Capillary wave turbulence experiments in microgravity

M. Berhanu¹, E. Falcon¹, G. Michel^2,3, C. Gissinger² and S. Fauve²

¹Université de Paris, Univ. Paris Diderot, MSC, UMR 7057 CNRS, F-75 013 Paris, France

²LP de l'ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Diderot, Paris, France
³Sorbonne Université, CNRS, UMR 7190, Institut Jean Le Rond d'Alembert - F-75005 Paris, France

Reference: EPL (Europhysics Letters) 128, 34001 (2019)

URL: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1209/0295-5075/128/34001

DOI: 10.1209/0295-5075/128/34001

Abstract: Using the FLUIDICS (Fluid Dynamics in Space) experiment in the International Space Station, turbulence of capillary waves at the air-water interface is experimentally investigated in weightlessness. Capillary waves are excited in a spherical container partially filled with water and undergoing sinusoidal or random oscillations. The fluctuations of the interface, recorded with two capacitive probes are analyzed by means of the frequency power spectrum of wave elevation. For high enough forcing amplitudes, we report power-law spectra with exponents close to the prediction of weak wave turbulence theory. However, in this experiment the free-surface steepness is not small compared to 1 and thus the investigated regimes correspond to strongly nonlinear wave turbulence.

PDF file

More informations on wave turbulence in low-gravity environment

Press items:

- Université de Paris Infos, Turbulence d’ondes dans la Station Spatiale Internationale, 24 February 2020 (in french) (or see PDF )

- Actualités Scientifiques du CNRS, Des vagues turbulentes à bord de l'ISS, 3 February 2020 (in french) also in CNRS Hebdo 20 February 2020, Tweeter_@INSIS_CNRS and Tweeter @CNES 13 February 2020

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