Thermofluids
Group Leader:
Members:
- Prof Shuisheng He
- Prof Yang Zhang
- Prof Chris Wilson
- Prof Stephen Beck
- Dr Franck Nicolleau
- Dr Rob Woolley
- Dr Andrew Nowakowski
- Dr S B Chin
- Dr Rob Howell
- Dr Pierre Ricco
Research Summary
This group's research activities cover:
• Aerodynamics
• Combustion
• Turbulence
• Bio-fluids
using both computational (CFD) and experimental tools.
Thermodynamics and fluid mechanics research is involved with conceptual fluid machines, engines and energy transport systems and the development of Smart Fluids applications. A newly developing area is Biomechanics, which is concentrating on modelling and simulation of flows and structures in the human body. This is a fast growing research area and current work includes particle deposition in the human airway, modelling anisotropic properties of heart valves and developing intelligent medical information to assist surgeons. The group also has experimental activities and works closely with industrial collaborators.
Facilities
Major facilities include two recently refurbished low speed wind tunnels and a local parallel computing cluster. These facilities provide the group with the equipment for fundamental fluid mechanic research and experiment-CFD side-by-side research for mutual validation and basic understanding.
A combustion centre is currently being established with substantial funding.
Key projects
On-going research projects include:
- Shock control for aircraft drag reduction
- Aero-engine fuel emission control
- Synthetic jets for separation/stall control
- Measurement and analysis of fluid flow in fuel cell systems
- Particle flow in human airway
- Simulation tools for micro-fluidic gases
- Fractal and wavelet analysis of turbulence and experiments
- Real-time simulation of aircraft/vortex interaction