insight.(turbulence research at NASA's Glenn Research Center)

TURBULENCE IS generally not considered to be a pilot's best friend. Randomly fluctuating airflow velocities and pressures can wreak hawse on the outside of an aircraft, However, these same turbulent properties can help keep disaster at bay within a plane's internal mechanisms. For example, turbulence is a desirable characteristic in a device called a swirler, in which fuel and air are mixed within a jet engine's combustion chamber. Engineers al NASA's Glenn Research Center (GRC) in Cleveland utilize computer simulations and visualizations of swirler turbulence to optimize aircraft engine design. Shown here is a frame from one such visualization, in this case depicting simulated airflow in a new concept for gas turbine engines called Lean Direct Injection. Represented by stream lubes colored by time, the incoming air flow (shown in blue at the lower left) is forced through arrays of co-rotating angled holes (shown in wireframe), which induce ...