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Fluid Dynamics Seminar

Monday, Feb. 28, 2011, 4:00 PM
Cullimore Lecture Hall, Room 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Some Paradoxes in Fluid Mechanics

Ashwin Vaidya

Department of Mathematical Sciences, Montclair State University

Abstract

Classical and modern physics have long known to display several phenomena that defy intuitive understanding. Such phenomena are labeled 'paradoxes', among them are some famous ones such the twin paradox, the Schroedinger's cat, Maxwell's demon, Stokes paradox etc. In this talk, we will focus on some newly discovered paradoxes in fluid mechanics such as the orientation paradox (a sedimenting body falls differently in a Newtonian versus a non-Newtonian fluid), the flight time paradox (in a potential flow around an obstacle, fluid particles sufficiently near the obstacle can travel faster than fluid particles infinitely far away from the obstacle) and the bouncing ball paradox (a sphere sedimenting in a doubly stratified fluid can arrest, or even bounce, in the bottom layer even if the density of the sphere is larger than that of the bottom layer). We will discuss some of our experimental and theoretical work in this regard.