Ryan Teague’s “Cascades” music video features the enchanting process of ice growth. A chamber full of supercooled water vapor subject to a strong electric field is stimulated to grow crystals by providing a needle as the initial nucleation site. Because the vapor is supercooled, it will freeze upon contact with the nucleation site; the electric field keeps the water molecules aligned so that the crystal patterns formed are more even. The tree-like pattern seen here is called dendritic crystal growth; branches form at faults in the crystalline pattern. (Video credit: Ryan Teague, Village Green, Words are Pictures; via Gizmodo)
Tag: fluids as art
Viscous Dripping
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 and coil upon reaching the floor. (Photo credits: Skye Kelly; via freshphotons)
Fractal Fluids
These images from a numerical simulation of a mixing layer between fluids of different density show the development and breakdown to Kelvin-Helmholtz waves. The black fluid is 3 times denser than the white fluid, and, as the two layers shear past one another, billow-like waves form (Fig 1(a)). Inside those billows, secondary and even tertiary billows form (Fig 1(a) and (b)). Fig 1 (c)-(e) show successive closeups on these waves, showing their beautiful fractal-like structure. (Photo credit: J. Fontane et al, 2008 Gallery of Fluid Motion) #
Floral Still Life
Fluid motion is captured as a floral still life in these high-speed photos by Jack Long. The artist keeps mum about his set-up but notes that these are single capture events, not constructed composites. It looks as if the blossoms are created from the impact of a falling fluid with the upward jet that forms the stem. The leaves and vase appear to be created from upward splashes, but whether those are generated by vibration or dropping an object is unclear. See Long’s Flickr page for more. (Photo credit: Jack Long via Gizmodo)
“Compressed” Outtakes
Bubbles, viscosity, diffusion, capillary action, and ferrofluids all feature in the artistic experiments of Kim Pimmel. Be sure to check out his previous film featured here. (Video credit: Kim Pimmel)
Portrait of Gas Giants
[original media no longer available]
Here raw footage from NASA’s Cassini and Voyager missions has been combined in a stunning portrait of Saturn and Jupiter. Watch as tiny moons create gravity waves in the rings of Saturn and observe the complicated relative motion between the cloud bands on Jupiter and the swirls and vortices that result. Fluid dynamics are truly everywhere. (Video credit: Sander van den Berg; submitted by Daniel B)
“Ferroux”
In this video, artist Afiq Omar mixes ferrofluid with soap, alcohol, milk, and other liquids to create a surrealistic fluidic dance. In addition to using different fluid mixtures, I suspect he accomplishes many effects using several different permanent magnets and electromagnets to vary the magnetic fields around the ferrofluid mixtures. (Video credit: Afiq Omar; via Wired)
Frozen Fluid Illusion
This video creates the illusion of a jet of water frozen in mid-air. The effect is achieved by vibrating the water at the frequency of the speaker, then filming at a frame rate identical to the vibrational frequency. Thus the water pulses at the exact rate that the camera captures images, making the water appear stationary even though it is moving. (submitted by Simon H)
Winds Across the US
A collaborative project on data visualization brings to life the wind velocity data across the United States. The Wind Map is an interactive, nearly real-time indicator of wind conditions across the country, compiled on an hourly basis from the National Digital Forecast Database. Be sure to click through to see the data in motion. Observing the variety in wind patterns over the scale of days brings to light the swirling motion of surface winds much the way Perpetual Ocean does for surface currents. Fluid dynamics are all around us. (via Gizmodo)
Surf’s Up
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!)
