Award winning visualization of fluid motion
Researchers from the Multiphase Fluid Dynamics Lab of the Department of Mechanical and Process Engineering of ETH Zurich win a Gallery Fluid Motion Award 2021 for a video combining experimental visualizations and simulations done in collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
The researchers received the Milton Van Dyke Video Award for their video titled “Flow-focusing from interacting cavitation bubbles” at the 74th annual meeting of the American Physical Society (APS) Division of Fluid Dynamics on 22 November 2021. The Gallery of Fluid Motion was introduced in 1987 and features striking visualizations of experiments and simulations that illustrate the science of fluid motion.
The video is a collaboration of Professor Outi Supponen and Claire Bourquard from the Multiphase Fluid Dynamics Lab at ETH Zurich with researchers from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur). Arpit Mishra, a doctoral student from IIT Kharagpur, conducted the experiments while staying in Zurich on an ETH for Development (ETH4D) Visiting Research Grant.
In their research, the authors attempt to understand the complicated dynamics of interacting cavitation bubbles, i.e. cavities in liquids. They developed simulations combining 3D and DNS (direct numerical) simulations. This allowed them to devise a model to consistently classify bubble pair interaction depending on their respective phase and the distance between them. As one of the most interesting results, their simulation allowed them to unravel the mechanism of high-speed microjets. In the future, these findings could be used for example in medicine to develop needle-free injections.