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Surface wave dynamics in orbital shaken cylindrical containers

Be it to aerate a glass of wine before tasting, to accelerate a chemical reaction or to cultivate cells in suspension, the "swirling" (or orbital shaking) of a container ensures good mixing and gas exchange in an efficient and simple way. Despite being used in a large range of applications this intuitive motion is far from being understood and presents a richness of patterns and behaviors which has not yet been reported. The present research charts the evolution of the waves with the operating parameters identifying a large variety of patterns, ranging from single and multiple crested waves to breaking waves. Free surface and velocity fields measurements are compared to a potential sloshing model, highlighting the existence of various flow regimes. Our research assesses the importance of the modal response of the shaken liquids, laying the foundations for a rigorous mixing optimization of the orbital agitation in its applications. Copyright (2014) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Physics of Fluids 26, 052104 (2014) and may be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4874612