The Hidden Complexities of the Simple Match

67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 23, 2014 — November 25, 2014)V0012: The Hidden Complexities of the Simple Match

Authors
Victor Miller, Stanford University
Matthew Tilghman, Stanford University
Ronald Hanson, Stanford University

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2014.GFM.V0012

Fluid dynamics and combustion are beautiful, complex, and ubiquitous, but often times, the natural beauty of these every-day flows and flames are invisible to our eyes. By using high-speed video and schlieren imaging, we image a strike-anywhere match being lit and then blown out, visualzing the otherwise invisible, startingly beautiful combustion and turbulent phenomena. From start to finish, the entire video took less than two seconds to film, but high-speed imaging slows down the events so we can observe them; schlieren imaging enables us to visualize the hot combustion products mixing with the cold breath, which highlights the complexity and huge range of scales in turbulence. With this video, we aim to not only entertain and wow, but to also spark curiousity and interest in combustion and fluid dynamics.