Experimental and computational thermofluids: how liquids break up, how gases mix and burn, and how to measure it all — with applications from scramjet fuel injection to agricultural sprays and desalination.
Turbulent and nonturbulent round liquid jets in gaseous crossflow — deformation, surface waves, bag and shear breakup, and the near-injector spray structure, studied with high-speed imaging and X-ray diagnostics.
Primary breakup of flat-fan liquid sheets in crossflow and the resulting spray drift of agricultural nozzles, including spray-morphing strategies to reduce herbicide drift in crosswinds.
Breakup and penetration of aerated (gas-liquid) jets injected into subsonic and supersonic crossflows, relevant to fuel injection in scramjet combustors; experiments conducted with AFRL collaborators.
Structure of choked gaseous jets and inclined under-expanded supersonic jets, combining experiments with CFD.
Single- and double-view digital holography for three-dimensional measurements of drop size and velocity in sprays, bubbly flows, and electrospun polymer jets.
Formation of fibers and beads during electrospinning of polymer solutions, with the jet trajectory tracked by digital holographic microscopy.
PIV of diffusion flames and simulation of combustion noise from confined premixed flames in OpenFOAM, validated against external acoustic sensors.
Dynamics of the apparent contact angle and droplet spreading on dense and microporous cylindrical surfaces, with applications to membrane distillation and desalination.
Solar thermal and human-powered desalination, vapor-compression cycle improvements, and techno-economic comparisons of wind, solar, and ocean thermal energy.
A subsonic wind tunnel and a shock tube generate the crossflow conditions needed for liquid-atomization experiments. A combustion test rig supports combustion-noise studies, and a membrane distillation rig supports desalination research.
Measurements span macro to micro scales with particle image velocimetry (PIV), single- and double-view digital holography, and high-speed imaging, complemented by CFD (OpenFOAM) and Cantera-based combustion modeling.