Visual Phase Observation

This article describes a setup and method for the in situ visualization of oil samples under a variety of temperature and pressure conditions that aim to emulate refining and upgrading processes. It is primarily used for studying isotropic and anisotropic media involved in the fouling behavior of petroleum feeds.

Source: Laboratories of Gary Lewandowski, Dave Strohmetz, and Natalie Ciarocco—Monmouth University If you want to know how someone thinks or feels, you can ask that person questions. Another approach is to observe how the person is acting or look for indicators of how they acted in the past. While observations may seem revealing, it isn’t always easy to know if they are truly accurate. For instance, you may see a person smiling and assume they are happy, when in reality they are annoyed and...

Source: Jose Roberto Moreto, Gustaaf Jacobs and Xiaofeng Liu, Department of Aerospace Engineering, San Diego State University, San Diego, California The delta wing, shown in Figure 1D, is a popular design in high-speed airplanes due to its superb performance in transonic and supersonic flight regimes. This type of wing has a small aspect ratio and high sweep angle, which reduces drag at high subsonic, transonic and supersonic flight regimes. The aspect ratio is defined as the wing span divided...

Whether solid, liquid, or gas, a substance's state depends on the order and arrangement of its particles (atoms, molecules, or ions). Particles in the solid pack closely together, generally in a pattern. The particles vibrate about their fixed positions but do not move or squeeze past their neighbors. In liquids, although the particles are closely spaced, they are randomly arranged. The position of the particles are not fixed—that is, they are free to move past their neighbors to occupy...

Flow visualization around or on a body is an important tool in aerodynamics research. It provides a method to qualitatively and quantitatively study flow structure, and it also helps researchers theorize and verify fluid flow behavior. Flow visualization can be divided into two categories: off-the-surface visualization and surface flow visualization. Off-the-surface flow visualization techniques involve determining the flow characteristics around the body of interest. They include but are not...