EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF

FLOW VISUALIZATION OVER

BLUFF BODIES IN SOAP FILM
TUNNEL
Submitted By:- Submitted to
Department of Aeronautical Engg.
Piyush Kumar Gupta (16/205)
UTD, RTU Kota
Pramod Kumar Yadav (16/206)
Sanjay Kachhawah (16/210)
Tribhuwan Kumar (16/213)
Contents
 Introduction
 Literature Survey
 Scope of present work
 Experimental set-up
 Preparation of soap solution
 Formation of film
 Testing procedure
 Visualization of soap film around body
 Results
 Discussion
 Conclusion
 References
Introduction
 To understand the concept of 2-D flow
 A brief idea about vortex shredding and soap film tunnel
 Flow of soap film due to gravitational force
 Visualization using sodium bulb
 Our project includes the experiments on Soap film tunnel using 2-D bluff
bodies.
 Soap Film tunnel saves energy (essential to run conventional wind tunnel
for testing objects)
 in future, we will use Simulation tools i.e. ANSYS (Fluent) to simulate the
results.
 study project includes experimental work-
Literature Survey
 Includes various analyses and research made in the field of soap film
tunnel experimentation and the results already published in this field.
 Literature review gives basic idea & information about the proposed work
 Support from project guide is essential in this process
 We reviewed Science-direct, Springer research papers-
 Search using keyword ‘soap film tunnel’ is enough to get research papers
 Standard format of writing literature survey– is mention of technological
advancement in chronological order
 Example of review literature-
• We reviewed several research papers, one example is enclosed in next slide
Scope of present work
 Making the soap film tunnel functional

 Correction in lighting system

 Identifying appropriate soap solution for experimentation

 Arrangement for holding test model

 Flow visualization over the bodies of different shapes

 Soap film tunnel requires very less electric energy during operation (testing 2-D bluff
bodies) compared to conventional wind tunnels.

 Experiments by aligning object on different angle of attacks

 By our project, there is proper mounting arrangement in soap film tunnel (for holding
test piece during testing), hence it is modification of test set-up and an addition in
department of Aeronautical Department, RTU Kota for forever and always. Hence it is
an academic work
Experimental set-up
Preparation of holding set-up for testing object
 A holding set-up is made with the help of two
horizontal thick MS plate, nut-bolt
 A nut is welded by Arc welding between two
equal length rectangular MS plates
 Bolt is inserted in nut
 End of bolt (not hexagonal side) is equipped
with small one iron plate by arc welding
 Now this recently welded side will be
mounted upper side (near to soap film)
 This recently welded plate will be used to
mount the testing objects
 Preparation of soap solution
 Soap solution is made of water
and soap in proper ratio
Ex. For 4 liter water we
add 50ml vim dish-wash
liquid
Formation of film
 Soap film is defined as liquid
surrounded by air
 It is assumed as 2-D liquid
surface
 It is formed due to surface
tension of liquid solution
 Soap reduces surface tension by
separating water molecules
each other
Testing procedure
Reservoir
 After formation of soap film 2-
D flow occur due to
Valve
Nozzle

gravitational component Diverging Section

 Object which is to be tested, is

placed between the flow
field(test section)
 Object should be placed slowly,
Test Section
to keep film undisturbed
 for flow to be ideal it is
required to keep conditions
ideally suitable such as keeping
the flow rate constant and Converging
undisturbed Section
Sink
Dead Weight
 Visualization of soap film around
body
 When object is placed between
film, the flow separates around
that object
 The wake is seen after flow
separation, before rejoining of
flow
 We analyze the region of wake
according to the flow rate and
distance from reservoir
Cont.…
 For proper visualization of
flow separation, we use
highly intense light source
 A reflector is used, so that
light ray reaches up to film
flow
 The whole activity is
performed in Dark
surrounding
Results
 Calculating Reynold’s number
ρvD
 Re =
μ
Cont.…
 Calculating Strouhal No.
fd
 St =
v
 f= frequency of vortex shredding
 d= characteristic length
 v= velocity of flow
Discussion
Advantages
 It is used for two dimensional
flow visualization.
 It is a basic method to
understand flow separation
 This exp. Also deal with surface
tension
Disadvantage
 This is only used for 2-D flow
visualization
 Only liquid flow is visualize by
this method
 Another disadvantage is to
maintain the flow velocity
constant throughout the
experiment
Conclusion
 Soap Film Tunnel has found its scope in the field of flow visualization
specifically two dimensional flow visualization

 We analyze that with the increase in concentration of soap solution,

thickness of soap film is reduced and vice versa

 We analyze that the change in wake region occurs simultaneously with

change in distance between reservoir and testing object
References
 P. Vorobieff, R.E. Ecke, Cylinder wakes in flowing soap films, American Physical
Society Physical Review E, volume 60, issue 3, 2009, pp. 2953-2956

 Beizaie M., Physical fundamentals of the surfactant film tunnel. Bull Am Phys Soc,
volume 36, issue 3, 1991, 2718

 https://www.Exploratorium.edu

 Fundamentals of a liquid (soap) film tunnel, M. Beizaie, M. Gharib- springer

 A liquid Film (soap film) tunnel to study 2-D laminar and shear flows, M. Gharib, Philip
Derango- science direct
Thank-you