ultrasonic transverse waves feels notably more slippery than it does at rest. To study this phenomenon, we use frustrated total internal reflection to image the asperities of the skin that are in intimate contact with a glass plate. We observed that the load at the interface is shared between the elastic compression of the asperities of the skin and a sq...

Smooth contact pads that evolved in insects, amphibians and mammals to enhance the attachment abilities of the animals' feet are often dressed with surface micropatterns of different shapes that act in the presence of a fluid secretion. One of the most striking surface patterns observed in contact pads of these animals is based on a hexagonal texture, which is recognized as a friction-oriented ...