Turbulent combustion and microfluidics

这项拟议的研究旨在两个领域取得进展：池火和微流体。由于与我们周围的易燃液体(例如汽油、丙酮等溶剂和各种食用油等燃料)意外点燃相关的潜在安全问题使池火变得有趣。这些液体是高度集中的化学能形式，在燃烧时会造成相当大的危险。提议的研究探索了穿过池面的空气流动(例如风)的影响。以前的大多数研究都是在完全平静的环境空气的病理情况下进行的，虽然初步工作表明，即使是很小的风速也能深刻地影响燃烧速度。我们的目标是更好地了解各种尺寸的此类池火，并为工程师提供预测池火行为的模型。微流体的工作之所以令人感兴趣，是因为它与多孔膜过滤和小规模系统的发展有关，特别是允许从流动的液体直接将能量转化为电能的设备。该研究特别考虑了有限长度的通道，因此，重点放在通道入口和出口的流动以及从系统中提取电力的电极上。因此，这项工作将把加深我们对这些有限系统的基本理解的目标与最大化能量转换效率的实用性结合在一起。

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.