Lemann Center grant will support Chamorro's collaboration with South America

MechSE Associate Professor Leonardo Chamorro and a collaborator from the Department of Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Sao Paulo (USP) are working on a collaborative project that aims to uncover the unsteady dynamics of perforated, flexible structures for aerodynamics applications. The project, “Understanding the Flow-Structure Interaction of Perforated Structures for Load and Noise Control,” will guide the engineering design of devices for turbulence control and noise reduction. The research will serve as a platform to explore synergies in the departments of both institutions.

The work is funded by a new grant from UIUC’s Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies, part of the Illinois Global Institute in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The Center’s collaborative research grants are available to UIUC faculty who are developing a research project with a faculty member in Brazil.

The research groups plan to carry out laboratory experiments at UIUC and numerical simulations at USP using complementary expertise. Chamorro’s team will use synchronized particle image velocimetry (PIV) and digital image correlation (DIC) techniques. Numerical simulations at USP will inspect the fidelity of various approaches, including commercial software. Their work will contribute to understanding the coupled dynamics of flexible structures and flow dominated by turbulence, which is not well understood.

“Turbulence and structure interaction with perforated or porous bodies involves non-trivial processes that find engineering applications across disparate scales,” Chamorro said.

Chamorro earned his PhD in civil engineering with a minor in aerospace engineering and mechanics minor from the University of Minnesota in 2010. He joined MechSE in 2013, and leads the Renewable Energy & Turbulent Environment Group.