The Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Flow (LTCF) was originally established in the Department of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Prof. Ronald J. Adrian (now of Arizona State University). During that time, LTCF established a strong tradition of fundamental research in the areas of wall-bounded turbulent flows, turbulent thermal convection, numerical simulations of turbulence and the development of advanced diagnostics, most notably the widely-used particle-image velocimetry technique. LTCF is now a part of the Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois under the direction of Prof. Kenneth T. Christensen and its members continue to pursue fundamental experimental research in a variety of areas of fluid mechanics, including turbulent flows, transport phenomena at the microscale and biomedical flows. Our present interests include the structure of wall-bounded turbulent flows, the impact of highly-irregular roughness on turbulent boundary layers, polymer-induced turbulence modifications in impinging jets, transition to turbulence at the microscale and the development of advanced diagnostics for the study of thermal transport at the microscale.

Recent LTCF News

»Manuscript entitled "Direct Flow Visualization and Modeling of Colloidal Gels in Microfluidic Channels" by Roberts, Mohraz, Christensen and Lewis appears in August 14, 2007 issue of Langmuir. (8/20/07)

»Manuscript entitled "Outer-Layer Similarity in the Presence of a Practical Rough-Wall Topography" by Wu and Christensen appears in August 2007 issue of Physics of Fluids. (8/20/07)

»Manuscript entitled "Microscopic Particle Image Velocimetry Measurements of Transition to Turbulence in Microscale Capillaries" by Natrajan and Christensen appears in July 2007 issue of Experiments in Fluids. (8/1/07)

»Manuscript entitled "Spatial Signatures of Retrograde Spanwise Vortices in Wall Turbulence" by Natrajan, Wu and Christensen appears in February 2007 issue of Journal of Fluid Mechanics. (2/15/07)

»Prof. Christensen named a recipient of an NSF CAREER Award. (2/6/07)

»Manuscript entitled "Statistical and Structural Similarities Between Micro- and Macro-Scale Wall Turbulence" by Natrajan and Christensen appears in the February 2007 issue of Microfluidics and Nanofluidics. (2/1/07)

»Manuscript entitled " Reynolds-Stress Enhancement Associated with a Short Fetch of Roughness in Wall Turbulence" by Wu and Christensen appears in the December 2006 issue of AIAA Journal. (1/10/07)

»LTCF graduate students Vinay Natrajan and Yanhua Wu presented seminars in the TAM 500 seminar series during the Fall 2006 semester. Giving such a seminar is a requirement for the PhD degree in Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. (12/7/06)

»LTCF graduate student Yanhua (Felix) Wu recently passed his PhD preliminary exam. Congratulations, Felix! (11/13/06)

»Prof. Christensen named a recipient of an AFOSR Young Investigator Award. (10/3/06)