Thermal-fluid mechanics for industrial applications
Science and technological research are evolving at an unprecedented rate with radically new applications emerging that can change the way we live and work. The study of fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer in complex engineering systems could significantly impact the development of alternative energy technologies and drug delivery devices. Thermal-fluid engineering requires a combination of experimentation and theoretical modelling. Against this backdrop, the EU-funded PAS (Patterns and surfaces) project aimed to encourage collaboration between countries with considerable expertise in multiphase fluid mechanics and transport phenomena. To achieve its aim, PAS offered high-level education opportunities to budding scientists and early-stage researchers from universities and institutes in Canada, France, Israel, Japan, Russia, Turkey and the United States. All these countries boast robust industries related to thermal-fluid engineering, ensuring faster uptake of researchers who stand out to promote innovation and technology development. The unique opportunities offered included working in an international setting, being co-advised by leading experts and networking possibilities. On the other hand, topics on which research was focused ranged from the Faraday and Bénard-Marangoni thermocapillary instability to contact line dynamics. Several hydrodynamic instabilities were intensively studied to find the physical mechanisms underlying the transition from an ordered flow to disorder. The experimental study on Faraday instability looked at the physics of miscible fluids that could be used to develop new industrial technologies. Flow velocity measurements were carried out using the magneto-acoustic phase conjugation technique. For the needs of such complex experiments, the PAS team reached out to experts through dedicated workshops and conferences. These events were organised routinely and keynote presentations were recorded and are available here, along with key publications. PAS results have already attracted the attention of the European Space Agency (ESA), which requested the project team to design similar experiments to be performed in space and document the technical requirements. In case these experiments are selected for the International Space Station, research on thermal-fluid mechanics is bound to lead technological developments by European industries.
Keywords
Thermal-fluid mechanics, industrial applications, fluid dynamics, experimentation, theoretical modelling, PAS
