Universities for Research in Dynamical Systems of Fluids

[recmvp]

Hi everyone,

(this is my first post so be gentle)
I am currently getting my masters is mechanical engineering, was admitted to aero Ph.D. programs as Vtech, MSU, and Cinci last year but decided to get masters locally and apply to "better" schools (UofM) for next cycle with a better resume and more research experience to increase my odds.

Since starting, I have realized that I am much more interested in learning more, and hopefully researching, the physics of fluids and turbulent behaviors, rather than designing devices with fluids applications (ie. cfd models of turbofans, aquatic uav's, and other design engineering problems). I have been struggling to find engineering professors who do research in this area, but got lucky and found one Clarence Rowley Ph.D. at Princeton. I know how competitive Princeton is however, so I was hoping to employ the physics forum and your vast knowledge in order hedge my bet at getting into a program where I can do this type of research.

TLDR: I am looking for universities and researchers specializing in dynamical systems approach to fluid mechanics

 

[berkeman]

Paging @boneh3ad

 

[Haborix]

Are you trying to stay in engineering departments? I'm a few years out of the academic world, but my gut instinct is that work in dynamical systems approaches to fluid mechanics is more likely to be found in applied math and, to a lesser degree, physics departments. If you just want to find names, try to find a paper that you think is doing what you want to do and see who the authors are and who they cite.

 

[recmvp]

Are you trying to stay in engineering departments? I'm a few years out of the academic world, but my gut instinct is that work in dynamical systems approaches to fluid mechanics is more likely to be found in applied math and, to a lesser degree, physics departments. If you just want to find names, try to find a paper that you think is doing what you want to do and see who the authors are and who they cite.

1) I don't necessarily need to stay in the engineering department, however I don't think I have a good enough background in physics and mathematics to be as competitive in my application. I've talked to a friend doing QM at Harvard about if I should possibly apply for a physics program and he told me mainly engineering and mathematics people are working on these topics.

2) I think that is a good idea, thank you for the suggestion. I already do this often, comes with the territory of academic literature reviews, but have difficulty distinguishing what faculty should be considered (due to location, research focus, etc).

It also doesn't help that my current advisor isn't very current on the universities and faculty working on these problems, and rather is more of a fluids engineering educator and researcher.

 

[boneh3ad]

I'm a bit confused here. I'm not really grasping what is being described as a "dynamical systems approach to fluid mechanics" and how it differs from more "typical" fluids research groups. Is there any clarity that can be provided here?

I am also a bit confused about how you could be having a hard time finding faculty studying the physics of fluids. That's the overwhelming majority of what researchers in fluid mechanics study at universities. Most of us have an interest in a particular subset of fluid physics and a varying degree of interest in also working on applications of that interest.