NANOSCHOCK

The flow of liquids or gases is fundamental to most technical applications and natural phenomena. Among the most intriguing fluid dynamics events are shock waves, discontinuities in the macroscopic fluid state that can lead to extreme temperatures, pressures and concentrations of energy, which can be perceived, e.g., as supersonic boom of an aircraft or as originating from an explosion. The violence and yet the spatial localization of shockwaves presents us with a unique potential for in situ control of fluid processes with surgical precision. Applications range from kidney-stone lithotripsy and drug delivery to advanced aircraft design. Funded by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program with an Advanced Grant for Prof. Adams, in this project we investigate the highly complex flow physics of shock wave-induced instabilities using both numerical methods and shock-tube experiments.

The objective is to answer these questions by state of the art computational methods, supported by benchmark quality experiments. Computations are based on advanced multi-resolution methods for multi-physics problems. Uncertainty quantification is employed for deriving robust flow and shock-dynamic field designs. Paradigms and efficient computational tools are delivered to the scientific and engineering community.