US Patent Issued to Worcester Polytechnic Institute on Nov. 4 for "Passive flow control for captive vortex" (Massachusetts, Connecticut Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Nov. 6 -- United States Patent no. 12,460,882, issued on Nov. 4, was assigned to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (Worcester, Mass.).

"Passive flow control for captive vortex" was invented by Chuming Wei (Worcester, Mass.), James L. Urban (Worcester, Mass.) and Ali S. Rangwala (East Lyme, Conn.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A passive vortex formed or induced from a temperature difference across a cavity or void aggregates and supports a horizontal flow over the top of the cavity. A cavity of a suitable depth and width exhibits a small difference in temperature, or heat source, along the sides or bottom of cavity. A resulting convective flow tends to form a rising current alon...