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Biography

Daniel graduated from The University of Melbourne with a BE (Mechatronics) / BCS in 2003, and then went on to complete his PhD (Aeronautics) at the California Institute of Technology in 2009. Then he was a postdoctoral scholar researching climate physics at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory before joining the department as Lecturer in 2012.

Research interests

Daniel is interested in interdisciplinary research centred around fluid mechanics, including large-eddy simulation and modelling, direct numerical simulation, wall-bounded turbulence (especially over roughness), turbulent convection and planetary boundary layers. Daniel's research is fundamental in nature, aimed at developing and improving the predictive tools used in engineering and meteorology.

Turbulence is prevalent in engineering and nature but despite a century of research, the prediction of turbulent flows remains a challenge. Advances at the fundamental level are therefore necessary and, towards this end, Daniel's research distils the complexity of turbulent flows into simple yet essential configurations that, aided by simulation and modelling, yield insights into the inner workings of turbulence.

Open positions

"The purpose of computing is insight, not numbers." R. W. Hamming

Seeking motivated individuals with background in engineering, mathematics or physics to conduct computational research in a collaborative environment on the following projects (updated Aug 2023):

Riblets drag reduction (PhD, postdoc)

Surface micro-ribs for aircraft drag reduction

Drag and heating of rough walls (PhD, postdoc)

Computational and physical flow modelling of realistic surfaces

Flow control (PhD)

Novel strategies that alter the space–time structure of near-wall turbulence

Sea-wave drag (PhD)

Accurate drag predictions due to turbulence over dynamic roughness

Present members

Hafiz Aliffrananda

PhD 2022–: Aerodynamics of riblet steering.

Chris Camobreco

Postdoc 2022–: Advancing the flow physics behind the drag of riblets.

Alex Hine

PhD 2022–: Unravelling the mysteries of turbulent drag at the air-sea interface.

Jeremy Wong

PhD 2019–2023: Physical modelling of riblet performance in yawed and non-yawed flows. PhD thesis

Past members

Michael Xie

PhD 2018–2023: Turbulent flow over spatially varying roughness. PhD thesis
Obliquely varying roughness

Kevin Zhong

PhD 2019–2023: Predicting turbulent heat transfer over rough surfaces. PhD thesis

Prandtl number effect in the fully rough regime

Present: University of Twente, The Netherlands

Tanvir Saurav

MPhil 2018–2020: Effect of solidity on momentum and heat transfer of rough-wall turbulent flows. MPhil thesis
Roughness solidity effect on drag and heat transfer

Tom Jelly

Postdoc 2020: Understanding rough-wall flows and turbulent mixing for improved models.
Present: University of Melbourne, Australia

Sebastian Endrikat

PhD 2017–2020: Effects of riblet shape on drag reduction in turbulent flow. PhD thesis
jfm vol 952 cover


Riblets matrix

Amirreza Rouhi

Postdoc 2017–2019: Turbulent flow over surfaces with spatially varying roughness.
Spatially varying roughness

Present: Nottingham Trent University, UK

Davide Modesti

Postdoc 2018–2019: Tailoring aircraft surface textures to minimise drag.
Present: TU Delft, The Netherlands

Melissa Kozul

PhD 2014–2018: The turbulent boundary layer studied using novel numerical frameworks. PhD thesis
Temporal boundary layer

Present: University of Melbourne, Australia

Michael MacDonald

PhD 2013–2017: Numerical simulation of turbulent flows over rough surfaces. PhD thesis
Dense roughness

Postdoc 2017: Tailoring aircraft surface textures to minimise drag.
Riblets

Present: University of Auckland, New Zealand

Chong Shen Ng

MPhil 2012–2013: Direct numerical simulation of turbulent natural convection bounded by differentially heated vertical walls. MPhil thesis
Vertical natural convection

PhD 2014–2017: Boundary layer and bulk dynamics in vertical natural convection. PhD thesis
Neat-wall temperature

Present: The Data Analysis Bureau, UK

Refereed journal articles

Fully refereed conference proceedings

Additional research outputs (including non-traditional research outputs)

Awards