I study tubercle airfoils, flapping wings, tandem foil interactions, and wake instability to turn bio-inspired flow physics into design insight for low-Reynolds-number flight and propulsion.
My work combines numerical simulations, in-house water tunnel experiments, and flow visualization to identify the physical mechanisms behind lift, drag, thrust, and wake switching in low-speed aerodynamic systems.
An evolutionary multi-objective search identified a NACA0012 tubercle geometry with amplitude 11.71% chord and wavelength 25% chord at Re = 50,000. Experiments and simulations showed improved lift and reduced drag in the post-stall regime by reorganizing stall cells and maintaining attached-flow zones.
Physics of Fluids, 2024For a flapping wing with sinusoidal leading-edge tubercles, the wake developed counter-rotating vortex pairs, residual loops, and hairpin-like structures that reduced thrust compared with a smooth baseline wing. The result is a clear design warning: tubercles must be matched to the flight mode.
Physics of Fluids, 2025In tandem elliptical flapping airfoils at Re = 5000, the rear foil benefits from the front foil wake up to a critical Strouhal number. Residual vortices and shear-layer interaction can increase thrust, especially near a 15 degree effective angle of attack.
Physics of Fluids, 2026In quiescent fluid, a hovering foil repeatedly encounters its own wake. The published letter identifies a history-dependent remnant vortex impingement mechanism that drives premature leading-edge vortex detachment, oblique wake dipole ejection, aperiodic switching, and lift asymmetry despite symmetric kinematics.
Physics of Fluids Letter, 2026
The research connects a natural design cue, leading-edge tubercles inspired by humpback whale flippers, with the measurable flow structures that control lift, drag, thrust, and wake switching.
DOI links are provided for the journal articles.
I am interested in projects at the intersection of unsteady aerodynamics, bio-inspired design, vortex dynamics, and experimental-computational validation.
