NSF Award
2109932
The primary goal of the work is to involve undergraduate students in original scientific research and introduce them to the excitement and challenge that a profession in the sciences offers. The research encompasses a study that will lead to an understanding of the airflow in resonating pipes of different geometries. The emphasis is on understanding the flow through pipes with different shapes coupled to oscillations caused by an air jet interacting with a sharp edge. The system used to study this interaction will be the organ pipe. However, the results can be used to understand the many scientific and industrial situations that involve oscillating or flowing air contained within a metal or wooden duct. As part of the work, a method for optically imaging gas and fluid flow over a large area will be developed and optimized for imaging airflow at room temperature. Additionally, a computer simulation will be developed and validated with the experimental results so that the effects of changing the physical parameters of the pipe can be investigated theoretically. A significant effort will be made to recruit women students to participate in enhancing the participation of women pursuing scientific research as a career.<br/><br/>The work involves collaborating with undergraduate students to understand the physics of airflow in flue organ pipes and recorders. The primary goal is to involve undergraduate students in original scientific research and introduce them to the excitement and challenge that will result in a life dedicated to scientific pursuits. The scientific goal is to understand the airflow in pipes of different geometries coupled to oscillations driven by a jet-edge interaction. Of particular interest are the differences in oscillating and steady-state flows with low Reynolds numbers propagating through circular and rectangular pipes. This type of system is found in fipple musical instruments such as flue organ pipes and recorders and many industrial situations. Transmission electronic speckle pattern interferometry will be used to obtain high-speed imagery of airflow through circular and rectangular transparent pipes of equal cross-sectional area produced by 3-D printing. The imagery will be coupled with pressure and flow velocity measurements to understand why the flow through rectangular organ pipes appears to differ from the flow-through cylindrical organ pipes. The experimental results will be used to validate a computer simulation, which will then be used to investigate the influence of other physical parameters on the flow through the oscillator-resonator system. The results will lead to a better understanding of the effects of the pipe shape on acoustics and fluid flow in resonators coupled to flow-driven oscillations.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
