Important Innovations Collection

Staying Cool with No Electricity Or Batteries Source:  University of Buffalo New Innovation Incorporating Solar Energy and Outer Space This is new energy innovation from engineers at the University of Buffalo.  A green, renewable way to keep buildings cool in urban areas.  It's a passive cooling system that absorbs heat and beams it as heat radiation to outer space, while keeping the environment around the system cool. What's remarkable, this system is self-sustaining and requires no electricity or batteries to power it. Unique and Inexpensive The device consists of an inexpensive film composed of polymer/aluminum that is put in a box inside of what the engineers call a "solar shelter" that they also invented. The special film absorbs the heat from the air and keeps the surroundings cool.  The solar shelter serves two purposes:  blocking incoming sunlight and beaming the heat into space through a narrow beam passageway as thermal radiation.  The...

Understanding Air Flows Around Hypersonic and Supersonic Vehicles Source:  University of Buffalo 3D computer simulation of turbulence at high speed air flow Eliminating Turbulence The future holds the promise of hypersonic flights taking you from New York to London in a hour.  But getting from here to there is still a big aerospace engineering challenge.  There is a lot engineers still don't know about how the air flows when vehicles hit hypersonic speeds of 3.836 mph plus. That understanding is critical concerning turbulence, which affects how the aircraft can maneuver through the atmosphere. University of Buffalo Research A team at the University of Buffalo is attempting to solve this long standing problem associated with high speed aerodynamics. They're taking an innovative approach rather than using traditional wind tunnels.  They're using direct numerical simulations (DNS) with high performance computing to generate 3D computer simulations of turbulence...