Heterogenous Porous Media Simulations

这个I-Corps项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力支持更快的工业过滤器设计周期，以满足不断增长的需求。这种需求源于世界上工业的加速发展，通过使用过滤系统导致对清洁空气和水的需求增加。工业排放导致大量污染物和颗粒释放到大气中，这可能导致人类社会潜在的健康问题。此外，水资源正以惊人的速度变得稀缺，这就要求以更有效的方式从包括海水和循环水在内的非传统来源提供清洁水。这项商业化的技术使用了一种称为计算流体动力学（CFD）的数学技术，该技术允许工程师在生产前用计算模型分析过滤器的效率。此外，使用这种技术可以在产品开发周期内进行更多的设计迭代，从而产生更好的最终产品。这项技术的成功商业化将导致过滤器设计的重大改进，生产成本的降低和更清洁的空气和水。这个I-Corps项目旨在探索针对过滤行业实施CFD软件包的潜在市场。大量的正式培训、对CFD概念的深入理解、繁琐的设置过程和冗长的计算运行时间是在行业中实施CFD技术的负担。这些复杂性限制了这个关键组件在产品开发周期中的使用。正在考虑商业化的技术是一种新的算法，可以促进CFD研究的实施。所提出的技术将导致更短，更容易建立计算模型和更快的计算运行时间来获得结果。在收到初始设计数据后，软件自动分析所需的性能标准。然后，工程团队使用输出数据来改进产品并实现更高的性能。该技术是大量研发工作的结果，包括算法和初始软件开发，以及为验证目的进行的大量实验室实验。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project supports a faster design cycle of industrial filters to meet an ever-growing demand. This demand stems from an accelerated industrial development in the world, leading to an increased need for clean air and water through the use of filtration systems. Industrial emissions have led to the release of significant amounts of pollutants and particles into the atmosphere which can lead to potential health problems in human societies. Additionally, water resources are becoming scarce at an alarming rate which calls for more effective ways of providing clean water from non-traditional sources including sea water and recycled water. The technology to be commercialized uses a mathematical technique called computational fluid dynamics (CFD) that allows engineers to analyze the efficiency of filters with a computational model before production. Additionally, using this technology allows for more design iterations within the product development cycle leading to a better final product. Successful commercialization of this technology will lead to significant improvements in filter design, a reduction in production costs and cleaner air and water. This I-Corps project aims at exploring the potential market for implementing a CFD software package targeted at the filtration industry. Significant formal training, the need for having a deep understanding of the CFD concepts, cumbersome setup procedures, and lengthy computational runtime are among the burdens of implementing a CFD technique within the industry. These complexities limit the use of this critical component in the product development cycle. The technology being considered for commercialization is a novel algorithm which facilitates the implementation of a CFD study. The proposed technique will lead to shorter, easier setup of the computational model and faster computational runtime to obtain results. After receiving the initial design data, the software automatically analyzes the desired performance criteria. The output data are then used by the engineering team to improve the product and achieve higher performances. The technology is a result of extensive R&D work including algorithm and initial software development, and extensive laboratory experimentation for validation purposes.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.