Rotation and Alignment of Rods in Turbulent Flows
We use multiple high speed cameras to measure orientation and rotation rates of rods along with the velocity gradient around the rods in turbulent fluid flow.
Measuring rotations of 3D printed particles in Turbulent Flows
The ability to fabricate particles with custom shapes has opened many new possibilities. For example, the jack shown at the right rotates like a sphere but we can precisely measure its solid body rotation rate.
Publications: NJP, 16, 102001 (2014). [pdf]
Links: Animations of Chiral Dipoles
Movie: Chiral Dipoles in the experiment
Effects of Large Scale Intermittency on the Small Scales in Turbulent Flows: Fluctuations in the energy transfer down the cascade are known to be the source of internal intermittency. We are exploring how fluctuations in the energy input affect the small scales of turbulence.
Granular Gas Dynamics
High speed video allows us to fully resolve particle motion in a granular gas. Recently we have been directly measuring the stress tensor in a vertically vibrated granular gas.