It’s that time of year again! The American Physical Society’s 2016 Division of Fluid Dynamics meeting has wrapped up, and the most striking, visually appealing graphics from it are on display in this year’s Gallery of Fluid Motion. The GFM’s offerings are always somewhere between art and science, so enjoy the clips!
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| Liquid evaporating from a hydrophobic nanostructured surface has a small contact area, so minerals dissolved in the water are deposited in a bowl-like structure. Image Credit: S. McBride, S. Dash, K. Varanasi—Mass. Inst. Technology (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| French scientists examined how liquid metal behaves when falling through fluids of various viscosities, a study that may inform our understanding of planetary formation dynamics. Image Credit:J.B. Wacheul & M. Le Bars, CNRS, Aix-Marseille Univ and ECM, UMR 7342 (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| Image Credit: L. Shen, F. Denner, B. van Wachem, D. Dini—Imperial College London N. Morgan—Shell Solutions UK (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| Honey naturally exhibits this kind of coiling behavior when poured at the right rate. Image Credit: F.A. Mier, R. Bhakta, N. Castaño, J. Garcia, M. Hargather—New Mexico Tech. (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| The drop at the center is a liquid suspended in another fluid that’s more electrically conductive. When a strong electric field is applied, it starts shedding droplets in a process called equatorial streaming. Image Credit: Q. Brosseau, P. Vlahovska—Brown University (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| A small “bubble” of vacuum, called a cavity, collapses in water, creating a shockwave around it. Right at the moment the shockwave forms, a brief flash of light is visible at the center of the cavity. The temperature in this region is close to 14,000°F. Image Credit: O. Supponen, M. Farhat—Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne D. Obreschkow—International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, University of Western Australia (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| A thin, transparent film sits on the surface of water, reflecting purple light thanks to constructive interference. When the sphere impacts the film and pulls it down into the water, the wrinkles appear black as the structural coloration vanishes, allowing the researchers to study the wrinkling dynamics of the film. Image Credit: M. Inizan, A. Castrejon-Pita, D. Vella—University of Oxford (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
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| A larger piece of film has enough surface tension to absorb the sphere’s impact and remain afloat. Image Credit: M. Inizan, A. Castrejon-Pita, D. Vella—University of Oxford (CC BY-NC 4.0) |
See something you’re curious about? Full hi-res videos of all the entries can be found at the Gallery of Fluid Motion site. Want even more? You can view last year’s Gallery of Fluid Motion here.
—Stephen Skolnick