Research Keyword Fluid mechanics

Carl Friehe

http://gram.eng.uci.edu/~maeadmin/Faculty/CAF/CAF.htm

Professor Emeritus

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Office/Lab: EG 1114

Professor Emeritus, Joint Appointment

Earth System Science

Dr. Friehe is interested in fluid mechanics, turbulence, micrometerology, and instrumentation.

His research focuses on turbulence in the atmosphere, particularly that responsible for energy exchanges between the land and ocean, and the overlying atmosphere. Dr. Friehe specializes in geophysical turbulence measurements of wind, temperature, humidity and pressure to parameterize fluxes of heat, water and momentum at the earth's surface. His efforts are aimed at a better understanding of the physics of the marine boundary layer in a wide variety of weather situations. The measurements, which require high fidelity instruments and statistical analysis of large data sets, are usually obtained from specialized experiments on research aircraft, towers, or unique sea-going platforms.

In collaboration with colleagues at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Woods Hole Institution of Oceanography and other entities around the world, Dr. Friehe currently is involved in two large-scale research endeavors: the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment, a project aimed at understanding the physics of the energy exchanges between the air and ocean; and TOGA/CEPEX, which is focused on analyzing aircraft data from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere/Central Equatorial Pacific Experiment.

Roger Rangel

http://www.eng.uci.edu/rangel/rhr.html

Professor

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Office: EG 4212
Lab: EG 3107

Professor (Joint Appointment)

Chemical Engineering and Materials Science

Dr. Rangel is interested in heat transfer, fluid mechanics, spray combustion, two-phase flows, fluid instability and atomization.

Dr. Rangel's current research activities focus on metal solidification in materials processing, droplet spray vaporization and combustion, and fluid mechanics and heat transfer of small particles in suspension.

The overall goals of the first project are to develop models for droplet deposition on flat and uneven surfaces, and to investigate the stability of solid fronts. In the second project, Dr. Rangel is looking at droplet streams and interaction effects, radiation absorption, ignition of droplet clouds and vaporization of binary droplets. The third effort is aimed at analyzing particle motion in unsteady Stokes flows.

Dr. Rangel also is studying the dynamics of aerosols, liquid atomization, and filling liquid acquisition devices in microgravity environments

John LaRue

http://gram.eng.uci.edu/~maeadmin/Faculty/JCLaRue/

Associate Dean for Student Affairs

Student Affairs

Lab: ELF 134
MAE Office: EG 3226
UGSA Office: ECT 101

Professor

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Dr. LaRue is interested in the design and development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), fluid mechanics, heat transfer and turbulence, and other areas that bridge those fields.

Dr. LaRue's work primarily concerns the development and assessment of MEMS-based sensors and flow devices using bulk machining processes. His research in this area includes micro-flows (e.g., flows in micro-channels and flow through seals), sensors and optical MEMS devices. Dr. LaRue is developing and/or analyzing MEMS sensors including bi-directional flow sensors, binary concentration sensors and remotely sensed shear-stress sensors, and, in the area of optical MEMS, a bulk-machined Fabry-Perot interferometer.

The overall goal of Dr. LaRue's work in fluid mechanics is to better understand turbulent flows and specifically, mixing in turbulent flows. He and his group are investigating heat in turbulent flows, with the goal of increasing the efficiency of the heat transfer process. Another project concerns the study of the two-way coupling between particles and turbulent flow.

Dr. LaRue also is carrying out investigations into the effect of strain on turbulent flow and heat transfer, augmented heat exchange, particle dispersion in turbulent flows, the effect of free-stream turbulence on jet mixing, similarity in plane wake flows, near-surface measurements and olfactory-evoked potentials.

Associate Dean

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