MRI: Acquisition of a high-speed stereoscopic particle image velocimetry system for research and teaching at the University of St. Thomas

复杂的流体流动在交通、能源、国防和环境等许多重要的社会和技术领域发挥着至关重要的作用。复杂流动现象的例子包括带有化学反应的流动，涉及液体和气体的流动，以及与结构相互作用的流动。该提案将为收购一种名为粒子图像测速仪的仪器提供资金。已经开发了广泛的研究项目组合，以利用拟议的工具以及来自不同学科的专门知识。项目将研究破坏性燃烧不稳定性的机理和控制，使用微气泡减少船舶和管道的阻力，以及将声音噪音转换为有用的能量，仅举几例。这些努力可以直接导致这些系统的效率、可靠性和安全性的提高，同时减少对环境的影响。该文书促成的拟议项目包括跨学科的协作以及跨越各种区域高等教育机构的项目团队。其他更广泛的影响包括在多个本科生和研究生课程中使用该仪器，推广活动包括为女性学生提供K-12暑期STEM计划，以及加强本科生研究人员为研究生学习的准备。圣托马斯大学提出了一个仪器采购项目，以资助高速立体粒子图像测速系统。其目标是使用所请求的系统来支持主要教师用户及其合作者、明尼苏达大学和邓伍迪理工学院的教师用户以及其他圣托马斯工程学教师和学生的研究和教学需求。该仪器将实现广泛的跨学科研究，整合了流体动力学、数据科学、建模和模拟以及数字图像分析。研究范围广泛的物理现象需要在高速下进行详细的三维测量，以更好地了解流动行为的重要细节。近期计划包括研究流体/结构相互作用、多相流、声学/流动相互作用、流动不稳定性和流动转变。这些流动表现出复杂性，包括相互竞争和共存的不稳定机制、相边界、密度梯度和空间和时间的多尺度特征。该仪器将在课程中进一步用于流体力学和传热学、实验方法、工程设计、数值模拟的验证和验证以及大数据挖掘和可视化等主题。最后，该仪器使日益复杂的建模和仿真工具能够作为研究活动和行业合作伙伴得到广泛验证。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Complex fluid flows play a critical role in many important areas of society and technology including transportation, energy, defense, and the environment. Examples of complex flow phenomena include flows with chemical reactions, flows involving both liquids and gases, and flows that interact with structures. The proposal will fund the acquisition of an instrument referred to as a particle image velocimeter. A broad portfolio of research projects has been developed to leverage the proposed instrument as well as expertise from a variety of disciplines. Projects will investigate the mechanism and control of destructive combustion instabilities, drag reduction for ships and pipelines using microbubbles, and the conversion of acoustic noise into useful energy, to name a few. These efforts can directly lead to advancements in the efficiency, reliability, and safety of these systems while reducing environmental impacts. The proposed projects enabled by the instrument includes collaborations across disciplines as well as project teams spanning a variety of regional higher-education institutions. Additional broader impacts include use of the instrument in multiple undergraduate and graduate courses, outreach activities including a K-12 summer STEM program for female students and enhanced preparation of undergraduate researchers for graduate study.The University of St. Thomas proposes an instrument acquisition project to fund a high-speed stereoscopic particle image velocimetry system. The objective is to use the requested system to support research and teaching needs of major faculty users and their collaborators, faculty users at the University of Minnesota and Dunwoody College of Technology, and additional St. Thomas engineering faculty and students. The instrument will enable a broad range of interdisciplinary research integrating fluid dynamics, data science, modeling and simulation, and digital image analysis. A wide range of physical phenomena will be investigated that require detailed 3-D measurements taken at high-speeds to better understand the important details of the flow behavior. Immediate plans include the study of fluid/structure interactions, multiphase flows, acoustic/flow interactions, flow instabilities, and flow transitions. These flows exhibit complexities including competing and coexisting instability mechanisms, phase boundaries, density gradients, and multiscale features in space and time. The instrument will further be used within the curriculum for topics such as fluid mechanics and heat transfer, experimental methods, engineering design, verification and validation of numerical simulations, and big data mining and visualization. Finally, the instrument enables extensive validation of increasingly sophisticated modeling and simulation tools both as a research activity and with industry partnerships.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.