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New research from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST) has found a surprising randomness for how fluids choose their path around obstacles that depends on their spacing. This has important implications for a range of scenarios - from oil recovery and groundwater remediation, to understanding the movement of fluids through biological systems. The research was published in
Physical Review Letters.
Scientists from OIST's Micro/Bio/Nanofluidics Unit created a tiny set up comprised of two microscopic cylinders, each around the width of a human hair, placed side-by-side in a channel. This created a choice of three possible paths for a fluid to take past the pair of obstacles. A viscoelastic fluid, which is like that found in regular shampoo and conditioner, was run through the set-up at a constant rate and the path it chose around the cylinders was mapped.