A buoyant bubble rises until it’s stopped by a wall. What happens, this video asks, if that wall vibrates up and down? If the vibration is large enough, the bubble Keep reading
Tag: experimental fluid dynamics
Soaring Through the Pillars of Creation
The Pillars of Creation are an iconic feature nestled within the Eagle Nebula. For decades, the public has admired Hubble’s images of this stellar nursery, and, in this video, we Keep reading
Saving Energy By Following a Leader
Scientists have long suspected that birds save energy by following a leader — think of the V-shaped flight formation used by geese — but a new study captures that savings Keep reading
Farewell, Saffire!
After eight years and six flight tests, NASA said a fiery farewell to the Spacecraft Fire Safety Experiment, or Saffire, mission. Each Saffire test took place on an uncrewed Cygnus Keep reading
Tracking Break-Up
In fluid dynamics, researchers are often challenged with complicated, messy flows. With so much going on at once, it’s hard to work out a way to keep track of it Keep reading
Tumbling in Air
When snowflakes and volcanic ash fall, they tumble. Historically, it’s been too hard to observe this behavior first hand — the particles are too small to easily follow with a Keep reading
Modeling Wildfires With Water
Turbulence over a burning forest can carry embers that spread the wildfire. To understand how wildfire plumes interact with the natural turbulence found above the forest canopy, researchers modeled the Keep reading
Testing Turbulence’s Limits
Understanding chaotic, turbulent flows has long challenged scientists and engineers due to their sheer complexity. In turbulent flows, energy cascades from the largest scales — like the kilometer-size cross-section of Keep reading
The Optical Atom
Researchers applied a quantum mechanical technique to study an evaporating drop in extreme detail. The team trapped a spherical water drop and collected the light scattered off it as it Keep reading
Classifying Waves
In a lab, researchers create their waves in a long, clear-sided tank, where they can observe how the waves form, travel, and interact. To generate the wave, they use a Keep reading