2013 Video Gallery

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.

Usage Permission

Reporters seeking permission to use these images or author contact information should email dfdmedia@aps.org.

Excited Sessile Drops Dance Harmonically

Excited Sessile Drops Dance Harmonically

Chun-Ti Chang
Susan Daniel
Paul H. Steen

Cornell University

By imaging mechanically oscillated sessile drops at high speed, 37 mode shapes are observed. To visualize the shapes, we place mesh under the drop, project light from below, and read off the shapes from the deformation of the mesh from top view. The mode shapes are first identified by their numbers of layers and sectors and then related to spherical harmonics.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Related Link

Air Bubbles "Catching Up" in Viscous Media

Air Bubbles

Sharad Chand Ravinuthala
Ismail Celik

West Virginia University

This set of videos shows the causes and effects of air bubbles rising in continuous media. It is interesting to observe that rising bubbles (in the case of viscous media like corn oil) get caught in each other’s wake and thus accelerate to meet their coalescence partner. A lesser viscous medium like water results in smaller bubble sizes and arguably better mixing.
Gray arrow Watch Video video

Star Drop Oscillations

Star Drop Oscillations

Weiyu Ran
Steven Fredericks
John R. Saylor

Clemson University

This video shows a liquid drop levitated in an ultrasonic standing wave field. Once levitated the drop was flattened into a disk shape by increasing the ultrasonic field strength. This flattened drop was then excited to create star drop patterns by exciting the drop at its resonance frequency. Different oscillatory modes were induced by varying the frequency at which the field strength was modulated.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Abstract

Dancing Droplets

Dancing Droplets

Nate Cira
Manu Prakash

Stanford University

We have characterized the beautiful and highly dynamic behavior of two component droplets on clean, high-energy surfaces. We use what we discovered to create devices.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Meeting Session

Fast and Scalded

Fast and Scalded

Alvaro Marin
Bundeswehr Univ. Munich, Germany

Daniel del Cerro
Gert W. Romer
Detlef Lohse

Univ. of Twente, Netherlands

Leidenfrost droplets can be easily seen in your own kitchen when sprinkling some water drops on a hot pan. These droplets will hover around the pan, being levitated by their own vapor. However, when the surface is properly micro-mechanized, we can make the droplets to hover in the direction we want, and at surprisingly high speeds.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Watch YouTube Video video
Gray arrow Related Abstract

Elastic Swimmer on a Free Surface

Elastic Swimmer on a Free Surface

Sophie Ramananarivo
Benjamin Thiria
Ramiro Godoy-Diana

Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, Ecole Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles

We present in this fluid dynamics video a novel experimental setup with self-propelled swimmers on a free surface. The swimmers, modeled as flexible thin filaments, are subjected to external electromagnetic forcing driving a propagating elastic wave that gives rise to self-propulsion.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Watch Vimeo Video video
Gray arrow Meeting Abstract

Dynamics of Jumping Water Droplets

Dynamics of Jumping Water Droplets

Nenad Miljkovic
Daniel Preston

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Ryan Enright
Bell Labs Ireland

Alexander Limia
Evelyn Wang

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

This video shows the different interaction mechanisms of coalescence-induced droplet jumping during condensation on a nanostructured superhydrophobic surface. High-speed imaging was used to show jumping behavior on superhydrophobic copper oxide and carbon nanotube surfaces. Videos demonstrating multi-jumping droplets, jumping droplet return to the surface, and droplet-droplet electrostatic repulsions are shown.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Related Abstract
Gray arrow Related Abstract

Physics of Urine

Physics of Urine

Patricia Yang
Jonathan Pham
Jerome Choo
David Hu

Georgia Institute of Technology

Intermediate and large mammals expel their urine by jet, including dog, goat, cow and elephant, over nearly constant duration from 10 to 30 seconds. Small mammals such as rats produce drops because of viscosity and surface tension.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Meeting Abstract

Catastrophic Cracking Courtesy of Quiescent Cavitation

Catastrophic Cracking Courtesy of Quiescent Cavitation

D. Jesse Daily
Ken Langley
Scott L. Thomson
Tadd T. Truscott

Brigham Young University

A popular party trick is to fill a glass bottle with water and hit the top of the bottle with an open hand, causing the bottom of the bottle to break open. We investigate the source of the catastrophic cracking through the use of high-speed video and an accelerometer. Upon closer inspection, it is obvious that the acceleration caused by hitting the top of the bottle is followed by the formation of bubbles near the bottom. Moments later, the cavitation bubbles collapse at roughly 10 times the speed of formation, causing the bottle to break.
Gray arrow Watch Video video

Patient-Specific Heart Flow Simulations

Patient-Specific Heart Flow Simulation

CHNAFA, Christophe
MENDEZ Simon
NICOUD Franck

University Montpellier II, FRANCE

Numerical simulations of the blood flow in a realistic left heart were performed. The left heart geometry is extracted from medical images, and the endocardium movements are reconstructed by image registration. Numerical simulation is a powerful tool to study this complex, intermittent flow.
Gray arrow Watch Video video

Underwater Gas Expansion and Deflagration

Underwater Gas Expansion and Deflagration

Van Jones
Kariann Vander Pol
John Gilbert
Leigh McCue-Weil

Virginia Tech

This video shows the underwater combustion of a propane-air mixture in an acrylic cylinder. The combusting gasses expand to form a bubble, which then collapses forming a pair of jets. The experiment is designed to provide visual data and pressure time-histories for future CFD validation studies.
Gray arrow Watch Video video

Supercooled Droplet or Ice?

Supercooled Droplet or Ice?

Carlo Antonini
Adrian Mularczyk
Tanmoy Maitra
Manish K. Tiwari
Dimos Poulikakos

Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, ETH Zurich, Switzerland

In this fluid dynamics video, we show the trick played by a supercooled liquid water droplet against a superhydrophobic surface. The water drop shows a dual personality, impacting onto the surface the first time while still in the liquid state and then re-impacting as a frozen ice crystal.
Gray arrow Watch Video video
Gray arrow Meeting Abstract

A Fluid that Juggles

A Fluid that Juggles

Enrique Soto
Roberto Zenit

Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

In this video we show how a slightly inclined jet of water can hold a light ball in a steady position. The jet is able to juggle the ball. This is a good example of Bernoulli's principle (the fluid accelerates around the ball, creating a low pressure stable region). The interaction of the water and the ball also produce interesting shapes of streams, jets, films and filaments that are continously forming and breaking.
Gray arrow Watch Video video