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Special Fluid Dynamics Seminar

Thursday, Oct 8, 2009, 2:30 PM
Cullimore Lecture Hall, Room 611
New Jersey Institute of Technology

Floating and Falling: The motion of a sphere in a bubble fluid

Michael Higley

Department of Mathematics, Penn State University

Abstract

In an experiment, a sphere settles in a curtain of rising bubbles. Visible effects include a slowing of the settling speed of the sphere, and random lateral movement. This parallels a classical experiment in which a sphere is dropped in an array of pegs or of packed spheres (in air). In this experiment the sphere quickly reaches an average settling velocity (not related to drag from the air) and experiences random lateral movement. We will discuss these parallels and simple adaptation of the classic model to a fluid setting.