Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/S20994/01
Title:	Active flow control using dimples
Principal Investigator:	Morrison, Professor J
Other Investigators:	Cui, Professor Z
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department:	Aeronautics
Organisation:	Imperial College London
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 June 2003	Ends:	31 May 2006	Value (£):	399,305
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Aerodynamics
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Aerospace, Defence and Marine
Related Grants:
Panel History:
Summary on Grant Application Form
This is a bi-disciplinary proposal at the interface between microstructures and fluid mechanics, and at the cutting edge of flow control. Lighthill's equations offer an exact description between surface pressure gradients, vorticity fluxes and local surface accelerations. These confirm the results from recent experiments showing that changes to the local surface pressure gradients and vorticity fluxes may be effected by the use of dimples, or timedependent surface depressions. These are new devices and require full validation in terms of size, shape, amplitude, frequency and, when used in arrays, their relative position and phase. They offer signifcant advantages in terms of surface continuity and efficiency. The use of MEMS technology is highly attractive for applications to wall turbulence (when the important eddies are 'small') and because fabrication techniques are highly suitable for mass production in arrays. The principal objective is to characterise these devices fully in their application to the control of laminar and turbulent boundary layers, that are either fully attached or are close to separation. The related objective is to produce small, robust, sensitive wall-pressure transducers capable of resolving the small scales of motion so that the wall pressure gradient may be use as the key control variable. The application is relevant to every branch of fluid mechanics in which time-dependent control might be seen to be beneficial. In the present work, a general concept for open-loop control is to be exploited and developed with several applications in mind. Further developments for specific applications are envisaged.
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Organisation Website:	http://www.imperial.ac.uk