The necessary ingredients for scotch whisky’s evaporation patterns are alcohol, surfactants, and polymers; some of those components are absorbed during the spirit’s aging in oak casks. Photographer Ernie Button explored Keep reading
Tag: porous media
In Search of a Better Espresso
Of specialty coffee drinks, espresso has the most cup-to-cup variation in quality. For those who are not coffee aficionados — such as yours truly — espresso is made by forcing Keep reading
Ricequakes
Rockfill dams, sinkholes, ice shelves, and other geological features often consist of brittle, porous materials that are partially submerged. Over time, pressure and chemical reactions with the fluid around them Keep reading
Bubble Trains in a Microchannel
Trains of bubbles flowing through a microchannel get distorted by periodic expansions and constrictions. In these images, flow is from left to right, and the narrow point of the channel Keep reading
Flowing Through Tight Spaces
Fluid flow through porous media inside confined spaces can be tough to predict but is key to many geological and industrial processes. Here researchers examine a mixture of glass beads and water-glycerol Keep reading
Peering Between Particles
Turbulence is not the only way to mix fluids. Even a steady, laminar flow can be an effective mixer if geometry lends a hand. Above, two dyes, fluorescein (green) and Keep reading
Oreo Dunking Physics
As most people know, cookie dunking is serious business. Everyone has their own preference for cookie saturation and stiffness. Happily, scientists have examined this problem and have advice to offer Keep reading
Watching Flow Inside Rock
Flow through porous substances has been a major interest in fluid dynamics for the last hundred years because rocks are porous. For most of that period, we’ve used Darcy’s law Keep reading