School of Engineering

Kenneth E. Jansen
Professor
Associate Director of the Scientific Computation Research Center http://www.scorec.rpi.edu/~kjansen

Department Affiliation:

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Nuclear Engineering

Education:

Ph.D., Stanford University
Mechanical Engineering

M.S., Stanford University
Mechanical Engineering

B.S., University of Missouri-Columbia
Mechanical Engineering

Background:

Jansen completed his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Aeronautical Engineering in 1993 under an Office of Naval Research Fellowship. Upon graduation he joined the Center for Turbulence Research, a joint NASA-Stanford program, where he was awarded a three-year post-doctoral research fellowship. In August 1996 he became a member of the Rensselaer faculty.

Research Interests:

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.