Non-Equilibrium Fluid Dynamics for Micro/Nano Engineering Systems

这项研究是关于模拟和设计工程流动系统，这些系统将构成未来40年世界面临的健康、交通、能源和气候挑战的主要部分。联合国估计，到2050年，48个国家的40亿人将缺乏足够的水。但地球上97%的水是咸水，剩下的大部分淡水冻结在冰川或极地冰盖中。如果极地地区的冰川像预期的那样继续融化，淡水供应实际上可能会减少：冰川融化的淡水将与海洋中的咸水混合，变得太咸而无法饮用，海平面上升将污染沿海地区的淡水水源。因此，迫切需要大规模净化海水或其他受污染的水以使其能够饮用的技术。与此同时，美国能源情报署的数据预计，到2030年，非经合组织国家的交通能源使用量平均每年增长2.7%-这是经合组织国家预计增长率的8倍。在此期间，仅中国的人均客运能源消耗就预计将增加两倍，印度将翻一番。提高空运和海运的燃油效率是世界各国政府和公司的战略优先事项，它还将带来减少排放和帮助应对气候变化的额外好处。微纳米工程为帮助应对这些紧迫挑战提供了一个重要机会。例如，早期的迹象表明，碳纳米管膜在过滤水中的盐离子和其他污染物方面具有显著的性能。此外，控制飞机和船体上的湍流阻力，这是现代运输中的一个主要低效问题，可以通过在车辆表面嵌入微型系统和/或纳米结构来实现。这一跨学科研究计划针对的是非传统流体动力学，这是这些富有远见的应用创新的关键。这项工作得到了9个外部合作伙伴的大力支持，从大型跨国公司到中小企业和公共咨询机构，并汇集了来自英国两所主要大学和一家国家研究机构的成熟研究小组。我们将提供一种在纳米和微米尺度上模拟混合平衡/非平衡流体动力学的全面新技术，并将其部署在三个重要的技术挑战上，这些挑战跨越了从能源到医疗保健的经济和社会影响范围。这些是航空航天中的减阻，超疏水表面在海洋运输中的应用，以及水的淡化/净化。在这项研究中，我们的目标是：-准确地预测所建议技术的性能；-在现实的工程参数内优化它们的设计；-提出利用这种规模的流动行为来产生技术影响的新设计。领导这一计划的研究伙伴关系在过去10年里蓬勃发展，成为了解这些热力学非平衡流动的国际驱动力，吸引了大量的联合资金，并出版了共同撰写的研究出版物。这一合作伙伴关系准备实现非平衡流动模拟能力的阶段性变化，这是使微米和纳米级的新技术切实可行所需的，超出了目前任何设想。

This research is about simulating and designing the engineering flow systems that will form a major part of the responses to health, transportation, energy and climate challenges that the world faces over the next 40 years.The United Nations estimates that by 2050 four billion people in 48 countries will lack sufficient water. But 97 percent of the water on the planet is saltwater, and much of the remaining freshwater is frozen in glaciers or the polar ice caps. If the glaciers in the polar regions continue to melt, as expected, the supply of freshwater may actually decrease: freshwater from the melting glaciers will mingle with saltwater in the oceans and become too salty to drink, and rising sea levels will contaminate freshwater sources along coastal regions. Technologies for large-scale purification of seawater or other contaminated water to make it drinkable are therefore urgently needed.At the same time, figures from the US Energy Information Administration project an average growth rate of 2.7 percent per year for transportation energy use in non-OECD countries to 2030 - this is 8 times higher than the projected rate for OECD countries. China's passenger transportation energy use per capita alone is projected to triple over this period, and India's to double. Improving the fuel efficiency of air and marine transport is a strategic priority for governments and companies around the world, and will have the added benefit of reducing emissions and helping address climate change. Micro and nano scale engineering presents an important opportunity to help meet these pressing challenges. For example, early indications are that membranes of carbon nanotubes have remarkable properties in filtering salt ions and other contaminants from water. Also, controlling the turbulent drag on aircraft and ship hulls, which is a major inefficiency in modern transportation, may be achievable by embedding micro systems and/or nano structures over the vehicle's surface.This cross-disciplinary research programme targets the unconventional fluid dynamics that is key to innovating in these visionary applications. The work is strongly supported by 9 external partners, ranging from large multinational companies to SMEs and public advisory bodies, and brings together established research groups from two major UK universities and a national research institute. We will deliver a comprehensive new technique for simulating mixed equilibrium/non-equilibrium fluid dynamics at the nano and micro scale, and deploy it on three important technical challenges that span the range of economic and societal impact, from energy to healthcare. These are drag reduction in aerospace, applications of super-hydrophobic surfaces to marine transport, and water desalination / purification. In this research we aim to:- accurately predict the performance of the proposed technologies;- optimise their design within realistic engineering parameters;- propose new designs which exploit flow behaviour at this scale for technological impact.The research partnership leading this Programme has flourished over 10 years into an international driver for understanding these kinds of thermodynamically non-equilibrium flows, attracting substantial joint funding and producing co-authored research publications. The partnership is poised to effect the step-change in non-equilibrium flow simulation capabilities that is needed to make new technologies at the micro and nano scale practicable, beyond any currently conceived.