Gallery of Complex Flow

Labyrinth of gold

labyrinth500gif — Labyrinth formed by fingers of air invading a mixture of glass beads and water in a Hele-Shaw cell.

Sandnes et al. Labyrinth patterns in confined granular-fluid systems. Phys. Rev. Lett., 99, 3, 038001 (2007). (Sandnes_prl038001)

Image credit: Bjornar Sandnes

Viscous flower bouquet

Viscous fingers blossoming.

Image credit: Clovis Sauzaret, Bjornar Sandnes

Liquid to solid to liquid again

Air forced into a corn starch suspension. Abrupt shear thickening makes it fracture like a solid. The suspension “melts” back to a liquid once the fracture front has passed.

Ozturk D., Morgan M.L. and Sandnes B. Flow-to-fracture transition and pattern formation in a discontinuous shear thickening fluid. Commun. Phys. 3, 119 (2020).

Image credit: Deren Ozturk

Cracking wet sand

Complex, branching fracture pattern in a system of nothing more than air, sand and water.

Campbell et al., Gas-driven fracturing of saturated granular media. Phys. Rev. Appl. 8, 064029 (2017).

Complex flows, simple rules

Image credit: James Campbell, Bjornar Sandnes

Complex Flow Triptych

Vertical, horizontal and random patterns of frictional fingers in a gravitational potential.

Eriksen J.A., Toussaint R., Måløy K.J., Flekkøy E.G., Galland O. and Sandnes B. Pattern formation of frictional fingers in a gravitational potential. Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 013801 (2018). Eriksen_PRFluids2018_preprint

Image credit: Bjornar Sandnes

Breaking ground

fracturecloseup500 — Injection of air into a water-saturated bed of grains causes fracturing and deformation of the granular packing.

Campbell et al., Gas-driven fracturing of saturated granular media. Phys. Rev. Appl. 8, 064029 (2017).

Image credit: James Campbell

Frictional fluid – Porous media flow patterns

Sandnes et al. Patterns and flow in frictional fluids. Nature Commun. 2:288 (2011).

Image credit: Bjornar Sandnes, James Campbell, Knut Jorgen Maloy, Grunde Lovoll

Frictional fluid dynamics

Simultaneous flow of gas, liquid and grains produces a spectacular variation in flow patterns. Here, air is injected into a grain-fluid mixture, with the injection rate increasing from left to right.

Simultaneous flow of gas, liquid and grains produces a spectacular variation in flow patterns. Here, air is injected into a grain-fluid mixture, with the injection rate increasing from left to right.

Sandnes et al. Patterns and flow in frictional fluids. Nature Commun. 2:288 (2011).

Image credit: Bjornar Sandnes

Granular bulldozing

Simulation of granular material on a conveyor belt piling up against a side wall. Arching effects produces a complex frictional response in the compaction zone.

Marks et al. Compaction of granular material inside confined geometries. Frontiers in Physics 3, 41 (2015).

Image credit: Benjy Marks

Density-driven convection of CO₂

When carbon dioxide dissolves in water, the increased density sets up a convective flow pattern that accelerates the rate of CO₂ uptake in geologic sequestration processes.

Image credit: Iuri Michel, Bjornar Sandnes

Granular plugs

plugs — Plugs of granular material clogging up a tube. The tube is initially filled with water and grains, and the plugs are shaped by a moving meniscus as air invades from left to right.

Dumazer et al. Frictional fluid dynamics and plug formation in multiphase millifluidic flow. Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 028002 (2016). Synopsis: Forming Granular Plugs

Image credit: Bjornar Sandnes