- Home

- Agriculture

- Business and Commerce

- Environment

- Energy grants

- Education grants

- Employment, Labor and Training

- Health

- Housing

- Natural Resources

- Regional Development

- Science and Technology and other Research and Development

- The Sociology Program

The Fluid Dynamics program supports fundamental research and education on mechanisms and phenomena governing fluid flow. Proposed research should contribute to basic understanding; thus enabling the better design; predictability; efficiency; and control of systems that involve fluids. Encouraged are proposals that address innovative uses of fluids in materials development; manufacturing; biotechnology; nanotechnology; clinical diagnostics and drug delivery; sensor development and integration; energy and the environment. While the research should focus on fundamentals, a clear connection to potential application should be outlined.

Current research themes include:

General Fluid Mechanics: experimental and theoretical dynamics of Newtonian fluids; laminar flows, transitional flows, and turbulence; hydrodynamic stability; flow of compressible fluids.
Flow of Complex Fluids: non-Newtonian fluid mechanics; viscoelasticity; flow of polymer solutions and melts; gelation; flow instability; flow-induced structuring; DNA dynamics; molecular dynamics simulations.
Micro- Nano- Bio- Fluid Mechanics: micro-and nano-scale flow phenomena; biomedical microdevices; effects of nanoscale inclusions on rheological properties; flow of Brownian suspensions; biomimetics; biological flow processes.
Turbulence and Flow Control: large eddy simulation; direct numerical simulation; high Reynolds number experiments; stability and transition to turbulence; 3-D boundary layers; multi-phase turbulent flows; flow control; insect flight; gas-liquid interfaces.
Instrumentation and Flow Diagnostics: Instrument development; MEMS; shear stress sensors; Magnetic Resonance Imaging for engineering flow; velocimetry; flows in biomedical assistive devices.
The duration of unsolicited awards is generally one to three years. The average annual award size for the program is $90,000. Proposals requesting a substantially higher amount than this, without prior consultation with the Program Director, may be returned without review. Small equipment proposals of less than $100,000 will also be considered and may be submitted during the annual proposal submission window.

Innovative proposals outside of these specific interest areas can be considered. However, prior to submission, it is recommended that the PI contact the Program Director to avoid the possibility of the proposal being returned without review.

INFORMATION COMMON TO MOST CBET PROGRAMS

Proposals should address the novelty and/or potentially transformative nature http://www.nsf.gov/about/transformative_research/faq.jsp of the concept being proposed, compared to previous work in the field. Also, it is important to address why the proposed work is important in terms of engineering science, as well as to also project the potential impact on society and /or industry of success in the research. The novelty or potentially transformative nature of the research should be included, as a minimum, in the Project Summary of each proposal.

Proposals submitted to this program are subject to the scope of the program's description and the availability of funds. Decisions about particular proposals are often very difficult to make and factors other than reviewer comments and ratings enter into the decision. Comments by a reviewer must sometimes be considered in the context of other reviews by the same person. The Program Director often has additional information not available to reviewers (such as project reports). Maintaining appropriate balance among subfields, the availability of other funding, the total amount of funds available to the program, and general Foundation policies and priorities are also important decision factors.

Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) program proposals are strongly encouraged. Award duration is five years. The submission deadline for Engineering CAREER proposals is in July every year. Please see the following URL for more information: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=503214

Proposals for Conferences, Workshops, and Supplements: Proposals involving these activities should ideally be submitted during the regular annual proposal window. PIs are strongly encouraged to discuss their requests with the Program Director before submission of the proposal.

Grants for Rapid Response Research (RAPID) and EArly-concept Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) are also considered when appropriate. Please note that proposals of these types must be discussed with the Program Director before submission. Further details are available in the Proposal and Award Policies and Procedures Guide (PAPPG) download.

Unsolicited proposals received outside of the Announced Proposal Window dates will be returned without review.

Eligible Applicants

Unrestricted (i.e., open to any type of entity above), subject to any clarification in text field entitled "Additional Information on Eligibility".

Agency Name

National Science Foundation

What Has Been Funded

EAGER: Theoretical exploration of chiral separation via microfluidic shear flows

Initial Amendment Date: July 1, 2011
Latest Amendment Date: July 1, 2011

Award Number: 1067798

Award Instrument: Standard Grant

Start Date: October 1, 2011
Expires: September 30, 2013 (Estimated)

Awarded Amount to Date: $72944

Investigator(s): Henry Fu hfu@unr.edu (Principal Investigator)

Sponsor: University of Nevada Reno
1664 North Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89557 775/784-4040

NSF Program(s): FLUID DYNAMICS

ABSTRACT

Chiral particles, or particles which are geometrically distinct from their mirror images, are prevalent in biological chemical processes. The two distinct mirror-image particles are called enantiomers. For example, naturally occurring amino acids come in only one enantiomeric type, and hence all proteins, which are constructed of amino acids, are also chiral. Since a molecule's interaction with the biochemical machinery of life is dependent of geometry, a molecule and its enantiomer can have vastly different biological effects. Therefore enantiospecific activity occurs in diverse situations including pharmaceuticals, pheromones, and odorants, and it is of clear technological importance to develop efficient ways of separating chirally pure enantiomers from mixtures which contain both enantiomers.

Previous work using particles of a specific helical geometry has demonstrated that the hydrodynamic interaction of chiral particles with shear flows produces a chirality-dependent drift which can be used to separate enantiomers. However, chiral molecules typically have nonhelical geometries. In this project, we will use theoretical and computational methods to explore how geometry affects the efficiency of chiral separation in shear flows. First, we will investigate the effect of particle geometry to identify promising geometries and shear regimes both for experiments at the micrometer scale as well as the molecular scale. At the molecular scale we will focus on chiral geometries which are likely to be found in biologically active molecules. The ultimate objective is to establish the most promising avenues for further experimental studies into shear-induced chiral separation.

Understanding the interaction of chiral geometries and hydrodynamic flows will impact technology as well as basic science. This research will lay out the possibilities for transforming the methods used to achieve chiral separation, which may result in more robust and cheaper methods than those in current use, which will have pharmaceutical, biological, chemical, and agricultural applications. From a scientific viewpoint, the interaction between chirality and shear is a fascinating topic of relevance to fields as diverse as sedimentation, microbial locomotion, and ecology.