Computational Fluid Dynamics Program

The program in Computational Fluid Dynamics includes Professors C.J. Chen and L.L. van Dommelen in Mechanical Engineering and M.Y. Hussaini, and C.K.W. Tam in Mathematics. The program involves algorithm development and application in the areas of

• unsteady flows with large-scale separation
• computational and mathematical acoustics
• unsteady biofluid mechanics
• modeling of turbulent flows
• mathematical models of coupled ocean and atmosphere flows
• parallel solution of partial differential equations

Numerical methods of particular interest are Lagrangian and high order accurate finite difference, spectral, finite analytic, and fast mesh-free methods. Current Navier-Stokes investigations include canonical flows, configurations such as flow past pitching wings, internal flows of acoustic ducts, cooling flows for high current resistive magnets and pulsating flows through artificial heart valves. Techniques are being developed for extremely complex geometries such as the porous media problem and the cross-flow heat exchanger problem.

Among the problems of current interest are the mechanism of unsteady separation from streamlined bodies, acoustics and infrared signatures of aircraft exhausts, NOx control in practical combustion devices and the potential redesign of heart valves and ventricular assist devices. Work in biomagnetic fluid dynamics is involved in studying the effect of magnetic fields on human blood and other biological fluids.

In mathematical and computational combustion, present studies cover laminar pulsed flows, turbulent dump combustors and supersonic combustion; areas that are especially relevant to scramjet and oblique detonation wave engines. Current work in computational acoustics involves the development of radiation boundary conditions to allow the smooth passage of acoustic waves out of the computational domain and experimentation with the use of a wave-envelope approach to deal with the high resolution requirement of high frequency sound waves.

In the past, progress in physical science and engineering was made either through theory or experiment. In years to come, we envision a new method of scientific investigation through the use of direct numerical simulation and large eddy simulation. The necessary mathematical and computational methods to perform computer simulations of fluid, acoustics and combustion problems are being developed. The present effort is to create new low-dispersion, low dissipation, time accurate algorithms for the solution of the Navier-Stokes, acoustics and chemical species equations.

The computational program is supported by the Florida State University Supercomputer Computations Research Institute (SCRI), which operates an eight processor SGI Power Challenge XL, an eight processor IBM sp-2, a cluster of more than forty IBM RS/6000 workstations and six DEC alpha workstations and a highly parallel CM2 64K processor "Connection Machine" SIMD supercomputer. An extensive network of mini and micro computers and workstations are also available. The research projects are currently supported by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.