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We study the fundamentals of turbulent flows, the modeling of complexity in fluid mechanics, and pursue various applications of current interest. Turbulence is regarded as the main unsolved problem in "classical physics". Due to its importance from both practical and fundamental viewpoints, it is a research area of interest to engineers (mechanical, environmental, chemical, civil, etc.), applied mechanicians, physicists, mathematicians, oceanographers, atmospheric scientists. This interdisciplinary flavor makes this an exciting and fruitful field for research. One of our main research goals is to achieve better understanding of how turbulent small-scale motion is related to the dynamics of large-scale motion, with the specific purpose of developing improved modeling tools such as subgrid-scale and wall models for Large-Eddy-Simulation. This is a highly successful numerical approach to turbulent flow prediction, in which the large-scale vortices are directly simulated, while small-scale motions must be judiciously parametrized. A major research effort centers on the structure of flow and turbulence in wind farms, activities mostly funded by the National Science Foundation, such as the past WINDINSPIRE project. Also, we have developed a new approach to big data in the field of turbulence, wherein entire space-time turbulent fields from Direct Numerical Simulations are made available via Web-services and the notion of virtual sensors. The JHTDB is a public resource that has resulted from this effort, funded by the National Science Foundation. We are also applying Large Eddy Simulations to dispersal of oil in the ocean, funded by the Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative. We continue to study fundamental aspects of small-scale turbulence via Lagrangian stochastic models and dynamical systems theory tools. And, Large Eddy Simulations of turbulent flow over various types of surfaces continues to motivate further developments in new wall models and applications. A new effort on wall modeling using Machine Learning tools is being pursued with support from the Office of Naval Research.
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