Flow Control for Energy Efficiency

Research on flow control help gather phenomena and technical recommendations required in industrial applications. With various existing analyses, flow control is expected to be a sustainable solution to improve industrial product quality.

Understanding Flow Control

Flow control techniques are used to save energy by reducing the aerodynamic drag of a car or aircraft. Several flow properties as steady, laminar, non-steady, and turbulent interaction with a solid thing will produce aerodynamic dragging. Since a truck and a sedan have different shapes, the dragging they will face when running is different too, so the fuel consumption they need is also different. Theoretically, there are two kinds of methods. There are passive and active methods to reduce these obstacles and hence they will require lower energy consumption.

State-of-the-Art Flow Control Technology

A passive method does not add energy input or mass to the flow. For example, in a car employing a passive method, there are additional spoilers to make smoother speed. On the other hand, an active method is employed to provide additional effects that make the flow change like adding mass or energy. In the world of research, flow control meant to reduce dragging is known as a suction method, and when employed to test a vehicle, it is known as a blowing method. Nowadays, the engineers are developing a more sophisticated, future-oriented method using a synthetic jet and plasma.

Supporting the Industrial World

This research supports the improvement of product quality in the fields of automotive and aircraft vehicle aerodynamics industry. The implementation should be supported with good understanding and good analyses. Moreover, it must be able to produce data and knowledge that account for. Supporting precision tools is also highly required since results will greatly depend on accuracy. For instance, a sophisticated tool named Particle Image Velocimetry is employed to design the shape of a vehicle’s parts to optimally function.

Quote:

“In Higher Education, Engineering-based research will help reveal various phenomena that can be applied in the industrial world. Moreover, the presented data will be more valid, precise, and reliable.”

– Prof. Dr. Ir. Harinaldi, M.Eng.