Facilities
We are investigating two strategies to control flow structures over gaps in turbulent boundary layers. Experiments will first be conducted on small tabletop setups, before being tested in high- Reynolds number facilities. They will be instrumented with state-of-the-art diagnostics developed by the PIs at GW and HU. The experiments parameter space will be informed by detailed computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations and detailed perspectives from molecular dynamics and associated experiments.
GW Pipe
The GW Pipe is a 0.25 m diameter, D, water pipe to study turbulent wall bounded flows. It is about 180 D long to enable a fully developed high-Reynolds number flow. This facility, currently under construction, will be used for validating and improve turbulence models and other fundamental turbulence related studies.
MIR: Matched Index of Refraction tunnel
The Matched Index of Refraction tunnel uses materials that are refractive index matched to the working fluid. The index matching enables to study near wall phenomena and fluid-structure interactions in complex geometries. The tunnel has a 0.6 m square cross section. This facility was originally at the US DOE Idaho National Laboratory and is now under reconstruction following significant upgrades.
TCF: Turbulent Channel Facility
The Turbulent Channel Facility is a medium size channel facility (20 mm height, 10:1 aspect ratio, and 200 h in length). The Channel can operate to a friction Reynolds number of 5,000. Its main application is the calibration of laser diagnostic used to probe turbulent flows.
BST: Big Sloshing Tank
The world largest sloshing tank: 6 m, 2.4 m wide, 1.2 m tall. The tank is driven by a 22 kips hydraulic actuator (100 kN). The tank weighs 6 tons and is optimized to be stiff while light. Up to 10 tons of water can be accelerated laterally at up to 1.2 g. This facility is designed for optical diagnostics.
15 cm Flume
40 cm Flume
The GW Mechanical Engineering Department has a large water flume. It has 0.4 m x 0.6 m test section and is 20 meters long. The flow is driven by a 25 hp motor and can achieve flow speeds of up to 2 m/s.