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The Division of Fluid Dynamics exists for the advancement and diffusion of knowledge of the physics of fluids with special emphasis on the dynamical theories of the liquid, plastic and gaseous states of matter under all conditions of temperature and pressure.
Every year, the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics hosts a physical Gallery of Fluid Motion at its annual meeting—a room where stunning graphics and videos from computational or experimental studies showing flow phenomena are displayed. The most outstanding entries are selected by a panel of referees for artistic content and honored for their originality and ability to convey information. Past winners are published in the journal.
Physics of Fluids
In conjunction with the 64th APS Division of Fluid Dynamics Annual Meeting, held from November 20-22, 2011, in Baltimore, Maryland, a subset of these images and videos are available for viewing prior to the judging process.
View Image Gallery
Usage Permission
Reporters seeking permission to use these images or author contact information should email Charles Blue. Please leave "DFD Gallery of Fluid Motion" in the subject line.
Bursting Water Balloons |
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Hugh M. Lund The first part of this video shows the rupture of water-filled balloons being dropped onto a flat, rigid surface. In the second part, water balloons are held underwater, oscillated at a set frequency, and then burst with a pin. A high-speed camera captures the dynamics of the bouncing, rupturing, or bursting balloons. |
Freezing Singularities in Water Drops |
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Oscar R. Enríquez This video shows how a drop of water freezes into a singular (pointed) shape when deposited on a cold surface. The sharp tip of the ice drop then acts as a preferential site for deposition of water vapor and a beautiful “tree” of ice crystals develops. |
Particle Jet Formation During Explosive Dispersal of Solid Particles |
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David L. Frost Yann Grégoire Fan Zhang The experiments shown in this fluid dynamics video were carried out in either spherical or cylindrical geometry and illustrate the formation of particle jets during the explosive dispersal process. The number of jet-like structures that are generated during the dispersal of a dry powder bed is compared with the number formed during the dispersal of the same volume of water or wet powder. |
Holy Balls! |
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Michael Wright This video demonstrates the behavior of three balls – each with a different coefficient of restitution – skipping off of the water’s surface. The more each ball flattens inside the cavity it creates, the more it behaves like a skipping stone. |
Impinging Jets and Droplet Dynamics |
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Xiaodong Chen In this fluid dynamics video, results from high fidelity numerical simulations are presented, which have been carried out to study the flow and droplet dynamics of liquid sheets formed by two impinging jets. Oblique collision of two cylindrical, laminar jets causes the liquid to flow outward from the impact point, creating a thin sheet which lies in a plane perpendicular to the plane containing the two jets. This sheet eventually disintegrates into ligaments and/or droplets. |
Superfast Thinning of a Nanoscale Thin Liquid Film |
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Michael Winkler Markus Abel Rumen Krastev This video shows how thermal convection “thins” a film of water. A very cold needle is inserted into the film (middle), causing the formation of two convection rolls (left and right). As the aqueous film becomes too thin to refract visible light, it loses its rainbow coloring and turns black. The convection increases the rate at which the film thins, from linear to exponentially fast. |
Optimal Chaotic Mixing by Two-Dimensional Stokes Flows |
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Qizheng Yan This video illustrates a numerical calculation for predicting the optimal mixing strategy for a solution, in two dimensions. Higher values of “N” correspond to more efficient mixing. |
Flying in Two Dimensions |
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Manu Prakash This video shows the unusual flight mode that adult Waterlilly Beetles (Galerucella) use to propel themselves across the surface of a pond. The researchers compare the fluid dynamics of this new 2-D flight mode across the surface of water to the more common 3-D free flight, and draw conclusions about how surface-skimming behavior relates to the origin of flight in insects. |
An Instability in a Straightening Chain |
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J.A. Hanna This video shows the rapid straightening of a chain. An arch-like structure develops and grows. |
Hairpins, et al. in Turbulent Boundary Layers |
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Philipp Schlatter This video presented a new set of three-dimensional visualizations of large-scale, direct numerical simulations of a turbulent boundary layer. In addition to visualization using classical three-dimensional iso-surfaces, the video is also rendered using stereoscopic views using red-cyan anaglyphs. |
Vortex-Filament Interactions |
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Silas Alben This video shows a point vortex interacting with a passive flexible filament. As the filament’s bending stiffness changes, from nearly rigid to floppily flexible, the dynamics of the interaction also change. |
Liquid Ring |
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Seungho Kim This video shows high-speed images of the motion of water drops on a superhydrophilic (extremely easy to wet) ring surrounded by a superhydrophobic (extremely hard to wet) area. If the water droplet has a low volume, a cap shape cannot be maintained, and water is ejected from the inner hydrophobic circle. |
