APPLIED RESEARCH PROJECT

Minnerota: A new energy converter for shallow rivers


RESEARCH INTERESTS

1) environmental fluid mechanics

2) turbulence

3) flow measurements  techniques (Laboratory  and  Field )


Engineering, Science and Applied Research 

Near-surface processes in the atmosphere and in water bodies (rivers, lakes, and ocean) are very important because they define the boundary conditions of very complex systems.  Misinterpreting the physics there will strongly compromise our predictive capabilities. I want to design  1) laboratory experiments to improve our knowledge on simple key physical mechanisms, and 2)  complex field experiment to test our understanding of real phenomena on a real scale. 


Wind Tunnel and Wind Energy

The Atmospheric Wind Tunnel at SAFL is a large scale, low noise, temperature-controlled facility, designed and operated to mimic the atmospheric surface layer.

Project: Evaluating wind farm performance under realistic thermal and complex terrain conditions: the first path towards optimization Sponsored by the Initiative for Renewable Energy & the Environment (IREE), Institue on the Environment (IONE), University of Minnesota


Selected works:

  • Lee  J., Singh A. and Guala M. ``Reconstructing sediment transport by migrating bedforms in the physical and spectral domain'' Water Resources Research (68) 7  (2022)
  • Feist  C., Sotiropoulos F. and Guala M. ``A quasi-coupled wind wave experimental framework for testing offshore wind turbine floating systems''  Theoretical and applied Mechanics letters  (68) 7  (2021)
  • Redolfi M. , Musa M. and Guala M. ``On steady alternate bars forced by a localized asymmetric drag distribution in erodible channels''   Journal of fluid mechanics (916)  (2021)
  • Heisel  M., De Silva T., Hutchins N., Marusic I. and Guala M. ``On the mixing length eddies and logarithmic mean velocity profile in wall turbulence'' Journal of fluid mechanics (887)  (2020)
  • Liu M., Pelosi A. and Guala M. ``A statistical description of particle motion and rest regime in open channel flow under low bedload transport''   J. Geophys. Res. - Earth (124) , 11- (2019)
  • Heisel  M., Dasari T., Liu Y., Hong J., Coletti F. and Guala M. ``The spatial structure of the logarithmic region in very-high Reynolds number rough wall turbulent boundary layers" Journal of fluid mechanics (857) , 707-747 (2018)
  • Musa M., Hill C., Sotiropoulos F., and Guala M. ``Performance and resilience of hydrokinetic turbine arrays under large migrating fluvial bedforms" Nature Energy 3(10) , 839- (2018)
  • Nemes. A., Dasari. T.  Hong J., Guala M. and Coletti F. ``Snowflakes in the atrmospheric surface layer: observation of particle turbulence dynamics " Journal of fluid mechanics (814) , 592-613 (2017)
  • Howard K., Singh A., Sotiropoulos F.,  and Guala M. ``On the statistics of wind turbine wake meandering: an experimental investigations" PPhysics of fluids  of Fluid Mechanics 27, 7 (2015)
  • Hong J., Toloui M., Chamorro L.P. , Guala M., Howard K., Riley S., Tucker J., Sotiropoulos F. ``Natural snowfall reveals large-scale flow structures in the wake of a 2.5-MW wind turbine" Nature communications 5, 4216 (2014)
  • Guala M, Metzger B.J. McKeon ``Interactions within the turbulent boundary layer at high Reynolds number'', J. Fluid Mech. pp: 573-604 (2011)
  • Guala M., Manes C., Clifton A., Lehning M. ``A wind tunnel investigation on the saltation of fresh snow particles in a turbulent boundary layer''    J.  Geophys. Res. - Earth (2008)
  • Guala M., Hommema S.E and Adrian R.J., ``Large-scale and very-large-scale motions in turbulent pipe flow'',  J. Fluid Mech. 50th anniversary issue (554) pp 521-542 (2006)
  • Guala M., Luthi B., Liberzon A., Kinzelbach W., Tsinober A. ``On the evolution of vorticity and material lines in homogeneous turbulence'', J. Fluid Mech (533) pp 339-359