Art and Sciences

Studies of Two-Dimensional Flows Using Soap Films
(click on images below to see a larger image)

The importance of theoretical and experimental studies of two-dimensional flows is long-standing and well-known. These studies have significant implications on two-dimensional turbulence, transition mechanisms in shear flows, and the fundamentals of two-dimensional vortex dynamics relevant to oceanic and atmospheric problems. The experimental verification of the numerous models and theories that have been evolved in the past decades is difficult if not impossible to do by conventional experiments. We have invented a continuously running Soap-Film Tunnel that realistically simulates two-dimensional flows. We have used laser Doppler velocimetry to study two-dimensional turbulence and wakes of various two-dimensional objects. Since the speed of sound is only 6 m/s in the film, it is possible to simulate high subsonic jets in the soap-film tunnel.

The above award-winning photograph [Album of Visualization (1995, 1996), The Visualization Society of Japan, 12, 1-2; 13, cover] shows flow visualization of a two-dimensional co-jet in a soap-film tunnel. The film is 5µ thick and has velocity of 6 cm/s at the jet exit. The film is visualized by the interference effect.

(Below) See an animation of pulses of air moved by a diaphragm of a sound speaker, touching down upon a soap film stretched on a frame. Click here or on image below to view the animation.

Created by Alma Gharib and Caltech conceptual artist, David Kremers, in 2001.