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Jesse Capecelatro: The Physics of Flow

99% of the observable Universe exists in a fluid state—liquids and gases. Computational fluid dynamics simulates fluid motion using mathematical models. With the help of supercomputers, scientists solve complex equations that describe fluid motion and the forces they exert.

Fluid dynamics is used in weather prediction, renewable energy innovations, and planning for better spacecraft landings on another planet. During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers used fluid dynamics to model how particles expelled by a sick passenger would travel through the interior of a U-M blue bus.

Meet Jesse Capecelatro

Jesse Capecelatro, PhD, Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Aerospace Engineering, at the University of Michigan.

 

Supercomputers

Computational fluid dynamics would not be possible without supercomputers. Capecelatro’s research group depends on the Great Lakes high-performance computing cluster, provided by the Advanced Research Computing (ARC), a division of Information and Technology Services at the University of Michigan.

 

Visualizing Turbulence

One area of Capecelatro’s work is in the physics of turbulent multiphase flows inside fluidized bed reactors. These flow simulations at the particle scale allow innovations in renewable energy technologies to go from lab to industrial use.

 

Fluid Dynamics of a Cough

Understanding the flow of tiny particles and aerosols of a cough is key to mitigating the spread of COVID-19.

 

Working with NASA

Since 2016, Capecelatro has been working with NASA to develop predictive simulation capabilities of plume-surface interactions. These multiphase flow simulations will help design spacecraft that may one day be able to take off from another planet, allowing for return missions.

It’s one step forward towards being able to have reliable predictive simulation for planets such as Mars.

 

 

 

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