What We Do
The Cardiovascular and Multiphase Flows Lab works on fundamental problems in fluid mechanics that arise in turbulent and complex, unsteady flows, in many cases with the addition of a second disperse phase. Turbulence is one of the last answered question in classical physics. When more than one phase is present, such as when liquid droplets are injected into a gas stream, or when air bubbles are introduced into a water flow, new and interesting phenomena occur that are both scientifically challenging and relevant to many engineering and environmental applications. Our approach is to perform experiments, complemented with numerical simulations and theoretical analysis, in order to probe the fundamental physical processes involved. Once the key features of the problem are understood, we develop a quantitative model that can be incorporated into large scale, multiphysics models for applications.
Examples of fluid mechanics problems that we are addressing are the
dynamics of water droplets
or solid spherical particles in a turbulent air flow; the hydrodynamics
of microbubbles in
non-uniform flows; the breakup, transport and impact of liquid droplets
made up of complex fluids;
the influence of fluid and solid mechanics on the origin and
progression of cardiovascular disease
on the carotid bifurcation and on arterio-venous fistulas for dialysis
access. We are also involved
in the study of tidal and in-stream turbines for renewable energy
generation from marine currents.
This project is part of the National Northwest Marine
Renewable Energy Center created in the Fall of 2008 by the US
Department of Energy to advance
marine renewable energy conversion in the US. Our interest is in
and experimentally, the flow around turbine blades and the resulting
wake, with a particular
emphasis on wake turbine interactions and short range environmental
effects, such as pressure
fluctuations and sediment transport.