Group 2 2014

Members: Bollenbacher, Chambers, Cunningham, Putzel

Introduction

First observed by Michael Faraday in 1831, Faraday waves are instabilities in the surface of a liquid arising at a fluid undergoing vertical oscillations above a critical amplitude and/or frequency. Faraday himself measured that the resulting surface wave frequency was equal to half the driving frequency. Above this critical amplitude/frequency the fluid surface can exhibit an incredible variety of patterns as well as spatial and temporal chaos and combinations of the two, attracting the attention of mathematicians and physicists alike. The precise patterns and critical values are highly dependent on boundary conditions (container geometries) and the properties of the fluid itself for example viscosity and surface tenstion. \\ \indent Beyond the mere satisfaction of mathematical curiousity, Faraday waves have several practical applications and have made contributions to other areas of physics. They play a role in the amplication of earthquakes through looser sediments and can allow one to deposit a film of material in a desired pattern through forming the wave, letting the material settle and the excess liquid of the suspension to evaporate; such a skill has interesting aplications in creating more precise optical instruments. In the field of quantum mechanics, Faraday waves have recently been observed in Bose-Einstein Condensates and there is a curious analogy one can make between a probability wave distribution in quantum mechanics and a 'walking' droplet guided by a precisely tuned Faraday wave. When confined to a circular container, an oil droplet can be made to bounce on a water suface supporting a Faraday wave within a small range of driving frequency and amplitude. Within an even narrower parameter range, the Faraday wave can guide the oil droplet in a random walk across the surface. This results in a probability distribution for the droplet reminiscent of the wave function of an atom confined in a circular geometry. The particle/wave guide pair also exhibits many effects similar to those predicted by quantum physics such as tunneling and bears a striking resemblence to wave/particle duality. These similarities have left many speculating that there may be a hidden variable theory for quantum mechanics that mimics the pilot wave in the walking droplet experiment.

Methodology

Generating Faraday waves in the lab is typically accomplished by attaching a a container of fluid to a shaker table. Shaker tables provide a platform which oscillates vertically according a prescribed forcing function. One can then tune the forcing frequency or amplitude to generate the waves we are interested in studying.

   Typically, research on Faraday waves has focused on the properties of the surface wave, but we are interested in studying the internal flows that underlie these surface patterns.  To do this, we will image a cross section of fluid using a method called particle image velocimitry, or PIV. In PIV systems, the fluid is seeded with tracer particles. The tracer particles do not substantially effect the fluid flow, provided they are small, isoboyant, and approximately spherical. These particles can then be used to track fluid flows with highspeed cameras.
   In practice, the particles can be difficult to track. For this reason laser sheets are often used to illuminate a thin slice of the fluid (and, critically, the particles within it). This method generates images with uniformly shaped, monocromatic particles which are more easily identified by software.  Once we have the highspeed images, we can process these to produce snapshots of the flowfield.
   Though it is possible to construct a PIV apparatus which can track the flow field in three dimensions, it seems prudent to begin our analysis with a simplified case in 2D.  To approximate a 2D fluid, our container will be a long thin slice. This choice of a 2D approximation also greatly simplifies the apparatus, reducing the cost and number of failure points for the experiment. 
   In our proposed apparatus, we will have a verically planar fluid container constructed of optically thin materials attached to a shaker table. We will shine a laser sheet along the plane of fluid from the side, and we will have a high speed camera facing the fluid perpindicular to its planar container. In this way we can shake the fluid to generate the faraday waves while still illuninating and imaging the flow field generated.