The Research Improvement in Minority Institutions (RIMI) program was established to provide support to strengthen the research environments and capabilities of predominantly minority institutions or institutions that have substantial minority student populations. Eligible institutions must also have graduate programs in science or programs in engineering. Funding is provided for faculty research in fields of science and engineering supported by the Foundation and for the acquisition of research instrumentation. Southern University will use RIMI support to study viscous laminar flows in helicoidal pipes. The helicoidal pipe is the first basic extension of a curved pipe. Researchers will investigate the temperature field in a helicoidal pipe that is maintained under a uniform wall heat flux condition. Data collected under these conditions may be used in designing more efficient heat exchangers that require coil type heat exchange elements. The heat transfer problems will be addressed theoretically and experimentally. The principal investigator is a prolific contributor to refereed journals in the area of convective heat transfer for laminar flows in multi-passage circular pipes. The Foundation has supported this project because the participation of minorities in meritorious heat flow research will be enhanced.
