IV4 Report
Axel Escareno
Flow Visualization: The Physics and Art of Fluid Flow
MCEN 4151
12/7/2020 The intent of my video was to share my favorite type of fluid flow, waterfalls. I find waterfalls to be very calming and relaxing. The sound the water makes as it falls down from bowl to bowl, or in natural waterfalls, the sound it makes when it hits other water on its way down is very peaceful. To me it represents how alive the world is and how beautiful it is with something as simple as water cascading down rocks. My favorite types are the ones where the water’s fluid flow is laminar, which shows a constant clear stream down the rocks. Waterfalls are also very aesthetically pleasing, and I enjoy watching them. I wanted to showcase my waterfall in this video by also creating an environment that gives a natural vibe in order to try and transport the audience into this situation. The link to my video is : https://youtu.be/fP0JoMagjYo For home-waterfalls to work, they require the use of an electric pump to pump the water to the very top of the structure from the bottom bowl. At minimum the pressure difference needed between these two heights is p= ρgh , (1) where ρ is the density of water, g is gravitational constant, and h is the height of the waterfall. The waterfall is approximately 1 foot tall (about 0.3408m), so the minimum head pressure needed to get the water to that height is 3333.22 pa. Now taking the pressure and multiplying by the volumetric flow rate of the waterfall as in the following equation P = pVdot, (2) gives the power needed to make this waterfall work. I took a measuring cup and a stopwatch to check how much water flows out of the waterfall per second. I measured the volumetric flow rate of the water to be about 24.16 mL/s. This is 2.416x10^(-5) m^3/s. This means that using equation 2 I get P=0.08 Watts. That is very small. I am not sure if this is correct as I would have thought it to be greater, but there are definitely errors in measurement and assuming no head loss. To create the setup I stationed my waterfall at the center of my desk and placed my orange towel as a background. I then put up my star lights towards the top to mimic the sky. I have some tree and animal figurines that I usually have by my waterfall anyways, and place them there as well. I placed the Gibbon on a tree and the Jaguar at the top of the waterfall. I then used my LED strip to light up the waterfall. I wanted to keep the yellow/orange color my setup had going on, so I set them to a dark orange. I realized I needed more lighting on the waterfall so I lit a candle and placed it directly center to the bottom of the waterfall. I then placed my humidifier next to the waterfall and turned it on to its highest vapor flow setting. Lastly I took a spray bottle and sprayed the objects to make them wet. I wanted to create as much of a tropical-nature vibe as possible. I wanted the audience to feel relaxed and feel what I feel when I look at my waterfall so for the video’s music I used a track from Naruto. This is one of my all time favorite animes and it has very calming soundtracks, so I picked one that suited the situation the best and settled on one called “Cloudiness.” The setup can be seen on Figure 2.
Figure 2: Setup
The camera I used to take the video was a Canon EOS Rebel T6. I was shooting at 24 fps, and I also did not know how to change much of the settings for the video, as this was the first time I filmed something attempting to make it look good. I struggled a lot with the focus of the camera as I was going around the waterfall and practiced many times to try and focus it manually as I shot the video. I used a software called Hit Film Express to edit the video. Originally the color of the video was an orange hue as I was attempting to make the scene a sunset vibe (as seen in figure 1). However, after messing with some of the software’s features I came across a temperature feature where when I applied it, it gave the video a midnight vibe. I enjoyed this vibe and decided it fit better in my video.
Figure 1: Unaltered Video Frame I am somewhat satisfied with how the video turned out. It was my first time filming something and then editing it, all in the hopes of making it look good and giving the audience an experience. It was difficult to get the scene exactly how I imagined it in my head, so of course I am not completely satisfied with the video. I recognize that I am still a novice, but this assignment in particular was very fun to do. I plan to develop and hone these filming and editing skills, as I have found something new that I would like to take on.