Strip waves in vibrated shear-thickening wormlike micellar solutions.

We present an instability in vertically vibrated dilute wormlike micellar solutions. Above a critical driving acceleration the fluid forms elongated solitary domains of high amplitude waves. We model this instability using a Mathieu equation modified to account for the non-Newtonian character of the fluid. We find that our model successfully reproduces the observed transitions.

Vibration-induced climbing of drops.

We report an experimental study of liquid drops moving against gravity, when placed on a vertically vibrating inclined plate, which is partially wetted by the drop. The frequency of vibrations ranges from 30 to 200 Hz, and, above a threshold in vibration acceleration, drops experience an upward motion. We attribute this surprising motion to the deformations of the drop, as a consequence of an up or down symmetry breaking induced by the presence of the substrate. We relate the direction of motion to contact angle measurements. This phenomenon can be used to move a drop along an arbitrary path in a plane, without special surface treatments or localized forcing.