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Supersonic Air Flow due to Solid-Liquid Impact

Stephan Gekle, Ivo R. Peters, José Manuel Gordillo, Devaraj van der Meer, and Detlef Lohse
Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 024501 – Published 11 January 2010
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Abstract

A solid object impacting on liquid creates a liquid jet due to the collapse of the impact cavity. Using visualization experiments with smoke particles and multiscale simulations, we show that in addition, a high-speed air jet is pushed out of the cavity. Despite an impact velocity of only 1m/s, this air jet attains supersonic speeds already when the cavity is slightly larger than 1 mm in diameter. The structure of the air flow closely resembles that of compressible flow through a nozzle—with the key difference that here the “nozzle” is a liquid cavity shrinking rapidly in time.

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  • Received 17 September 2009

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.024501

©2010 American Physical Society

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Making a supersonic jet in your kitchen

Published 11 January 2010

Supersonic jets of air can be produced when a solid object falls into water.

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Authors & Affiliations

Stephan Gekle1, Ivo R. Peters1, José Manuel Gordillo2, Devaraj van der Meer1, and Detlef Lohse1

  • 1Department of Applied Physics and J. M. Burgers Centre for Fluid Dynamics, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
  • 2Área de Mecánica de Fluidos, Departamento de Ingenería Aeroespacial y Mecánica de Fluidos, Universidad de Sevilla, Avenida de los Descubrimientos s/n 41092, Sevilla, Spain

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Issue

Vol. 104, Iss. 2 — 15 January 2010

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