FYFD

Tag: research

  • Reader Question: How to Get Started in Fluid Dynamics

    unboundid-deactivated20131116 asks:

    Hi. I’m a freshman engineering student at UCSD, and I was hoping to get more into fluid dynamics. Could you possibly give a quick shake-down of what I should look into if I’m just kind of starting? I want to either work in studying specifically fluid dynamics or in studying interactions of oil and petroleum.

    Glad to hear that you’re interested in fluid mechanics!  I usually answer these kind of questions privately, but I’m going to go ahead and publish my answer here because I think the advice is useful for any undergraduates interested in fluids.

    First of all, most engineering courses of study won’t cover fluid mechanics–outside of pipe flow–until the junior or senior-level courses. This is because, unlike many other engineering topics, fluid mechanics relies heavily on foundational material in other subjects. Although fluid mechanics is still essentially F = ma, writing and manipulating the fundamental equations requires advanced calculus. So you will definitely benefit from paying a lot of attention in your math courses, especially vector calculus and differential equations. I also highly recommend learning to solve differential equations numerically using tools like Matlab or Mathematica. These are super useful skills for just about any form of engineering, but they can really pay off in fluid mechanics.

    Now, while this classroom work is very important, you don’t have to wait until you’ve finished four semesters of calculus and physics before getting into fluid mechanics. Look up the professors at your school and the research they do.  Find some topics/projects you want to learn more about, and go meet with those professors. In my experience, professors are willing to have undergraduates–yes, even freshmen–volunteer in their labs. I can’t guarantee that you’ll get paid, but I can tell you that you will learn a lot, especially from the graduate students you will probably be assisting. As you gain experience, you’ll gain responsibility. Right now, my research group has a sophomore preparing to be the lead on a new data collection campaign in one of our best research wind tunnels.

    Many professors recruit their future graduate students this way. And, if it turns out that you don’t want to work in that lab through graduate school, you will still have a leg up getting into grad school because you’ll have significant research experience and a professor who can write you a strong recommendation, having seen your work. You could even have co-authorship on a publication, and that sort of achievement is going to look good on your resume, whether you pursue graduate school or an industrial job.

    In short: talk to professors about their research and find a lab where you can become a part of that research. The earlier you do this, the more impressive the results by the time you graduate. Good luck!

  • Underwater Cloaking

    Underwater Cloaking

    Researchers have suggested that it may be possible to cloak submerged objects as they move through a fluid using layers of mesh and micro-pumps. By redirecting the fluid so that it enters and leaves the mesh surrounding the object in the same speed and direction that it entered, it is theoretically possible to have zero drag and no wake. So far researchers have only simulated this set-up computationally using a sphere with 10 layers of mesh. It’s also unfortunately limited in size and speed: a vehicle 1 cm across could only remain wake-free at speeds below 1 cm/s. (Photo credit: Michael J Rinaldi) #

  • Venom Properties

    Venom Properties

    Most venomous snakes deliver venom to their prey via grooves in their fangs, rather than through a pressurized bolus through hollow fangs. New research shows that these venoms are shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluids. The surface tension of the venom is such that a drop of venom will tend to flow into and down the groove. Once moving, the shear-thinning properties of the venom decrease the venom’s viscosity, increasing its flow rate down the fang and into the snake’s prey. (via Scientific American; Photo: green mamba, banded snake fang)

  • Plugging an Oil Leak

    Plugging an Oil Leak

    Recent research indicates that adding cornstarch to drilling mud increases the likelihood that a “top-kill” procedure will plug a leaking oil well. Adding cornstarch to water (or mud) turns it into a non-Newtonian fluid with viscoelastic properties that prevent the instabilities that lead to turbulent breakup. On the left, an underwater photo of the Deepwater Horizons leak; in the center, colored water breaks into turbulence when descending into oil; on the right, water with cornstarch maintains its coherence when pumped downward into the oil. # (PDF of research paper)

  • Frost on Superhydrophobic Surfaces

    Frost formation and ice adhesion on superhydrophobic surfaces

    For anyone with further interest in the ice formation on superhydrophobic surfaces story we posted recently, the published paper is currently offered by AIP for free. #

  • Perching Gliders

    Perching Gliders

    Researchers at MIT are studying stall to understand how birds land and come up with new ways for gliders to perch instead of requiring a runway. This photo shows a smoke visualization of the glider stalling. #