This team is developing a computer simulation of die-casting process that will enable a designer to predict the improvements before the design reaches the production stage. The work on effects of surface roughness also has applications to aircraft, where wing contamination due to insects, ice, or deicing fluids can have important effects.
Research relating to inflight ice accretion on aircraft is also underway.
All of the aerodynamics research involves a complementary combination of experimental and computational effort. Two areas of research are ongoing in the area of thermo-fluids. Computational fluid dynamic modeling of high speed flows such as the intakes to high speed air breathing engines and the performance of such vehicles.