Research
The fundamental focus of EFD Lab research is the problem of fluid flow over complex boundaries. This issue is at the root of many engineering and environmental problems ranging from basin scale ocean dynamics to nearshore hydrodynamics to aerodynamics.
Funding for EFD Lab work has included grants from the National Science Foundation, Office of Naval Research, and NOAA Sea Grant.
Environmental Hydrodynamics and Coastal Processes
Research in environmental hydrodynamics is focused on coastal and estuarine turbulent mixing processes, their interactions with topographic features and the effects of these processes on coastal morphology. Focus is in particular, on the role of flow structure in mass and momentum transport as well as the generation of this structure by topography. Interactions occur via a variety of mechanisms including boundary layer separation and hydraulic flow response. Work has included study of dynamics of wave and current flow over rough bathymetry as well as on the generation and evolution of large scale structure in flowLow around coastal headlands. The influence of these boundary dynamics on sediment transport and on sediment-water column geochemical exchange processes is also of key interest.
Other areas of interest include effects of offshore forcing on nearshore dynamics, the interaction of flow with biological systems, stratified turbulence and laboratory experimental methods.
Topics:
Turbulence and Drag over Rough Boundaries (Field/Lab/Numerical)
Turbulence in Shoaling Internal Waves (Field)
Cross-shore Exchange (Field/Numerical)
Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Methods (Field)
Permeable Sediment Porewater-Seawater Hydrodynamics (Field)
Headland Eddy Formation and Dissipation (Field/Lab)
Nearshore Water Quality (Field)
Benthic Boundary Layer Physics and Geochemistry (Field/Lab)
Turbulence in Stratified Fluids (Field/Lab)
Projects:
Physical processes in formation and breakdown of hypoxia in a tropical bay
NASCAR SLOMO: Coastal/Island Processes on a Shallow Plateau
Cross Surfzone / Inner-shelf Dye Exchange (CSIDE)
Dynamics of Cross-shore Thermally Driven Exchange
Morphodynamic Change and Hypoxic Events in Coastal Lagoons
Fluid Dynamics
In addition, EFDL research also addresses fundamental fluid dynamics research with implications for general engineering applications.
The initial development of a jet emanating from an orifice involves the rollup of vorticity into a vortex ring which is trailed by a column of high-momentum fluid, subject to shear instabilities. These transient or starting jets play a fundamental role in a range of engineering problems including industrial fluid flows such as fuel and oxidizer jets in combustion chambers, and pressurized vessel breaches. In addition, transient jets are important for environmental flows including tidal exchange at embayments and for biological flows such as blood flow and animal propulsion. Working in collaboration with colleagues at the Universidad Carlos III and at the Universidad de Jaen in Spain, we have carried out laboratory experiments along with numerical modeling exploring the initial development of transient jets, focusing specifically on the role of shear instabilities in determining variations in circulation and strain for the leading vortex ring.