Professor Steven Armfield
People_

Professor Steven Armfield

BSc Applied Maths (Flinders), PhD (Sydney)
FluD Director
School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering
Professor Steven Armfield

Professor Steve Armfield investigates the fluid mechanics of a range of environmental and industrial flows using computational, theoretical and experimental approaches, leading to applications as diverse as improved river management and the design of more efficient building ventilation systems.

"My main focus is on the development of computational models and algorithms to allow the prediction of highly unsteady, buoyancy-driven and -dominated flows, such as the natural convection boundary layers that develop adjacent to vertical heated surfaces, the two-layer mixing flow that occurs when a lighter fluid passes over a denser fluid, and thermal fountains and plumes.

"Such flows occur in many environmental and industrial settings, such as in rivers, estuaries and atmospheric boundary layers, and in building heating, cooling and ventilation.

"My research has made a substantial contribution to the understanding of the mechanism of flow initiation and transition, and has led to improved computational models for these flows that will inform the development of river management strategies, large-scale fluid dynamics models and the design of heating, ventilation and cooling systems.

"I joined the academic staff of the University of Sydney in 1996, having previously completed my PhD here. I was Head of the School of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering from 2008 till 2015. I have held academic positions at other Australian universities as well as research positions in Japan and the US."

AMME4210 - Computational Fluid Dynamics

AMME5202 - Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics

  • Australian National Research Fellowship
  • Saitama University Visiting Scholarship
  • Shundoh International Foundation Research Scholarship
  • Stanford University UPS Visiting Professorship
Water and the environment
Project titleResearch student
Faster than real-time modelling of building aware urban atmospheric dispersion.Ankith DAS
A Coupled Navier-Stokes Solver for the Fast Calculaction of Steady-State Urban FlowsMark GEORGE
Field-Based Experimental Investigation of Turbulent Mixing within Thermally Stratified Channel FlowShanil JAYAWARDENA
Direct Numerical Simulation of natural convection in nearshore regionEsra KHASAWNEH
Numerical Study of Natural Convection Boundary Layer of High Grashof and Prandtl NumberJinshuyang LU
Plume transport in turbulent urban flows: the effects of natural convection and vegetation modelsIsadora MONTENEGRO BUGARIN

Publications

Book Chapters

  • Tenne, J., Armfield, S. (2008). A Versatile Surrogate-Assisted Memetic Algorithm for Optimization of Computationally Expensive Functions and its Engineering Applications. In Shan, Y. and Yang, A. and Bui, L. T. (Eds.), Success in Evolutionary Computation, (pp. 43-72). Berlin, Germany: Springer. [More Information]
  • Tenne, J., Armfield, S. (2007). A Memetic Algorithm Using a Trust-Region Derivative-Free Optimization with Quadratic Modelling for Optimization of Expensive and Noisy Black-box Functions. In Yang, Shengxiang; Ong, Yew-Soon; Jin, Yaochu (Eds.), Evolutionary Computation in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments, (pp. 389-415). Germany: Springer. [More Information]

Journals

  • Issaev, V., Armfield, S., Williamson, N. (2025). Bulk Flow Parameterization of Temporally Evolving Turbulent Stratified Open Channel Flow Subject to Radiative Heating. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (New York), 151(1), 04024053. [More Information]
  • George, M., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2024). A coupled block implicit solver for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on collocated grids. Computers and Fluids, 284, 106426. [More Information]
  • Ke, J., Armfield, S., Williamson, N. (2024). Non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq effects on the linear stability of a vertical natural convection boundary layer. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 988, A44. [More Information]

Conferences

  • Huang, D., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2018). Entrainment in Pulsing Plumes. 21st Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference (AFMC 2018), Adelaide: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
  • Milton-McGurk, L., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2018). Experimental investigation into turbulent negatively buoyant jets using combined PIV and LIF measurements. 21st Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference (AFMC 2018), Adelaide: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
  • Dong,, L., Lin,, W., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M., Williamson, N., Zhao,, D. (2018). Filling box flow with weak plane fountain: The effect of the Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. The 21st Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, : IEEE Computer Society.

2025

  • Issaev, V., Armfield, S., Williamson, N. (2025). Bulk Flow Parameterization of Temporally Evolving Turbulent Stratified Open Channel Flow Subject to Radiative Heating. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (New York), 151(1), 04024053. [More Information]

2024

  • George, M., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2024). A coupled block implicit solver for the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on collocated grids. Computers and Fluids, 284, 106426. [More Information]
  • Ke, J., Armfield, S., Williamson, N. (2024). Non-Oberbeck-Boussinesq effects on the linear stability of a vertical natural convection boundary layer. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 988, A44. [More Information]
  • Lin, W., Armfield, S., Khatamifar, M. (2024). Scaling laws for natural convection boundary layer of a Pr > 1 fluid on a vertical solid surface subject to a sinusoidal temperature in a linearly-stratified ambient fluid. Physics of Fluids, 36(1), 013621. [More Information]

2023

  • Dong, L., Lin, W., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M., Williamson, N., Khatamifar, M. (2023). Direct numerical simulation of “fountain filling box” flow with a confined weak laminar plane fountain. Heat Transfer, 52(1), 193-215. [More Information]
  • Nguyen, D., Kirkpatrick, M., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Lin, W. (2023). Effect of Thermal Stratification in Meandering Turbulent Open-Channel Flow with Varying Sinuosity. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering (New York), 149(9). [More Information]
  • Issaev, V., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2023). Intermittency and critical mixing in internally heated stratified channel flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 963. [More Information]

2022

  • Milton-McGurk, L., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2022). Characterising entrainment in fountains and negatively buoyant jets. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 939, A29. [More Information]
  • Nguyen, D., Kirkpatrick, M., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Lin, W. (2022). Effects of meander curvature in thermally stratified turbulent open-channel flow. Physics of Fluids, 34(9). [More Information]
  • Talluru, K., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2022). Entrainment and dilution in a fountain top. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 941. [More Information]

2021

  • Kaye, N., Williamson, N., Huang, D., Armfield, S. (2021). Buoyancy distribution in a filling box segmented by a planar jet. Environmental Fluid Mechanics, 21, 239-261. [More Information]
  • Milton-McGurk, L., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M., Talluru, K. (2021). Entrainment and structure of negatively buoyant jets. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 911, A21. [More Information]
  • Ke, J., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Komiya, A., Norris, S. (2021). High Grashof number turbulent natural convection on an infinite vertical wall. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 929, 4525-4534. [More Information]

2020

  • Kirkpatrick, M., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Zecevic, V. (2020). Destratification of thermally stratified turbulent open-channel flow by surface cooling. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 829, A29-36. [More Information]
  • Milton-McGurk, L., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2020). Experimental investigation into turbulent negatively buoyant jets using combined PIV and PLIF measurements. International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 82, 1-8. [More Information]
  • Ke, J., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Norris, S., Komiya, A. (2020). Law of the wall for a temporally evolving vertical natural convection boundary layer. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 902, 1-33. [More Information]

2019

  • Inam, M., Lin, W., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., He, Y. (2019). Characteristics of unsteadiness for transitional plane fountains in linearly stratified fluids. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 100(January 2019), 83-97. [More Information]
  • Huang, D., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2019). Entrainment in pulsing plumes. Experiments in Fluids: experimental methods and their applications to fluid flow, 60(8), 1-10. [More Information]
  • Kirkpatrick, M., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Zecevic, V. (2019). Evolution of thermally stratified turbulent open channel flow after removal of the heat source. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 876, 356-412. [More Information]

2018

  • Williamson, N., Kirkpatrick, M., Armfield, S. (2018). Entrainment across a sheared density interface in a cavity flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 835, 999-1021. [More Information]
  • Huang, D., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2018). Entrainment in Pulsing Plumes. 21st Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference (AFMC 2018), Adelaide: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
  • Milton-McGurk, L., Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2018). Experimental investigation into turbulent negatively buoyant jets using combined PIV and LIF measurements. 21st Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference (AFMC 2018), Adelaide: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.

2017

  • Khatamifar, M., Lin, W., Armfield, S., Holmes, D., Kirkpatrick, M. (2017). Conjugate natural convection heat transfer in a partitioned differentially-heated square cavity. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 81, 92-103. [More Information]
  • Gao, W., Lin, W., Liu, T., Armfield, S., Li, M. (2017). Penetration height of transitional round fountains in a linearly stratified fluid. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 81, 79-91. [More Information]
  • Lin, W., Armfield, S. (2017). Scalings for unsteady natural convection boundary layers on a vertical plate at time-dependent temperature. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 111, 78-99. [More Information]

2016

  • Zhou, L., Armfield, S. (2016). A compact fourth-order spatial discretisation applied to the Navier-stokes equations. ANZIAM Journal, 56, C481-C501. [More Information]
  • Khatamifar, M., Wood, E., Lin, W., Holmes, D., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2016). A Multigrid Accelerated Code for Simulating Unsteady Conjugate Natural Convection Boundary Layers. Applied Mechanics and Materials, 846, 30-35. [More Information]
  • Williamson, N., Kirkpatrick, M., Armfield, S., Norris, S. (2016). Convectively unstable turbulent open channel flow with stable surface stratification. ANZIAM Journal, 56, C246-C261. [More Information]

2015

  • Inam, M., Lin, W., Armfield, S., He, Y. (2015). Asymmetry and penetration of transitional plane fountains in stratified fluid. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 90, 1125-1142. [More Information]
  • Mahmud, H., Lin, W., Gao, W., Armfield, S., He, Y. (2015). Behavior of the interaction between twin transitional round fountains in a homogeneous fluid, Part 2: Numerical study. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 86(2015), 973-991. [More Information]
  • Mahmud, H., Lin, W., Gao, W., Hill, B., Armfield, S., He, Y. (2015). Behavior of the intraction between twin transitional round fountains in a homogeneous fluid, Part 1: Experimental study. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 86(2015), 957-972. [More Information]

2014

  • Khatamifar, M., D'Urso, R., Lin, W., Holmes, D., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2014). A Numerical and Experimental Study on the Unsteady Conjugate Natural Convection Boundary Layers in a Water Filled Rectangular Cavity with a Conducting Partition Wall at Varied Locations. 19th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, : SPIE.
  • Inam, M., Lin, W., Armfield, S., He, Y. (2014). Asymmetric Transition for High Froude Number Plane Fountains in Linearly Stratified Fluids. 15th International Heat Transfer Conference (IHTC 2014), Kyoto: Begell House Inc. [More Information]
  • Xiao, Y., Lin, W., McCormack, J., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M., He, Y. (2014). Coherent Structures in Cross Sheared Flows in Weakly Stratified Environments. 19th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, : SPIE.

2013

  • Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M., Norris, S. (2013). A canonical model for stratified flow in estuaries and rivers. ANZIAM Journal, 54, C88-C101. [More Information]
  • Nagarathinam, S., Fakhim, B., Behnia, M., Armfield, S. (2013). A Comparison of Parametric and Multivariable Optimization Techniques in a Raised-Floor Data Center. Journal of Electronic Packaging, 135(3), 1-8. [More Information]
  • Nagarathinam, S., Armfield, S., Lin, W. (2013). Behaviour of laminar plane fountains with a parabolic inlet velocity profile in a homogeneous fluid. International Journal of Thermal Sciences, 67, 87-95. [More Information]

2012

  • Nagarathinam, S., Fakhim, B., Behnia, M., Armfield, S. (2012). A Comparative Study of Raised-Floor and Hard-Floor Configurations in an Air-Cooled Data Centre. Thirteenth Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm 2012), Piscataway, NJ, USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). [More Information]
  • Kirkpatrick, M., Starner, S., Williamson, N., Armfield, S. (2012). A New Experimental Rig for Investigations of Sheared Convective Boundary Layers. 18th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference AFMC 2012, Launceston, Tasmania: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
  • Fakhim, B., Nagarathinam, S., Behnia, M., Armfield, S. (2012). Analysis of Exergy Destruction in Data Centres. Thirteenth Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm 2012), Piscataway, NJ, USA: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). [More Information]

2011

  • Fakhim, B., Nagarathinam, S., Behnia, M., Armfield, S. (2011). A Second Law Approach to the Thermal Management of Raised Floor Data Centres. 7th International Conference on Computational Heat and Mass Transfer (ICCHMT 2011), Turkey: International Centre for Applied Thermodynamics (ICAT).
  • Jiracheewanun, S., Armfield, S., Behnia, M. (2011). Combined natural convection cooling of a drink can. ANZIAM Journal, 52(1), 59-68. [More Information]
  • Djanali, V., Armfield, S., Kirkpatrick, M. (2011). Comparison of approximate inverse preconditioners for the fractional step Navier--Stokes equations. ANZIAM Journal, 52, C581-C595. [More Information]

2010

  • Armfield, S., Williamson, N., Kirkpatrick, M., Street, R. (2010). A divergence free fractional-step method for the Navier-Stokes equations on non-staggered grids. ANZIAM Journal, 51, C654-C667.
  • Fakhim, B., Nagarathinam, S., Wong, S., Behnia, M., Armfield, S. (2010). Addressing Thermal Challenges in Design of Data Centres. ASME 2010 10th Biennial Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis (ESDA2010), Istanbul, Turkey: American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). [More Information]
  • Nagarathinam, S., Armfield, S., Behnia, M., Lin, W. (2010). Critical Froude number for transition from a steady to an unsteady plane fountain injected into a homogeneous fluid. 17th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, Auckland, New Zealand: University of Auckland.

2009

  • Tenne, J., Armfield, S. (2009). A framework for memetic optimization using variable global and local surrogate models. Soft Computing, 13(8-9), 781-793. [More Information]
  • Li, Q., Yu, J., Schellekens, M., Zhou, S., Li, W., Armfield, S., Appleyard, R. (2009). Characterization and Design of 3D Scaffolds for Biofluidic Criteria. IEEE International Conference on Computational Intelligence for Measurement Systems and Applications CIMSA 2009, United States: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). [More Information]
  • Jiracheewanun, S., Armfield, S., Behnia, M. (2009). Combined Natural Convection Cooling of a Drink Can. The Fourth International Conference on Thermal Engineering: Theory and Applications, Abu Dhabi, UAE: The Petroleum Institute.

2008

  • Tenne, J., Armfield, S. (2008). A Versatile Surrogate-Assisted Memetic Algorithm for Optimization of Computationally Expensive Functions and its Engineering Applications. In Shan, Y. and Yang, A. and Bui, L. T. (Eds.), Success in Evolutionary Computation, (pp. 43-72). Berlin, Germany: Springer. [More Information]
  • Williamson, N., Behnia, M., Armfield, S. (2008). Comparison of a 2D axisymmetric CFD model of a natural draft wet cooling tower and a 1D model. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 51, 2227-2236. [More Information]
  • Williamson, N., Armfield, S., Lin, W. (2008). Direct numerical simulation of turbulent intermediate Froude number fountain flow. ANZIAM Journal, 50, C16-C30. [More Information]

2007

  • Gonzalez, C., Wong, K., Armfield, S. (2007). A computational study of the influence of the injection characteristics on micro-turbine combustion. 16th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference AFMC 2007, Australia: University of Queensland.
  • Tenne, J., Armfield, S. (2007). A Memetic Algorithm Using a Trust-Region Derivative-Free Optimization with Quadratic Modelling for Optimization of Expensive and Noisy Black-box Functions. In Yang, Shengxiang; Ong, Yew-Soon; Jin, Yaochu (Eds.), Evolutionary Computation in Dynamic and Uncertain Environments, (pp. 389-415). Germany: Springer. [More Information]
  • Tenne, J., Obayashi, S., Armfield, S. (2007). Airfoil Shape Optimization by Minimization of an Expensive and Discontinuous Black-box Function. AIAA Infotech@Aerospace 2007, Reston, Va, USA: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

2006

  • Nagarathinam, S., Lin, W., McBain, G., Armfield, S. (2006). Direct Simulation Of Impinging Plane Fountains In A Homogeneous Fluid. 13th International Heat Transfer Conference IHTC 2006, Connecticut, USA: Begell House Inc.
  • Lin, W., Armfield, S. (2006). Direct Simulation of Transitional Axisymmetric Fountains in a Homogeneous Environment. 13th International Heat Transfer Conference IHTC 2006, Connecticut, USA: Begell House Inc.
  • Jiracheewanun, S., Armfield, S., McBain, G., Behnia, M. (2006). Flow Features and Scaling analysis in Heated Cavity with lsoflux Boundaries. Third International Conference on Flow Dynamics, Japan: International COE of Flow Dynamics Tohoku University.

2005

  • Armfield, S., Street, R. (2005). A comparison of staggered and non-staggered grid Navier-Stokes solutions for the 8:1 cavity natural convection flow. ANZIAM Journal, 46(5), C918-C934.
  • Tenne, J., Armfield, S. (2005). A Note on the relation of Gaussian Elimination to the Conjugate Directions Algorithm. ANZIAM Journal, 46(5), C971-C986.
  • Gonzalez, L., Whitney, E., Srinivas, K., Armfield, S., Periaux, J. (2005). A robust evolutionary technique for couples and multidisciplinary design optimisation problems in aeronautics. Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal, 14(2), 142-153.

2004

  • Morgan, P., Auld, D., Armfield, S. (2004). A Comparison Of Eulerian And Langrangian Schemes For The Simulation Of An Impressible Planar Jet. ANZIAM Journal, 45(Part E), C310-C325.
  • Morgan, P., Armfield, S. (2004). Direct Numerical Simulation Of Low Reynolds Number Incompressible Planar Jets. Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal, 13(1), 46-62.
  • Lin, W., Armfield, S. (2004). Direct Simulation Of Fountains With Intermediate Froude And Reynolds Numbers. ANZIAM Journal, 45(E), C66-C77.

2003

  • Morgan, P., Kirkpatrick, M., Armfield, S. (2003). A comparison of 2-D and 3-D solutions for incompressible bifurcating jets in stratified environments. 2nd International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics ICCFD 2002, Germany: Springer.
  • Armfield, S., Norris, S., Morgan, P., Street, R. (2003). A parallel non-staggered Navier-Stokes solver implemented on a workstation cluster. 2nd International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics ICCFD 2002, Germany: Springer.
  • Kirkpatrick, M., Armfield, S., Kent, J. (2003). A representation of curved boundaries for the solution of the Navier-Stokes equations on a staggered three-dimensional Cartesian grid. Journal of Computational Physics, 184(1), 1-36. [More Information]

2002

  • Armfield, S., Street, R. (2002). An analysis and comparison of the time accuracy of fractional-step- methods for the Navier-Stokes equations on staggered grids. International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, 38(3), 255-282. [More Information]
  • Patterson, J., Graham, T., Schopf, W., Armfield, S. (2002). Boundary layer development on a semi-infinite suddenly heated vertical plate. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 453(Feb), 39-55. [More Information]
  • Kirkpatrick, M., Armfield, S. (2002). Large eddy simulation of the purging of density-stabilised basins. 2nd International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics ICCFD 2002, Germany: Springer.

2001

  • Morgan, P., Armfield, S. (2001). Bifurcation of neutrally buoyant jets in stratified environments. 14th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. UNSW Australian Defence Force Academy.
  • Lin, W., Armfield, S. (2001). Natural convection cooling of rectangular and cylindrical containers. International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 22, 72-81. [More Information]
  • Kirkpatrick, M., Armfield, S., Masri, A., Ibrahim, S. (2001). On the application of compressible LES in unsteady premixed combustion. 3rd Asia-Pacific Conference on Combustion. Ads & Adea.

2000

  • Lei, C., Cheng, L., Armfield, S., Kavanagh, K. (2000). Separation points and the near wake of a circular cylinder near a plane boundary. Computational Fluid Dynamics Journal, 8(4), 521-535.
  • Lei, C., Cheng, L., Armfield, S., Kavanagh, K. (2000). Vortex shedding suppression for flow over a circular cylinder near a plane boundary. Ocean Engineering, 27(10), 1109-1127. [More Information]

Selected Grants

2022

  • Dynamics of Suppressed Mixing Regimes in Australian Rivers, Armfield S, Mitrovic S, Kirkpatrick M, Williamson N, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)
  • Large Scale Natural Convection Boundary Layers with Non-Boussinesq Effects, Armfield S, Lei C, Williamson N, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)

2016

  • Tomographic Particle Image Velocimetry, Verstraete D, Vio G, Armfield S, DVC Research/Equipment Grant
  • Entrainment and Mixing in Turbulent Negatively Buoyant Jets and Fountains, Armfield S, Williamson N, Lin W, Kirkpatrick M, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)

Domestic collaboration