The principal investigator will continue his research into computational issues involving transonic flow and the behavior of plasma in tokamaks. In particular, he will derive numerical algorithms to determine the wave drag in a flow past an airplane and the drag induced on a wing tip. And he will study the weak solutions of the magnetostatic equations that define the toroidal equilibria of a plasma. The energy crisis of the seventies motivated airplane designers to seek designs that would allow airplanes to fly efficiently at speeds at or near the speed of sound. This led to a renewed interest in so-called transonic aerodynamics, which is the mathematical theory of the flow of airplanes at speeds close to the speed of sound. The principal investigator is a leading expert on the numerical solution of the differential equations that arise in transonic aerodynamics, and in the present proposal he will continue his studies on reducing the drag of an airfoil, which in turn lowers the fuel consumption of the airplane.
