Flows of Granular Solids and Gases
Our work focuses on fundamental studies of granular and gas-solid flows with geophysical and industrial applications. We perform laboratory and field experiments, create numerical simulations, model fluid mechanics and heat transfer in these flows, and develop new instrumentation.
On November 21, 2011, Sara Abdul Majid's presentation on this research at the Qatar Foundation's 2011 Annual Research Forum won the "Best Environment Research Program of the Year," which carries a $100,000 award encouraging us to pursue this work, see this article in the Qatar Tribune.
Experiments, numerical simulations and modeling of powder snow avalanches. See this page for recent progress and journal articles.
Bill Nye "the Science Guy" clock for Rhodes Hall, August 27, 2011.
For more information, contact Michel
Louge at MYL3@cornell.edu
Summary
Our research has
contributed to subjects as diverse as the scale-up of circulating
fluidized beds under atmospheric and pressurized conditions; the
behavior of pressurized
cyclone separators; the interactions of gas and
solid particles in pneumatic
transport of particles; the impact of
small solid spheres; the heat
transfer in suspensions of gases and
agitated solids; flows of
grains on inclines; segregation
and flow of
grains in microgravity; mechanisms of particle interactions in
confined
agitated granular media; the water
budget, dust inoculation, and
seepage through desert sand dunes; and "eruption currents," which include powder snow avalanches.
We have also developed capacitance instrumentation
that records
solid concentration, velocity and water content in snow avalanches,
fluidized
suspensions, sand dunes
and alpine snow packs.
Applications of this research are found in Chemical Engineering
(e.g., catalytic cracking, solids transport, solid combustion) and
Geophysics (e.g., snow avalanches, desertification). Our experimental
facilities have included a circulating
fluidized bed, a large inclined
chute, a flume,
and a unique setup to record restitution
and friction
in the impacts of small spheres.
We conducted field experiments on NASA's microgravity airplane, in the Sahara desert, and in mountains.
Michel Louge measures the density of sand at the surface of a barchan sand dune near Akjoujt in Mauritania.
Collaborators and Sponsors
We
collaborate with the Universite de Rennes, the University of
Nottingham, the Universite de Nantes, and the Weill-Cornell Medical College in Qatar. Sponsors have included the NSF, the US DoE, NASA, ARO,
Electricite de France, the International Fine Particle Research
Institute, the ACS Petroleum Research Fund and the Qatar National Research Foundation.