Overview
- Jay Tang and Thomas Dutta modeled thin-film drainage with the viscous regime of the Navier–Stokes equations and confirmed predictions in lab tests.
- Experiments defined drain time at the 90% mark using a 45° tilted plate while weighing outflow to match theory against measurements.
- Measured times spanned seconds for water, about 30 seconds for milk at 45°, over nine minutes for olive oil, and up to hours for cold maple syrup.
- A simulation addressing residual water in a cast-iron wok estimated an optimal wait of roughly 15 minutes before re-tilting to pour off pooled liquid.
- The peer-reviewed study, titled “Thin film flow in the kitchen,” was published March 3, 2026, in Physics of Fluids and highlights viscosity as the dominant factor.