- Transport phenomena help design better inkjet printers
In the link provided below, a solder micro-deposition process for use in wafer and semiconductor manufacturing is described. It works essentially as an inkjet printer where microdrops of liquid metals, rather than microdrops of ink, are printed on a substrate (instead of paper). Liquid metals at high enough temperatures behave as newtonian liquids and that's where transport models become important. References can be found at this link (contributed by Bani).
- Environmental Applications of Transport Phenomena
Within the realm of marine environmental sciences, the conservation equations are used for a variety of applications The bulk motion of the oceans themselves is an example of transport phenomena on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales, from the persistent oceanographic currents (i.e. the Gulf Stream), to the periodic tidal cycle, to the wake created by a vessel. Once we have an appropriately scaled equation for the bulk motion of the fluid, additional complexity can be introduced to model the transport of nutrients, sediments, and pollutants in the aquatic environment. These models can be used to predict algal blooms, suggest sources of nutrient or pollutant plumes, determine the feasibility waterfront construction, or help determine pollution containment and cleanup strategies. More details can be found here and here (contributed by Brandi).
- Sharkskin is considered to be rough, and rough surfaces increase drag, right?
This website provided below relates how a textured surface can increase fluid flow by a phenomenon called wall bounded turbulence; riblets. The size of the riblets and the rotation of the spiraling areas of fluid known as vortices are the two important features in this phenomenon. Fluid caught by the vortices only contacts the peaks of the riblets and not the pipe walls therefore there is minimum friction which increases the flow. Riblet technology is used for airplanes, sea vessels, and swimsuits. Diverging riblets increase flow by 15% whereas converging riblets decrease the flow by the same amount. Diverging riblets can help improve microphones and other audio equipment. Also riblets on airplanes can reduce friction thereby reducing the amount of fuel needed for the plane which could reduce the cost of airplane tickets. More details can be found here (contributed by Aruna).
- Have you guys even paid attention to the phenomena those take place in the coastal zone that extend from about 100 km offshore to 100 km inland?
The thermal contrast between the land and sea creates the land-sea breeze, coastal atmospheric fronts, coastal ocean currents and upwelling. The understanding of the coastal meteorology certainly requires the knowledge of the air-sea interaction, large-scale atmospheric dynamics, but also land atmospheric boundary layers the fundamentals of which could be found in any kind of transport phenomena. Take a look: here and here (contributed by Yuesheng).
- Transport phenomena in the urban street canyon!
It involves the eulerian approach to vehilcular movement, pollutants emission and pollutants dynamics use. More details can be found in this link (contributed by Halima).
- Transport phenomena in biological systems
After going through the material in the sites given below, one can analyze that transport phenomena are active in all the biological systems. Hence proper assumptions and accurate calculation is of utmost importance for the calculation of energy, momentum and mass transfer in these system. The most complicated part comes when there is integration of the transport phenomena principles with other fields of science like biochemistry and physics, and when there are multiple phenomena in the system. More details can be found here, here and here (contributed by Kinjal).
- The Fluid Gallery and Theater
Do you think the transport phenomena is just the boring and abstract stuff in the textbook? Please visit the The Colorful Fluid Mixing Gallery and the ITSC Fluids Movie Archive Then, you will be enchanted deeply with the vivid and wonderful "fluid world" (contributed by Ta-I).
- Transport phenomena in human lung airways
Large scale molecular dynamics simulations are employed for the study pf the transport and deposition of pharmaceuticals in the human lung airways. In this system, the gas dynamics goes through a variety of regimes from continuum flow to nearly free-molecular flow. The ultimate goal of this project is to use the algorithm for pulmonary disease research and drug delivery. More details can be found here (contributed by Rinku).
- CFD calculations of flow around or inside objects
This website introduces the application of transport phenomena to improve the design and prediction of fluid flow around or inside structures of arbitrary shapes using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD). It also discusses how CFD technology can be applied and extended to the medical device industries. (contributed by Sam).
- Do you like Guinness?
Flow problems can be seen in everyday circumstances. Even a trip to the local pub will produce a plethora of transport related phenomena. This everyday example of the wonderful beverage Guinness shows how flow and buoyancy effects can produce what some people consider magical effects. Though this simple example does not directly affect our standards of living or simplicity, the methods used in studying this example can be applied to various other phenomena. Computational fluid mechanics solved the simple system of a pint of beer, and will be applied to more complex systems in the future. So next time you are sitting in a pub, realize that transport phenomena will never be that far away. More details can be found here (contributed by Tanner).
- Transport phenomena in explosives
Warfare always exists in the world and affects people's lives. Weapons designed from applying certain transport phenomena have been developed. A new weapon - Termobaric Warhead - BLU-118/B is a penetrating warhead filled with an advanced thermobaric explosive that when detonated generates higher sustained blast pressures in confined spaces such as tunnels and underground facilities. See this link (contributed by Yechun).
- Heat balance of the earth's atmosphere
More details can be found here (contributed by Harin).