A falling jet of viscous fluid–like honey or syrup–will often coil. This happens when the jet falls quickly enough that it gets skinnier and buckles near the impact point. Triggering Keep reading
Tag: laminar flow
Un-Mixing a Flow
This video demonstrates one of my favorite effects: the reversibility of laminar flow. Intuition tells us that un-mixing two fluids is impossible, and, under most circumstances, that is true. But Keep reading
The Challenges of Micro Air Vehicles
Interest in micro-aerial vehicles (MAVs) has proliferated in the last decade. But making these aircraft fly is more complicated than simply shrinking airplane designs. At smaller sizes and lower speeds, Keep reading
“Smoke”
Ethereal forms shift and swirl in photographer Thomas Herbich’s series “Smoke”. The cigarette smoke in the images is a buoyant plume. As it rises, the smoke is sheared and shaped Keep reading
Cylinder Wakes
A simple cylinder in a steady flow creates a beautiful wake pattern known as a von Karman vortex street. The image above shows several examples of this pattern. Flow is Keep reading
Fluids Round-up – 13 October 2013
There were so many good fluids links this week that I decided for an off-week fluids round-up. Here we go! Jefferson Lab has a cool demo on how to make a cloud Keep reading
How Air Dancers Dance
Air dancers–those long fabric tubes with fans blowing into the bottom–are a popular way for shops to draw attention. They bend and flutter, shake and kink, all due to the Keep reading
Oil Flow Viz
Fluorescent oil sprayed onto a model in the NASA Langley 14 by 22-Foot Subsonic Wind Tunnel glows under ultraviolet light. Airflow over the model pulls the initially even coat of Keep reading
Incense in Transition
A buoyant plume of smoke rises from a stick of incense. At first the plume is smooth and laminar, but even in quiescent air, tiny perturbations can sneak into the Keep reading
Mixing While Laminar
Although turbulent flows are known for their mixing efficiency, in manufacturing there can often be a need to mix laminar fluid streams without the increased shear stress of a turbulent Keep reading