This regime encompasses many practical applications in both the technological and natural worlds. Examples are pulverized coal combustors, fast-fluidized beds, dust storms , and planet forming nebulae. Current research sponsors for this work include the NASA Microgravity Sciences Program, the Department of Energy-ASCI program, and the National Science Foundation. Recently, under the impetus of the General Electric-University Strategic Alliance Program we have turned our focus towards applying advanced measurement and modeling techniques developed for research applications to practical flows, especially gas turbines. There is a strong emphasis on rapid-prototyping and full geometry experiments while retaining research quality accuracy.
Efforts are ongoing in both technique development and in applied research.
This program is an offshoot of our development of convective heat transfer measurement techniques. We are using high power CO2 lasers scanned rapidly over a surface with simultaneous intensity modulation to create a desired temperature pattern. Infrared imaging of the surface is used for feedback to the closed-loop control system. This technology which is still in its infancy has applications in infrared image projectors, thermal manufacturing such as rapid thermal processing of silicon wafers, and in aerodynamic testing where we are developing a full field technique to simultaneously measure the direction and magnitude of the skin friction at a large number of points. The work is sponsored by the Ricoh-Elemex corporation.