FYFD

Category: Research

  • Titan’s Dust Storms

    Titan’s Dust Storms

    Earth and Mars are well-known for their dust storms, but a new source of extraterrestrial dust storms is joining them: Saturn’s moon Titan. Titan already shares unusual similarities to Earth: it is the only other place known to currently have stable liquid bodies at its surface. On Earth, water makes up our lakes and oceans; on Titan, it’s methane.

    The evidence that Titan may also have dust storms dates from several Cassini flybys in 2009 and 2010. Cassini observed short-lived infrared bright spots in a dune-covered equatorial region. After considering several other possible sources for these temporary bright spots, researchers concluded that the most likely explanation was dust clouds suspended by high winds. This suggests that the dune fields on Titan are still actively changing, just like those on Earth and Mars! (Image credit: artist’s concept for Titan dust storm – NASA/ESA/IPGP/Labex UnivEarthS/University Paris Diderot; research credit: S. Rodriguez et al.; submitted by jpshoer)

  • Wheeling Drops

    Wheeling Drops

    Leidenfrost drops – which skitter almost frictionlessly across extremely hot surfaces on a thin layer of their own vapor – are notoriously mobile. We’ve seen numerous methods of controlling their propulsion, often using specially-shaped surfaces. But it turns out that some Leidenfrost drops can self-propel even on a smooth, flat surface (top image). 

    Internally, large Leidenfrost drops have complicated, but symmetric flows that are driven by temperature and surface tension variations across the drop. But as the drop evaporates, that symmetry eventually gets broken, leaving behind a single large circulating flow. 

    Beneath the drop, that internal circulation affects the vapor layer. It causes the layer to take on an overall tilt, and the rotation, along with that slight angle in the vapor layer, causes the Leidenfrost drop to roll away like a wheel. (Image and research credit: A. Bouillant et al.; via NYTimes)

  • How Mantas Filter But Never Clog

    How Mantas Filter But Never Clog

    Manta rays spend much of their time leisurely cruising through the water with their meter-wide mouths open. As they swim, they filter plankton, which makes up most of their diet, from the water. And they do so without ever clogging. 

    The inside of the manta’s mouth is lined with gill rakers (upper right), a series of comb-like teeth. When flow hits the leading edge of these (bottom), it creates a vortex that accelerates any particles caught in the flow. They essentially ricochet along the top of the gill rakers, getting led straight into the manta’s digestive system – while excess water gets deflected between the gill rakers and back out the manta’s gills. To drive this, all the manta has to do is swim; with the right flow speed, the shape of the gill rakers handles all the filtration with no additional effort. (Image credit: manta ray – G. Flood; gill rakers – M. Paig-Tran; flow vis – R. Divi et al., source; research credit: M. Paig-Tran et al.; via The Atlantic; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)

  • Water Bottle Flipping Physics

    Water Bottle Flipping Physics

    In 2016, a senior talent show launched a new viral craze: water bottle flipping. As improbable as it seems at first glance, physics is actually on your side when it comes to pulling this trick off. As explained in this classroom-oriented paper and the video abstract below, the sloshing of the water in the bottle as it flips slows its rate of rotation, which creates the stable landing. You don’t even need water to make the trick possible. Using two tennis balls will also give a stable flip – provided they have room to spread out. When they fly apart, they change the bottle’s moment of inertia and that slows down the rotation rate. All in all, it’s a great lesson in conservation of angular momentum.

    And, in case you’re wondering whether the water helps with sticking that landing, we’ve got you covered there, too. (Image credit: A. Johnson, source; video and research credit: P. Dekker et al.)

  • Levitating with Sound

    Levitating with Sound

    Sound can manipulate fluids in fascinating ways, from levitation to vibration. Here researchers use sound to levitate and manipulate droplets and turn them into bubbles. Increasing the acoustic pressure on the levitating droplet flattens it, then slowly causes the drop to buckle. When the buckled film encloses a critical volume, the sound waves resonate inside it. That causes a big jump in acoustic pressure, which makes the drop snap closed into a bubble. (Image and research credit: D. Zang et al.; via Science News; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)

  • Replacing Kalliroscope

    Replacing Kalliroscope

    Although you may not recognize the name, you’ve probably seen Kalliroscope (top image), a pearlescent fluid that creates beautiful flow patterns when swirled. This rheoscopic fluid was invented in the mid-1960s by artist Paul Matisse and, over the following decades, became a staple of flow visualization techniques. Kalliroscope contained a suspension of crystalline guanine. Since the crystals were asymmetric, they would orient themselves depending on the flow and, from there, scatter light, creating the beautiful pearlescent effect seen above.

    Unfortunately for researchers, the production of guanine crystals was expensive and difficult. The cosmetics industry was their main consumer and over time, they moved toward mica and other cheaper mineral alternatives. The company that produced Kalliroscope gave up production in 2014, leaving researchers scrambling for a suitable alternative.

    One contender for a new standard rheoscopic fluid is based on shaving cream. By diluting shaving cream 20:1 with water, researchers are able to extract stearic acid crystals, which form an admirable alternative to Kalliroscope (middle collage). Like Kalliroscope, the resulting fluid is pearlescent and reveals flow features well (bottom two images). Stearic acid crystals are also closer in density to water than guanine, so the fluid remains in suspension far better than Kalliroscope. Plus, the best shaving cream is cheap and widely available, meaning that this is a DIY project just about anyone can do! (Image credits: Kalliroscope – P. Matisse; other images – D. Borrero-Echeverry et al.; research credit: D. Borrero-Echeverry et al.)

  • Flowing Flowers

    Flowing Flowers

    Granular mixtures with particles of different sizes will often segregate themselves when flowing. In this half-filled rotating drum large red particles and smaller white ones create a stable petal-like pattern. As the drum turns, an avalanche of small particles flows down, forming each white petal. When the avalanche hits the drum wall, a second wave – one of the larger, red particles – flows uphill toward the center of the drum. If the uphill wave has enough time to reach the center of the drum before the next avalanche of smaller particles, then the petal pattern will be stable. Otherwise, the small particles will tend to fall between the larger ones, disturbing the pattern. (Image and research credit: I. Zuriguel et al., source; via reprint in J. Gray)

  • Using Sound to Print

    Using Sound to Print

    Inkjet printing and other methods for directing and depositing tiny droplets rely on the force of gravity to overcome the internal forces that hold a liquid together. But that requires using a liquid with finely tuned surface tension and viscosity properties. If your fluid is too viscous, gravity simply cannot provide consistent, small droplets. So researchers are turning instead to sound waves. 

    Using an acoustic resonator, scientists are able to generate forces up to 100 times stronger than gravity, allowing them to precisely and repeatably form and deposit micro- and nano-sized droplets of a variety of liquids. In the images above, they’re printing tiny drops of honey, some of which they’ve placed on an Oreo cookie for scale. The researchers hope the technique will be especially useful in pharmaceutical manufacturing, where it could precisely dispense even highly viscous and non-Newtonian fluids. (Image and research credit: D. Foresti et al.; via Smithsonian Mag; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)

  • The Challenges of Blowing Bubbles

    The Challenges of Blowing Bubbles

    Although every child has experience blowing soap bubbles with a wand, only in recent years have scientists dedicated study to this problem. It turns out to be a remarkably complex one, with subtleties that can depend on the size of the wand relative to the jet a bubble-blower makes as well as the speed at which the air impacts the film. A recent study found that, at low or
    moderate speeds, the film takes on a stable, curved shape (top image), but once you increase to a critical speed, the film will overinflate and burst. The key to forming a bubble, the authors suggest, is hitting that critical speed only briefly; if you slow down before the film ruptures, then the bubble has a chance to disconnect and form a sphere without breaking. 

    The work also suggests there are two reliable methods for bubble making in this way. One is to impulsively move the wand through the background fluid, as shown in the lower animation. The other is the one familiar to children: blow a jet just fast enough to overinflate the film, then let up so the bubble forms without breaking. (Image and research credit: L. Ganedi et al.; via Ars Technica; submitted by Kam-Yung Soh)

  • The Flutter of Kelp

    The Flutter of Kelp

    Many species of kelp change their blade shape depending on the current they experience. In fast-moving waters, the kelp grows flat blades, but when the water around them is slower, the same plant will grow ruffled edges on its blades. In a slow current, the ruffled version’s extra drag causes it to flutter up and down with a large amplitude. That helps spread the blades out to catch more sunlight and increase photosynthesis, but it comes at the cost of higher drag, which could tear the plant from its holdfast.

    In contrast, the flat-bladed kelp collapses into a more hydrodynamic shape. This clumps the flat blades together, making photosynthesis harder, but it streamlines the kelp, making it easier to resist getting ripped out by fast-moving tides. (Image credit: J. Hildering; research credit: M. Koehl et al.; submission by Marc A.)