Xinyu Zhao
1/13/14-3/7/14
Host: Jackie Chen
Xinyu Zhao is a roving postdoctoral fellow at the Combustion Energy Frontier Research Center (a DOE-funded center led by Princeton University focused on predictive modeling to improve the design of advanced engines) who is co-mentored by Dan Haworth of Pennsylvania State University and the CRF’s Jackie Chen. She recently visited the CRF to collaborate with Jackie on a priori validation of a new mixing model for turbulent combustion based on the transported probability density function (PDF) approach. Specifically, Xinyu worked to evaluate the recent shadow position mixing model developed by Steve Pope of Cornell University against data from a direct numerical simulation—performed by CRF postdoc Ankit Bhagatwala—of a dimethyl ether jet flame undergoing extinction and re-ignition. Mixing models that represent the molecular mixing of different chemical species are important in the accurate prediction of turbulent combustion.
Moving forward, Xinyu will continue work on a posteriori evaluation of PDF mixing models for both Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) approaches, and plans to visit the CRF again in the next year.