Vortex and Particulate Flow Laboratory
Featured Research Areas
Vortex Flows
Vortices are ubiquitous in turbulent fluid flows, governing transport of mass and momentum within the flow. Our particular focus has been on multiscale vortex interactions, particularly during vortex-structure interaction problems occurring in rotorcraft or pump intake flows. These flows encompass a wide range of interesting phenomena, such as vortex cutting, vortex entrainment, vortex wrapping, and vorticity ejection from a columnar vortex.
Particulate Flows
Transport and interactions of adhesive particles is fundamental in a wide range of fluids applications, including mechanics of blood components (RBCs, WBCs, platelets), dust mitigation from solar panels and space suits, fly ash removal from combustion exhaust, concrete pumping, nanoparticle formation and deposition, etc. We have developed new discrete-element models for adhesive particle transport in the presence of electric and acoustic fields.
Vortex-Particle Interaction
The topic of how particles are transported by a collection of vortices and how particle forces modify vortex flows is of considerable interest in turbulent multiphase flows. We have developed the stochastic vortex structure method (SVS) for simulation of coherent vortex effects on particles in turbulence, which provides accurate spatial and temporal statistics for turbulent particle transport and interactions.