Innovation Pipeline

There’s nothing quite like solving a century-old problem, especially when it has big implications for a modern problem: fuel efficiency.

MIT researchers recently said they’ve solved an airflow problem that has dogged scientists since the turn of the century. And the insights into 3D effects of airflow revealed in the research could translate into new ways to improve fuel efficiency in vehicles.

Airflow streaming over a vehicle is a curious thing. Air doesn’t like to cooperate with an object’s surface. This creates turbulence and drag.

The MIT researchers have found new mathematical and experimental data that they think will help predict where aerodynamic drags are most likely to occur.

The researchers say it’s still too early to quantify how much efficiency can be gained. And still more work will need to be done before the findings can be put to commercial application.

The findings were published in the September 25 issue of the Journal of Fluid Mechanics and in the September issue of Physics of Fluids.

The research was initially supported by an internal source, the MIT Ferry Fund. Currently the work is supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation. –Lee Bruno