Modeling and control of shear flows over and within porous media

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Laminar and turbulent flows over and within porous media are common in a wide range of natural flows and engineering applications. Main examples are: industrial crossflow filtration systems; transpiration cooling of gas turbine blades and rocket engines; the use of wall suction to delay transition to turbulence over the surface of a wing; fluid transport in blood vessels, the gastrointestinal system, kidneys, and lungs where mass transfer between air, blood, and tissue occurs at the walls; sediment–water interfaces over permeable seabeds/riverbeds; and flow through fractured geological formations, to name a few. This proposal is motivated by the need for a deeper understanding of the effects of porous materials on engineering and natural shear flows in order to design novel porous materials for innovative and sustainable engineering applications. In fact, there are many engineering applications involving fluid flows over or through porous materials that will benefit from a better understanding of these flows and their optimization and control, such as extraction of oil from ground reservoirs, management of water ground basins and filtration of pollutants through aquifers, transpiration cooling, in which the porosity is used to enhance the heat exchange capability of the material, filtration processes used to separate solid particles from fluids. Examples in nature are flows through sedimentary rocks, such as sandstones, conglomerates and shales, and water flows over seabeds and riverbeds. Porous media also play a crucial role in many biological processes involving fluid and mass transfer at the walls of many organic tissues, such as blood vessels, lungs and kidneys. The ability to design porous materials with specific properties (e.g., porosity, permeability, momentum transfer at the interface, etc,) could lead to novel developments in several fields spanning from aerodynamics to biology, from chemistry to medicine. The final goal of this proposal is to optimize and control shear flows within and over porous materials by intelligently manipulating the fluid flow or by designing novel porous materials or both. In conclusion, the proposed research would make a strong contribution to advancement of knowledge on flows within and over porous materials and provide an excellent opportunity for training highly qualified personnel. The challenges and the novelty of this proposal guarantee that the accomplishment of each step of the proposed research would produce original contributions, which will be published in the best journals in the field and presented at the best conferences in order to disseminate knowledge.