If you’ve ever watched water running down the side of the street, you’ve probably noticed that it doesn’t flow smoothly. Instead, you’ll see waves, rivulets, and disturbances that form. That’s Keep reading
Tag: transitional flow
Spillway Waves
Earlier this summer, the spillway of the Banja Dam was opened for the first time, releasing a stream of excess water from the reservoir. As you can see above, waves Keep reading
Frisbee Physics, Part 2
Yesterday we discussed some of the basic mechanics of a frisbee in flight. Although frisbees do generate lift similarly to a wing, they do have some unique features. You’ve probably 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
Swirling Jets
In fluid dynamics, we like to classify flows as laminar–smooth and orderly–or turbulent–chaotic and seemingly random–but rarely is any given flow one or the other. Many flows start out laminar 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 Transition
Smoke issuing from a round jet undergoes transition from laminar to turbulent flow. As the smoke moves past the unmoving ambient air, the friction between these two layers creates shear Keep reading
Toroidal Vortex
When instabilities exist in laminar flow, they do not always lead immediately to turbulence. In this video, a viscous fluid fills the space between two concentric cylinders. As the inner Keep reading
Reynolds on Transition
For although only the disciplined motion is recognized in military tactics, troops have another manner of motion when anything disturbs their order. And this is precisely how it is with Keep reading
Godspeed, Discovery!
The space shuttle, despite three decades of service, remains a triumph of engineering. Although it is nominally a space vehicle, fluid dynamics are vital throughout its operation. From the combustion Keep reading