Prof. Huang Diangui Granted 2023 Original Exploratory Program Project of NSFC

On June 29, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) publicized the funding results of the first batch of “original exploratory program  projects of the Ministry of Engineering and Materials Science 2013". The project of "Traveling Wave Pump and Traveling Wave Turbine" declared by Professor Huang Diangui of the School of Energy and Power Engineering of our school was approved. This is the first time that our school’s original exploratory program project has been approved since NSFC started implementing the original exploration plan project in 2020, meaning that our school has made new progress in the field of original exploration of basic research.
Energy Storage is the full utilization of renewable energy, the essential way to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, but pumped storage is an economical, efficient, and large-scale energy storage technology. At present, blade pump turbines are the main equipment for pumped storage, but large-scale pumped storage units are always accompanied by problems such as cavitation, vibration, and noises, hindering the further improvement of pumped storage technology. Inspired by the traveling wave motion of fish, Professor Huang's team proposed a new concept of traveling wave pumps and traveling wave turbines, which is different from traditional water pumps or turbines. They use traveling wave motion to enhance or absorb the potential energy of water. This project provides a new idea for achieving economic and efficient large-scale energy storage, and is expected to provide important technical supports for achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.
The Original Exploration Program is a new type of project established by NSFC in 2020, aimed at encouraging exploratory and risky original basic research, proposing original academic ideas, cultivating or producing leading original achievements from scratch, solving scientific problems, leading research directions or expanding research fields, and deeply promoting the high-quality development of basic research in China.