Turbomachinery and Unsteady Flows Research Lab

Turbomachinery and Unsteady Flows Research Lab

Research Areas

  • Turbomachinery, internal flows, and unsteady phenomena which occur in these systems, including aero-acoustics. 
     
  • Fan and compressor aerodynamics/acoustics are the primary focus. 
     
  • Emphasis on numerical simulations of fluid flow with supporting experiments as needed.
     
  • Specialization in simplified modelling of fans and compressors using body forces in numerical simulations.
     
  • Interest is in solving problems relevant to industry and empowering industrial partners through the transfer of insight into the underlying flow physics which governs phenomena of interest.
     
  • Expertise in Fluent and CFX software (flow solvers), Pointwise (grid generation), and CFD-Post and MATLAB (post-processing). 

Research Infrastructure

  • Open-loop wind tunnel which can accommodate a wide variety of test sections (blade cascades, isolated airfoils, objects in jets, etc.). 
     
  • Flow capacity: 16 kg/s of air (outlet velocity: up to 40 m/s in standard configuration, higher possible at lower overall mass flows). 
     
  • Flow field traversing with hot-wire probes, Pitot-static probes are the measurement capabilities.
     
  • Flow visualization via oil film.

To get involved with the Turbomachinery and Unsteady Flows Research Lab

Contact: Dr. Jeff Defoe
Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering 
519-253-3000, Ext. 5961
jdefoe@uwindsor.ca