Fluid Center
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Transdisciplinary RFP: Center for Fundamental and Applied Fluid Dynamics
Fluids involve more than you think, are more mysterious than expected, and may be the key to solving big problems.
TL;DR
Researchers from the Hajim School for Engineering and Applied Sciences, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, the medical center, and School of Arts and Sciences aspire to make the University a national hub for fluids research. Their proposed transdisciplinary center would take down the barriers between fields and leverage Rochester’s strengths in biomechanics; earth, planetary, and astrophysical sciences; and plasma physics to fuel fluids research and enable greater exploration of existing frontiers. Jump to: their big idea; the why and why us; implications for Rochester’s reputation; the last word.
We live in a fluid universe. Fluids, in the form of plasmas, gasses, and liquids, are—by far— the most abundant type of matter in the universe. Living things are composed chiefly of fluids. When poured, materials like sand behave like liquids and seemingly solid materials like rock can change shape like fluids over long timescales. Much of biology, geophysics, astrophysics, and plasma physics is only possible through fluid dynamics, such as the formation of stars and planets and bolts of lightning.
Despite their ubiquity, fluids remain mysterious. While we know that entirely different fluids can deform in similar ways—for example, recent work suggests that blood, toothpaste, and landslides may all follow the same basic rules of motion—predicting their movement and evolution is challenging if not impossible. For example, turbulence, the chaotic motion of fluid, has been studied since the 1500s, when Leonardo da Vinci sketched and named the phenomenon. Biological fluids interact and deform soft tissues, which conversely also change the flow.
The Center for Fundamental and Applied Fluid Dynamics aims to foster creative, transdisciplinary research that addresses fundamental questions and applications that enable further exploration of the world’s existing frontiers.
The team
Co-leads*:
- Rachel Glade
Assistant professor, Earth and environmental sciences and mechanical engineering -
Jessica Shang
Associate professor, mechanical engineering
Staff scientist, Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) -
Petros Tzeferacos
Associate professor, physics and astronomy
Senior scientist, LLE -
Hussein Aluie
Professor, mechanical engineering
Senior scientist, LLE
-
Eric Blackman
Professor, physics and astronomy
Distinguished scientist, LLE -
Erin Black
Assistant professor, Earth and environmental sciences -
Thomas Weber
Associate professor, Earth and environmental sciences -
Douglas H. Kelley
Professor, mechanical engineering
Senior scientist, LLE
*The faculty named in this list were primarily involved in the submission for the planning grant; since then, more than 20 faculty across the University have been involved in shaping the vision of the Center.
Okay—Picture this…
What’s the main idea behind the center?
Fluids across vastly different lengths and timescales self-organize to produce strikingly similar patterns; for example in the Earth’s mantle, clouds, and plasmas, characteristic blob-like patterns form when a lighter fluid is pushing a heavier fluid. Yet, scientists’ ability to predict and understand the origin of fluid instabilities is limited. Fluids researchers are spread across many disciplines, and they are often blind to work in other disciplines that could potentially propel their work forward. This scattering is a significant barrier standing in the way of answers to several complex, large-scale fluid questions:
- How do flows in Earth’s atmosphere and oceans modulate its climate?
- How do flows in planetary cores, mantles, and subsurface oceans give rise to the magnetic fields that make life possible?
- How can flows in the human body be promoted and controlled to improve clinical outcomes in cardiovascular and neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer’s?
- How can controlling flows enable next-generation energy technologies that are clean, safe, and low-cost?
Making progress on these problems relies on transdisciplinary research. It demands research that takes advantage of all fluids’ principles while comparing disparate systems to better understand how fluids behave under different conditions.
The Fluid Center will advance fluid dynamics research by developing the connective tissue that leverages the strengths and unique capabilities at the University through three pillars: biomechanics; earth, planetary, and astrophysical sciences; and plasma physics. (See Biomedical and health care innovation, The digital future, and Transformational materials and technologies in Boundless Possibility’s areas of distinction).
One of the center’s main components will be prestigious postdoctoral fellowships for transdisciplinary projects that span multiple departments, encourage collaboration, and bridge the gap between disciplines. It will also employ an annual lecture series, research symposia, and student opportunities to bring fields closer together and encourage collaborative papers and proposals.
Success is in the air
Why and how is Rochester poised to take this on, and what strengths is this center bringing to the table?
There are several reasons why the University is poised to produce significant advances in fundamental fluid research and discovery. First and foremost, the high regard for collaboration and a philosophical emphasis on basic inquiry makes Rochester an ideal research environment for this work. One benefit is that the University minimizes interdepartmental barriers that make co-advising students easier, further enabling the investigation of complex problems (and creating better academic experiences). It also positions the University to win grants that straddle departments. You won’t find this at many universities, meaning Rochester is better equipped than most to be agile and innovative.
The University also has a killer existing infrastructure. To start, the Rochester faculty studying biomechanics; earth, planetary, and astrophysical sciences; and plasma physics have expertise in simulations, theory, and experiments. Furthermore, the 20+ faculty affiliated with the proposed center have longstanding and well-established ties with several research programs, such as the US Department of Energy, National Institutes of Health, and National Science Foundation.
The Fluid Center aims to take advantage of these existing relationships through sponsored research, funded internships, co-op opportunities, and access to external facilities and high-performance computing resources.
The University already operates recognized research centers in related areas, such as the Center for Matter at Atomic Pressures and the Flash Center for Computational Science. Not to mention, the University of Rochester Medical Center and the LLE give the University an uncommon edge in the potential scope of work. Finally, several unique tools and facilities give the University a competitive edge, including high-performance computing (e.g., Conesus, CIRC/BlueHive), the OMEGA laser facility at the LLE, the HADES pulsed power system (which allows scientists to produce and study extreme matter), the Rochester Center for Biomedical Ultrasound, and the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging and Neurophysiology.
The Fluid Center would also partner with the Goergen Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence in research and educational initiatives to incorporate machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) techniques in fluid dynamics modeling. One immediate application is improving models of microscopic transport, which are too complex for direct use in large-scale simulations. Through ML and AI, the center will develop better ways to represent these small-scale processes in broader fluid models across different fields.
Reputation. Reputation. Reputation.
How will the success of the center enhance Rochester’s prominence and prestige?
An easy way to enhance the University’s prestige is to join an exclusive group. Establishing this center would immediately make Rochester one of a few national interdisciplinary fluids research hubs and a go-to regional hub for industry partners interested in solving fluids-based research problems. The center’s collaborations would spawn novel publications, proposals, and entirely new subfields and questions.
The University’s existing strengths in biomechanics; earth, planetary, and astrophysical sciences; and plasma physics would be enhanced by the center drawing top-tier talent. A major priority is attracting the most ambitious young talent by offering postdoctoral research positions with more freedom, better resources, and higher prestige than typical positions. The substantial freedom afforded by the center would enable postdocs to nimbly bridge the gap between subfields and be proactive in writing grant proposals. The Fluid Center’s postdoc fellowships would enable the creative, novel, interdisciplinary research that is otherwise challenging to fund—it also enables the kind of research that leads to the big ideas that lead to more external funding.
The last word
“Studying fluids is really hard,” says Fluid Center member Jessica Shang, who explains that it comes down to seemingly unsolvable equations.
The Navier-Stokes equations describe the motion of “simple” fluids (i.e., liquids, most gases; not weird stuff like oobleck). No one’s been able to figure it out because there are several factors, such as nonlinear terms and an insane number of variables, that preclude exact solutions.
To give you a better sense of how crazy this problem is, solving it would eliminate chaos and unpredictability for certain aspects of life—for example, airplanes. Understanding airflow around a plane is super complex. It’s why we experience turbulence—there’s no real defense; we just buckle up and brace ourselves per the captain’s orders. But if someone solved Navier-Stokes, we would not only never experience turbulence, but we would also have the most efficient flight times and fuel use.
That’s just one example. Another is weather forecasting gets way better, meaning predictions go from 50 and 60 percent to 100.
For now, Navier-Stokes remains one of the Clay Mathematics Institute’s Millennium Prize Problems, constituting the most difficult unsolved math problems for this millennium. (There were seven to start, but one was solved!)
“The Fluid Center does not aspire to solve the equations,” Shang says. “However, the lack of a solution drives our work to understand how fluids move and behave in different situations and apply what we know to flows found in the environment, energy, physiology, etc.”
