Research topics

My group uses large-eddy simulation (LES), direct numerical simulation (DNS), and high-performance computing to study turbulent flows relevant to wind energy and to canonical thermal and wall-bounded turbulence. The topics below range from turbine-wake interactions in large wind farms and their coupling to the atmospheric boundary layer, to fundamental questions about heat and momentum transport in Rayleigh-Bénard and Taylor-Couette turbulence. Each topic links to a page with more detail, background, and relevant publications. A visual overview is also available on the research highlights page.

Large eddy simulations of wind-farms

High-fidelity LES of how wind-turbine wakes interact, merge, and recover inside large on- and offshore wind farms, and how this governs overall power output.

Analytical modeling of wind-farms

Physics-based analytical models, informed by LES, that predict wind-farm power output without the cost of full simulation and enable rapid layout optimization.

Turbulent boundary layer flow

Structure and scaling of turbulent boundary layers, including the atmospheric boundary layer that supplies the momentum and energy extracted by wind turbines.

Thermal convection

DNS and LES of Rayleigh-Bénard convection, the canonical system for studying buoyancy-driven turbulent heat transport.

High Rayleigh number convection

Simulations at extreme Rayleigh numbers to probe the transition toward the ultimate regime of thermal convection, relevant to geophysical and astrophysical flows.

Rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Effects of background rotation on heat transport and flow structure, with applications to convection in the atmosphere, oceans, and planetary interiors.

Turbulent superstructures

Large-scale, slowly evolving flow patterns that organize turbulent convection and boundary-layer flows at large aspect ratio.

Taylor-Couette turbulence

Turbulent flow between differentially rotating cylinders, used as a closed wall-bounded analogue for studying momentum transport and drag.

Sheared convection

Interaction between imposed mean shear and buoyancy-driven turbulence, connecting canonical convection to the sheared, stratified atmospheric boundary layer.

2D Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Two-dimensional convection as a computationally efficient testbed for exploring heat-transport scaling and flow-state transitions at high Rayleigh number.

AFiD / simulation tools

Development and use of AFiD, an open-source high-performance code for direct numerical simulation of Rayleigh-Bénard convection, Taylor-Couette flow, channel flow, and plane Couette flow.