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Fluid dynamics

Order in chaos

Nature volume 401, pages 756–758 (1999)Cite this article

Vast quantities of fluid are mixed every day, both naturally and for industrial purposes, and one might think that mixing processes are fully understood scientifically. That is far from the case. New insights are continually emerging, as exemplified by the paper by Rothstein, Henry and Gollub on page 770 of this issue1. They have experimentally tackled a type of low-speed fluid mixing known as chaotic advection2, and describe the surprisingly stable spatial patterns that may arise.

Most mixing occurs in turbulent flows, where the flow field itself is composed of a complex hierarchy of interacting eddies of various sizes. These eddies will each mix fluid on their own scale. But what happens when turbulence does not occur? How does one mix fluids efficiently if the amount of agitation is somehow limited either in spatial extent or amplitude? This may occur, for example, when the fluid is very viscous or tightly confined.

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Figure 1: Recurrent pattern created by Rothstein et al.1 using electromagnetic forces to stir a thin, viscous fluid layer.

References

  1. Rothstein, D., Henry, E. & Gollub, J.P. Nature 401, 770–772 (1999).

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  2. Aref, H. J. Fluid Mech. 143, 1–21 (1984).

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  1. the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 104 South Wright Street, Urbana, 61801, Illinois, USA

    Hassan Aref

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  1. Hassan Aref
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Correspondence to Hassan Aref.

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Aref, H. Order in chaos. Nature 401, 756–758 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/44495

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