Student Scientists Demonstrate How Foam Keeps Beer From Sloshing Out of a Glass

An experiment conducted by students at the NYU Particles, Interface & Fluids Lab demonstrates how a good head of foam can keep beer from sloshing, more so than liquids that have little or no foam atop, like water or coffee. While the premise seems simple, the implications can affect how liquids are transported on a much larger scale. Besides, the experiment is really cool.

Sloshing, i.e. the oscillations of the free surface, is a practical and industrial challenge to liquid transportation. Walking with a beer teaches us that the presence of of foam atop a liquid can damp the sloshing. Our study provides new insights into the science of sloshing by exploring the damping effect of foam in a cells as illustrated in the picture.

The experiment was submitted for consideration at the 2014 Gallery of Fluid Motion of the APS-DFD conference which took place on November 23-25, 2014.

via The Presurfer