The Department of Mechanical, Materials, and Aerospace Engineering presents its spring 2025 seminar series featuring Sean Symon, a senior lecturer at the University of Southampton. Symon will present “Data Assimilating 3D Separated Flows and Aeroelastic Wings in Free-Stream Turbulence.” This seminar is open to the public and will take place on Wednesday, January 29, 2025, from 12:45–1:45 p.m. in room 104 of the Rettaliata Engineering Center.

Abstract

Data assimilation is a powerful tool for reconstructing the mean velocity field from limited observations. The key behind its success is that it solves an optimization problem that penalizes the difference between a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulation and experimental measurements. Uncertain parameters in the simulation, namely the turbulence model in the case of RANS, are optimized such that the simulation matches the available experimental measurements. In the first half of this talk, 3D separated flows are assimilated using limited planar measurements. These include flow past a drivAer car model and flow over a wing at high angle of attack where stall cells are present. The second half of the talk will also consider separated flows over wings that are both flexible and subject to high intensity free-stream turbulence. By making the wing flexible, it is subject to structural deformations that can be measured using digital image correlation (DIC). Even though structural and bending modes are observed in clean flow, turbulence amplifies particular frequencies. The integral length scale of the turbulence, moreover, changes the extent to which these modes are amplified.

Biography

Sean Symon studied aerospace engineering at the University of Maryland where he completed a Bachelor of Science and a Bachelor of Arts in French Language/Literature in 2012. The following year, he completed a Master of Science in Aeronautics at the California Institute of Technology. Before beginning his Ph.D., Symon studied at Ecole Polytechnique in Paris where he was awarded a master’s in fluid mechanics in 2014. He returned to Caltech for his Ph.D. under the supervision of Beverley McKeon. Symon defended his Ph.D. thesis in 2018 and became a post-doctoral research fellow in Australia for two years at the University of Melbourne, working with Simon Illingworth and Ivan Marusic. He is currently a senior lecturer (associate professor) in the Aerodynamics and Flight Mechanics Group at the University of Southampton.