Greenhills Studentwins awardatYoung Scientist
Once again, Our Lady’s College Greenhills participated in this year’s BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition. 2nd year student Sorcha McGeown, under the guidance of Miss O’Regan, submitted a project called A Hele -Shaw cell experiment,which related to the study of viscous finger patterns which arise because of instability at the interface of the two fluids of different viscosity.
The viscous fingering experiments were performed in 3 different types of Hele-Shaw cells using fluids of both miscible and immiscible viscosities. The focus of the investigation was on the patterns that arise and the fractal dimension and viscous fingering of these patterns. In many patterns the introduction of air created treelike nodes and branches at the end stage of every experiment. The fingers grow by a process of splitting and spreading caused by differences in viscosity and influenced by the diffusive mixing between the fluids.
Sorcha’s project was very well received by the judges and she was awarded Highly Commended for all her hard work.
Another group project was accepted for display having been judged suitable out of over 2000 entries.