Final Report Summary - PAS (Patterns and Surfaces)
The IRSES “Patterns and Surfaces” project is concentrated on collaborative research in the area of Technology – Based Thermal-Fluid Mechanics between several universities and institutes in the MS/AC countries i.e France, Turkey and Israel, and universities and institutions in third countries, such as United States, Canada, Russia and Japan. The focus area in thermo-fluid mechanics is multiphase flow associated with interfaces where these interfaces lie between two fluids or fluids and solids. This field plays a vital role in many key technologies in the 21st century with a very large impact on the world economy. Examples of such applications are fluid-based bio-sensors, drug delivery and energy conversion devices, along with environmental and outer space enabling technologies.
Europe and the associated countries have universities with programs in the area of complex multi-phase thermo-fluid mechanics and the present team is a selected subset of faculty of these universities with an ongoing and prospective collaboration with laboratories in Japan, United States, Canada and Russia. It has become evident that the wide-ranging applications of thermo-fluid engineering require multiple-team efforts involving intensive computations and extensive experimentation. Collaboration with international teams of high expertise is necessary to make quick progress in areas of potential technological and economic impact.
Europe needs to prepare the next generation of professionals in the international framework if it is to compete in the global marketplace. Recognizing the impact of globalization on Europe, many universities have implemented initiatives leading toward internationalizing post-graduate research and education. As a consequence, the development of a global professional must include an international experience that has as its outcome, excellence within the profession, the development of global competence, and the development of global consciousness. Our research program aimed to address all of the above - professional excellence, global competence and global consciousness.
The strength of the partnership lies in the pluralistic nature of its research agenda. The chosen theme of multiphase fluid mechanics and transport phenomena will encourage researchers in Europe and their international partners to collaborate with one another and bring their complimentary expertise to bear upon important research problems. More important, the multi-faceted, wide-range research area partnership will offer early-stage researchers and junior scientists an unprecedented opportunity to receive very high-quality education in thermal fluid sciences, learn to effectively communicate, work in international settings and learn about many relevant technological advances while simultaneously focusing in depth on their own specific research. This sort of experience will be invaluable to these participants who must enter the 21st century labor force and be also versatile in professional abilities and talents.
The decision to collaborate with the four partner countries and our choice of topics rests on various important factors. First, these countries possess considerable expertise, equipment and personnel resources in the institutions and specific areas of research addressed by this MS/AC team. Second, industries in these countries as well as in Europe and the AC have great needs for trained talented people in the research fields involving applications of thermal fluid engineering. Third, many of the faculty of the MS/AC team have already established strong research contacts with the third country partner institutes. Fourth, while current collaboration is limited by available funding for senior researchers, there is little or no funding for junior scientists and early-stage researchers to collaborate, work in an international setting and widen their research and educational horizons. The unique opportunities proposed in the framework of this program involve cultural awareness, networking possibilities, working in an international setting, being co-advised by international advisors and communicating in a multi-cultural atmosphere.
The research program of IRSES «Patterns and Surfaces» was divided in four work packages:
· WP1: Faraday instability,
· WP2: Magneto-acoustics wave phase conjugation for flow metrology,
· WP3: Bénard Marangoni Instability and pattern generation,
· WP4: Contact line dynamics and particle collection
The interaction and collaboration between the researchers involved in the above work packages were facilitated by both the multidisciplinary aspect of the proposed research and the ultimate goal of bringing forward an innovative and industrial application. For instance, the research in WP1 is aimed at understanding the physics behind Faraday instability between miscible fluids (in particular) and thus, at exploiting the phenomenon for the development of new, alternative industrial technologies for generating mixing amount liquids. In WP2, the research on flow metrology using magneto-acoustic phase conjugation is applied to the case of Faraday experiments with the aim of characterizing flow along with a tomography of mixed liquids.
The results obtained by the team are outstanding and we have solved several fundamental and technological issues. With respect to these, the European Space Agency has asked the team to write an Experiment Scientific Requirement document for using International Space Station (ISS) experimental facility. This is a great success of the team which underlines the quality of the work done. In the case of experiment selection for ISS, the project will have direct socio-economic impact in Europe since several technological developments by European industries are expected. In particular, high-tech industries will have in charge the conception and fabrication of the experimental setup that will be sent to ISS. This will clearly contribute to European competitiveness for both science and high- tech industries.
Furthermore, in order to generate new collaborations with worldwide researchers other than those already involved in the project, we regularly organized dedicated workshops and conferences open to all students and researchers. The workshops were broadcasted through internet, when possible, along with an attempt to record the keynote lectures and put them freely available for download on the IRSES PaS web page (http://films-lab.univ-lille1.fr/IRSES-PaS). On this web page, all publications made within the framework of IRSES are now listed along with a description of the main results.
Europe and the associated countries have universities with programs in the area of complex multi-phase thermo-fluid mechanics and the present team is a selected subset of faculty of these universities with an ongoing and prospective collaboration with laboratories in Japan, United States, Canada and Russia. It has become evident that the wide-ranging applications of thermo-fluid engineering require multiple-team efforts involving intensive computations and extensive experimentation. Collaboration with international teams of high expertise is necessary to make quick progress in areas of potential technological and economic impact.
Europe needs to prepare the next generation of professionals in the international framework if it is to compete in the global marketplace. Recognizing the impact of globalization on Europe, many universities have implemented initiatives leading toward internationalizing post-graduate research and education. As a consequence, the development of a global professional must include an international experience that has as its outcome, excellence within the profession, the development of global competence, and the development of global consciousness. Our research program aimed to address all of the above - professional excellence, global competence and global consciousness.
The strength of the partnership lies in the pluralistic nature of its research agenda. The chosen theme of multiphase fluid mechanics and transport phenomena will encourage researchers in Europe and their international partners to collaborate with one another and bring their complimentary expertise to bear upon important research problems. More important, the multi-faceted, wide-range research area partnership will offer early-stage researchers and junior scientists an unprecedented opportunity to receive very high-quality education in thermal fluid sciences, learn to effectively communicate, work in international settings and learn about many relevant technological advances while simultaneously focusing in depth on their own specific research. This sort of experience will be invaluable to these participants who must enter the 21st century labor force and be also versatile in professional abilities and talents.
The decision to collaborate with the four partner countries and our choice of topics rests on various important factors. First, these countries possess considerable expertise, equipment and personnel resources in the institutions and specific areas of research addressed by this MS/AC team. Second, industries in these countries as well as in Europe and the AC have great needs for trained talented people in the research fields involving applications of thermal fluid engineering. Third, many of the faculty of the MS/AC team have already established strong research contacts with the third country partner institutes. Fourth, while current collaboration is limited by available funding for senior researchers, there is little or no funding for junior scientists and early-stage researchers to collaborate, work in an international setting and widen their research and educational horizons. The unique opportunities proposed in the framework of this program involve cultural awareness, networking possibilities, working in an international setting, being co-advised by international advisors and communicating in a multi-cultural atmosphere.
The research program of IRSES «Patterns and Surfaces» was divided in four work packages:
· WP1: Faraday instability,
· WP2: Magneto-acoustics wave phase conjugation for flow metrology,
· WP3: Bénard Marangoni Instability and pattern generation,
· WP4: Contact line dynamics and particle collection
The interaction and collaboration between the researchers involved in the above work packages were facilitated by both the multidisciplinary aspect of the proposed research and the ultimate goal of bringing forward an innovative and industrial application. For instance, the research in WP1 is aimed at understanding the physics behind Faraday instability between miscible fluids (in particular) and thus, at exploiting the phenomenon for the development of new, alternative industrial technologies for generating mixing amount liquids. In WP2, the research on flow metrology using magneto-acoustic phase conjugation is applied to the case of Faraday experiments with the aim of characterizing flow along with a tomography of mixed liquids.
The results obtained by the team are outstanding and we have solved several fundamental and technological issues. With respect to these, the European Space Agency has asked the team to write an Experiment Scientific Requirement document for using International Space Station (ISS) experimental facility. This is a great success of the team which underlines the quality of the work done. In the case of experiment selection for ISS, the project will have direct socio-economic impact in Europe since several technological developments by European industries are expected. In particular, high-tech industries will have in charge the conception and fabrication of the experimental setup that will be sent to ISS. This will clearly contribute to European competitiveness for both science and high- tech industries.
Furthermore, in order to generate new collaborations with worldwide researchers other than those already involved in the project, we regularly organized dedicated workshops and conferences open to all students and researchers. The workshops were broadcasted through internet, when possible, along with an attempt to record the keynote lectures and put them freely available for download on the IRSES PaS web page (http://films-lab.univ-lille1.fr/IRSES-PaS). On this web page, all publications made within the framework of IRSES are now listed along with a description of the main results.