This area involves study and research in experimental, theoretical, and computational aerodynamics, gas dynamics, turbulence, plasma dynamics, heat transfer, and combustion.

Research is presently being conducted in nonequilibrium and rarefied gas flows, turbulence control, shock-boundary layer interactions, thermal and glow-discharge plasmas, turbulent mixing/combustion, nonlinear flow interactions, and advanced optical diagnostics and sensors. Facilities include Mach 2 and Mach 5 blowdown wind tunnels, a 1.25-second low-gravity drop tower, 5’ x 7’ low-speed wind tunnel, 15” by 20” water channel, laser sensor laboratory, combustion facilities, plasma engineering laboratory, and extensive laser and camera systems for advanced flow diagnostics. The excellent computational facilities include a variety of workstations and access to high-performance computers.

Area Faculty

Area Coordinator: Goldstein, David

Clemens, Noel
Goldstein, David
Raja, Laxminarayan
Raman, Venkat
Tinney, Charles
Varghese, Philip