Physical Review Fluids

Take a look at selected highlights from Physical Review Fluids in 2025, including research, awards, and community events. Thank you to all who contribute to advancing fluid dynamics! (Music from #Uppbeat: go.aps.org/3MV5DRz, license code: DAWZT3G3VWBT1SN6)

While small amounts of polymers delay drop breakup, bubble pinch-off from a needle is mostly unaffected: polymer stretching cannot compete with the violent inertial collapse, except at sufficiently high polymer concentrations. Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/4gCLJHv

What governs the stability of vortex lattices in rotating flows? Embedding ideal triangular arrays of vortices into 3D turbulence shows that their lifetimes obey a memoryless random process, depending on the Rossby number and energetic balance. go.aps.org/3SWwXBO

A vortex pair interacting with a localized polymeric fluid layer can generate secondary and tertiary vortices via polymer stress gradients. Elastic stresses modify vorticity production and energy transfer, with behaviors not seen in Newtonian fluids. go.aps.org/4gq88YC

Physical Review Fluids is turning 10 🌊🎉! Chief editors Beverley McKeon and Eric Lauga reflect on the journey so far, and what’s ahead for the journal. Read at go.aps.org/4poW8cp #PRF10

📝 Some highlights from the June issue (1) go.aps.org/4p2uCRM (2) go.aps.org/4p0aZJR (3) go.aps.org/4p2uxxs (4) go.aps.org/3SCh2II Find the full PRFluids issue from June now at go.aps.org/4oZh5KG

In creeping flows through confined cylinder arrays, confinement focuses the flow within the array and shifts the domains of existence of the flow regimes. An analytical model predicts the flow rate through the array, in agreement with simulations. go.aps.org/4y1QAIE

Free-stream turbulence affects wind-generated waves over a viscous liquid, enhancing the amplitude of 3D wrinkles and lowering the onset speed of regular waves. The wrinkle-wave transition remains linked to constant friction velocity. Editors' suggestion go.aps.org/44zDFzU

In stably stratified turbulence, the spread of infinitesimal perturbations slows as stratification increases, with uncertainty growth becoming compressed along the stratification direction, driven by strain-mediated velocity dynamics. Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/4g45zva

📝 Join us for the next PRFluids Journal Club! Register for free here: go.aps.org/4vvgVx3

A bubble detaching from a horizontally moving plate transitions from a vertical buoyancy-dominated rise to a horizontal shear-dominated lift-off. An analysis with a single dimensionless parameter captures this transition across all experimental conditions go.aps.org/4eY8159

Collective locomotion of swimming and flying animals can be modeled as a flow-mediated material. The group behaves as a soft "crystal" with regularly spaced "atoms”, whose positions are susceptible to deformations and instabilities. Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/4eAUkHU

We’ve updated our artificial intelligence policy to allow authors and reviewers to use #AI for a broader range of tasks — with guardrails to uphold our research integrity standards and ensure human judgment stays at the center of peer review. Read more: go.aps.org/4v27QuJ

Unlike most insects, mosquitoes fly forward through highly asymmetric wing pitching between downstroke and upstroke. This reveals two novel thrust mechanisms, deepening our understanding of insect flight diversity. Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/3QrCTBO

The high quality of APS journals is reflected in the 2026 Journal Citation Reports from @Clarivate. Five of the 15 APS journals indexed achieved their highest-ever Journal Impact Factor. View updated journal metrics here: journals.aps.org/metrics

Liquid mirrors for telescopes relax to a spherical shape in microgravity, but manoeuvres perturb the interface. An analytical model, validated by experiments, shows the aperture remains optically precise over long times. Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/3Qn9LM2

The PRFluids Journal Club is back with a discussion with author Salar Farrokhi, presenting the paper "Electrostatics Slows Down the Breakup of Liquid Bridges on Solid Surfaces" 🕒 June 25, 11:00 am ET Read ahead go.aps.org/4u7DU0i Free registration go.aps.org/3QOElhE

In 2D viscoelastic channel flows with a steady arrowhead structure, expressing the dynamics along stresslines gives insight into flow-polymer stress sheet interactions: pressure jumps across the sheets relate to the local curvature of the stresslines. go.aps.org/4oDuesz

A non-colloidal suspension displacing air in a Hele-Shaw cell forms particle clusters at the advancing interface. Coupling between clusters and interface is set by capillarity, local particle concentration, and interfacial speed. Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/4v5sBq7

Spray cloud formation is driven by friction with the surrounding air via a Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. Experiments with parallel jet nozzles show that lowering the air pressure makes the spray cloud disappear. Read the Letter: go.aps.org/4vibPnT

Experiments with off-axis rotation in nearly isotropic turbulence reveal a scale-dependent anisotropy in the directional velocity spectra, linking large-scale rotation to small-scale energy redistribution. Read the Editors' suggestion: go.aps.org/4dWYXxb