The Primary focus of my research is on the understanding, prediction and control of the turbulent shear flows found in pipes, channels, jets, wakes and the boundary layers that develop over ships, aircraft, land vehicles, and within turbo-machinery and rocket engines.  This includes the role of turbulence in the transfer of mass, heat and momentum and the effect on drag, mixing and heat transfer. This is achieved through the development and application of a combination of high-fidelity direct numerical simulations of turbulent flows and word leading optical diagnostic experimental measurements. 

Direct numerical simulations include the application and development of highly parallelised codes that scale unto 100k cores and enable the temporal evolution of turbulent boundary layer, channel, poiseuille-couette, and jets flows, via the use of governing equations. This has included one of the world's largest adverse pressure gradient boundary layer simulations, which has been used to explore the contribution of individual flow structures to the generation of skin friction, the response of the flow to perturbations, capture the recovery of self-sustaining turbulent mechanisms that have been removed, and provide statical characterisation, profiles and flow cases that have been shared with the broader community. 

Experimental work has included the development and application of novel world leading holographic and tomographic techniques for volumetric measurement of fluid velocity based on principles of laser diagnostics, particle image velocimetry and tomographic reconstruction, along with the use of tomographic background oriented schlieren for quantitative volumetric density measurements, and the use of temperature sensitive fluorescent and phosphorescent chemical tracers. These developments have enable measurements that range of micro-fluids to large collaborative multi-cameras measurements that spanned over 3 metres of a developing flow.

Previous and current projects include the active control and lift enhancement of aerofoils and 3D wings, coherent structures in turbulent boundary layers and their contribution to skin friction drag, the influence of surface roughness and adverse pressure gradients on the structure of turbulent boundary layers and flow separation, the use of engineered nano-scale surface topology and superhydrophobic surfaces for drag reduction, heat and mass transfer in heated jets and enhancing the regression rate of hybrid rocket engines through liquifying and additively manufactured composite fuel grains.