corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 81 » Issue 7
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 1417–1420 (1998)

Turbulence in Flowing Soap Films: Velocity, Vorticity, and Thickness Fields

Download: PDF (303 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Michael Rivera*, Peter Vorobieff, and Robert E. Ecke
Condensed Matter & Thermal Physics Group and Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545

Received 3 March 1998; published in the issue dated 17 August 1998

We report experimental measurements of the velocity, vorticity, and thickness fields of turbulent flowing soap films using a modified particle-image velocimetry technique. These data yield the turbulent energy and enstrophy of the two-dimensional flows with microscale Reynolds numbers of about 100 and demonstrate the effects of compressibility arising from variations in film thickness. Despite the compressibility of the flow, real-space correlations of velocity, vorticity, and enstrophy flux are consistent with theoretical predictions for two-dimensional turbulence.

© 1998 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1417
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.81.1417
PACS:
47.27.Gs, 67.40.Vs, 92.60.Ek

*Permanent address: Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260.

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >