Holly Arrowood (UNC-CH), GMA Seminar

Title: An experimental study of oil drops rising through density-stratified fluid at low Reynolds number

Abstract: A drop of immiscible fluid rising through two density-stratified, miscible fluid layers slows to below terminal velocity due to the deformation of the fluid density field.  We present an experimental study of this effect in the Stokes regime using oil drops rising in stratified corn syrup. The velocity of the drops and the deformation of the density distribution are tracked for a wide range of experimental parameters. We observe that the behavior exhibited by rising droplets differs significantly from that of solid spherical particles under the same conditions. Comparisons between our observations and existing theoretical models for rising drops and settling spheres are also presented.