Experimental Aerodynamics and Propulsion Lab

The research activities focus on both advancement / development of current/new flow diagnostics techniques, data-driven methods and on the experimental investigation of vortical features, heat transport and mixing in complex flows. The experimental activities are prevalently targeted to aerospace propulsion-related aspects such as swirling flows and turbomachinery cooling.

Research lines

Advanced flow diagnostics

We work on the development and improvement of measurement tools for turbulent and complex flows. Our contributions have been mostly in the field of PIV (planar, stereoscopic and volumetric) and IR thermography. Recent efforts include the application of data-driven methods to improve measurement spatial and temporal resolution and signal-to-noise ratio.

Data-driven fluid mechanics

We investigate on data-driven tools to analyze numerical and experimental data. The tools we employ are aimed at flow sensing, model order reduction and control. Current activities include the sensing of large-scale motions in turbulent boundary layers and the heat transfer enhancement with closed loop control.

Wall-bounded turbulence

Turbulent boundary layers (TBLs) are of paramount importance given their ubiquitous presence in many relevant fluid-flow problems such as the flow over wings, land and sea vehicles, turbines, compressors, etc. The focus of our research is on the coherent structures organization, modeling and manipulation in canonical (pipe flows, ZPG TBLs) and non-canonical conditions.

Convective heat transfer

Convective heat transfer is relevant in countless industrial applications (turbomachinery, manufacturing, food processing, etc.). We use optical methods and data-mining techniques to investigate the flow feataures which are more intensively active in convective heat transfer phenomena.

Bio-inspired aerodynamics

Several engineering problems have brilliant solutions which are readily availble in nature. We aim to identify bio-inspired solutions for thermo-fluid-dynamic problems.

People

Stefano Discetti

Alejandro Güemes

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Firoozeh Foroozan

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Andrea Ianiro

Active competitive research projects

NEXTFLOW: Next-generation flow diagnostics for control
ERC Starting Grant (PI: S. Discetti, UC3M), 1.499.062€, 2021-2025 [www]

ARTURO: Active control of turbulence for sustainable aircraft propulsion.
Spanish State Research Agency (PI: S. Discetti and A. Ianiro, UC3M), 117.370€, 2020-2023 [www]

AEROMATIC: Active flow control of aerodynamic flows with machine learning.
Fundación BBVA (PI: S. Discetti, UC3M), 40.000€, 2020-2022 [www]

COTURB: Coherent structures in wall-bounded turbulence
ERC Advanced Grant (PI: J.Jimenez, UPM), 278.750€, 2016-2021

PITUFLOW-CM-UC3M: Pattern Identification in Turbulence for Flow control
UC3M. Madrid Region (PIs: V. Guerrero Lozano and A. Ianiro, UC3M), 60.000€, 2020-2021

CONTRAST: Convective heat Transfer and coherent Structures in Turbulent boundary layers
Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad of Spain (PIs: A. Ianiro and S. Discetti, UC3M) 99.825€, 2016-2019

FLAPPING: Numerical and experimental evaluation of the unsteady aerodynamics of flapping wings
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (PIs: O.Flores and M.G. Villalba, UC3M), 90.750€, 2014-2016

System for simultaneous measurements of 3D flow fields and convective heat transfer in a water tunnel
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain (PI: F.J. Rodriguez, UC3M), 280.000€, 2013-2015

Funding from industrial and academic partners

The research activities of EAP have been funded by the following industrial partners:

Airbus Operations, S.L
Compañía Española de Sistemas Aeronáuticos, S.A.
TU Delft
ATOS Spain

PhD theses

Control of turbulent convective heat transfer
Rodrigo Castellanos García de Blas (ongoing) Supervisors: S. Discetti, A. Ianiro

Data-driven enhancement of optical measurement techniques
Iacopo Tirelli (ongoing) Supervisors: S. Discetti, A. Ianiro

Complete flow description from combination of incomplete measurements
Junwei Chen (ongoing) Supervisors: S. Discetti, A.Ianiro

Statistical learning tools for turbulent flow control
Ehsan Farzamnik (ongoing) Supervisors: A. Ianiro, V. Guerrero Lozano

Dynamics of coherent structures in wall-bounded turbulent flows
Alejandro Güemes Jimenez (ongoing) Supervisors: A. Ianiro, S. Discetti

Detection and control of large-scale motions in wall-bounded turbulent flows
Firoozeh Foroozan. (ongoing) Supervisors: A. Ianiro, S. Discetti

Turbulent boundary layers with adverse pressure gradient
Carlos Sanmiguel Vila. (2019) [pdf] Supervisors: S. Discetti, A. Ianiro
Outstanding thesis award UC3M.
Currently Científico Titular at INTA

Empirical eigenfunctions: application in unsteady aerodynamics
Marco Raiola (2017) [pdf] Supervisors: A. Ianiro, S. Discetti
Currently Assistant Professor in the EAP group (UC3M)

Three-dimensional organization and heat transfer of jets with fractal generated turbulence
Gioacchino Cafiero (2016) [pdf] Supervisors: T. Astarita (Univ. of Naples), S. Discetti
Currently Assistant Professor at Politecnico di Torino (Italy)

Investigation of Synthetic Jets Heat Transfer and Flow Field
Carlo Salvatore Greco. Supervisors: G. Cardone (Univ. of Naples), A. Ianiro (2015) [pdf]
Currently Assistant Professor at University of Naples Federico II (Italy)

Selected recent publications

Experimental realisation of near-equilibrium adverse-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layers
C.Sanmiguel Vila, R.Vinuesa, S.Discetti, A.Ianiro, P.Schlatter, R.Örlü,
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, (2020) [DOI]

Sensing the turbulent large-scale motions with their wall signature
A. Güemes, S.Discetti, A.Ianiro
Physics of Fluids, (2019) [DOI]

Characterization of very-large-scale motions in high-Re pipe flows
S. Discetti, G. Bellani, R. Örlü, J. Serpieri, C. Sanmiguel Vila, M. Raiola, X. Zheng, L. Mascotelli, A. Talamelli, A. Ianiro
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, (2019) [DOI]

Estimation of time-resolved turbulent fields through correlation of non-time-resolved field measurements and time-resolved point measurements
S. Discetti, M. Raiola, A. Ianiro
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, (2018) [DOI]

Smart rotors: Dynamic-stall load control by means of an actuated flap
M. Raiola, S. Discetti, A. Ianiro, F. Samara, F. Avallone, D. Ragni
AIAA Journal, (2018) [DOI]

Volumetric velocimetry for fluid flows
S. Discetti, F. Coletti
Measurement Science and Technology, (2018) [DOI]

On the identification of well-behaved turbulent boundary layers
C.Sanmiguel Vila, R.Vinuesa, S.Discetti, A.Ianiro, P.Schlatter, R.Örlü,
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, (2017) [DOI]

Towards enabling time-resolved measurements of turbulent convective heat transfer maps with IR thermography and a heated thin foil
M. Raiola, C. S. Greco, M. Contino, S. Discetti, A. Ianiro
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, (2017) [DOI]

Three-dimensional organization and dynamics of vortices in multichannel swirling jets
A. Ianiro, K. P. Lynch, D. Violato, G. Cardone, F. Scarano
Journal of Fluid Mechanics, (2017) [DOI]

Ensemble 3D PTV for high resolution turbulent statistics
N. Äguera, G. Cafiero, T. Astarita, S. Discetti
Measurement Science and Technology, (2016)

Open-source codes and repositories

[CODE] Data-Enhanced Particle Tracking Velocimetry [GitHub]
[CODE] POD-based background removal for Particle Image Velocimetry [www]
[DATA] Very-large-scale motions measurement in pipe flows at high Reynolds numbers [TurBase]
[DATA] High-Dynamic-Range Measurements in Pipe Flows at High Reynolds Numbers [TurBase]

Collaborations

Prof. Dr. Philipp Schlatter, Dr. Ramis Örlü, Dr. Ricardo Vinuesa, KTH, Department of Mechanics
Prof. Dr. Daniele Ragni, Aeroacoustics group, TU Delft
Prof. Dr. Javier Jimenez, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
Prof. Dr. Tommaso Astarita, Prof. Dr. Gennaro Cardone, Dr. Carlo Salvatore Greco, Industrial Engineering Department, University of Naples Federico II
Prof. Dr. Alessandro Talamelli, Universitá Alma Mater Studiorum di Bologna
Dr. Miguel Mendez, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics