Molten Glass sewing machine
The viscous coiling instability of a thread of molten glass is harnessed to fabricate structured materials. Molten glass is extruded from a nozzle and stretches under the action of gravity before impacting the base plate. The resulting fluid thread buckles into a coiling instability, similar to what is observed when pouring honey on toast. When the nozzle is translated this mundane situation evolves into three different patterns, repeating loops, alternating loops, and meanders. Those patterns are rationalized using a geometrical model derived for the viscous counterpart of this experiment, known as the fluid mechanical sewing machine. The relation between speeds of machine and flowing liquid is key in the formation of these patterns, so that simple design guidelines may be provided even in the context of molten glass, whose rheology is non-uniform along the thread due to temperature gradients. Upon cooling, the patterns may be collected and studied. This process has applications for ornamentation and hierarchical structures in printed glass.
Project Credits
Published in The American Physical Society Gallery of Fluid Motion
Team: Pierre-Thomas Brun, Giorgia Franchin, Michael Stern, Chikara Inamura, Daniel Lizardo, Markus Kayser, John Klein, Peter Houk, Neri Oxman
Institution: MIT Department of Mathematics, MIT Media Lab, University of Padua Department of Industrial Engineering