2008 Hbcu: Technical Topic 2 - Computational Energysciences - Subtopic 2A: Multiphase Flow Research

The summary for the 2008 Hbcu: Technical Topic 2 - Computational Energysciences - Subtopic 2A: Multiphase Flow Research grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the National Energy Technology Laboratory, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

2008 Hbcu: Technical Topic 2 - Computational Energysciences - Subtopic 2A: Multiphase Flow Research: NOTE: This descriptive area provides an overview of Subtopic 2A only. YOU MUST READ THE ENTIRE FUNDING OPPORTUNITY ANNOUNCEMENT DOCUMENT FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, EVALUATION CRITERIA AND INSTRUCTIONS ON HOW TO PREPARE AN APPLICATION UNDER A SPECIFIC TECHNICAL TOPIC OR SUBTOPIC. Please scroll to the bottom of this page to access the Funding Opportunity Announcement. TECHNICAL TOPIC 2 COMPUTATIONAL ENERGY SCIENCES SUBTOPIC 2A: MULTIPHASE FLOW RESEARCH Gas-solids flow is prevalent in fossil fuel processes, appearing in processes such as coal gasifiers. The volume fraction of solids can vary from low to high within a short length scale. The flows invariably span multiple time and length scales and pose enormous computational and experimental challenges. For example, the granular flow in a fluidized bed may range from incompressible to hypersonic, while the granular media may undergo a phase change similar to a gas-to-solid transition, all within the same reactor. The volume fraction, stress, and energy typically fluctuate spatially and temporally with amplitudes comparable to the mean. The interaction of the phases with boundaries is often complex and poorly understood. Because multiphase flows may not exhibit a clear separation among the spatial and temporal micro-, meso-, and macro- scales, advanced multiscale theories may be needed to analyze them. Therefore, it is a critical to understand and be able to model gas-solids systems for building highly efficient, near-zero emission fossil energy plants. NETL is already funding research in areas of developing models for polydispersed systems, frictional flow regimes, and modeling of gasifiers and carbon capture devices. Applications are sought for conducting research in complimentary areas of gas-solids flow. Research work may be proposed in areas such as the development of theory and advanced computational models, gathering of experimental data from physical systems or molecular dynamics simulations, and the validation of the models. It is desired that the model development be based on the open-source gas-solids flow code MFIX developed by NETL. Advanced diagnostics are needed for probing the fluid dynamics of solids and gas solids flow systems. Detailed information on solids and gas-solids flow structure is needed for validation of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) models. Diagnostics of interest include, but are not limited to, imaging of solids concentration, wall shear, local gas and solids velocities and concentrations (with up to 20% solids), and granular temperature. NETL has a large-scale, cold-flow, fluidization facility for development of novel measurement techniques and for generation of data for validating multiphase flow codes. This facility is highly instrumented for detailed data acquisition. It is desired that the advanced diagnostics development take advantage of this facility. For background information on this subtopic please see Report on Workshop on Multiphase Flow Research, Morgantown, WV, June 6-7, 2006, ed. M. Syamlal, DOE/NETL-2007/1259, December 2006 available from http://www.netl.doe.gov/events/06conferences/mfr_workshop/Multiphase%20Workshop% 20Report%206.pdf. Applicants are encouraged to discuss how the proposed work aligns with the objectives shown in the Technology Roadmap in the workshop report.