The bounce-splash of a viscoelastic drop

This is an entry for the Gallery of Fluid Motion of the 61st Annual Meeting of the APS-DFD (fluid dynamics videos). This video shows the collision and rebound of viscoelastic drops against a solid wall. Using a high speed camera, the process of approach, contact and rebound of drops of a viscoelastic liquid is observed. We found that these drops first splash, similar to what is observed in Newtonian colliding drops; after a few instants, the liquid recoils, recovering its original drop shape and bounce off the wall.Comment: Small manuscript that goes along with a video submission for the Gallery of Fluid Motion of the 61 anual meeting of the APS-DFD, November 200

The impulsive motion of a liquid resulting from a particle collision

When two particles collide in a liquid, the impulsive acceleration due to the rebound produces a pressure pulse that is transmitted through the fluid. Detailed measurements were made of the pressure pulse and the motion of the particles by generating controlled collisions with an immersed dual pendulum. The experiments were performed for a range of impact velocities, angles of incidence, and distances between the wall and the pairs of particles. The radiated fluid pressure was measured using a high-frequency-response pressure transducer, and the motion of the particles was recorded using a high-speed digital camera. The magnitude of the impulse pressure was found to scale with the particle velocity, the particle diameter and the density of the fluid. Additionally, a model is proposed to predict the impulse field in the fluid based on the impulse pressure theory. The model agrees well with the experimental measurements

The fluid mechanics of bubbly drinks

Bubbly drinks are surprisingly attractive. There is something about the nature of the these beverages that make them preferable among other choices. In this article we explore the physics involved in this particular kind of two-phase, mass-transfer-driven flows.Comment: Extended version of Zenit R and Rodr\'iguez-Rodr\'iguez J. The fluid mechanics of bubbly drinks. Physics Today, Vol. 71(11) pp. 44-50, November 201

Collisions in a liquid fluidized bed

Collisional phenomena in a solid–liquid flow were studied in terms of two parameters: the collision frequency and the coefficient of restitution. Experimental measurements of these parameters were conducted inside a liquid fluidized bed by particle tracking in an index-matched array. Collision detection was based on the use of a peak acceleration threshold of the instantaneous speed of colored tracers. The measurements of collision frequency were compared with the theoretical expression derived from the kinetic theory for granular flow (KTGF). The normal and tangential restitution coefficients were measured from the trajectories before and after contact for both particle–particle and particle–wall collisions. A comparison with previous theoretical and experimental works is presented and discussed

Viscous pumping inspired by flexible propulsion

Fluid-suspended microorganisms have evolved different swimming and feeding strategies in order to cope with an environment dominated by viscous effects. For instance ciliated organisms rely on the collective motion of flexible appendices to move and feed. By performing a non-reciprocal motion, flexible filaments can produce a net propulsive force, or pump fluid, in the absence of inertia. Inspired by such fundamental concept, we propose a strategy to produce macroscopic pumping and mixing in creeping flow. We measure experimentally the net motion of a Newtonian viscous fluid induced by the reciprocal motion of a flapper. When the flapper is rigid no net motion is induced. In contrast, when the flapper is made of a flexible material, a net fluid pumping is measured. We quantify the effectiveness of this pumping strategy and show that optimal pumping is achieved when the length of the flapper is on the same order as the elasto-hydrodynamic penetration length. We finally discuss the possible applications of flexible impellers in mixing operations at low Reynolds numbers

Revisiting the 1954 Suspension Experiments of R. A.Bagnold

In 1954 R. A. Bagnold published his seminal findings on the rheological properties of a liquid-solid suspension. Although this work has been cited extensively over the last fifty years, there has not been a critical review of the experiments. The purpose of this study is to examine the work and to suggest an alternative reason for the experimental findings. The concentric cylinder rheometer was designed to measure simultaneously the shear and normal forces for a wide range of solid concentrations, fluid viscosities and shear rates. As presented by Bagnold, the analysis and experiments demonstrated that the shear and normal forces depended linearly on the shear rate in the 'macroviscous' regime; as the grain-to-grain interactions increased in the 'grain-inertia' regime, the stresses depended on the square of the shear rate and were independent of the fluid viscosity. These results, however, appear to be dictated by the design of the experimental facility. In Bagnold's experiments, the height (h) of the rheometer was relatively short compared to the spacing (t) between the rotating outer and stationary inner cylinder (h/t=4.6). Since the top and bottom end plates rotated with the outer cylinder, the flow contained two axisymmetric counter-rotating cells in which flow moved outward along the end plates and inward through the central region of the annulus. At higher Reynolds numbers, these cells contributed significantly to the measured torque, as demonstrated by comparing Bagnold's pure-fluid measurements with studies on laminar-to-turbulent transitions that pre-date the 1954 study. By accounting for the torque along the end walls, Bagnold's shear stress measurements can be estimated by modelling the liquid-solid mixture as a Newtonian fluid with a corrected viscosity that depends on the solids concentration. An analysis of the normal stress measurements was problematic because the gross measurements were not reported and could not be obtained

On the deformation of gas bubbles in liquids

We consider the deformation of gas bubbles rising in different liquids over a wide range of Morton numbers, from O(10−11) to O(1), and bubble diameters. We have collected data from the literature and performed new experiments for relatively large Morton numbers. A simple expression is proposed to describe the evolution of the bubble deformation, which is consistent with the analytical solution of Moore ["The rise of a gas bubble in a viscous liquid," J. Fluid Mech. 6, 113 (1959)]. It appears that deformation can be predicted correctly by considering the Morton and Weber numbers. The variation of the bubble interfacial area is also analyzed; this quantity is very important for the case of bubbly flow modeling but has not been measured directly to date