Welcome to the Flow Lab, where we are dedicated to advancing the field of fluid mechanics through innovative research and development. We are in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at New Mexico State University. Our team is committed to improving the understanding of fluid mechanics in various engineering applications and developing cutting-edge flow control strategies to overcome emerging challenges.

Point of contact: Qiong (Claire) Liu

Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, NMSU

Research Projects

Reinforcement learning based closed-loop airfoil flow control

We are developing a reinforcement learning-based closed-loop flow control system aimed at mitigating laminar separation on the suction surface of an airfoil. In this approach, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) environment interacts with a reinforcement learning agent to optimize aerodynamic performance. This method has been successfully implemented for both 2D and 3D airfoil flows, with ongoing efforts to extend its scalability and applicability to more complex scenarios.

3D Direct simulations of flow over wall mounted cylinders

Flow around a finite-height cylinder is ubiquitous in nature and engineering applications such as high-rise buildings, oil storage tanks and colling towers. It is even using as a passive flow control strategy to enhance aerodynamics. The complex vortex shedding structures are multiparemter-defined due to wide range of gometric and flow conditions. We used the direct numerical simulations with modal analysis to investigate the vortical structure variations.

Particle-laden high speed flows

Particle-laden flow occurs in nature, manifesting in phenomena such as volcanic ash clouds resulting from volcanic eruptions, ice crystals, and atmospheric dust, which have been widely observed. The particles suspended in the flow exchange mass, momentum, and energy, forming multiphase flow systems. The impact of high-speed vehicle travels over particle-laden flows were investigated using Lagrangian algorithm overlaid of solution from direct simulation of monte carlo (DSMC).

Global stability analysis of flow behind an upswept aftbody

The aftbody's counter-rotating vortex pair affects the maneuverability of the air vehicle and significantly increases drag. We used stability analysis to examine the generation of vortex instability and derive physical insights for suppressing the vortices.

Acoustic response of turbulent cavity

We employ resolvent analysis with Doak's decomposition to investigate the input-output characteristics of vortical, acoustic, and thermal structures in self-sustained cavity flows

Supersonic cavity flow control using resolvent analysis

We designed an active flow control based on the energy amplification mechanism observed in resolvent analysis. The controlled results turned out to be two times more effective than the steady flow control.

Core-pressure alleviation for a wall-normal vortex by active flow control

The core pressure formed under the water pump induces an unstable operational status. The designed active flow control can effectively suppress the generation of the under-pump vortex and has been experimentally validated.

TriGlobal instability analysis over cavity flows

Three-dimensional instability analysis was firstly implemented to examine open cavity flow with lateral walls. The analysis illustrated the three-dimensional shear layer mode.

Instability and sensitivity analysis of flows using OpenFOAM

We implement the direct and adjoint linearized NS solver in to OpenFoam. The new solvers have been tested for various flows.

We are grateful for the support from sponsors.

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