CENTER FOR HYDRODYNAMICS AND PHYSICAL OCEANOGRAPHY

Department of Ocean Engineering,
Florida Atlantic University,
Boca Raton Campus
777 Glades Road, Boca Raton, Florida 33431.

Seatech Campus
101 North Beach Road, Dania Beach, Florida 33004
Voice: (561) 297 2827 / (954) 924 7242
Fax: (561) 297 3885 / (954) 924 7007

The Center for Hydrodynamics and Physical Oceanography currently has five FAU faculty members, one Adjunct faculty member, two postdoctoral researchers and a number of graduate students. The faculty in the center have strong research interests in ocean modeling, flow measurement and computational fluid dynamics involving nearshore processes, nonlinear wave mechanics, turbulent flow and coherent vortex dynamics. Recent and current research activities have involved consideration of boundary layer, wake and shear flows, air-sea interaction and internal waves, wave-body interaction, sensor and sensor-platform development, flow control, drag reduction, sediment transport and hydro-acoustics. For details, please follow the links below to the individual faculty pages. Graduate students undertake research in these areas as part of their MS and Ph.D. degree programs in Ocean Engineering. Recent research has been funded by federal and state agencies, including the National Science Foundation and the Office of Naval Research.

FACILITIES

The program currently has a research laboratory at the SeaTech campus which includes a 4ft x 4ft x 60ft recirculating flume/wave tank with capabilities for currents of order 1 m/s, random wave generation and tow carriage. The laboratory also has a Stereoscopic 3-D Particle Image Velocitimetry (PIV) system for in-depth flow studies. The Center's second laboratory is at the Boca Campus and is equipped with an open-circuit, low-turbulence wind tunnel (28in. x 28in. x 40in test section) for speeds up to 160mph, and a 30in. x 30in. x 25ft. wave tank with a random wave generation capability. The laboratory is equipped with hot wire anemometer and wave gauges. A turbulence measurement platform for deployment from an AUV is available for making in-situ measurement in the ocean to a depth of 1500ft. The computational facilities include DEC Alpha, Sun Ultra and SGI workstations and access to external main-frame computers. A new CFD laboratory is being established for computational studies in ocean processes and wave-body interactions.

FACULTY

• P. Ananthakrishnan, Associate Professor and Center Director; Ph.D., Univ. of California at Berkeley.
  
• Manhar R. Dhanak, Professor; Ph.D., Univ. of London.
  
• Rick Driscoll, Assistant Professor; Ph.D., Univ. of Victoria, Canada.
• Rolf Lueck, Adjunct Professor, PhD, University of British Columbia, Canada
  
• Peter Scarlatos, Professor; Ph.D., Aristotle Univ. of Thessaloniki; P.E.
  
• Jeffrey S. Tennant, Professor; Ph.D., Clemson University; PE
• Karl Von Ellenrieder. Assiatant Professor. Ph.D., Stanford University.
  

POST DOCTORAL RESEARCHERS

• Pierre Guillerm, PhD.
• Michael Chernys, Ph D, Florida Atlantic University

GRADUATE STUDENTS

• Jeffrey Bogan, BS
• Mathieu Clabon
• Dusan Curic, BS
• Linn Eide, BS
• Lionel Gurfinkel
• Ariel Meir, BS
• Branka Radanovic, BS
• Olivier Saout
• Vimal Vinayan, BS
• James VanZwieten, BS, Florida Atlantic University

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

• Radiation hydrodynamics of a floating vertical cylinder. P. Ananthakrishnan, Journal of Engineering Mechanics, vol. 125, pp 836-847, 1999.
• Viscosity and surface-tension effects on wave generation by a translating body P. Ananthakrishnan (with R. W. Yeung) Journal of Engineering Mathematics, vol. 32, pp. 257--280, 1997.
• Heave oscillation of a submerged vertical cylinder. P. Ananthakrishnan. Proceedings of the Seventh International Offshore and Polar Engineering Conference, Honolulu, vol. III, pp. 672--679, 1997.
• An AUV Survey in the Littoral Zone: Small-scale Subsurface Variability Accompanying Synoptic Observations of Surface Currents. M. R. Dhanak, E. An, K Holappa. 2001 Journal of Ocean Engineering. Vol. 26, 752-768.
• Coastal Oceanography using a small AUV. E. An, M. R. Dhanak, L K Shay, S Smith and J Van Leer, 2001, Journal of Atmospheric and Ocean Technology, 18, 215-234.
• Boundary-layer flow along a ridge: alternatives to the Falkner-Skan solutions. P. W. Duck, S R Stow and M. R. Dhanak 2000.. Phil. Trans. Roy Soc London, 358, 3075 - 3090.
• An Autonomous Ocean Turbulence Measurement Platform. M R Dhanak and K Holappa. Journal of Atmospheric and Ocean Technology, vol. 16, 1506-1518, 1999
• On reduction of turbulent wall friction through spanwise wall oscillations. M R Dhanak and C Si. 1999. Journal of Fluid Mechnics, vol. 383, 175-195.
• Non-similarity solutions to the corner boundary-layer equations. P. W. Duck, S. R. Stow and M R Dhanak. 1999. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 400, 125 - 162.
• Coherent vortex model for surface pressure fluctuations induced by the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer. M R Dhanak, A P Dowling and C Si. 1997.  Phys. Fluids. 9, 2716-2731.
• The effect of streamwise pressure gradient on a corner boundary layer. M R Dhanak and P W Duck. 1997. Proceedings of the Royal Society. 453, 1793-1815.
• Alongshore currents over variable beach topography, accepted for publication in Journal of Geophysical Research. D. N. Slinn, J. S. Allen, R. A. Holman, 1999.
• Nonlinear shear instabilities of alongshore currents over barred beaches. D. N. Slinn, J. S. Allen, P. A. Newberger, R. A. Holman, 1998. Journal of Geophysical Research, 103, 18,357-18,379.
• A model for the simulation of turbulent boundary layers in an incompressible stratified flow. D. N. Slinn, J. J. Riley, 1998 Journal of Computational Physics, 144, 550-602.
• Turbulent dynamics of a critically reflecting internal gravity wave. D. N. Slinn, J. J. Riley, 1998, Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, 11, 281-303.

GRADUATE COURSES IN FLUID MECHANICS

• Advanced Hydrodynamics I
  
• Advanced Hydrodynamics II
  
• Advanced Wave Mechanics
  
• Vortex Dynamics
  
• Turbulent Flow
  
• Physical Aspects of Oceanography
  
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
  

• Web of Science Journal Reference Search.