Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Flow Viz of a Locust
Smoke visualization in a wind tunnel reveals the airflow over a flying locust. Researchers are unraveling the aerodynamics of insect flight in order to produce better Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) and miniature flying robots. #
Singing Dunes
Some sand dunes can “sing”, but not because of the wind! When loose sand slides down over harder, packed sand, a standing wave is formed, causing the entire surface of the dune to vibrate on a single frequency. We hear this as a musical note – typically an E, F, or G. (via io9) (Image…
Upside-Down Umbrellas
When a heavier fluid is suspended over a lighter fluid (as with ink or food coloring in water), the interface between fluids is subject to the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. As the heavier fluid starts to sink, it forms “fingers”, which develop into mushroom-cap shapes as the fluid continues falling. Sometimes the shear stress between the heavier…
Happy Anniversary
ESA astronaut Pedro Duque shown refracted through a water droplet in microgravity. Today marks the 50th anniversary of human space flight. #
Liquids Lens Breakup
A decane liquid lens floating on water (think drops of fat in chicken soup) displays different breakup and pinch-off than seen in three-dimensional droplet breakup. The pinch-off process in two dimensions relies on line tension rather than surface tension, and the quasi-2D liquid lens system is somewhere between these. The video above is a magnification…
Liquid Acrobatics
Imagine blowing through a straw into a nearly empty glass–we probably all did this as children and sent water, milk, and soda flying everywhere! In essence, this video shows that same act, but filmed by a high-speed camera. The “straw” blows a steady stream of helium into a shallow pool of silicone oil and slowly…
Mythbusters Walking on “Water”
The Mythbusters walk on “water” using non-Newtonian fluids. I think everyone wants to do this at least once in their life.
Leapfrogging Vortices
This numerical simulation shows two pairs of vortices interacting in a leap-frogging motion. Another version shows the same situation but with a small perturbation in the rotational alignment that causes even more interesting interactions. Both simulations are of potential flow–an idealized flow without viscosity where velocity can be described as the gradient of a scalar…
Boiling in Microgravity
This week’s edition of the ISS research blog focuses on the Boiling Experiment Facility (BXF) and the goals of unlocking the secrets of boiling in microgravity. Without gravity to provide buoyant convection, boiling in space tends to produce one giant bubble instead of the hundreds of tiny ones we’re accustomed to seeing on our stoves.…