Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
CU Flow Vis 2019
I love when science and art come together, which is why I’ve long been a fan of the Flow Vis course at CU Boulder. Some of my earliest posts on FYFD date from previous editions of the course. Here are a few of my favorite images from the Fall 2019 class, from the top: Ferrofluid and India ink merge in this colorful…
Inside the Earth’s Mantle
Plate tectonics is a relatively young scientific theory, only gaining traction among geologists in the late 60s and early 70s. One key tenet of the theory is subduction where plates meet and one is forced down into the mantle, like in this illustration of the subduction zone near Japan. In early incarnations of the theory what happens to…
“Magic Fluids”
In his short film, “Magic Fluids,” Roman De Giuli uses cyan, magenta, and yellow paints to generate a rainbow of macro colors. All the fluid motion you see is a practical effect, painstakingly created by layering paints and flow mediums of different densities. Like in Siqueiros’ “accidental painting” technique, the less dense paints will eventually rise through the…
Understanding Wildfire
Wildfires are an ongoing challenge in the western United States, where droughts and warmer conditions have combined with a century of fire suppression to form perfect conditions for monstrous fires. It’s long been understood that ambient winds can drive spreading fire, but the connection between wildfire and wind is more complicated than this. The heat of…
Surfing Honeybees
Honeybees have superpowers when it comes to their aerodynamics and impressive pollen-carrying, but their talents don’t end in the air. A new study confirms that honeybees can surf. Wet bees cannot fly–their wings are too heavy for them to get aloft when wet–but falling into a pond isn’t the end for a foraging honeybee. Instead,…
Adapting to the Flow
Simulating fluid dynamics computationally is no simple task. One of the major challenges is that flows typically consist of many different lengthscales, from the very large to the extremely tiny. In theory, correctly capturing the physics of the flow requires computing all of those scales, and that means having a very close, dense grid of points at…
Jovian Vortices
Jupiter continues to mesmerize in the images from JunoCam. With enhanced contrast, the planet’s eddies look like swirls you could just lean forward and fall into. The complexity of the Jovian atmosphere’s mixing is just astounding. It’s like an ever-changing Impressionist painting brought to life. Check out full-size versions of these stunning images here and here. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS/Kevin M. Gill, 1, 2; via Planetary Society;…
“Stormscapes 4”
Frightening as they can be in the moment, storms have a power and majesty all their own. I’ve never seen a better way to capture that than through timelapse, and photographer Nicolaus Wegner offers a great one in “Stormscapes 4″. I particularly like how his frame captures the motion of storms and how they shear, rotate, and…
Creating Biofuel
One production technique for biofuel converts agricultural waste through pyrolysis. These systems heat biomass particles in a mixture of sand and nitrogen gas until the biomass particles release tar and syngas, a key ingredient of biofuel. All this heating and mixing takes place in a fluidized bed, where the injected nitrogen gas helps the particle mixture move like…
Swirling Vortex
So much of fluid dynamics comes down to finding the right way to observe a flow. This image of a swirling tropical system was captured by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station in April 2019. The low sun angle at the time makes the shadows stretch long across the cloud tops, giving them greater…