Turbulence research at UNL could smooth things for all of us

A five-year, half-million-dollar study at UNL looks into one of science's last great mysteries.

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – One of the facts of flight is that sometimes you’re just going to have to deal with turbulence. One University of Nebraska-Lincoln engineer is trying to figure it all out and make things a bit smoother for all of us. The research has a very wide scope of application, from worldwide commerce to your own body.

“Turbulence is everywhere”, says Assistant Professor Jae Sung Park. “Blood flows inside our body. Sometimes we have turbulence there.”

Perhaps the best way to understand things, though, is to look at a place where you’ve likely experienced turbulence: in the air.

“Let’s say I’m talking about the flow over airplanes”, Park explains. “Let’s say we can find some patterns, or we can predict some turbulence behaviors, then we can use this idea to any flows, like the flow in the body, or the flow inside a piping system.”

Predicting those behaviors means we can plan for them, with the goal of saving fuel, energy, and cost. That’s really what this five-year, half-million-dollar study is all about. One facet of the research hits pretty close to home, dealing specifically with Nebraska’s meatpacking plants.

“I partnered with the Food Processing Center so we can find some factories in Nebraska”, says Park. “We can go there and see the flow patterns across these piping systems.”

Consider just how many meatpacking plants are around, and you realize what kind of an impact even a little more efficiency could have.

“Piping systems are huge in factories”, Park says, “so we want to save energy there. Turbulence is a big part of it.”

Another aspect of the research is outreach work, bringing practical (and fun) experiments to the scientists of tomorrow to show them what turbulence is all about. Maybe they’ll be the ones to take the next step in this research.