We are working on the following topics:

High Enthalpy Flows

Hall Thrusters

Plasma Actuators for Flow Control

Laser-fluid interactions

We try to use open source tools as much as possible in our work. Our publications are listed here.

High Enthalpy Flows

Flow fields around reentry vehicles typically range from the high-supersonic to hypersonic mach numbers. Experimental studies of the heat loads on the material surfaces in such flow fields need to generate high enthalpy flows to simulate the real flow energies. Heating air to such high enthalpies using arc-heating facilities leads to the ionization of air in the region of heating. We are interested in modeling the flow-fields in arc-heated wind tunnels.

Hall Thrusters

Hall thrusters are electric propulsive devices that can be used on space-crafts. They have a much higher specific impulse than the conventional thrusters. Our interest is in the computational study of thruster performance and the various instabilities that affect hall thruster plasmas.

Plasma Actuators for Flow Control

Plasma actuators promise flow control without needing any moving components. Here a body force is exerted on the fluid by the actuator. We are interested in the use of such actuators to control flow separation.

Laser-fluid interactions

As a laser propagates through a gas, some of its energy is absorbed by the gas. The resulting convection currents can distort the laser. We are interested in quantifying these distortions using numerical simulations.

Past Work

Our previous work is described here.