NSERC Discovery Grant (5 years, $35,000/year)

Ben Newling has been awarded $35,000 each year for the next 5 through the NSERC Discovery Grant Programme, a healthy increase over his previous Discovery grant.

The funded research is to focus on advances in the MRI measurement of fluid movements, in gases and in liquids, in turbulent flows, bubbly flows, and even in flames. With NSERC support, we have developed a new MRI method which is capable of imaging much faster and more turbulent flows (which have short-lived MRI signals) than previously possible. The research funded in this new proposal extends those measurements to gas flows approaching Mach 1 and to multi-phase flows which are critical in the energy industry.

The research has two thrusts. In the first, we are improving the motion sensitization of existing MRI methods for materials which give rise to short-lived (fleeting) responses. We are developing measurement of acceleration, of velocity correlations and of turbulence kinetic energy, which are all critical parameters in describing turbulent flows. In the second thrust, we are developing new ways to image samples with fleeting MRI responses, by using shaped pulses of radiofrequency excitation. These new MRI tools will eventually also be motion sensitized, to add to the range of techniques with which complicated fluid motion can be understood