Australia’s bushfires from earlier this year are offering new insights into how pyrocumulonimbus clouds can affect our stratosphere. A massive, uncontrolled blaze between December 29th and January 4th generated a Keep reading
Tag: smoke
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
Mercedes-Benz Tornado
The world’s most powerful artificial tornado is part of the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Though popular enough with visitors that the staff will bring out smoke generators to make Keep reading
Lift on a Paper Plane
In this still image from a student experiment, smoke visualization shows the formation of a vortex over the wing of a paper airplane during a wind tunnel test. This wing Keep reading
Canyon Fire Timelapse
Wildfires continue to burn across Colorado and other parts of the United States. This timelapse video shows 5 days worth of the Waldo Canyon fire. Smoke billows through the night Keep reading
Transition to Turbulence
Smoke introduced into the boundary layer of a cone rotating in a stream highlights the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. On the left side of the picture, the boundary Keep reading
Smoke-Wire Visualization
One common simple form of flow visualization is the smoke-wire technique. A thin wire is coated in oil, then heated. The resulting smoke flows over and around the object of Keep reading
Smoke Visualization on an F-16
Flow around an F-16XL Scamp model is visualized using smoke illuminated by laser sheets. Lasers are common equipment in fluids laboratories; they’re useful for flow visualization and for many velocimetry Keep reading
Three Flows in One
These plumes of smoke demonstrate the three types of fluid flow: laminar, transitional, and turbulent. At the bottom of the photo, the plumes are smooth and orderly, as is typical Keep reading
Wingtip Vortices in Flight
This NASA Langley Research Center test shows real-time flow visualization of the wingtip vortices off a C-5A Galaxy aircraft.