Goodwin Lecture

May 16, 2019, 4:00 PM
Jim and Sandy Hall Auditorium, 135 Gates-Thomas
Reception to follow in Gates-Thomas 235

The Lecture is in memory of David G. Goodwin, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Physics, Emeritus, who passed away on November 11, 2012. Professor Goodwin was best known for developing ways to grow thin films of high-purity diamond. Diamond films—transparent, scratch-resistant, and efficient dissipaters of the heat generated by high-powered computer chips—are now routinely used to protect electronic and optical components, and diamond-coated drill bits can be found at any hardware store.

The Lecture will be held annually and is made possible by the Division of Engineering and Applied Science and the support of family, friends and colleagues through donations to the David G. Goodwin Memorial Fund.

Resolved Simulations of Particulate Flows

Andrea Prosperetti, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Houston

New GPU-based computers and new algorithms enable researchers to perform numerical simulations of particulate flows in which the particles are resolved and the hydrodynamic forces on them are obtained from first principles rather than from correlations. One such method will be briefly outlined and then several applications described: kinematic waves and the statistics of various quantities in a fluidized-bed-like system, the rotational dynamics and thermal wakes of particles immersed in an incident turbulent flow, a fluid-particle system in shear flow and others. The outstanding problems in this general area motivating the work will be described.

Andrea Prosperetti is a Distingushed Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston, which he joined after 30+ years as CA Miller Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, where he still holds the title of Homewood Professor. He is also continuing his 20-year old part-time appointment as Berkhoff Professor of Applied Physics at the Universty of Twente in the Netherlands. Prosperetti's work is in the general area of multiphase flow: bubble dynamics and bubbly flows, particulate flows and applied mathematics. He is author or co-author of about 250 refereed journal papers and two books. He recently stepped down as editor in chief of the International Journal of Multiphase Flow which he led for a decade.