Berkeley Fluids Seminar
University of California, Berkeley
Bring your lunch(have room for some seminar snacks) and enjoy learning about fluids!
Particle-turbulence interactions
in environmental flows
Monday, September 30, 2019
12:00-13:00, 3110 Etcheverry Hall
(Civil & Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)
Abstract: Our environment is replete with examples of particles interacting with turbulent flows. Tiny phytoplankton drift through the ocean by being passively carried by turbulence. A fish on the other hand swims through turbulence using its propulsive efficiency. Of interest to this research are the particles (such as copepods) of intermediate size that interact with turbulence in more complex and curious ways. In the first half of this talk, Dr. Bordoloi will expand this motivation through some results from laboratory experiments conducted over the past few years. He will discuss the rotational statistics of intermediate-size-particles in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The second half of this talk is motivated by another type of particle-turbulence interaction wherein a plume of particles (such as marine snow) sediment through water and generate turbulence in the interstitial fluid. Herein, Dr. Bordoloi will discuss new experimental evidence that characterizes the turbulence in a particle plume and sets them in a category different from the conventional “shear induced turbulence”.
Bio: Dr. Ankur Bordoloi is a postdoctoral research associate in the Civil & Environmental Engineering department at UC Berkeley. He received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics at the University of Minnesota. Prior to coming to Berkeley this summer, he worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. He has conducted research in multiple areas in fluid mechanics, including droplet dynamics (coalescence, impact, constricted motion, wettability) particle-turbulence interactions (particle kinematics in homogeneous isotropic turbulence, turbulence in particle plume), shock wave in multiphase medium (shock-particle interactions, unsteady drag estimation) etc. that have applications in geophysical flows, marine biology, environmental science, biomedical design, and aerospace engineering. For more information, please visit: https://www.adbordoloi.com/
Acknowledgments
Prof. Eliot Quataert on behalf of The Theoretical Astrophysics Center and the Astronomy Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Philip S. Marcus on behalf of the Mechanical Engineering Department (UC Berkeley)
Prof. Michael Manga (Earth and Planetary Science, UC Berkeley)
Prof. Evan Variano (Civil and Environmental Engineering, UC Berkeley)