About the project
This project aims to carry out state-of-the-art experiments to generate new data that will transform our understanding and predictive approaches for turbulent boundary layers in realistic conditions. Understanding and modelling these flows are increasingly important for innovative technologies in transportation, energy, and environmental sectors.
Turbulent boundary layers are essential across engineering fields, influencing energy efficiency and environmental impact. In transportation, innovative technologies like wind-assisted shipping and ultra-high aspect ratio wings reduce fuel use and emissions. In energy and environmental engineering, high-fidelity predictions are vital to develop resilient systems, from wind turbines to effective pollutant dispersion. Most of these applications involve the turbulent boundary layers under non-equilibrium external conditions that are generated by design needs or due to operational requirements.
Interactions with external influences such as changes in surface roughness, pressure gradients histories, freestream turbulence and vortices from adjacent bodies generate a wide variety of realistic non-equilibrium conditions that impact the growth of the boundary layers. This affects the mechanical, thermal and acoustic performance of the entire system. Current digital design tools (conceptual and detailed) are incapable of capturing these non-equilibrium turbulent boundary layers due to lack of understanding and outdated models.
In this experimental project, we aim to better understand the main mechanisms of momentum and scalar transport in turbulent boundary layer flows and how they are sensitive to external influence. The goal is to deploy 3D measurement techniques combined with hot-wire/pressure measurements to access space-time variations of the flow. This high-fidelity data will be analysed to better understand the flow mechanisms and develop new data-driven predictive models to capture evolution of turbulent boundary layers in realistic conditions.
You'll join a diverse and inclusive team to tackle challenging problems while developing new skills and expertise. The project will be open-ended, and the details will be tailored to suit you. You'll work alongside other team members (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) with different backgrounds and experience. You'll be trained in using state-of-the-art diagnostics and advanced data-analysis methods that will enable you to pursue a career in academia or industry. You’ll also have opportunities to present your work at international conferences and develop new collaborations with research groups around the world.
