IE researchers Srinivasan Chandrasekar, W. Dale Compton, Ho Yeung, and Koushik Viswanathan discovered sinuous flow deformation and were surprised to find a potentially simple way to control it. The team discovered the phenomenon by using high-speed microphotography and analysis to study what happens while cutting ductile metals. They found that the metal is deformed into folds while it is being cut - contrary to long-held assumptions that metals are sheared uniformly – and also that sinuous flow can be controlled by suppressing this folding behavior.