Séminaires

Deformations of bubbles and drops at fluid interfaces are governed by the competition between surface tension, gravity, and hydrodynamic stresses. This balance, typically quantified by the Bond number, controls phenomena ranging from capillary waves to the breakup of large bubbles and droplets in turbulence. However, the natural variability of surface tension in liquids is limited, restricting systematic exploration of these regimes. A promising approach is to replace the fluid interface with a thin elastic membrane, thereby creating an effective capillarity that can be tuned over orders of magnitude. Such elasto-drops provide robust model systems, bridging the physics of elasto-capillarity and soft matters. In this talk, I will present our recent progress in fabricating centimetric elastic shells with controlled uniformity, and in characterizing their in-plane stress through vibrational modes. These developments open new avenues for investigating soft particle dynamics under strong deformations, with applications ranging from soft particle transports and dispersions in turbulence to bubble dynamics and wave–structure interactions.