Vortex ring formation in starting and pulsed
jets for application to propulsion, flow control,
and biological locomotion
Quantitative flow visualization
Research Accomplishments
and Activities
Rolf D. Buhler Memorial Award in Aeronautics,
1998 Invited talk at the 2001 Liepmann-Ludwieg
Seminar in Göttingen, Germany Richard Bruce Chapman
Memorial Award for Distinguished Research in Hydrodynamics,
2001
Research Philosophy
Highly unsteady fluid flow (i.e., large
amplitude variations in velocity) is common in
many biological venues, from aquatic locomotion
to cardiac flows. The unsteady nature of the fluid
mechanics in these cases can lead to very large
transient forces, vortex roll-up in separated flows,
and thin boundary layers. Many of these features
are beginning to be recognized as beneficial in
applications ranging from MEMS to propulsion to
flow control. My research interests are focused
on enhancing the key features of unsteady flows
and understanding how to apply them to engineering
problems. Current research activities include an
experimental study of vortex roll-up and force
generation in unsteady jets with the aim of finding
optimal pulsing conditions (pulse size and/or pulsing
frequency). Quantitative flow visualization techniques
such as digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV)
are an integral component of the experiments.
