National Energy Technology Laboratory and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center Pioneer First Ever Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation on Cerebras Wafer-Scale Engine

Cerebras Systems, the pioneer in high performance artificial intelligence (AI) compute, today announced, for the first time ever, the simulation of a high-resolution natural convection workload at near real-time rates.

Why Food Sticks to Nonstick Frying Pans

Foods will sometimes get stuck to a heated surface, even if oil or a nonstick frying pan is used. Scientists have investigated the fluid properties of oil on a flat surface and their work, reported in Physics of Fluids, shows convection may be to blame. When the pan is heated from below, a temperature gradient is established in the oil film, as well as a surface tension gradient. This gradient sets up a type of convection known as thermocapillary convection.

The Problem with Microwaving Tea

Through convection, as the liquid toward the bottom of a container warms up, it becomes less dense and moves to the top, allowing a cooler section of the liquid to contact the heating source. This ultimately results in a uniform temperature throughout the container. Inside a microwave, however, the electric field acting as the heating source exists everywhere and the convection process does not occur. Researchers studied this nonuniform heating behavior and present a solution in AIP Advances.