Charles Meneveau (born 1960) is a French-Chilean born American fluid dynamicist, known for his work on

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...

, including

turbulence modeling Turbulence modeling is the construction and use of a mathematical model to predict the effects of turbulence. Turbulent flows are commonplace in most real life scenarios, including the flow of blood through the cardiovascular system, the airflow o ...

and

computational fluid dynamics Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical analysis and data structures to analyze and solve problems that involve fluid flows. Computers are used to perform the calculations required to simulate th ...

. Charles Meneveau, the Louis M. Sardella Professor i
Mechanical Engineering
and an associate director of the Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Scienc
(IDIES)
at th
Johns Hopkins University
focuses his research on understanding and modeling hydrodynamic turbulence, and on complexity in fluid mechanics in general. He combines computational, theoretical and experimental tools for his research, with an emphasis on the multiscale aspects of turbulence, using tools such as subgrid-scale modeling, downscaling techniques, and fractal geometry, and applications to Large Eddy Simulation (LES). He pioneered the use of the Lagrangian dynamic procedure for sub-grid scale modeling in large-eddy simulation (LES) of turbulence. His recent work includes the use of LES for wind-energy-related applications and the development of the Johns Hopkins Turbulence Database for sharing large-scale datasets from high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics calculations.

Education

1989: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, Yale University, May 1989 1988: Master of Philosophy, Yale University, 1988 1987: Master of Science, Yale University, 1987 1985: B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María, Valparaíso (Chile), 1985 His Ph.D. advisor was

K. R. Sreenivasan Katepalli Raju Sreenivasan is an aerospace scientist, fluid dynamics, and applied physicist whose research includes physics and applied mathematics. He studies turbulence, nonlinear and statistical physics, astrophysical fluid mechanics, and cr ...

and his thesis was on the multi-fractal nature of small-scale turbulence. At Yale he was also informall
co-advised
by B. B. Mandelbrot.

Career and research

Meneveau's postdoctoral position was at the

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

/NASA-Ames's Center. He has been on the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University since 1990. His main appointment is in th
Department of Mechanical Engineering
with secondary appointments in th
Departments of Environmental Health and Engineering
an
Physics and Astronomy
Professor Meneveau’s research is focused on understanding and modeling hydrodynamic turbulence, and complexity in fluid mechanics in general. Special emphasis is placed on the multiscale aspects of turbulence, using tools such as subgrid-scale modeling, downscaling techniques, and fractal geometry. Applications of the results to Large Eddy Simulation (LES) have facilitated applications of LES to engineering, environmental and geophysical flow phenomena. Currently Meneveau is focused on applications of LES to wind energy and wind farm fluid dynamics, on developing advanced wall models for LES, on modeling oil dispersion in the ocean, as well as on building “big-data” tools to share the very large data sets that arise in computational fluid dynamics with broad constituencies of scientists and engineers around the world Among Meneveau’s main contributions are advances to turbulence modeling and large eddy simulations. The advances were made possible by elucidating the properties of the small-scale motions in turbulent flows and applying the new insights to the development of advanced subgrid-scale models, such as the Lagrangian dynamic model. This model has been implemented in various research and open source CFD codes (e.g. OpenFoam) and expanded the applicability of Large Eddy Simulations to complex-geometry flows of engineering and environmental interest, where prior models could not be used. Among the application areas of Large Eddy Simulation being pursued in Meneveau’s group is the study of complex flows in large wind farms. Using the improved simulation tools as well as wind tunnel tests, Meneveau and his colleagues identified the important process of vertical entrainment of mean flow kinetic energy into an array of wind turbines. This research has clarified the mechanisms limiting wind plant performance at a time when there is enormous growth in wind farms. The research has led to new engineering models that will allow for better designed wind farms thus increasing their economic benefit and helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. Meneveau has participated in efforts to democratize access to valuable “big data” in turbulence. As a deputy director of JHU’s Institute for Data Intensive Engineering and Science, he worked with a team of computer scientists, applied mathematicians, astrophysicists, and fluid dynamicists that built the JHTDB (Johns Hopkins Turbulence Databases). This open numerical laboratory provides researchers from around the world with user-friendly access to large data sets arising from Direct Numerical Simulations of various types of turbulent flows. To date, hundreds of researchers worldwide have used the data, and flow data at over hundred trillion points have been sampled from the database. The system has demonstrated how “big data” resulting from large world-class numerical simulations can be shared with many researchers who lack the massive supercomputing resources needed to generate such data. Meneveau also has performed groundbreaking research on understanding several multiscale aspects of turbulence. As part of his doctoral work at Yale in the late 1980s, Meneveau and his advisor Prof.

established the fractal and multifractal theory for turbulent flows and confirmed the theory using experiments. Interfaces in turbulence were shown to have a fractal dimension of nearly 7/3, where the 1/3 exponent above the value of two valid for smooth surfaces could be related to the classic Kolmogorov theory. And a universal multi-fractal spectrum was established, leading to a simple cascade model, which has since been applied to many other physical, biological and socio-economic systems. Later, as a postdoc at Stanford University’s Center for Turbulence Research under the guidance of Prof. P. Moin, Meneveau pioneered the application of orthogonal wavelet analysis to turbulence, introducing the concept of wavelet spectrum and other scale-dependent statistical measures of variability.

Awards, honors, societies and journal editorships

Awards

2021: Recipient, 202
Fluid Dynamics Award from the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)
"for advancing both the theoretical and practical understanding of turbulence through groundbreaking modeling techniques and applications of large-eddy simulation." 2018: Elected Member
National Academy of Engineering (NAE)
“for contributions to turbulence small-scale dynamics, large-eddy simulations, wind farm fluid dynamics, and leadership in the fluid dynamics community”. 2016: Awarded honorary doctorate from th
Danish Technical University
Doctor Tecnices, Honoris Causa for “Outstanding and highly innovative scientific achievements in fluid dynamics, particularly for his work on turbulence and atmospheric physics and its applications to wind energy”. 2014-2015: Midwest Mechanics Lecturer 2012-2013: Fulbright Scholar, US-Australia Fulbright Scholarship 2012: Stanley Corrsin Lecturer, Johns Hopkins University 2011: First recipient of th
Stanley Corrsin Award from the American Physical Society
citation: “For his innovative use of experimental data and turbulence theory in the development of advanced models for large-eddy simulations, and for the application of these models to environmental, geophysical and engineering applications.” 2005: Foreign corresponding member of the Chilean Academy of Sciences 2005: Appointed to the Louis M. Sardella Professorship in Mechanical Engineering 2004: UCAR Outstanding Publication Award for co-authorship of the paper by Horst et al., that appeared in J. Atmospheric Science 2003: Johns Hopkins University Alumni Association Excellence in Teaching Award 2001: François N. Frenkiel Award for Fluid Mechanics, American Physical Society 1989: Henry P. Becton Prize for Excellence in Research, Yale University 1985: Premio Federico Santa María, UTFSM Valparaíso, Chile

Societies

American Academy of Mechanics, Fellow. American Society of Mechanical Engineers, Fellow. American Physical Society, Fellow.

Pi Tau Sigma Pi Tau Sigma () is an international honor society in the field of mechanical engineering, with most chapters established in the United States. It honors mechanical engineering students who have exemplified the "principles of scholarship, characte ...

, Honorary Member American Geophysical Union, Member. American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Senior Member.

Editorships

2010–Present: Deputy editor, ''Journal of Fluid Mechanics'' 2019: Chair, American Physical Society, Division of Fluid Dynamics 2008–Present: Key participant in the development and maintenance of the JHTDB (Johns Hopkins Turbulence Databases) open numerical laboratory 2003-2015: Editor-in-chief, ''Journal of Turbulence'' 2005-2010: Associate editor, ''Journal of Fluid Mechanics'' 2005-2010: Member, editorial committee, ''Annual Rev. of Fluid Mechanics'' 2001–Present: Member, advisory board, ''Theor. & Comp. Fluid Dynamics'' 2001-2003: Associate editor, ''Physics of Fluids'' 2003: Guest associate editor, ''Annual Reviews of Fluid Mechanics''

Journal publications

Google Scholar page

References

External links

Biography at Johns Hopkins University
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meneveau, Charles 1960 births Living people Chilean scientists Yale University alumni Johns Hopkins University faculty 21st-century American physicists Fluid dynamicists Members of the United States National Academy of Engineering Fellows of the American Physical Society