Washington, September 26 : Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have opened the door for significant improvements in the fuel efficiency of cars and aeroplanes by solving a century old engineering problem regarding how fluids—such as gasses and liquids—move.
The researchers say that their new mathematical and experimental work can help predict where the airflow around a vehicle cannot keep up and will detach from it, a phenomenon scientifically known as aerodynamic separation.
Fluid flows affect everything in our world, from blood flow to geophysical convection, and, thus, engineers constantly seek ways of controlling separation in such flows to reduce losses and increase efficiency.