The overall research objective is to provide a better physical understanding of the phenomenon of two-phase turbulent combustion involving the vaporization of the fuel drops and the chemical reaction of the fuel vapor with the oxidizer. It is proposed to conduct extensive numerical simulations of evaporating drops dispersed in homogeneous turbulent flows with and without the presence of chemical reactions. The carrier phase is considered in the Eulerian frame and is treated via Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the problem. A "two-way" coupling between the carrier fluid and the dispersed phase is applied. The results of the simulations will be used to extract Lagrangian and Eulerian statistics. "Explicit algebraic" second moment closures for statistical predictions of two-phase reacting flows will be constructed. The effects of the drop's "shape deformation" on interphase transport in two-phase flows will be investigated. The numerical methodology involves the finite element method with a volume-of-fluid based algorithm for treatment of the deforming interface.
The education plan consists of two activities with a particular emphasis on "integration" of research and teaching activities of the PI. The particular geographical and cultural situations of the University of Hawaii with respect to other U.S. universities are taken into consideration. The first activity is focused on attracting students to engineering and helping them in their transition to professional life. The second activity is focused on a critical examination of current educational system in an attempt to implement recent scientific and technological advances in the process of training the future generation of scientists and educators.
