Celebrating the physics of all that flows with Nicole Sharp, Ph.D.
- Profile
Upwelling at Cabo Frio
The shores of the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro boast turquoise waters, white sands, and green lagoons, but European explorers discovered the waters around one promontory were unusually cold, leading to the name Cabo Frio. The chilly waters can be 8 degrees Celsius cooler than nearby surface temperatures, thanks to cold water upwelling near…
“Mosquito Egg Raft”
A raft of mosquito eggs floats on water in this award-winning image by Barry Webb. Capillary effects stretch and distort the interface, creating a complicated meniscus where the eggs meet the water. (Image credit: B. Webb from CUPOTY; via Gizmodo)
Flexy Fur Foils Fouling
Inspired by a muddy hike with a dog, today’s study looks at how fur in a flow can shed dirt and debris. Researchers placed beaver, coyote, and synthetic hairs in a flow chamber with a slurry of titanium dioxide particles in water. After 24 hours, they counted the particles stuck on each hair. The more…
Parting a Flame
A sheet of flame splits around a cylinder in this Gallery of Fluid Motion poster. Looking at the image sequences, you can see how the flames lift up as they flow around the cylinder, following the arms of a horseshoe vortex. Researchers study situations like this one to better understand how wildfires move as they…
The Miscible Faraday Instability
Vibrate a pool of water in air and the interface will form a distinctive pattern of waves called the Faraday instability. But what happens when you vibrate the interface between two fluids that can mix? That’s the question at the heart of this video. The researchers consider the situation both in simulation and experiment, showing…
Fire in Ice
This false-color satellite image of Malaspina Glacier (Sít’ Tlein) is a riot of color. Composed of coastal/aerosol, near infrared, and shortwave infrared bands from Landsat 9, the colors highlight features otherwise hard to identify. Watery features appear in reds, oranges, and yellows; vegetation is green and rock appears in blue. The glacier covers more than…
“Winter”
Little by little, snow and ice transform the landscape in Jamie Scott’s film “Winter.” From individual snowflakes to entire forest vistas, the timelapses showcase how winter remakes every surface in its image. The growing icicles show freezing in action, but I especially love seeing the “flow” brought about by progressively greater snowfall. Tree limbs bow,…
Vortex Rings From a Square Outlet
When a vortex ring forms, it’s often from fluid forced through a round outlet, whether that’s someone’s mouth, a pipe, or a dolphin’s blowhole. But vortex rings can come from other shapes, too. This video shows us several examples, including slots and square outlets. The vortex rings blown from a square outlet are messier but…
Corralling Corals
So much of fluid dynamics is seeking patterns. Shown here are two sets of patterns, each created by a different species of coral larvae. These tiny creatures form a streaming flow (orange inset) around them as they swim. Combined together in a petri dish, the larvae follow winding paths, shown in white. The overall pattern…
The Sound of Bubbles
Every day I stand in front of my refrigerator and listen to the water dispenser pouring water into my glass. The skinny, fast-moving jet of water plunges into the pool, creating a flurry of bubbles. Those bubbles come from air the water jet pulls in with it, and the sound the water makes (minus the…