Gas Dynamics

Gasdynamics is the study of compressible flows: either around aerodynamic bodies (external flows, aerodynamics or fluid dynamics) or through engines  (internal flows or propulsion).  Gasdynamics is important for numerous aspects of aerospace engineering, such as airplane aerodynamics, helicopter aerodynamics, jet propulsion, rocket propulsion, advanced propulsion, properties of the space environment, and many others. At Michigan, courses in the gasdynamics curriculum cover topics such as incompressible flow, compressible flow, viscous flow, turbulence, plasmadynamics, non-equilibrium and rarefied flows, jet and rocket propulsion, electric propulsion, and computational fluid dynamics, among others.  Research at Michigan covers a wide array of topics of current interest in gasdynamics.  Some particular strengths of Michigan's research program in gasdynamics are listed below.  In addition, particular research topics are listed on faculty members' web pages.

Name

Area

Research page

Luis Bernal

Turbulence, aerodynamics

Propulsion and Turbulent Combustion Laboratory

Iain Boyd

Nonequilibrium flow, hypersonics

Nonequilibrium Gas and Plasma Dynamics Laboratory

Werner Dahm

Turbulence, mixing, combustion

Laboratory for Turbulence & Combustion (LTC)

James Driscoll

Supersonic combustion

Propulsion and Combustion Engineering Laboratory

Krzysztof Fidkowski

CFD, adaptation, error estimation

Personal page

Alec Gallimore

Electric propulsion, plasma physics

Plasmadynamics and Electric Propulsion Lab(PEPL)

Matthias Ihme

Turbulence, aeroacoustics, numerical methods

Personal page

Kenneth Powell

CFD, space physics

CSEM, CRASH

Philip Roe

CFD, nonequilibrium flow, hypersonics

Keck CFD Lab

Wei Shyy

CFD, fluid-structure interaction, low Reynolds number flows

Computational Thermo-Fluids Group

Timothy Smith

Electric propulsion, plasma physics

Bram van Leer

CFD, algorithm development

Keck CFD Lab