Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Research

Fluid mechanics is the study of the behavior of gases and liquids at rest and in motion.  Its applications range from the ordinary such as monitoring water flowing through household pipes and modeling wind patterns for predicting the weather, to the extraordinary such as designing the liquid fuel channels in a rocket engine and developing an artificial heart to pump blood.  Aerodynamics focuses on the forces exerted by the air or other gases on solid bodies. It is from the study of aerodynamics that we learn why an aircraft wing generates lift and why a golf ball has dimples.  Though often particularly related to aircraft and spacecraft, aerodynamics also finds application in automotive and marine vehicle design.

Turbulence

Experimental Aerodynamics

Multiphase Flow

Fluids and Aerodynamics

Overview

The fluids and Aerodynamics lab at Florida Tech is located in building 538 at the southern end of the compus near School of Psychology. It provides the necessary laboratory experiment to students of mechanical, Aerospace, Civil and Ocean Engineering. The low speed wind tunnel, major equipment in the lab which helps to visualize and measures forces and pressure on bodies. There are also several table top experiment to measure fluid properties and to verify the conservation laws of fluid motion.

Advanced instrumentation, such as doppler velocimeter and hot wire anemometer are also available for graduate teaching and research.

Personnel

Director: Chelakara S. Subramanian, Ph.D, P.Eng(U.K.)
 Tel: (321)674-7614, email: subraman@fit.edu

Personnel

  1. Dr. C. S. Subramanian (x7614)
    Director & associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering
  2. Ms. Stephanie Hopper (x7349)
    Director of Laboratories
  3. Mr. Ed. Martin (x7182)
    Laboratory Assistant
  4. Mr. Larry Buist (x7216)
    Electronics Technician

Facility and Equipment

Fluids laboratory equipment

  • Armfield hydraulic bench
  • Armfield pipe friction apparatus
  • Armfield impinging jet apparatus
  • Armfield flow metes
  • Armfield losses-in-bends apparatus
  • TechQuipment Hele-Shaw apparatus
  • Falling ball viscometer-in-house designed and built
  • Dantec 55N CTA and CCA system
  • Pipe-flow apparatus for LDA experiment 
  • Oscilloscopes and voltmeters

Tests

Test Performed on Hydraulic bench

Impinging

Impinging Jet and Losses-in-Bends

Aerodynamics laboratory equipment

  • Martin Magnum-1600 fog generator
  • Fiber optic laser sheet flow visulization in-house built systems
  • CCD camera; image processing hardware for pentuim 120 computer
  • Sub2D and Sub3D aerodynamic simulation software: SoftwAerodynautics
  • Strain gage force balance and accesories
  • Digital pressure gage by Meriam, Inc 
  • Lexl Ar-ion 8 W and 1 W Laser