Fluid Dynamics

Fluid dynamics is the study of the motion of liquids and gases. The balance of momentum, energy and mass conservation lead to nonlinear partial differential equations, of which the Navier-Stokes equations are a well-known example. The wide variety of flows (laminar, turbulent) found in nature can be expressed as solutions of fluid dynamical equations for which many open mathematical challenges remain.

Despite the difficulty in solving these equations, the wide variety of applications, from climate models to airplane designs to fuel cell engines, make this a vibrant and important research area.

Research in the fluid dynamics group spans a wide variety of applied, analytic, and numerical problems. Applications to industrial problems include hydrogen fuel cells, particle suspensions, bio-fluid dynamics, and flow in porous media.

Numerical research in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is ongoing low Reynolds number hydrodynamics. Examples applications include: the flow of water and oil through soil, sedimentation of sand in river beds, the flow of blood in capillaries, and the motion and deformation of liquid drops and bubbles. Problems of this type arise in many important applications in engineering such as: elimination of atmospheric pollution, sedimentation of slurries and ground water hydrology.

Another research focus is geophysical fluid dynamics (GFD), a branch of fluid dynamics for rotating and stratified fluids which applies to the motions of the atmosphere and oceans. Much of this work, pertaining to midlatitude (North American) weather, is in direct collaboration with meteorologists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR, Boulder CO) and the Atmospheric Sciences Department at the University of Washington (Seattle WA).

Researchers

• Dave Muraki
• Razvan Fetecau
• Mary Catherine Kropinski
• John Stockie
• Ralf Wittenberg