When the wind passes over grass, trees and other vegetation, we see a complex and beautiful display as the vegetation moves in response to the wind. This occurs because the vegetation is not perfectly rigid but inherently flexible. A similar process occurs with water flowing over aquatic vegetation like seagrass and kelp. In both cases, not only does the fluid flow affect the vegetation motion, but equally the vegetation motion affects the fluid flow. Understanding the interplay between these fluid and vegetation motions is critical for predicting drag (e.g. for weather forecasting), material transport, structural strength and ultimately ecological health.
This project will involve developing a coupled CFD-FEA simulation using ANSYS to represent a single piece of flexible vegetation. The CFD will provide the external loads on the structure, from which the FEA will compute the deflection. This will then feed back into the CFD to determine the new fluid flow field. The process repeats so we can see the time-evolution of the fluid/structural fields. Wind tunnel tests on a similar flexible structure will also be conducted to validate the simulation. As part of this, a turbulence grid will need to be designed, manufactured and installed in the wooden tunnel for testing. The CFD-FEA simulation will then be used to study the effect of multiple pieces of vegetation, representing a forest or river bed.
Undergraduate
Students should be enrolled in MECHENG 712 (Aerohydrodynamics) in semester 1 and, if possible, MECHENG 718 (Computational Fluid Dynamics) in semester 2. Students should have passed MECHENG 325.
Aerodynamics Lab (Newmarket 901 Lvl5, Lab)