I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical
engineering at the
The lab I work in is the Shear
Flow Control Lab under the direction of Prof.
P.J. Strykowski.
I am funded under a grant from the National Science Foundation with the goal
of simulating a plasma jet using room temperature gasses. Plasma jets are
created by sending a gas through a nozzle in the presence of a high energy
spark that heats the gas to very high temperatures (>10000K). Plasma jets
are generally used to coat surfaces (such as turbine blades) with very hard
materials (such as ceramic) in a process called plasma spraying. The extreme environment of the plasma
creates a jet that mixes very rapidly while at the same time being extremely
difficult to interrogate. If the
plasma can be simulated using gases at room temperature, several diagnostic
techniques can be used to shed light on the underlying fluid mechanics in hopes
of reducing mixing - thereby creating a better plasma spray.
The work thus far has been very successful on a fundamental level and has
allowed us to shed light on instabilities inherent to low density flows (see
papers above). In short we have
shown that certain features of the global mode in a low-density jet can be
predicted very accurately using conditions at the exit of the jet. Recent nonlinear theoretical work (from
people such as J-M
Chomaz, P.
Huerre, B.
Pier among others) based on wakes shows there exists a connection between
the nonlinear evolution of the flow and the underlying linear stability. This theory is well tested in the wake
and seems to answer the age-old question of singing wires first investigated
more than a century ago by V. Strouhal.
While not absolutely proven, my work provides circumstantial evidence
that the same theoretical underpinnings apply to the low-density jet.
Last modified: Wed September 6, 2006