Turbulent combustion and microfluidics

提出的研究方向是在两个领域取得进展：池火和微流体。我们周围的可燃液体（如汽油等燃料、丙酮等溶剂和各种食用油）意外点燃的潜在安全问题，使泳池火灾成为我们感兴趣的工作。这些液体是化学能的高度浓缩形式，燃烧时会造成相当大的危险。拟议的研究探索了穿过池表面的气流（例如，风）的影响。大多数先前的研究都是在完全平静的环境空气的病理情况下进行的，而初步的工作表明，即使很小的空气速度也会深刻地影响燃烧速度。目的是更好地了解各种规模的池火，并为工程师提供预测池火行为的模型。微流体工作之所以引起人们的兴趣，是因为它与多孔膜过滤和小型系统的发展有关，特别是允许将流动液体的能量直接转换为电能的装置。该研究特别考虑了有限长度的通道，因此重点放在通道进出口的流动以及从系统中提取能量的电极上。这项工作将融合我们对这些有限系统的基本理解和最大化能量转换效率的实用性的目标。

The proposed research is directed at making advancements in two fields: pool fires and microfluidics.   Potential safety concerns associated with the accidental ignition of flammable liquid (e.g., fuels such as gasoline, solvents such as acetone, and cooking oils of all types) that surround us make the pool fire work of interest.  These liquids are highly concentrated forms of chemical energy and pose considerable hazard when burning.  The proposed research explores the effects of an air flow across the pool surface (e.g., wind).  Most previous research was done on the pathological case of perfectly calm ambient air, while preliminary work shows that even small air speeds can profoundly affect the burning rate.  The goal is to better understand these kinds of pool fires over a wide range of sizes, and to provide engineers with models to predict pool fire behavior.   The microfluidics work is of interest due to its relation to porous membrane filtration and the development of small scale systems, in particular, devices that allow the direct conversion of the energy from a flowing liquid to electricity.  The research specifically considers channels of finite length, and so focus is on the flows at the inlets and outlets of the channels and the electrodes that extract the power from the system.  The work will blend the goals of furthering our basic understanding of these finite systems and the practicalities of maximizing energy conversion efficiencies.