Smoke visualization in a wind tunnel shows the vortices wrapping around and trailing behind a delta wing. As with more commonly seen rectangular or swept wings, the vortices that form Keep reading
Month: May 2023
Reader Question: How Hot Can It Be Before a Fan Stops Cooling You?
lazenby asks: This isn’t strictly a dynamics question, but I was wondering how hot a stream of fluid has to be before it can no longer lower the average temperature of Keep reading
Airfoil Boundary Layer
This video shows the turbulent boundary layer on a NACA 0010 airfoil at high angle of attack (15 degrees). Notice how substantial the variations are in the boundary layer over Keep reading
Microgravity Combustion
This collage of three combustion images reveals the beautiful symmetry of flames in microgravity. In the absence of gravity, flames are spherical, and, in the confines of a spacecraft, any Keep reading
Surface Tension Demo
This simple demonstration shows the power of surface tension, especially at small lengthscales. Another way to break the surface tension holding the water in the sieve would be to spray Keep reading
Impinging Without Coalescing
Three impinging jets of silicone oil rebound without coalescence due to thin-film lubrication between the jets. The motion of the oil replenishes the thin layer of air separating the streams. The Keep reading
Blast Waves
[original media no longer available] Watch closely in this high-speed video of a bomb exploding and you will see the spherical blast wave moving outward as a visual distortion. The Keep reading
2D Convection
This simulation shows 2D Rayleigh-Benard convection in which a fluid of uniform initial temperature is heated from below and cooled from above. This is roughly analogous to the situation of Keep reading
Reader Question: Faucet Physics
jessecaps-blog-deactivated20170 asks: With respect to the laminar/turbulent flow in the faucet, at the end he explains that the diameter is smaller inside the valve compared to the nozzle and therefore the Keep reading
Laminar and Turbulent Flows from a Faucet
Here laminar and turbulent flows, basic concepts in fluid mechanics, are demonstrated in the kitchen sink! While laminar flow is often desirable for decreasing drag due to friction, most practical flows Keep reading