How Do Flexible Sheets Attach to Fluid Surfaces?

Presenter

Eindra Thane

Campus

UMass Amherst

Sponsor

Narayanan Menon, Department of Physics, UMass Amherst

Schedule

Session 1, 10:30 AM - 11:15 AM [Schedule by Time][Poster Grid for Time/Location]

Location

Poster Board A80, Campus Center Auditorium, Row 4 (A61-A80) [Poster Location Map]

Abstract

The mechanism by which a thin sheet attaches to a liquid surface has implications in various fields such as fluid mechanics, surface science, and materials engineering, however this simple phenomenon remains puzzling. In our experiments, a thin polystyrene film is released in water, and rises to the surface of an air-water interface, it first makes contact with the surface, and then keeping the point of contact fixed, the remainder of the film is absorbed onto the surface at a fixed velocity. The origin of this fixed velocity is currently unknown, though it must arise from a balance of the energy gained from covering up the surface of the liquid, and the energy lost in fluid motion. Our goal is to determine the forces responsible for maintaining this constant point of contact, and the velocity and spatial patterns of any flows created in the fluid by the motion of the sheet. Using the method of particle image velocimetry (PIV), the motion of tracer particles within the fluid caused by the rising film is analyzed by high-speed cameras, which is then converted into a sequence of images. Through image processing code, a vector field of the flow velocity is overlaid to show the movement between frames.

Keywords

Fluid mechanics, Particle image velocimetry, Flexible sheet

Research Area

Physics and Nanotechnology

SIMILAR ABSTRACTS (BY KEYWORD)