Rotation of a submerged finite cylinder moving down a soft incline. Author Baudouin Saintyves, Bhargav Rallabandi, Theo Jules, Jesse Ault, Thomas Salez, Clarissa Schönecker, Howard Stone, L Mahadevan Publication Year 2020 Type Journal Article Abstract A submerged finite cylinder moving under its own weight along a soft incline lifts off and slides at a steady velocity while also spinning. Here, we experimentally quantify the steady spinning of the cylinder and show theoretically that it is due to a combination of an elastohydrodynamic torque generated by flow in the variable gap, and the viscous friction on the edges of the finite-length cylinder. The relative influence of the latter depends on the aspect ratio of the cylinder, the angle of the incline, and the deformability of the substrate, which we express in terms of a single scaled compliance parameter. By independently varying these quantities, we show that our experimental results are consistent with a transition from an edge-effect dominated regime for short cylinders to a gap-dominated elastohydrodynamic regime when the cylinder is very long. Journal Soft Matter Volume 16 Issue 16 Pages 4000-4007 Date Published 2020 Apr 29 ISSN Number 1744-6848 DOI 10.1039/c9sm02344e Alternate Journal Soft Matter PMID 32266883 PubMedGoogle ScholarBibTeXEndNote X3 XML