Omri Ram

Congratulations to Zuckerman Faculty Scholar Omri Ram on the publication of a breakthrough study in the September issue of Fluid Dynamics.  Dr. Ram heads the Transient Fluid Mechanics Laboratory in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

The paper, On the application of refractive index matching to study the buoyancy-driven motion of spheres, outlines a major advance in the measurement of forces that act on objects moving through liquid.

Dr. Ram and his colleagues developed a way to directly measure the forces acting on objects as they move through liquid – a challenge that until now was out of reach.

Abstract:
Refractive index matching (RIM) is a powerful tool for multiphase flow studies as it eliminates optical distortions and enables high-fidelity tomographic measurements near solid–fluid interfaces of freely moving solids in the flow. However, by improving the RIM and optical quality, the solids become effectively invisible, preventing direct identification of their location… For the first time, this enables direct calculation of drag and lift histories on a freely moving sphere.