4 PhD Position in the Flow Dynamics and Turbulence

The Flow Dynamics and Turbulence (FDT) lab, led by Dr. Kianoosh Yousefi, is part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. It is an interdisciplinary research group dedicated to understanding the nature of turbulence and examining turbulent flow processes in different natural, industrial, and engineering environments using experimental, numerical, and theoretical approaches. Particularly, our research agenda is focused on studying turbulent air-sea interaction processes, including surface waves and the accompanying generation of turbulence, spray, bubbles, airflow separation, and breaking waves. Another strand of our research is devoted to studying the turbulence structure in hurricane boundary-layer flows and examining the impacts of wind-wave interaction processes on offshore wind turbines and on-shore structures. In general, our research field is of interest to engineering, applied mathematics, and oceanography scholars. The physics learned from our work directly impacts our understanding of air-sea couplings and ocean waves, which is crucial for weather and climate forecasting and has significant societal benefits, impacting many aspects of human life.

Open Positions

We actively take new graduate students and are open to collaborating on postdoc fellowships. For details, please see the Join Us section and review this flyer. Currently, there are openings for 4 Ph.D. students:

1. 1. Data-Driven Modeling of Air-Sea Interactions (ASI-ML): This collaborative project will integrate experimental PIV measurements of wind-wave interactions with a high-fidelity digital twin model of the laboratory system to develop data-driven-based surrogate models for skin friction and form drag over surface waves (see the flyer).
   2. Sea-Surface Drag Modelling using LESs (ASI-DSR): This collaborative research will focus on developing a sea-state-dependent parameterizations of surface stress based on the scale-invariance argument of surface drag using a tight integration of infrared imaging technology and an LES framework for air-sea interactions (see the flyer).
   3. Laboratory Measurements of Surface Waves (ASI-EXP): This project will study flows on both sides of the air-water interface by examining the kinematics and dynamics of turbulence structures that drive the interfacial fluxes and assessing the contribution wavy interfaces on air-sea fluxes (see the flyer).
   4. Large-Eddy Simulation of Langmuir Turbulence (LES-LT): In this project, we will use high-fidelity LESs to characterize the effects of spatial heterogeneity in atmospheric stress on the turbulence structure in the upper-ocean mixed layer and the evolution of Langmuir turbulence.