About me
I am an experimental aerodynamicist with expertise in unsteady aerodynamics, bioinpsired design, control systems, and low-order modeling. My research centers around the discovery of the flow physics and the design and deployment of multi-scale multi-modal control strategies to enhance the stability, performance, and efficiency of systems and vehicles operating in an increasingly unknown and unsteady environments.
Applications include:
Advancing urban air mobility
Improving the efficiency of production of renewable energy
Developing novel bio-inspired aerial and marine vehicles
Gallery
Tow PIV set-up in tow-tank
pressure-side vortex formation upon vertical gust exit
Wind tunnel time-resolved PIV set-up for covert-inspired studies
Gust characterization PIV
Starting vortices formation during the start of a vertical jet
Render of the PIV setup
Leading-edge vortex formation
Large-amplitude transverse gust apparatus
Covert-inspired flap delay stall by preventing flow separation at the leading edge
Current Projects
Covert-inspired flow control
Covert feathers on a bird's wing are hypothesized to delay stall and improve lift during high angle of attack maneuvers. Inspired by the covert feathers, this study presents a novel spatially disrupted flow control system. The system is a passive flow control system consisting of multiple feather-inspired flaps that dynamically interact with the surrounding flow to mitigate stall. Incorporating covert-inspired flaps on the suction side of the airfoil resulted in a substantial increase in lift (up to 50%) and a substantial reduction in drag (up to 30%) in post-stall conditions. Using wind tunnel experiments and time-resolved particle image velocimetry, we identify the physical mechanisms responsible for post-stall lift improvements and drag reduction as (1) shear layer interaction and (2) pressure dam effect. Understanding the lift enhancement mechanisms and the interaction between multiple flaps enables the development of novel and effective passive flow control devices for small unmanned aerial vehicles while reducing the typical associated weight and power penalties. In addition, the physical principles uncovered in this study help form new hypotheses about the contribution of covert feathers during bird flight and whether multiple rows of covert feathers serve a functional role in aiding with flow control during gusts or manuvering.
In-situ time-resolved studies of miniature UAVs in free flight (Ladrone)
In collaboration with Princeton PhD candidate Nathan Simon, we obtain time-resolved PIV flowfield measurements of a freely flying micro drone. The video shown is a video of a drone in hover slowed down by a factor of 33. These experiments are part of an overall effort to experimentally characterize the flow physics of miniature UAVs as well as developing fleets of miniature UAVs for large-scale atmospheric flow measurements
Past Projects
Large-amplitude Gust encounters
Experimental investigations of the aerodynamics of large-amplitude transverse wing-gust encounters. These studies employed time-resolved particle image velocimetry and force measurements to study the fundamental unsteady aerodynamics behind these conditions. Based on these studies effective closed- and open-loop control strategies were successfully developed and deployed to mitigate the resulting severe aerodynamic transients.
Gust generator design
A novel experimental apparatus designed to generate a low-turbulence large-amplitude transverse gust in a water tow-tank facility.
Unsteady vortex models
A low-order unsteady discrete vortex code to model unsteady wing-gust encounters with the purpose of rapidly prototyping active control strategies for gust alleviation.
Closed-loop control
Dynamical systems analysis and closed-loop control design for unsteady aerodynamic systems
Test wings
Design and build of various wing test models