About the project
This PhD project will use Resolvent Analysis (RA) to tackle turbulent flow modelling without the need for expensive, scale-resolving simulations. By developing algorithms that dynamically balance RA structures, the project aims to synthesize an approximate turbulent velocity field, enabling detailed yet computationally efficient analysis of complex flows.
In turbulence, transport processes and average flow quantities of practical relevance are dominated by coherent structures. In an effort to better understand their role, a sophisticated approach – Resolvent Analysis (RA) – has emerged in recent years. RA yields a set of spatial structures describing the most important flow structures directly from the equations of motion and from knowledge of the mean flow, without requiring expensive scale-resolving simulations or experiments.
However, RA structures only describes the kinematics of fluid motion and lacks the power to explain how structures across different scales interact with each other.
The overarching aim of this project is to develop a methodology where contributions of different RA structures are balanced dynamically, providing an approximate turbulent velocity field that has been generated synthetically, without simulation.
From a computational standpoint, this can be achieved by solving an optimisation problem of rather small dimension, owing to the compressive power of RA.
The potential of the approach is that it would enable obtaining detailed insight into the dynamics of complex flows more cheaply than with scale-resolving simulation. In turn, this would facilitate and accelerate flow analysis, parameter exploration and engineering design in a variety of applications.
The specific objectives of this research are:
- to develop new algorithms and computational tools to suit this paradigm,
- to demonstrate the method in a variety of three-dimensional fluid systems of practical interest, such as turbulent flows in pipes/channels and separated flows around bluff and streamlined bodies.
Training will be offered on the use of the high performance computing facilities available at the University of Southampton.