This GOALI proposal has the purpose of establishing a technical exchange between the Aerospace Engineering department at Iowa State University (ISU) and General Electric-Global Research Center (GRC) in Niskayana, NY. Engineers at GRC will visit ISU to give lectures to undergraduates and to establish research collaborations. GRC participants will provide first hand insights into engineering in a major aerospace company to undergraduates. Several applications of concern to GRC demand improvements in their ability to predict turbulent transport and in their ability to predict transition between laminar and turbulent states of fluid flow. ISU faculty have expertise in these areas. The practical applications will stimulate basic research at ISU and be the avenue to transfer basic research into industrial practice.
Intellectual Merit:
The last decade has seem significant progress in the theory of boundary layer transition induced by incident disturbances wakes or free-stream turbulence. Direct numerical simulations have produced substantial insight into mechanisms, and has created data that would be difficult to produce in a laboratory. However, practical modeling is at an early stage. The time is ripe for an industry/academia collaboration to bring basic developments to bear on practice. By contrast, closure modeling for turbulent transport is well established. Its limitations are well known; but it remains the primary tool for practical flow prediction in the foreseeable future. Advanced propulsion concepts and energy technologies that involve fluid flow are increasingly explored by computer simulations that require analytical closure models. The PIs in this program have mutual interest in improving models and adapting them to these needs. This GOALI proposal promises to tackle these challenges through academics and R & D engineers joining forces.
Broader impacts:
It is inherent in the formulation of this program that it will have an impact on education and will foster collaboration that would not otherwise take place. The Aero department at Iowa State strongly encourages undergraduate participation in research. Each year there is a Spring forum at which students present talks on their work. This GOALI program will provide students with extended access to GE engineers. Students will be encouraged to pursue careers in engineering; GE may recruit top ISU students.Engineers from GE-GRC will visit ISU to foster collaboration that can continue beyond the framework of GOALI. This long term relation will have a lasting. All research that occurs specifically under the aegis of NSF will be disseminated by archival publication, conference presentations, etc. It is inherent in a university industry collaboration that proprietary information will be protected against disclosure. However, the primary work done under this project will be free of proprietary restrictions.
This NSF Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison with Industry (GOALI) sponsored project was for the purpose of establishing a technical exchange between the AerospaceEngineering department at Iowa State University (ISU) and General Electric-Global Research Center (GRC) in Niskayana, NY. Engineers at GRC visited ISU to give lectures to undergraduates, and to establish research collaborations. These lectures and extended site visits provided undergraduate students first hand insights into engineering in a major aircraft engine company. Several applications of concern to General Electric-GRC demand improvements in their ability to predict turbulent transport, and to improve their ability to predict transition between laminar and turbulent states of fluid flow. These practical applications motivated basic research at ISU on modeling curvature, rotation and transition effects on turbulent flow. Rotation and curvature influence the flow in jet engines. Transition from laminar to turbulent flow occurs on turbine and compressor blades. Computer similations, also, were done of a geometry of interest to GE in connection with aircraft engine design. Several papers were published, describing the new developments in modeling the effects of rotation and streamline curvature on turbulent stresses. A method for modeling transition was devised, and has subsequently been developed into a practical precition method. This work contributed to the research of a PhD student.
