Signs of a ship’s passage can persist long after it’s gone. The churn of its propellers and the oil leaked from its engines leave a mark on the water’s surface Keep reading
Tag: direct numerical simulation
Droplet Medusa
Vibration is one method for breaking a drop into smaller droplets, a process known as atomization. Here, researchers simulate this break-up process for a drop in microgravity. Waves crisscrossing the Keep reading
Bubbles in Turbulence
In nature and industry, swarms of bubbles* often encounter turbulence in their surrounding fluid. To study this situation, researchers used numerical simulation to observe bubbles across a range of density, Keep reading
Asperitas Formation
In 2017, the World Meteorological Organization named a new cloud type: the wave-like asperitas cloud. How these rare and distinctive clouds form is still a matter of debate, but this Keep reading
Shear and Convection in Turbulence
In nature, we often find turbulence mixed with convection, meaning that part of the flow is driven by temperature variation. Think thunderstorms, wildfires, or even the hot, desiccating winds of Keep reading
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, Keep reading
Growing Droplets
The moisture in clouds eventually condenses into droplets that grow into raindrops and fall. Some steps in this process are well understood, but others are not. In particular, scientists have Keep reading
Building Smart Swimmers
Scientists have long wondered whether the schooling of fish is driven by hydrodynamic benefits, but the complexity of their environment makes unraveling this complex motion difficult. A recent study uses Keep reading
Creating Moana’s Ocean
Hopefully by now you’ve had an opportunity to see Disney’s film Moana. Fluid dynamics play a central role in the movie, and Disney’s animators faced the challenge of hundreds of Keep reading
Bumblebees in Turbulence
Bumblebees are small all-weather foragers, capable of flying despite tough conditions. Given the trouble that micro air vehicles have when flying in gusty winds, bumblebees can help engineers to understand Keep reading