News tagged with fluid mechanics

Sound increases the efficiency of boiling

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology achieved a 17-percent increase in boiling efficiency by using an acoustic field to enhance heat transfer. The acoustic field does this by efficiently removing vapor bubbles ...

Physics / Soft Matter

created May 24, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 6

Can fluid dynamics offer insights into quantum mechanics?

In the first decades of the 20th century, physicists hotly debated how to make sense of the strange phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as the tendency of subatomic particles to behave like both particles ...

Physics / Quantum Physics

created Oct 20, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (29) | comments 47 | with audio podcast

How tattoos 'move' with age

The dyes which are injected into the skin to create tattoos move with time – permanently altering the look of a given design. In this month’s Mathematics Today Dr Ian Eames, a Reader in Fluid Mechanics ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Apr 28, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 4 | with audio podcast

From seawater to freshwater with a nanotechnology filter

In this month's Physics World, Jason Reese, Weir Professor of Thermodynamics and Fluid Mechanics at the University of Strathclyde, describes the role that carbon nanotubes (CNTs) could play in the desalination of wat ...

Nanotechnology / Nanophysics

created Jun 01, 2011 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (5) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Sandia Labs' device helps U.S. troops in Afghanistan disable improvised explosive devices

(PhysOrg.com) -- A device developed by Sandia National Laboratories researchers that shoots a blade of water capable of penetrating steel is headed to U.S. troops in Afghanistan to help them disable deadly ...

Technology / Engineering

created Sep 10, 2010 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Long-standing question about swimming in elastic liquids, answered

A biomechanical experiment conducted at the University of Pennsylvania School of Engineering and Applied Science has answered a long-standing theoretical question: Will microorganisms swim faster or slower in elastic fluids? ...

Physics / General Physics

created May 18, 2011 | popularity not rated yet | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Robojelly gets an upgrade

Engineers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VirginiaTech) have developed a robot that mimics the graceful motions of jellyfish so precisely that it has been named Robojelly. Developed ...

Electronics / Robotics

created Nov 22, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 6 | with audio podcast

When worms stick together and swim on thin water, what happens and why does it matter?

Nematodes, microscopic worms, are making engineers look twice at their ability to exhibit the "Cheerios effect" when they move in a collective motion.

Physics / Soft Matter

created Feb 08, 2011 | popularity 3 / 5 (4) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study yields better turbine spacing for large wind farms (w/ Video)

Large wind farms are being built around the world as a cleaner way to generate electricity, but operators are still searching for the most efficient way to arrange the massive turbines that turn moving air ...

Physics / General Physics

created Jan 20, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Scientists say ocean currents cause microbes to filter light

(PhysOrg.com) -- Adding particles to liquids to make currents visible is a common practice in the study of fluid mechanics, one that was adopted and perfected by artist Paul Matisse in sculptures he calls Kalliroscopes. Matisse’s ...

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Feb 24, 2011 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Researchers cooking up new gelled rocket fuels

Engineers and food scientists are teaming up to develop a new type of gelled fuel the consistency of orange marmalade designed to improve the safety, performance and range of rockets for space and military ...

Chemistry /

created Jan 21, 2009 | popularity 3.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Computational model of swimming fish could inspire design of robots, medical prosthetics

Scientists at the University of Maryland and Tulane University have developed a computational model of a swimming fish that is the first to address the interaction of both internal and external forces on locomotion. ...

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created Oct 18, 2010 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Follow the (Robotic) Leader (w/ Video)

(PhysOrg.com) -- Artificial intelligence? Done. Artificial leadership? Its origins may well be in the fish tanks and the algorithms in Maurizio Porfiri’s Brooklyn laboratories at Polytechnic Institute of New ...

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Jun 07, 2010 | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Making use of jellyfish on dry land

John Dabiri, assistant professor of aeronautics and bioengineering at Caltech who won a MacArthur Award this year, is fascinated by jellyfish. He believes jellyfish propulsion can inform engineering, which in turn can inform ...

Technology / Engineering

created Nov 08, 2010 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0

New method for measuring fluid flow in algae could herald revolution for fluid mechanics

In the words of Todd Squires, of the University of California, Santa Barbara "Nature has long inspired researchers in fluid mechanics to explore the mechanical strategies used by living creatures. Where better to look for ...

Physics / General Physics

created Feb 09, 2010 | popularity 4 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast