ONGOING ACTIVITIES

Current research activities on Rarefied gas dynamics focus on finite-difference Lattice Boltzmann (LB) modeling of gas flows in devices with microscale geometries, on the kinetic approach for the study of capillary flows in micromechanical devices and on design and application of deterministic numerical schemes for kinetic equations and on Feasibility of laboratory plasma jets, free and impinging on magnetic targets.
In the field of Multi-phase and interfacial flows, a software for the prediction of aircraft icing and design of anti-icing systems, called PoliMIce, is currently under development in collaboration with Alenia Aermacchi. Models for drop impact on liquid films in icing conditions are obtained from model reduction of volume-of-fluid detailed simulation of the impact process.
Current research activities on Fluid dynamics of dense vapors include a) the investigation of the gas dynamics behavior in the critical-point region b) the numerical simulation of dense gas experiments at the Energy Department of Politecnico di Milano and c) the influence of the thermodynamic conditions on the onset of shock front instabilities in converging shock waves. The gas dynamics of a fluid in the close proximity of the liquid-vapor critical point is described using state-of-the-art scaling laws for the thermodynamics and the transport properties. According to these models, non-classical rarefaction shock waves are admissible within the critical-point region. Studies on converging shock waves are relevant to the investigation of sonoluminescence and for Inertial Confinement Fusion applications.

FUTURE PLANS

Future research activities for Rarefied gas dynamics studies include: kinetic theory derivation of lattice Boltzmann method for multiphase flows, the development of hybrid molecular dynamics- DSMC methods for the simulation of rotational and vibrational relaxation in polyatomic gases by semi-classical collision theory, momentum transfer from hypersonic jets to solid bodies and a laboratory plasma jets, free and impinging on magnetic targets
In the field of Multi-phase and interfacial flows, the ice prediction code PoliMIce will be further developed in view of the participation to a EU-funded project in collaborations with Alenia Aeronautica and Alenia Aermacchi. Further studies will be devoted to the modeling of drop impacts onto liquid film, with particular reference to rotary-wing aircraft, including tilt-rotors, and to The improvement of available molecular dynamics techniques to study the transport of mass, momentum an energy across the vapor-liquid interface of molecular liquids.
Research activities on Fluid dynamics of dense vapors will be devoted to the study of the non-classical gasdynamics behavior of mixtures of organic fluids, to the design of turbine blades for Organic Rankine Cycle application and the numerical simulation of the stator-rotor interaction for dense gases.

ERC KEYWORDS

• PE3-14 Fluid Dynamics (physics)
• PE8-5 Fluid mechanics, hydraulic-, turbo- and piston engines
• PE2-5 Gas and plasma physics
• PE8-1 Aerospace Engineering

FREE KEYWORDS

• Rarefied- and dense-gas dynamics
• Interfacial and supercritical flows