The upcoming seminar in the Environmental Fluid Dynamics Series will feature Associate Professor Jesse Capecelatro from the University of Michigan's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering departments. Prof. Capecelatro, who completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University in 2014 and conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a leading expert in fluid mechanics, focusing on multiphase flows, turbulence, and scientific computing.

The seminar will delve into recent advancements in simulating turbulent particle-laden flows, a crucial aspect of many natural and industrial processes where solid particles or liquid droplets are suspended in turbulence. Prof. Capecelatro will address the inherent challenges of modeling these complex systems and introduce innovative subgrid-scale (SGS) models designed for both dilute and dense particulate suspensions.

A key highlight of his presentation will be the novel approach of treating drag forces as an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, which allows for a more accurate representation of particle microstructure effects on velocity statistics. Additionally, Prof. Capecelatro will showcase how integrating two-point pairwise interactions into the stochastic process creates spatial correlations between particles. This advancement marks the development of the

first SGS model capable of accurately capturing both one-point fluid and two-point particle statistics, offering significant improvements in predicting particle dispersion and deposition in various environmental flows.

This seminar promises to provide valuable insights into cutting-edge methods for modeling complex turbulent systems and their practical implications for environmental fluid dynamics.