UK Turbulence Consortium

An expanded high-end-computing (HEC) consortium is proposed to investigate fundamental aspects of the turbulence problem using numerical simulations. The proposed UK Turbulence Consortium (UKTC) will ensure that the UK's worldwide reputation of being at the forefront of turbulence research is maintained. Cases in this proposal include transitional and fully developed turbulent flows in canonical and complex geometries and a new work package on turbulence-particle interactions, with relevance to a wide range of engineering, environmental/geophysical and biological applications. The consortium will serve to coordinate, augment and unify the research efforts of its participants, and to communicate its expertise and findings to a national and international audience. Most of the staff resource to carry out the scientific work is already in place, funded by EPSRC or other sources, and in all cases the projects have qualified and available staff in place to complete them. This application is for: (a) a core allocation of HEC time to enable consortium members to carry out simulations of world-leading quality, (b) dedicated staff at STFC Daresbury Laboratory and the University of Southampton for software development projects that will open up new research areas and to ensure efficient use of HEC resources and progress on key projects, (c) travel and subsistence for regular management meetings and international visitors, and (e) support for annual progress reviews, including two expanded workshops to which members of other HEC consortia and the wider UK turbulence community will be invited. The software development projects are essential to maintain the UKTC's worldwide leadership in turbulence research and to provide cutting-edge HEC application software that will deliver internationally leading scientific research on the next national HEC service ARCHER.

The research to be carried out in the UK turbulence consortium is relevant to the transportation, energy supply/generation, biomedical and process sectors in the UK and the world. In addition to creating new knowledge and training for the next generation of engineers and scientists (as outlined in academic impact), research carried out in this HEC consortium will deliver benefits to the economy and allow us to realize our societal goals.
Despite being the largest contributors to harmful emissions, the transportation, energy generation/supply and process sectors are experiencing unprecedented growth around the world. For example, it is estimated that air transport will contribute an additional 200 Billion Euros to the EU economy over the next twenty years. Moreover, most applications generate aero/hydrodynamic noise that is a significant nuisance (and sometimes harmful) to local communities. For increases in production efficiencies the process industry needs improved prediction of transition and better ways of mixing fluid substances that reduce the very significant amounts of power used. These sectors have an enormous impact on the environment and the global energy budget and any improvements in aero-/hydrodynamic, mixing and heat transfer efficiencies as well as reducing noise rely in large parts on a better understanding of the overarching subject of turbulence. A large number of projects to be carried out within the UKTC will contribute to resolving all of the above-mentioned issues and hence will have a significant impact in our quest towards a greener future. Even a 1% reduction in drag can save at least 25,000 gallons of fuel per year per aircraft. Worldwide, this reduction could translate to fuel savings of more than $1 billion per year. The resulting reduction in emissions into the air is equally as impressive.
Our consortium also has economic benefits as it creates new opportunities for industries in the UK and worldwide. This is clearly identified by our industrial partners who are all keen to follow and where possible adopt our technologies. Our project partner CD-adapco (U.K.) specialises in turbulent flow modelling and believes that work within UKTC constitutes a very important contribution to developing knowledge of turbulence and therefore new avenues for modelling turbulence in a very wide range of engineering applications. As a project partner, CD-adapco will have first-hand access to any information, understanding or guidance from our fundamental DNS/LES research that can filter into their commercial CFD software. Both Rolls-Royce (U.K.), in the context of aero-engines, and GE Global Research (Germany), in the context of aero-engines and energy, express how LES and CFD methods utilising UKTC resources are crucial to gain insights into turbulence physics and have enabled them to better understand limitations of their current CFD approaches and how to devise improvement strategies to take a competitive lead. GE GR also have a strong interest in our WP7 activities, in particular in strategies to exploit future HEC architectures. This interest is shared by an F1 team who, despite their focus on applied aerodynamics, emphasize that they need to embrace leading edge simulation techniques that help gain a fundamental understanding of the transient flow environments that dictate the performance of road and race cars in order to maintain their position as a UK based, world leading engineering company. Airbus Germany/EADS Innovation Works (Germany, U.K.) is particularly interested in the WP2 activities on the physics of turbulent drag reduction as improved understanding is the prerequisite for developing flow control devices for drag reduction, and hence reduced fuel consumption and emissions of aeroplanes. Siemens (U.K.) is interested in our work on the fundamental understanding of instabilities for energy generation.