This project is acutely focused on the fundamental fluid physics governing the unsteady loads experienced by non-streamlined objects. Bluff bodies, as they are commonly known, experience abrupt separation of the flow which subjects them to the consequences of flows which may be unsteady and in many cases, transitioning from laminar towards turbulence. Examples of bluff bodies include tall buildings, bridge decks, and slung-load containers. One archetype geometry which has proven itself to be a benchmark for other studies is the rectangular prism.

This project investigates the use of active flow control on square bluff bodies relevant to tall buildings. The research seeks to ameliorate the unsteady loading by controlling the formation and development of the von-Kármán vortex street, which is known to be the cause of undesirable building motion. More specifically, a fluidic jet is periodically excited at each of leading edges of a square prism where the shear layers separate and evolve into the large-scale vortex shedding in the wake.

Recent developments in flow control techniques, coupled with increased interest in green energy technologies, have led to interest in applying flow control techniques to wind turbines, in an effort to reduce structural stress associated with widely varying loading.

This project is part of a collaboration with researchers at the University of Texas at Austin ( David Goldstein , Saikishan Suryanarayanan and  Efstathios Bakolas ) to reenergize boundary layers using naturally occurring coherent structures, or large-scale motions (LSMs). These LSMs are modelled as a train of hairpin vortices.