A bent straw as a tool for an affordable student-safe experiment in vortex ring dynamics
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866914546106499072 |
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| author | James, Elijah Sun, Yukun Fu, Yicong Shields, Jena Sbrocco, Cade Dougherty, Christopher Roh, Chris |
| author_facet | James, Elijah Sun, Yukun Fu, Yicong Shields, Jena Sbrocco, Cade Dougherty, Christopher Roh, Chris |
| contents | Vortex dynamics are an important topic in fluid dynamics, explaining phenomena like drag and lift generation, jet propulsion, and corner flows. It is also often excluded from introductory or undergraduate fluid dynamics courses on account of its complexity and the inaccessibility of practical and engaging experiments. We present an affordable student-safe experiment to generate vortex rings and study their dynamics using a bent straw and dyed water that allows students to control key parameters, can be imaged using a smartphone camera, and explains the complex physics with simple and easily measured parameters. Vortex rings are produced that parallel seminal experiments, demonstrating secondary structures and the mirroring effect. Meanwhile, nonplanar and triangular jet exits are used to demonstrate asymmetric vortex rings and vortex ring inversion. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_08430 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | A bent straw as a tool for an affordable student-safe experiment in vortex ring dynamics James, Elijah Sun, Yukun Fu, Yicong Shields, Jena Sbrocco, Cade Dougherty, Christopher Roh, Chris Fluid Dynamics Vortex dynamics are an important topic in fluid dynamics, explaining phenomena like drag and lift generation, jet propulsion, and corner flows. It is also often excluded from introductory or undergraduate fluid dynamics courses on account of its complexity and the inaccessibility of practical and engaging experiments. We present an affordable student-safe experiment to generate vortex rings and study their dynamics using a bent straw and dyed water that allows students to control key parameters, can be imaged using a smartphone camera, and explains the complex physics with simple and easily measured parameters. Vortex rings are produced that parallel seminal experiments, demonstrating secondary structures and the mirroring effect. Meanwhile, nonplanar and triangular jet exits are used to demonstrate asymmetric vortex rings and vortex ring inversion. |
| title | A bent straw as a tool for an affordable student-safe experiment in vortex ring dynamics |
| topic | Fluid Dynamics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08430 |