Pumping fluids, such as oil, through pipes consumes significant amounts of energy. A new study suggests that using a rhythmic pumping method inspired by the human heart could drastically reduce the energy needed to move fluids through domestic and industrial pipes.
Forcing fluids through pipes creates turbulence, which increases friction and requires more energy to pump liquids. Previous attempts to reduce turbulence involved applying complex coatings to the inside of pipes, which can be expensive to implement on a large scale.
Björn Hof and his team at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria decided to mimic the human heart as a natural solution to this problem. They found that pumping liquids through pipes in pulses, similar to how the human heart moves blood, can decrease friction and energy consumption.
To study this further, the researchers added reflective particles to water and pumped it through transparent pipes while using lasers to visualize the swirls and eddies in the liquid. They tested various rhythmic pulsing patterns, and discovered that introducing a short resting phase between pulses, like the pauses between heartbeats, reduced turbulence in the water. The most successful experiments resulted in a 25% decrease in friction and an overall 9% reduction in energy demand.
Implementing this technique in real-world applications would require modifying pumps to pulsate, which incurs a cost. However, this is still much cheaper than upgrading the lining of existing pipes, particularly those that are lengthy and difficult to access. Björn Hof believes that engineers should be the ones to explore the practical applications of this method.
In conclusion, mimicking the human heartbeat by pulsating fluids through pipes can lead to significant energy savings and reduce friction. While there might be challenges in implementing this technique in various systems, it holds promise for improving energy efficiency in fluid transportation.
