A research team led by the University of Florida is using artificial intelligence and high-performance computing to explore swarms of airborne particles to solve combustible mysteries, a study that may lead to more efficient engines and better combustion in power plants.
What can we learn from fast-and-furious particles burning in a group?
“It can improve safety, including dust explosions in mines and silos,” said the project’s principal investigator, Sivaramakrishnan Balachandar, UF’s Newton C. Ebaugh professor in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, or MAE.
Armed with a $11 million cooperative agreement award from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration, or NNSA, researchers from UF’s Herbert Wertheim College of Engineering, Purdue University and Georgia Tech are examining the physics of how particles and droplets burn as a group, which also can lead to improved safety measures.