Fluid Mechanics, Thermal Sciences, and Energy

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-3326
Email: [email protected]
View Elias Balaras's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Elias Balaras' Laboratory for Computational Physics and Fluid Mechanics aims to develop robust numerical techniques for parallel simulations of multiscale, multiphysics problems in physical and biological systems. Emphasis is given to large-eddy and direct numerical simulations, fluid-structure interactions and biological fluid dynamics. Current projects include the development of multiscale models for blood damage in cardiovascular devices, bio-inspired separation control, direct simulations of air-entrainment in the turbulent boundary layers, and assessment of surgical procedures using high-fidelity computational models.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-3715
Email: [email protected]
View Lorena Barba's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Barba leads a research group in computational science and fluid dynamics, but often crossing disciplinary borders into applied mathematics and aspects of computer science. With a central interest in computational fluid dynamics, she extends her research program into other areas, driven by the motivation of using computational methods and high-performance computing in new fields. One of these is biomolecular physics, where she is developing computer methods for problems in protein electrostatics. Her team works using GPU accelerators and develops parallel algorithms for large-scale computing.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-2560
Email: [email protected]
View Philippe Bardet's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Philippe Bardet's research focuses on experimental fluid mechanics and nuclear thermal hydraulics. He specializes in developing new laser-based diagnostics for multiphase and fluid-structure interaction flows. On-going research efforts include gas transfer in aquatic environments, plume dispersal in the environment, and seismic response of nuclear fuel assemblies.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-3379
Email: [email protected]
 

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Phone: (757) 269-2231
Email: [email protected]
View Andrew Cutler's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Andrew Cutler's group is focused on developing and applying laser diagnostics to supersonic combustion. These technques include coherent-anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy and Rayleigh scattering. Databases have and continue to be acquired in dual-mode scramjets burning hydrogen and ethylene, which are being used by the computational fluid dynamics community in developing their codes.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-3646
Email: [email protected]
View Charles Garris's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Charles Garris is currently interested in sustainable energy technologies utilizing advanced pressure-exchange phenomena. These technologies include carbon sequestration, air conditioning and refrigeration, fuel cells, turbocharging, and water desalinization. Research is focused on fundamental behavior of pressure-exchange, which generally involves non-steady compressible fluid mechanics including the effects of energy dissipation in mixing layers, turbulence, and shock-wave structure. The research involves both computational and experimental investigations.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-6069
Email: [email protected]
View Stephen Hsu's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Stephen Hsu's Energy Efficiency Lab and Nanomaterials Lab conducts research on renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies in buildings, transportation, and machinery. Current projects include surface textures for friction control; multiscale multifunctional surface designs including ultrahydrophobic, ominphobic, icephobic, and self-adaptive surface properties; wind energy; self-repairing gear technology; and nanocomposites. Most projects are conducted with industrial partners and government agencies.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-6929
Email: [email protected]
View Michael Keidar's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Michael Keidar's Micropropulsion and Nanotechnology Lab conducts advanced fundamental and applied research in plasma medicine, micropropulsion for micro and nanosatellites, and plasma nanoscience and nanotechnology. Current projects include a cold plasma application for wound healing; cold plasma cancer therapy; the synthesis of single-wall carbon nanotubes with controlled conductivity; the synthesis of graphene with controlled numbers of layers; and the manufacturing of ultracapacitor devices based on nanotubes and graphene, micro-cathode thrusters for nano satellites, and multi-scale plasma simulations.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-8436
Email: [email protected]
View Saniya LeBlanc's Full Profile

Research Interest: Saniya LeBlanc’s research lies at the intersection of materials science, energy conversion, and thermal transport. Her group enables nanomaterials integration by bridging the divide between rapid, inexpensive manufacturing of nanostructures and device integration of nanoengineered components. Her experimental research includes development of scalable nanomanufacturing processes such as spray coating and printing of functional nanomaterials. Projects involve energy harvesting devices that utilize the unique combination of properties offered by nanostructured materials; recent examples include thermoelectric power generators for waste-heat recovery. Combining energy system, cost, and policy analyses, she creates feasibility assessments for the scaling of nanotechnologies for energy applications.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-9830
Email: [email protected]
View Megan Leftwich's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Megan Leftwich's Biologically Inspired Energy Laboratory investigates natural fluid dynamics phenomena and applies their findings to engineering problems. Curent projects include the wake dynamics of vertical axis wind turbines is standard and complex configurations, the hydrodynamics of pinniped swimming (in collaboration with the Smithsonian National Zoo), and the fluid dynamics of human birth.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-9803
Email: [email protected]
View Michael Plesniak's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Michael Plesniak's Biofluid Dynamics Lab conducts advanced fundamental research on human speech production (phonation) and cardiovascular flows. An overarching motivation for studying hemodynamics and speech production is to facilitate surgical planning, i.e. to enable physicians to assess the outcomes of surgical procedures by using faithful computer simulations. Professor Plesniak is the director of GW's Center for Biomimetics and Bioinspired Engineering. His Turbulence, Fluid Dynamics and Wind Energy Lab at GW's Virginia Science and Technology Campus is equipped with wind tunnel facilities to study a variety of flows relevant to transportation and energy research.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Email: [email protected]
View Matthew Rau's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Matthew Rau studies multiphase flows with an emphasis on transport in the environment. His current focus includes the study of microplastics transport in aquatic systems along with studying aggregating biological particles, their behavior in turbulence, and how they influence the carbon cycle in the ocean. His group performs a variety of experimental methods and develops and deploys novel measurement techniques in the field to study phenomena that can't be replicated in the lab. 

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Biomedical Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-2724
Email: [email protected]
View Kausik Sarkar's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Kausik Sarkar's Rheology, Biofluids and Ultrasonics Lab is involved in the fundamentals of multiphase flows, and applies them to problems of medical interest that require an understanding of mechanics--the stresses and transport in biological media and inside the human body and how they relate to diseases, diagnosis and cure. Specific focus is on the mechanics of cells, and cell-like “soft particles” such as liposomes and microbubbles, that are used for imaging and drug delivery. Current projects include investigation of echogenic liposomes for ultrasound imaging and targeted drug delivery, noninvasive blood pressure estimation using contrast microbubbles, ultrasound mediated cancer diagnosis, effects of ultrasound on cell proliferation, and the numerical simulation of emulsions of viscous and viscoelastic drops and biological particles.

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Phone: (202) 994-4706
Email: [email protected]
View Murray Snyder's Full Profile

Research Interest: Professor Murray Snyder conducts research of the impact of ship air wakes on rotary wing aircraft. His research includes use of a dedicated 108-foot long research vessel at the Naval Academy, where he is also a research professor. He also conducts associated wind tunnel testing and advanced computer simulations performed on large parallel processing computer clusters. His research vessel has a flight deck from which instrumented unmanned helicopters are flown to collect ship air wake data off ship.