EMSW21-RTG: Laboratory and Mathematical Fluid Dynamics: Experiments, Computation and Modeling

University Of North Carolina At Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill NC

Investigators

Abstract

This Research Training project involves two postdoctoral fellows for three years, 3 graduate students for 4 years and 10 undergraduates for 5 years which will perform research in experimental and theoretical fluid dynamics occurring in and around the University of North Carolina Joint Fluids Laboratory. Specifically, the research and training will be focused upon the complicated interaction between solid bodies and fluids arising in a variety of biologically and environmentally relevant scenarios including systems with strong and sharp density stratification such as occurring in the oceans and atmosphere as well as in highly viscous systems relevant to microbiology. The effort brings together new experimental phenomena with quantified mathematical modeling. Fluid dynamics is central to understanding the behavior of many physical systems on a wide range of length and time scales spanning our atmosphere and oceans down to the smallest swimming micro-organisms. In particular, understanding how a body moves fluid and in turn how the fluid can impact a body is fundamental to understanding how our environment works, which is necessary to even begin to assess human impacts on climate. Our the large scales, the oceans and atmospheres are complicated fluid systems possessing strong density variations, and the associated phenomena are complex and central to building a more quantified understanding of climate. On smaller scales, biological systems are bathed in fluids with varying viscosities which are moved via the motion of small hair-like structures called cilia. Developing quantified analytical and computational models to predict these dynamics has implications for improved understanding of lung function and disease such as Cystic Fibrosis. This research training grant is dedicated towards improved experimental and theoretical understanding of the interaction between solid bodies and complicated fluid systems.