Sculpting with flow

Flowing air and water are persistent sculptors, gradually working stone, clay, sand and ice into landforms and landscapes. The evolution of shape results from a complex fluid–solid coupling that tends to produce stereotyped forms, and this morphology offers important clues to the history of a landscape and its development. Claudin et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 832, 2017, R2) shed light on how we might read the rippled and scalloped patterns written into dissolving or melting solid surfaces by a flowing fluid. By better understanding the genesis of these patterns, we may explain why they appear in different natural settings, such as the walls of mineral caves dissolving in flowing water, ice caves in wind, and melting icebergs.

流动的空气和水是坚持不懈的雕刻师，它们逐渐将石头、黏土、沙子和冰塑造成地形和地貌。形状的演变源于复杂的流 - 固耦合，这种耦合往往会产生定型的形态，而这种形态为地貌的历史及其发展提供了重要线索。克劳丁等人（《流体力学杂志》，2017年第832卷，R2）阐明了我们如何解读流动的流体在溶解或融化的固体表面上留下的波纹状和扇形图案。通过更好地理解这些图案的成因，我们或许能够解释它们为何出现在不同的自然环境中，比如在流水中溶解的矿洞壁、在风中的冰洞以及正在融化的冰山。