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Projects: Projects for Investigator
Reference Number EP/P001130/1
Title Optimization in Fluid Mechanics
Status Completed
Energy Categories Energy Efficiency(Transport) 60%;
Fossil Fuels: Oil Gas and Coal(Oil and Gas, Refining, transport and storage of oil and gas) 20%;
Energy Efficiency(Industry) 20%;
Research Types Basic and strategic applied research 100%
Science and Technology Fields ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY (Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering) 100%
UKERC Cross Cutting Characterisation Not Cross-cutting 100%
Principal Investigator Professor R Kerswell
No email address given
Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics
University of Cambridge
Award Type Standard
Funding Source EPSRC
Start Date 01 December 2016
End Date 31 August 2017
Duration 9 months
Total Grant Value £322,600
Industrial Sectors Energy
Region East of England
Programme NC : Engineering, NC : Infrastructure, NC : Maths
 
Investigators Principal Investigator Professor R Kerswell , Applied Maths and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge (100.000%)
  Industrial Collaborator Project Contact , University of Cambridge (0.000%)
Project Contact , Institute of Science and Technology (IST Austria), Austria (0.000%)
Web Site
Objectives
Abstract This project aims to realise the full potential of optimisation as a theoretical tool to study fluid mechanics motivated by our need to better understand and control flows around us. As an exemplar, the drag experienced by vehicles as they move through either air or water is a huge consumer of energy and source of carbon emissions which the UK urgently needs to reduce. In the past, optimisation has generally only been used with simplified constraints such as the linearised Navier-Stokes equations to keep problems tractable. Recently, however, two breakthroughs now strongly suggest that the solutions to more sophisticated optimisation problems can be successfully computed and a recent experiment highlights what may be achieved using clever geometry design.This project will seek to exploit these exciting advances by developing new optimisation-based approaches to treat three key problems in fluid mechanics: 1) how to systematically search for new nonlinear flow solutions to the governing Navier-Stokes equations; 2) how to manipulate nonlinear stability via boundary geometry to design more energy-efficient fluid flows in pipelines; and 3) how to calculate the best rigorous upper estimates of energy consumption (or drag) in fully turbulent shear and convective flows.
Publications (none)
Final Report (none)
Added to Database 01/02/19