Turbulence breakthrough could help save billions in energy costs

Scientists have gained new insights on the working of turbulence which could help optimise vehicle performance and save billions in global energy costs.

Washington: Scientists have gained new insights on the working of turbulence which could help optimise vehicle performance and save billions in global energy costs.

Dr Ati Sharma, a senior lecturer in aerodynamics and flight mechanics at the University of Southampton, worked in collaboration with Beverley McKeon, professor of aeronautics and associate director of the Graduate Aerospace Laboratories at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) to build models of turbulent flow.

Recently, they developed a new and improved way of predicting the composition of turbulence near walls, which could lead to significant fuel savings, as a large amount of energy is consumed by ships and planes, for example, to counteract turbulence-induced drag.

Finding a way to reduce the drag by 30 per cent could save the global economy billions of dollars in fuel costs and associated emissions annually.

Wall turbulence develops when fluids-liquid or gas-flow past solid surfaces at anything but the slowest flow rates.

Progress in understanding and controlling wall turbulence has been somewhat incremental because of the massive range of scales of motion involved-from the width of a human hair to the height of a multi-floor building in relative terms.

Sharma said that the interesting puzzle has always been how to predict the seemingly chaotic motion of a turbulent fluid. Although very complicated, scientists have always observed recurring patterns in turbulence.

He said that it turned out that this question is quite easy to pose - and solve - mathematically, and answering this question provides what are essentially these recurring patterns.

McKeon said that they now have a low-cost way of looking at the `skeleton` of wall turbulence, explaining that similar previous experiments required the use of a supercomputer.

He said that it was surprising to find that turbulence condenses to these essential building blocks so easily.

McKeon said that their findings have opened the doors for entirely new capabilities in vehicle performance that may reduce the consumption of even renewable or non-fossil fuels.

The research has been published online in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

ANI

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