Diffusion of ink in water + Lego minifigs = an awesome example of fluid mechanics as art. (Photo credit: Alberto Seveso; via io9; thanks to Jennifer for the link!)
Tag: eddies
Flow in Urban Areas
While we typically think about boundary layers as a small region near the surface of an object–be it airplane, golf ball, or engine wall–boundary layers can be enormous, like the Keep reading
Oceanic Swirls
Mixing of surface waters with deeper ocean currents brings together the minerals and nutrients used by phytoplankton, resulting in gorgeous swirls of color in the ocean. These phytoplankton blooms are Keep reading
Stirred Up Sediment
Swirls of blue in the Great Lakes mark locations of recent autumn storms whose winds have stirred up sediment in the lakes. The silt and quartz sand acts as a Keep reading
Astronomical Jets
Researchers have pieced together Hubble images of jets from newborn stars into timelapse movies that reveal the interstellar fluid mechanics responsible for the formation of stars like our sun. These Keep reading
High-Res Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
When a heavy fluid sits atop a lighter fluid, the interface between the two breaks down through the Rayleigh-Taylor instability. This computation of a 2D interface shows the near fractal Keep reading
Volcanic Turbulence
One of the characteristics of turbulence is its large range of lengthscales. Consider the ash plume from this Japanese volcano. Some of the eddy structures are tens, if not hundreds, Keep reading
Turbulent Phytoplankton Eddies
Where warm and cold ocean currents collide, turbulent eddies form and pull up valuable nutrients from the ocean floor. Massive phytoplankton blooms ensue, effectively providing natural flow visualization for the Keep reading
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability
The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability occurs when velocity shear is present in a single fluid or when two different fluids have a velocity difference across their interface. As shown in this numerical Keep reading
Jupiter and the Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability
Jupiter, known for its colorful bands of stormy clouds, is a beautiful subject for fluid dynamics in action. As the planet turns, the cloud bands move at different relative speeds. Keep reading