The lab hosted a group of high school students and teachers from Oklahoma as a part of the Oklahoma State University-National Lab Day in May 2014. Dr. Santhanakrishnan explained the relevance of scale modeling and flow visualization to a wide range of engineering applications. The students participated in a hands-on activity in flow visualization using the tiny insect flight test platform where a pair of wings interact via the ‘clap and fling’ mechanism. They hypothesized what would happen to flow structures with increasing frequency. Students were then divided into multiple groups.

Each group performed flow visualization using fluorescein dye and observed the flow structures with changing Reynolds number. After all groups completed their experiment, we reconvened and discussed how their hypotheses compared with what actually happened, and why so.