Cindy Song ’22

Major

Economics

Project Title

Velocity of Rising Bubbles in a Volcanic Chamber

Presentation Link

View Cindy's Presentation

Certificate(s): Applications of Computing, Statistics and Machine Learning

I studied the rise velocity of large viscous bubbles in a narrow tube, which closely model bubbles in a volcanic eruption. Factors such as gravitational forces, surface tension, viscosity and tube diameter influence a bubble’s rise velocity and appearance. To understand how these bubbles behave, I ran simulations using Basilisk, a software program that solves partial differential equations using adaptive Cartesian meshes. I then created movies and graphs from the output to display the relationship between the bubbles’ rise velocity and their fluid properties. Through this internship, I sharpened my data analysis and coding skills and became familiar with new programming languages. I also gained a more thorough understanding of fluid dynamics, which I find fascinating. Although my research did not directly relate to my academic study, the technical and problem-solving skills I developed will be helpful in my future independent work.



Internship Year

2019

Project Category

Climate Change and Environmental Science

Organization(s)

Deike Lab, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Princeton University - Princeton, New Jersey

Mentor(s)

Luc Deike, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Princeton Environmental Institute; Baptiste Neel, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering