Thermodynamics and fluids

Our experts: Professor Steve Armfield, Associate Professor Michael Kirkpatrick, Dr Nicholas Williamson

Thermal stratification is common in Australia’s rivers due to our drought-prone climate and high human demands. It inhibits mixing, creating stagnant conditions, characterised by low oxygen levels and increased concentrations of contaminants. It leads to algal blooms, fish kills and systemic damage to ecosystems.

Our aim is to develop predictive models to maximise physical processes such as night-time cooling, wind, turbulence and currents on riverine thermal stratification. Our goal is to enable a more accurate determination of the flow rates required to maintain the health of our river systems.



We use a combination of high resolution numerical simulations – direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) – scaling analysis and stability analysis. Maintaining the health of our river systems involves balancing the needs of agriculture, domestic and commercial users, fisheries, power generators, industry, tourism, recreational users and the environment.

We aim to provide the scientific foundations for a new generation of river management tools to allow authorities to better optimise water allocations and river flows to maximise both economic and environmental benefits.

Our experts: Professor Steve Armfield, Associate Professor Michael Kirkpatrick,Dr Nicholas Williamson

Volcanic eruptions, building air ventilation, smoke stack releases and brine discharge from desalination plants are all examples of fluid flows where differences in density between the fluid release and its surrounding environment can control the flow behavior. These flows can be classified as turbulent fountains, buoyant jets or plumes depending on the specific release conditions. We need the ability to accurately predict entrainment of ambient fluid into the fountain/jet/plume.

Our research scrutinises the turbulent structure of fountains and plumes using numerical simulation and laboratory experiments. We work to understand and quantify this entrainment and develop new more sophisticated modeling tools to support the next generation of engineers.

Our experts: Professor Steve Armfield, Professor John Patterson, Associate Professor Michael Kirkpatrick, Associate Professor Chengwang Lei, Dr Nicholas Williamson

Natural convection flows occur in a wide range of industrial and environmental settings. These range  from the cooling of computer components to heat transfer in the earth’s mantle. It acts to enhance the transfer of heat from regions of high to low temperatures. The rate of heat transfer is determined by the state of the flow, whether laminar, transition or fully turbulent.

Understanding such flows is critical in the design of heat exchangers, building heating ventilation and cooling systems. It is also crucial in the prediction of many large-scale environmental features such as the occurrence of convective overturns and near-shore transport in lakes and reservoirs.

Our research relies on large-scale direct numerical simulation of the governing Navier-Stokes equations, the use of semi-analytic stability techniques, scaling and laboratory experiments. These provide a deeper understanding of the transitional behaviour of the thermal boundary layer and aid the development of predictive tools and strategies for controlling transition and limiting or enhancing heat transfer. 

Our experts: Professor Matthew Cleary, Professor Ben Thornber

Society faces a critical need for a long-term energy source. Inertial confinement fusion (ICF) provides a potential pathway towards utilisation of fusion power as an energy source. In ICF, powerful lasers are employed to rapidly compress a small sphere of deuterium/tritium to the required temperature and pressure to produce fusion.

Such small spheres could be imploded multiple times per second, with each pulse providing a small release of energy. With even a modest conversion rate, a system could provide enough energy to sustain mankind for many centuries. However, fluid instabilities develop and these can prevent fusion being achieved.

Our research aims to understand how the instabilities develop and transition to turbulence. Accordingly, we aim to inform the future design of the fuel capsules, utilising very high-resolution computations undertaken on several thousand computational cores.

We explore the fundamentals of compressible turbulent mixing, simplified modelling of mixing problems and new numerical approaches to compute unsteady turbulent mixing problems. This work is in collaboration with multiple institutions worldwide and employs the top supercomputing facilities in Australia to deliver an unprecedented insight into the turbulent physics.

Our experts: Professor Matthew Cleary, Associate Professor Agisilaos Kourmatzis, Dr Nicholas Williamson

From pollutant dispersion in the atmosphere and flow of sediment in rivers, to ocean sprays or atmospheric aerosols, environmental two-phase flows are ubiquitous. In most practical problems, these flows tend to be turbulent. We need to be able to predict their behaviour and in certain situations even attempt to control them.

Our research in this space uses experimental and computational methods to improve our understanding of environmental flows involving a dispersed phase (such as solid particles in liquid or liquid droplets in air). In addition to fundamental research in this area, we tackle practical problems such as developing novel field-based fluid flow instrumentation, mitigating the effects of particulate inhalation, and exploring the viability of marine cloud brightening and cooling and shading using aerosols.

Our experts: Associate Professor Agisilaos Kourmatzis

From sprays in fuel injection, to drug particle flows in inhaler devices, two-phase flows surround us. In the context of inhalation drug delivery, treatment of both respiratory and neurological diseases can be improved through an enhanced understanding of how drug particles flow through an oral or nasal pathway. The nature of inhaled drug-laden flows have a dependence on the device that is delivering the drugs, the formulation of the drug itself, as well as the characteristics of the individual (in terms of breathing profile and geometry of the airways).

Understanding this complex problem benefits substantially through implementation of fundamental fluid mechanics principles. Research of this nature can lead us to improved methods of drug targeting, drug delivery device design, and improved guidelines for device use.

Our research relies both on using existent state-of-the-art experimental techniques and developing new experimental diagnostic methods in order to a) improve our fundamental understanding of the two-phase fluid mechanics of drug delivery systems and b) suggest practical ways to improve the delivery of drugs.