From Flutter to Tumble: Inertial Drag and Froude Similarity in Falling Paper

Andrew Belmonte, Hagai Eisenberg, Elisha Moses

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

151 Scopus citations

Abstract

In an experiment on thin flat strips falling through a fluid in a vertical cell, two fundamental motions are observed: side-to-side oscillation (flutter) and end-over-end rotation (tumble). At high Reynolds number, the dimensionless similarity variable describing the dynamics is the Froude number Fr, being the ratio of characteristic times for downward motion and pendular oscillations. The transition from flutter to tumble occurs at Frc=0.67±0.05. We propose a phenomenological model including inertial drag and lift which reproduces this motion, and directly yields the Froude similarity.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)345-348
Number of pages4
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume81
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 13 1998

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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