Evelyne SetionoStudent no: 579870 Semester 2/2012 Group 3

Module 1- Ideation

Natural Process Explorations

In the beginning of brainstorming, I picked 3 natural processes which interest me. They are:1. Lightning2. Jumping of dolphins3. Effervescence Reaction

Lightning

Lightning is one of the most beautiful showcase in nature. It is a very power-ful natural phenomenon and beyond its power, it also presents the beauty of nature. Like its name, it produces flashes of light which take place only a split second. These flashes of lights are visually striking because they have certain patterns. They resemble branches of tree which come out from the sky. Some-times they also resemble giant spider webs that dominate the sky.

I made some sketches based on the patterns of lightning, however, in the end, I didn’t choose this process because I thought that this phenom-enon is general and not quite inter-esting for me compared to the other natural processes.

Jumping of Dolphins

Natural Process Explorations

Dolphins have unique ways in living. One of its unique behavior is jumping out of water. There are a number of reasons why they jump. Some scien-tists think that they jump to save energy or as going through the air consume less energy than swimming in the water. Some others think that they do that to find food, communicate other dolphins, clean the parasites on their bodies or to play and just have fun. Moreover, dolphins are able to jump up to 6 meters above the water surface. It is interesting to see how dolphin curves its body when it jumps and it always jump with a head-first return to the water.

Dolphins also have synchronous behaviors, such as jumping together. This behavior results from behavioral mimicry, which is similarity in behavior. Male dolphins often do this action, in pairs or group, to impress female dolphins or to show that they have close relationship with each other. Some actions that they usu-ally do are bows and fluke wags.

I quite like this idea of dolphin’s behavior, but there are not many things that I could explore more in terms of the patterns and design concept.

Effervescence ReactionFinally, I chose the effervescence process for my design. I think that this phenomenon was interesting to learn and analyse. Effervescence reaction is defined as a reaction which emit small bubbles of gas, as in carbonated or fermenting liquid. This idea was initiated when I thought about bubbles during a lecture. Bubbles are very related to effervescence reaction, there-fore I tried to analyse the formation of bubbles in this reaction. I came up with several design concepts:

Idea Development

Effervescent Reaction of Effervescent tablet

The phenomenon of effervescence reaction. The effervescent tablet started to deform and produced bubbles.

In the midst of brainstorming about the concept of the design, the effervescence process suddenly popped up in my mind. When an effervescent tablet was dropped into the water, the reaction immediately started. It was interesting to see how bub-bles began to form and rise up to the surface of the water, and then disappear. I analysed the direction of where the bubbles go. I found out that the bubbles would form near the tablet and they would disperse and cover the whole volume of water.

Idea Development

By analysing the direction of the bubbles, I can ob-tain different paths or shapes. The different paths can be seen on the left. I also identify that the bubbles will travel in one path or line, which can be curved, spiral, zig zag or geometric.

Flow Patterns of Bubbles Formed by Effervescence ReactionBubbles formed in this reaction usually have definite characteristic which is covering the whole volume of water. Some researchers monitored the flow patterns of the bubbles and they discovered that the shape of the glass also affects the distribution of the bubbles formed. According to Gérard Liger-Belair, in the case of champagne, bubbles will mix the champagne well in narrow glass rather than in wide glass.

Based on this information, I sketched and made some models of my inter-pretation of flow patterns

These design proposals are lack of exploration of effervescent process. I focused too much on the shapes and patterns of the bubbles, and I didn’t create designs which show the abstract form of the process. Moreover, these ideas have lack of background knowledge which can suport the breaking down of the process. Therefore, I didn’t choose any of these models and concepts.

Effervescent Reaction in Champagne

INTRODUCTION TO EFFERVESCENCE IN CHAMPAGNE

When I researched about the effervescence reaction, I found the formation of bubbles in champagne interesting. I began to dig deep about this matter and I learned about the patterns formed during the process of effervescence in champagne. It was difficult to find series of visualizations about this process because not many experts research about this phenomenon. However, a book called “Un-corked: The Science of Champagne” by Gerard Liger-Belair caught my attention. It revealed the science behind the taste and charm of champagne by analyzing the formation of bubbles in micro-scale.

A glass of champagne;bubbles are visible

Close-up view of bub-bles moving around in champagne

Gerard Liger-Belair, along with other scientists, explains about the evolving nature of dissolved and gaseous carbon dioxide (CO2) in champagne which gives impact to the taste and “sparkle” of cham-pagne. From research, I found out that the role of effervescence goes far beyond the esthetical perspective, but it also unlocks the mystery of wine tasting and pattern in nature.

From the research I’ve made, I decided to choose this idea and explore it a bit more. There were 3 models I’ve developed from my study of effervescence in champagne.

Idea Development

First Model Concept

Nucleation of BubblesIn 1857, French microbiologist Louis Pasteur discovered that “not only fermentation process (of wine and champagne) requires any oxygen, but also alcohol yield is actually reduced by its presence.” This gave rise to non-effervescent champagne as CO2 is allowed to escape into the atmosphere. Nevertheless, in later years, champagnes are made by blending it with still wines (second fermenta-tion) where the bottles are sealed so that CO2 molecules cannot escape and progressively dissolve into the wine. These molecules are “capsulized” into bubbles found in champagne.

Traditional fermentation process CO2 gas bubbles- Carbonation

Looking at bubbles’ picture on the left, I began to think that:1. bubbles vary in size and shape. 2. They move in all directions (ran-dom)These findings were a good start for me to understand the proper-ties of bubbles.

Effervescence in champagne happens when there is interaction between CO2 and fibers on the surface of the glass, more specifically, the cellulose fibers cast off from paper or cloth which floated from the air due to the wiping process of the champagne bottle. The cellu-lose fibers act as bubble nucleation sites which are the “creator” of bubbles. The photographical illustration of the cellulose fiber can be seen on the right. It portrays cellulose fiber as a typical hollow and cylindrical shape and the CO2 gas is trapped in it.

Cellulose fiber acting as a bubble nucleation site on the wall of a glass poured with champagne

First Model Concept

Here are some sketches which summarize the nucleation of bubbles in champagne.

From this summary, I broke it down again into 2 important keywords, which are Nucleation and Velocity. With these keywords, I tried to make abstract models to represent them. When I first heard the word “nucleation”, I immediately thought about “nucleus” and “cell”. I relate these keywords and their meanings are simi-lar. Nucleation is defined as the initial process that occurs in formation of crystal in fluid. With this defintion, I tried to make a diagram out of this information and my knowledge.

Bubbles’ path linesU(t) is the velocity of rising bubble; U(t) is in-creasing with time

Keywords: nucleation and velocity

First Model Concept

Nucleation

Learning from Kadinsky’s principal of simplicity and his theory of analytical drawing, I made this clay model. I tried to simplify the re-alistic form into more abstract form. From the clay model, the gas inside the cellulose fiber is the big ball in the center of the model, while on the two sides are the pipes of the fiber.

First Model Concept

Velocity

I refined the last model by incorporating “nucle-ation” and “velocity” as they are of the same process. The final clay model is bended on the side to show the acceleration of the bubbles while the bubble gas itself (the big ball) is still the same as it doesn’t affect the size of the bubble.

Second Model Concept

Motion of Bubbles UpwardAfter analyzing where the bubbles are created, I researched about the motion of the bubbles rising to the surface of the champagne. The cellulose fibers were recently found to experience a very com-plex rhythmical bubbling regime. When we see with naked eyes, we can clearly see that when champagne is poured into the glass, the bubbles will form up to the surface at the same time or a fairly similar pattern. However, through further investigation, the bubble train shows unexpected result. As time went by, the orderly and repetitive pattern of bubble train was disrupted and abrupt transition occured. The dis-tance between bubbles was no longer the same. This is evidence of bubbling instability within the effervescence process.

Time sequence showing a bubble nucleation site. It shows the bubble motion over time

Keywords: Random Motion Bigger Size Random Direction

Second Model Concept

Another observation regarding bubbles’ formation suggests that as the bubbles rise up, the size of the bubbles become greater. They swell up because they absorb other chemicals in the champagne. This means that the bubbles become greater in volume and diameter.

Greater in size

Bubbles also move in every direction. They are in random motion. This motion follows the shape of the glass where the champagne is poured.

Close up on particles acting as bubble nucleation sites, thus creating bubble trains in motion in the champagne

Second Model Concept

RMIT Building 22, Swanston Street, Melbourne

The decorative section of this building really fascinates me. It also gives me inspiration in developing this design. The curves in this facade give a sense of lightness and bounci-ness like bubbles.

Third Model Concept

Bubbles tend to gather on the surface of the liquid because they are lighter and less dense than liquid. Their sizes differ from each other depending on the distance they have travelled from where they are formed; however, normally they are not greater than 1 mm in diameter. At the surface, bubbles are supposed to burst and disappear into the surrounding air. They will burst out at a rate depending on buoyancy, which tends to make them emerge from the surface of the liquid, viscosity, which is a quality to resist deformation, and surface tension. Capillary force also maintains the bubbles below the liquid surface. This force allows bubbles to slightly emerge from the liquid surface.

Bursting of Bubbles

The bubble-cap, the emerged part of the bubble, become thinner as the liquid drains back to the liquid bulk. It is very sensitive to dis-turbances, for example change in temperature and vibration. As the bubble is about to “pop”, a complex hydrodynamic process, which is forces acting on fluids, ensues. It causes the submerged part of the bubble collapse and then projects a iquid jet into the air which quickly burst into tiny droplets. The close-up pictures can be seen on the right.

The process of bursting of bubbles

Bubbles emerged at the surface of champagne

Keywords: Collapse and Burst

Collapsing

Third Model Concept

Third Model Concept

Marqués de Riscal Vineyard Hotel by Frank Owen Gehry

South West corner of the Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health by Frank Owen Gehry

I’m inspired by the works of Frank Owen Gehry. His concept of decon-structivism really engage me into liking abstract forms, particularly in buildings. These pictures (on the left) gives me idea of the flow and fluidity of the design.

BurstingFrom collapsing

to bursting (liquid jet)

Third Model Concept

Third Model Concept

Combination of Collapse and BurstI combined the two models for collapse and burst as they are from the same process; a sequence of process. To do this, I made a new model which combines the two processes. As the time increases, each process happens because the bubbles are in random motion and so, there are some bubbles which collapse and burst out first.

FInal Model Concept

FInal Model Concept

These are photos of the final model that I cre-ated based on the effervescence process. It combines all the sub-processes, from nuclea-tion to bursting. The pictures at the bottom of the page are the location where the lantern can be worn or used.

ReflectionVirtual environments, for me, is an insightful subject. It gives me the foundation of design as I was introduced to con-cepts behind a particular design. In module one, I was taught to apply concept in the design I made and also focus on it rather than the design itself because if I understand deeply about the concept, then the design will be much easier to create. My knowledge is enriched with background informations about patterns and shapes from all the lectures and readings. Every time I heard something interesting in the lectures or when I found some interesting concepts from the as-signed readings, I tried to incorporate them as much as possible from my design. I was inspired by Kandinsky’s theory of anlytical drawing, where he drew much simpler drawings from a complicated still life. I thought that if we understand the original lines or shapes from objects we see everyday, we can draw almost everything.

Another thing which fascinates me are the mathematical models that are presented by the guest lecturer, Henry Seger-man. I learn that we can use mathematics to make shapes and some complicated shapes are made of simple calcula-tions, for example the pinecones which use Fibonacci sequence. There are may types of mathematical models which are categorized into 3 types, which are modelling real world shapes using maths (lots of human input), maths generat-ing shapes guided by human and purely mathematical shapes (not much human input). I think we are at the first type where we re-create nature based on our understanding.

During the process of designing, I stumbled upon many difficulties, for example, time management, incorporating the natural process to the design, clay modelling and thinking in abstract. However, with the help of the tutor and some readings and research that I did, I managed to do these things and came up with a final model. For the concept design, I thought that this effervescence process was very interesting and even though it was hard to analyse, I tried to push it furthermore and I successfully made it.

ReferencesWebsites:http://www.fleckensteins.com/Dolphins/dolphins.htmhttp://obrag.org/?p=63265http://science.howstuffworks.com/nature/climate-weather/storms/lightning-pictures2.htmhttp://www.fyiliving.com/diet/beware-the-bubbly-champagne-more-intoxicating-than-wine/http://www.educavin.com/-Champagne-classique-?lang=enhttp://tripahoy.wordpress.com/2011/06/29/uncorked-the-science-of-champagne-gerard-liger-belair/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/ultratravel/2637219/Ultimate-Champagne-moments-in-Rheims-France.htmlhttp://pmpaspeakingofprecision.com/tag/killed-steel/http://www.glug.com.au/index_tasting.php?sec=on_tasting&art=09014http://www.networlddirectory.com/blogs/archives/Technology-blog/Oct-16-2007.htmlhttp://architecture.rmit.edu.au/About/Building_22.phphttp://www.rmit.edu.au/browse/About%20RMIT%2FHelp%2FMedia%20Assets%2FImage%2FB%2F;ID=gd68naxgkfqfz.jpg;STATUS=Ahttp://lisathatcher.wordpress.com/2012/04/11/frank-gehry/

Books:Review: Unraveling the evolving nature of gaseous and dissolved carbon dioxide in champagne wines: A state-of-the-art review, from the bottle to the tasting glass, by Gerard Liger-Belair, Guillaume Polidori, Virginie Zéninari, p. 2-3

Quelques aspects de la nucl´eation des bulles de Champagne dans une flˆute et de leur ascension `a petits nombres de Reyn-olds, by C´edric Voisin, p.15-16

Flow Patterns of Bubble Nucleation Sites (Called Fliers) Freely Floating in Champagne Glasses, by Ge´rard Liger-Belair, Fabien Beaumont, Philippe Jeandet and Guillaume Polidori

Advances in Food and Nutrition Research, Volume 61, p. 3-4, 23-24, 30, 43-44