Joint Mechanical Engineering and Estuarine & Ocean Sciences Seminar
When: Friday,
October 28, 2022
2:00 PM
-
3:00 PM
Where: > See description for location
Description: Joint Mechanical Engineering and Estuarine & Ocean Sciences SEMINAR
DATE:
October 28, 2022
TIME:
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
LOCATIONS:
Liberal Arts Building, Room 374 (LARTS-374)
-and-
Zoom link:
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/91640406955?pwd=eklBZWVDOXVDa2VwUFMra1kwNWhjdz09
Meeting ID:
916 4040 6955
Password:
500
SPEAKER:
Dr. Tracy Mandel, Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Ocean Engineering,
University of New Hampshire
TOPIC:
Fluid Mechanics Through the Lens of the Coastal Free Surface
ABSTRACT:
Flow interactions at coastlines play a major role in global ocean energy and nutrient budgets. However, coastal flows can be expensive, logistically challenging, and even dangerous to study in situ. In this talk, I will cover two problems that connect the water surface and subsurface dynamics in the coastal ocean, and show how we use idealized laboratory experiments to understand the physics of these systems. First, I will discuss work aim towards remotely characterizing seagrass meadows by studying the overlying water surface. Flow through a seagrass bed can generate large overturning vortex structures, which cause small perturbations in the free surface slope. Using laboratory experiments, we develop a parameterized model to reconstruct within-canopy velocity profiles solely from water surface measurements, suggesting that in some environmental flows, the subsurface hydrodynamics and geometry may be predicted by measuring the water surface behavior alone. Second, I will examine the dynamics of turbulent buoyant plumes, such as those that might emerge at the base of a marine-terminating glacier. I will discuss our recent work that examines the role of buoyancy in enhancing entrainment in plumes, and preliminary work that quantifies the surface expression of these buoyant plumes.
BIO:
Tracy Mandel is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Ocean Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. Her research explores turbulent flow at ocean margins, with a focus on laboratory experiments. Her group is particularly interested in the surface signature of systems that have complex subsurface hydrodynamics (such as seagrass meadows and freshwater plumes) and developing simplified models that allow us to "invert" this interior behavior by measuring the free surface. She received her B.S. from Cornell University in 2012 and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2013 and 2018, and was awarded the 2018 Lorenz G. Straub Award for most meritorious doctoral dissertation in hydraulic engineering, ecohydraulics, and related fields. Prior to joining the faculty at UNH, she was a postdoctoral scholar in Physics and Applied Math at the University of California, Merced.
For more information please contact Dr. Hangjian Ling, MNE Seminar Coordinator (hling1@umassd.edu).
All are welcome.
Students taking MNE-500 are REQUIRED to attend!
All other MNE BS and MS students are encouraged to attend. EAS students are also encouraged to attend.
DATE:
October 28, 2022
TIME:
2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.
LOCATIONS:
Liberal Arts Building, Room 374 (LARTS-374)
-and-
Zoom link:
https://umassd.zoom.us/j/91640406955?pwd=eklBZWVDOXVDa2VwUFMra1kwNWhjdz09
Meeting ID:
916 4040 6955
Password:
500
SPEAKER:
Dr. Tracy Mandel, Assistant Professor
Mechanical and Ocean Engineering,
University of New Hampshire
TOPIC:
Fluid Mechanics Through the Lens of the Coastal Free Surface
ABSTRACT:
Flow interactions at coastlines play a major role in global ocean energy and nutrient budgets. However, coastal flows can be expensive, logistically challenging, and even dangerous to study in situ. In this talk, I will cover two problems that connect the water surface and subsurface dynamics in the coastal ocean, and show how we use idealized laboratory experiments to understand the physics of these systems. First, I will discuss work aim towards remotely characterizing seagrass meadows by studying the overlying water surface. Flow through a seagrass bed can generate large overturning vortex structures, which cause small perturbations in the free surface slope. Using laboratory experiments, we develop a parameterized model to reconstruct within-canopy velocity profiles solely from water surface measurements, suggesting that in some environmental flows, the subsurface hydrodynamics and geometry may be predicted by measuring the water surface behavior alone. Second, I will examine the dynamics of turbulent buoyant plumes, such as those that might emerge at the base of a marine-terminating glacier. I will discuss our recent work that examines the role of buoyancy in enhancing entrainment in plumes, and preliminary work that quantifies the surface expression of these buoyant plumes.
BIO:
Tracy Mandel is an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Ocean Engineering at the University of New Hampshire. Her research explores turbulent flow at ocean margins, with a focus on laboratory experiments. Her group is particularly interested in the surface signature of systems that have complex subsurface hydrodynamics (such as seagrass meadows and freshwater plumes) and developing simplified models that allow us to "invert" this interior behavior by measuring the free surface. She received her B.S. from Cornell University in 2012 and her M.S. and Ph.D. from Stanford University in 2013 and 2018, and was awarded the 2018 Lorenz G. Straub Award for most meritorious doctoral dissertation in hydraulic engineering, ecohydraulics, and related fields. Prior to joining the faculty at UNH, she was a postdoctoral scholar in Physics and Applied Math at the University of California, Merced.
For more information please contact Dr. Hangjian Ling, MNE Seminar Coordinator (hling1@umassd.edu).
All are welcome.
Students taking MNE-500 are REQUIRED to attend!
All other MNE BS and MS students are encouraged to attend. EAS students are also encouraged to attend.
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