MRI: Acquisition of Experimental Flow Diagnostics Instrumentation to Serve as a Regional Facility for Cross-disciplinary Research and Education

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0923026PierrakosThis proposal requests funds to purchase experimental flow diagnostics instrumentation for characterization of complex flows. Such a facility would serve as a regional facility for research and education at primarily undergraduate institutions. This core facility will be located at James Madison University (JMU) and serve faculty and students (undergraduate and graduate) at JMU and nearby institutions. The proposed experimental flow diagnostics facility includes a suite of four instruments - a 3D (stereo) particle image velocimetry (PIV) system, a water channel, a wind tunnel, and a heart simulator. The core instrumentation of this facility is the 3D time resolved PIV system, which with the accompanying components will enable research varying from aerodynamics, biological flows, cardiovascular fluid mechanics, and geological applications. Such a system and facility is often only available at research universities and used at the graduate level. Not only is such a facility unique at predominantly undergraduate institutions (PUIs), but this state-of-the-art facility will be utilized for cross-disciplinary research and education efforts spanning science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and departments (ranging from engineering, biology, geological sciences, physics, mathematics, integrated science and technology). Access to such a facility would greatly impact the research efforts of at least 12 faculty at JMU and others at nearby institutions, including Sweet Briar College (liberal arts women's college with an engineering program) and the Virginia Military Institute.