Liquid walls and interfaces in arbitrary directions stabilized by vibrations

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that vibrations can create an artificial gravity in any direction, allowing stable inclined liquid interfaces and walls regardless of gravitational influence, with potential applications in various environments.

Contribution

It introduces a method to stabilize liquid walls and interfaces in arbitrary directions using vibrations, extending control over liquid shapes beyond traditional gravity-dependent configurations.

Findings

Vibrations can generate an artificial gravity in any direction.

Stable liquid walls of several centimeters height can be maintained.

Buoyancy equilibrium remains unaffected by vibrational forcing.

Abstract

Gravity shapes liquids and play a crucial role in their internal balance. Creating new equilibrium configurations irrespective of the presence of a gravitational field is challenging with applications on earth as well as in zero-gravity environments. Vibrations are known to alter the shape of liquid interfaces and to also to change internal dynamics and stability in depth. Here, we show that vibrations can also create an "artificial gravity" in any direction. We demonstrate that a liquid can maintain an inclined interface when shaken in an arbitrary direction. A necessary condition for the equilibrium to occur is the existence of a velocity gradient determined by dynamical boundary conditions. However, no-slip boundary condition and incompressibility can perturb the required velocity profile leading to a destabilization of the equilibrium. We show that liquid layers provide a solution and liquid walls of several centimeters in height can thus be stabilized. We show that the buoyancy equilibrium is not affected by the forcing.