Multimedia Gallery

ISS Projects – Faraday Instability

If you've ever eaten at a diner, chances are you've come across a glass ketchup bottle. Turning it upside down, you may not see any movement until you give it a shake up and down. This is an example of Faraday Instability. But what is a Faraday instability and what could microgravity teach us about it? We'll explore in the U.S. National Science Foundation's "Discovery Files."

Michael Faraday, an English scientist working in the 1800s, first described waves forming on a bed of sand as a result of sound vibrations coming from a violin bow. These waves can take many forms as different vibrational frequencies are applied but the effect itself has become known as a Faraday instability.

NSF-supported researchers at University of Florida will be sending a project to the International Space Station National Lab to better understand the effects of gravity on Faraday instability.

Arising from resonance between the applied frequency of shaking and the natural frequency of a liquid system with an interface. It is hypothesized that, when gravity is absent, the length scales of the instability are much smaller than under Earth’s gravity.

This research project seeks to validate models with defining experiments conducted in the absence of gravity. They hope to determine when the interface saturates to standing waves and when it breaks catastrophically to rupture.

Addressing this question could impact important processes here on Earth, including microfluidic mixing in bio-separations, microscale heat transfer, additive manufacturing, atomization-fuel injection, and patterned substrate development.

To hear more science and engineering news, including the researchers making it, subscribe to “NSF’s Discovery Files” podcast.

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