Hydrophobicity and Viscous Flow
Hydrophobic surfaces are great for creating some wild behaviors with water droplets, but they make neat effects with other liquids, too. The viscous honey in the first segment of this Keep reading
Celebrating the physics of all that flows
Hydrophobic surfaces are great for creating some wild behaviors with water droplets, but they make neat effects with other liquids, too. The viscous honey in the first segment of this Keep reading
Viscous liquid placed between two plates forms a finger-like instability when the top plate is lifted. The photos above show the evolution of the instability for four initial cases (top Keep reading
Whenever a hollow cavity forms at the surface of a liquid, the cavity’s collapse generates a jet–a rising, high-speed column of liquid. The composite images above show snapshots of the Keep reading
The Saffman-Taylor instability, characterized by the branchlike fingers formed when a less viscous fluid is injected into a more viscous one, is typically demonstrated between two rigid walls, as in Keep reading
When a solid object impacts on a liquid a cavity typically forms, entraining air into the pool. But this behavior varies widely according to the surface of the solid as Keep reading
High viscosity silicon oil is sandwiched between two circular plates. As the upper plate is lifted at a constant speed, air flows in from the sides. The initially circular interface Keep reading
Artist Skye Kelly’s “Creep (strain)” sculpture shown above is made from toffee. The viscous fluid deforms under the force of gravity, resulting in elongated drips and slow jets that buckle Keep reading
When less viscous fluids are injected into a more viscous medium, the low-viscosity fluid forms finger-like protrusions into the background fluid. This is known as the Saffman-Taylor instability. The video Keep reading
In this video a very viscous (but still Newtonian) fluid is falling in a stream onto a moving belt. Initially, the belt is moving quickly enough that the viscous stream Keep reading
A Hele Shaw cell is little more than two glass plates separated by a thin layer of viscous fluid. The cell serves as a good test bed for viscous, low Reynolds number Keep reading