Cambridge Core BlogWatch: Ventilation and COVID-19
Experiments visualising the airflow when breathing, speaking and laughing, show that wearing a mask indoors can drastically reduce the risk of transmission of airborne particles.…
Tag archive: APS-DFD
Watch: How do Sperm Swim?
The tail (flagellum) of the sperm does not simply push the body, but uses a rhythmical beating with pushing and fraying over a 4-beat pattern, as demonstrated in the video.…
Watch: How do Birds Fly in Strong Winds?
When navigating strong crosswinds birds adjust the angle of their body into the wind, whilst keeping their head fixed on the target destination, in order to maintain forwards motion.…
Watch: Underwater Robots based on the Loch Ness Monster
Current underwater vehicles are either difficult to manoeuvre making them unsuitable for sensitive work, or are extremely expensive. Gabe Weymouth and his team at the University of Southampton are designing new underwater robots based on the Plesiosaur – the dinosaur behind the legend of the Loch Ness Monster – which are much smaller, cheaper and more energy efficient.…
Watch: Simulations of Mixing Fluids
From rotating impellers stirring air into a liquid, to a turbulent jet entering a moving flow, mixing processes are essential to almost every industrial application you can think of.…
Watch: How do Cloaking Devices Work?
When an object, such as an aircraft or submarine, moves through a fluid it generates a ‘wake’ behind it which can be used by monitoring tools to detect its size and position.…
Watch: How Do Snakes Catch Their Prey Underwater?
When catching prey underwater snakes use two main techniques: the frontal strike and the lateral strike. By studying real snakes in the lab at ESPCI/MNHN, Marion Segall was able to recreate the setup using a 3D-printed snake head and laser visualisation techniques, which allowed for the forces involved in each strike to be measured.…
Watch: How is Toothpaste made?
The manufacturing process for toothpaste involves mixing together several fluid and solid components to create the non-Newtonian polymer used to clean your teeth.…
Watch: Natural Ventilation of Termite Mounds
Termites live underground in termite mounds to protect themselves from the heat of the desert, but how do they keep their mounds cool?…
Watch: Listening to Tornadoes
Before a tornado forms the pressure drop at the centre emits a dull tone at 5-10Hz which can be detected hours before it becomes dangerous.…
Watch: Spike Waves, Rogue Waves, and Hokusai’s Great Wave off Kanagawa
Rogue Waves occur when a larger wave appears in a group of smaller waves. In some circumstances these can lead to an exaggerated ‘Spike Wave’, or a crashing wave resembling the Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai.…
Watch: Smelling Underwater with the Star-Nosed Mole
Star-nosed moles are able to smell underwater by quickly exhaling and re-inhaling air bubbles as they search for prey. The bubbles are trapped close to the moles nostrils by a ring of tiny pink tentacles, which gives rise to the name ‘star-nosed’.…