Welcome to the home of the Apte Research Group and the Computational Flow Physics Laboratory in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University. This group is directed by Dr. Sourabh V. Apte. Our primary research focus is on the fundamental analysis of fluid flow problems using multiscale modeling and numerical simulations. Specifically, we are interested in multiphase flows wherein solid particulates, liquid drops, or vapor bubbles are dispersed in an ambient fluid (gas or liquid) undergoing time-dependent, often turbulent, motion. Practical examples include fuel droplets and spray in combustion chambers of propulsion systems, gas and vapor bubbles in cavitating flows, coal particles in oxy-fuel systems and fluidized beds, sediment transport in river and coastal regions, among others. We are interested in the development of advanced numerical algorithms addressing the multiscale interactions between the dispersed phase and the fluid flow using techniques such as direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large-eddy simulation (LES) for turbulent flows. We use these high-fidelity simulation techniques to gain fundamental understanding of fluid flow problems as well as for flow predictions in practical engineering systems. These studies typically involve large-scale high-performance parallel computations.

The specific areas of current research are bubble dynamics in cavitating flows, particle-laden flows in oxy-coal reactors, numerical algorithms for fully resolved simulations of freely moving arbitrary shaped particles, a hybrid Lagrangian-Eulerian (hLE) interface tracking scheme for simulations of deforming interfaces, flow maldistribution due to fouling and plugging in parallel microchannels, simulation-based design and optimization of a microchannel solar receiver for processing and production of bio-fuels, and identification of vortical structures in highly separated flows over airfoils/hydrofoils and their correlation with surface pressure oscillations, lift and drag.

Our current research is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, US Army, the Department of Energy (DoE), and the Oregon BEST (Oregon Built Environment & Sustainable Technologies Center). We actively seek students to work in our laboratory on the above or new projects. Undergraduate students are strongly encouraged to contact Dr. Apte for senior team projects, honors theses, and for possibility of graduate level work under the Opportunity Plus program. We also collaborate with the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) in Albany; providing good opportunities for internships and future full-time employment.