The First Open-Source Software for Non-Continuum Flows in Engineering

This project is both multi-scale and multi-disciplinary, and spans research areas across physics, mechanical engineering, computer science and chemical engineering. Our aim is to produce, for the first time, a general, robust and efficient open-source code for the simulation of non-continuum flows for engineering applications. Such flows are vital to the performance of a number of potentially transformative future technologies (e.g., highly-efficient sea-water desalination using membranes of carbon nanotubes, and nano-structured hydrophobic surfaces for marine drag reduction) but they cannot be simulated using conventional continuum-fluid simulations. Our work exploits the core methodological advances emerging from the EPSRC Programme Grant "Non-equilibrium Fluid Dynamics for Micro/Nano Engineering Systems" (EP/I011927/1), which have demonstrated exciting potential in the multi-scale modelling of non-continuum flows using hybrid continuum-particle methods. The software developed in this project builds on the already widely-adopted open-source code OpenFOAM for computational fluid dynamics. In capitalising on a) the success of the UK's OpenFOAM software and b) the EPSRC's Programme Grant investment in a strategic research area, this project aims to bring sustainability to both.

Over the next 30 years, the engineering of non-continuum flow systems will play a critical role in responding to global challenges in health, climate and energy. For example, in designing desalination plants with nano-filtration systems to make seawater drinkable for water-stressed populations, and embedding micro and nano devices on aero/hydrodynamic surfaces to improve the efficiency (and thus reduce CO2 emissions) of passenger jet aircraft, container ships and supertankers. This project will provide the software to enable engineers to simulate and design these future transformative technologies.

This new OpenCPFS software will be a tool to design a diverse range of transformative technologies that have potential for major societal and economic impact. For example, in the design of:
- nanofiltration membranes for water purification;
- micro-scale flow control systems for drag reduction;
- portable gas chromatography systems for the detection of air-borne pollutants;
- micro-reactors for generating small quantities of dangerous or expensive chemicals;
- microfluidic lab-on-a-chip devices for health monitoring and diagnosis;
- micro-processor cooling systems;
- thin-film cooling of turbomachinery;
- single DNA analysis;
- photolysis of water (using, e.g. titanium nanotubes);
- clinical pathology;
- nano fuel-cell technology;
- and process engineering (in particular, conveying of granular flows).

We plan a series of user engagement workshops to accelerate the adoption of OpenCPFS and its application to these, and other, technology areas. Our industrial partners (AkzoNobel, Jaguar Land Rover, TotalSim and ESI-OpenCFD) are immediate beneficiaries of this project, and they will assist in identifying new technology application areas for the software. The Software Sustainability Institute will promote and disseminate the project outcomes through their own networks. Therefore both academic and industrial users of the open-source software will benefit from being enrolled in a new community of multidisciplinary engineers engaged in the simulation of revolutionary flow technologies.