Jan 2023
In this talk, we will explore liquid jets, both transient and steady, from two distinct systems. In the first, free jets are emitted from elastic membranes. The ‘nozzles’ in this system stretch under flow such that increasing the flow rate does not proportionally increase jet velocity. The combination of nozzle stretching, global deformation of the membrane, and higher order behaviors govern jet stability. Despite this complexity, we show that a slight modification to linear temporal theory can be used to describe the breakup in this highly tunable system. In the second system, we take sight at two drops impacting a liquid surface, side-by-side. Impacts are sufficiently proximal that impact crowns and craters interact, distorting and merging craters, and creating previously undocumented super-surface fluid interactions. These drops create the familiar Rayleigh jet when their cavities collapse, and when sufficiently proximal, create jets by the impact of colliding splash crowns.
Andrew Dickerson is a fluid dynamicist with expertise in the mechanics of interfaces, and explores problems in which the dynamics fluids and their solid boundaries are highly coupled. His work is often inspired by problems stemming from biology, aimed at uncovering the physics of living systems from antifouling and insect flight to pine tree interactions with rainfall. Dr. Dickerson is a 2019 NSF CAREER award recipient to study the tuning of jet and splash characteristics with compliant and heterogenous boundaries. Following a PhD at Georgia Tech in 2014, Dr. Dickerson joined Meggitt, to work on new technologies for the aerospace and defense sector before returning to academia in 2016. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Biomedical Engineering at the from the University of Tennessee, USA.