Faculty

Kenneth E.Jansen, Professor and Associate Director of the Scientific Computation Research Center

Research | Bio Sketch | Publications/Patents | Contact

Research Center Affiliations:

General Areas of Research:

· Computational Mechanics
· Applied Mechanics/Mechanics of Materials
· Flow Diagnostics
· Fluids

Research Activities:


Jansen's research interests include computational mechanics (with an emphasis on fluid dynamics) turbulence theory, simulation, modeling, and parallel computing. The primary aim of his research is to allow engineers to more accurately predict capability for fluid dynamics problems, especially those where turbulence plays a non-negligible role. His research seeks to develop simple models that describe the net effect or average of the turbulence upon the mean flow equations.

These models, when combined with a fully unstructured-grid finite element method, allow engineers to model arbitrarily complex flow problems. Unfortunately, these models are not yet able to describe all turbulent flows. Therefore, other forms of simulating turbulence are also being pursued. These forms are: 1) Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) where the large scale motions of the turbulence are resolved in the computation leaving only the fine scale motions to be modeled, 2) Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) where all of the turbulent motions are resolved in the computational model. These alternate forms are useful both to develop a more basic understanding of the theory of turbulence and to help improve the averaged models used by engineers.