FYFD

Celebrating the physics of all that flows. Ask a question, submit a post idea or send an email. You can also follow FYFD on Twitter and YouTube. FYFD is written by Nicole Sharp, PhD. If you're a fan of FYFD and would like to help support the site and its outreach, please consider becoming a patron on Patreon or giving a donation through PayPal with the button below. Your support is much appreciated!

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Infrasound Fire Suppression Goes Commercial

Back in 2015, students were experimenting with an alternative fire extinguisher that used sound below the range of human hearing; now a company is pitching a version of that technology for replacing sprinklers. (Image credit: I. Azevedo; via Ars Technica)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

On Dolphin Turbulence

Dolphins are such fast and agile swimmers that, naturally, scientists have long wanted to understand how they swim so well. A recent study draws on numerical simulation to analyze the flow a dolphin creates when flapping its tail. (Video, image, and research credit: Y. Motoori et al.; via Ars Technica)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Seeking Quieter Supersonic Flight

Supersonic flight over the U.S. has been banned by all non-military aircraft for more than fifty years. The ban gained momentum in the 1960s after test programs over St. Louis and Oklahoma provoked public outcry. But NASA's X-59 aircraft is working to lift the ban by softening the sonic booms that encouraged the ban in the first place. (Video credit: NASA; image credit: NASA/L. Losey; see also NASA; via Gizmodo)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

"Sunny Seaweed Surf"

Seaweed sways in the surf in this photograph by Billy Arthur. I always love how waves look like a stormy sky when viewed from below. (Image credit: B. Arthur/BWPA; via Colossal)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

AI-Based Weather Forecasting Has Blind Spots

Traditional weather forecasting models are physics-based and rely on supercomputers. AI-based models base their predictions on past weather instead, giving them faster run-times--and some serious blind spots. (Image credit: B. McGowan; research credit: Y. Sun et al.; see also S. Nath and T. Palmer; via Gizmodo)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Blue Jewels and Gray Haze

Beginning in early spring, brilliant blue ponds form on Greenland's ice sheets as meltwater gathers in indentations. (Image credit: M. Garrison/NASA Earth Observatory)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Predicting Volcanic Eruptions

People have long hoped to reliably predict volcanic eruptions. An automated system at Piton de la Fournaise in France has been doing so since 2014 with an impressive 92% accuracy. (Image credit: F. Beauducel; research credit: F. Beauducel et al.; via Gizmodo)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Herring Spawn

From mid-February to early May, tiny silvery Pacific herring gather along the shallow coastlines of Vancouver Island off British Columbia, Canada. In these sheltered waters, they spawn. (Image credit: R. Cutler; via NASA Earth Observatory)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

"Opening the Vortex"

Photographer Lisa K. Kuhn captured a spectacular lenticular cloud over Mount Shasta in this image from the Sony World Photography Awards. These lens-shaped clouds occur most often near mountains and other terrain that forces air to flow up and over it. (Image credit: L. Kuhn; via Colossal)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Understanding Pollen Dispersal

When the wind blows, trees shift and sway, reconfiguring their shape and their leaves in response. For parts of the year, that flow can also pluck pollen grains off the tree, carrying them on the winds. A new computational simulation models this pollen dispersal from a tree, with the aim of eventually integrating into a tool for urban planners. (Image credit: M. Köles; research credit: T. Dbouk et al.; via Physics World)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Setting the Stripes on a Tiger (Cake)

A tiger skin cake forms a distinctive pattern of light and dark patches as it bakes.  (Image credit: K. Koutova et al.)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Waves on Other Planets

On Earth, most waves form when wind blows across the water. The shear and added energy from the wind ripples the surface, eventually building up waves (through the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability).  (Video, image, and research credit: U. Schneck et al.; via MIT News; submitted by Joseph S.)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Supersonic Jet Interaction

When supersonic jets get emitted into rarefied air, they behave differently than they do in regular atmospheric conditions. (Image credit: S. Lee et al.)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

The Dragon's Eye

Looking down on a Icelandic geothermal pool gives a view into a dragon's eye in this drone image by photographer Miki Spitzer.  (Image credit: M. Spitzer/WNPA; via Colossal)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Seeing Stress in an Avalanche

Researchers sometimes study avalanches and other granular flows in a rolling drum, where grains can cascade down continuously. Here, the twist is that they've done it with photoelastic disks, which show stress patterns when viewed under crossed polarizing filters. (Video and image credit: R. Hodgson et al.)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

How the "Impossible Torpedo" Worked

The Brennan torpedo -- a 19th-century version of the weapon -- was launched by pulling a cable out the back. As counterintuitive as it sounds, pulling this cable backward propelled the torpedo forward.  (Video and image credit: S. Mould)

[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

Jets From Impact

When a test tube of liquid hits a surface, the curvature of the meniscus focuses the rebounding fluid into a jet. In this video, researchers show some of the many variations they've explored on these experiments. (Video and image credit: H. Watanabe et al.; research credit: H. Watanabe et al. and K. Kobayashi et al.)