Fluid Mechanics and Homeland Security

http://www.cadfamily.com/a/CAE_FEA_CFD/Fluid-Mechanics/Fluid-Mechanics-and-Homeland-Security_4191.html

Homeland security, or counterterrorism, offers many opportunities in fluid mechanics
at a time when interest remains high but some traditional fluids applications are
waning. Homeland security combines established fluids topics like plume dispersion
with others that are new, such as microfluidics. This “new” field encourages us to work
with chemists and biologists, rewards us for innovation, and engages our theoretical,
experimental, and computational talents.
Homeland security is a new name for the ancient need to protect our families
and cities from incursion by barbarians. Fluid mechanics has played a role in this
since prehistoric times by limiting access (e.g., the castle moat) and by providing
defensive weapons (via ballistics). The rise of terrorism poses new challenges for fluid
dynamicists, who can now serve the public good in some ways more direct than those
offered by the earlier cold-war and space projects.
There is a current notion, elaborated by the U.S. National Research Council (NRC
2002), that the asymmetrical threat of terrorism can be met by advanced technology.
Sensors forever on guard for the environmentally unusual, for example, can maintain
vigilance. That view is adopted here within limits, but without the expectation for
technology to compensate for everything up to and including global politics gone
awry.