Xinfeng Gao
University of Virginia, VA·Engineering
Engineers rely on computer simulations to design products, but simulation results often disagree with physical experiments. When they do, design work can stall because the cause of the mismatch is unclear.
- Fields
Engineering
Computer Science
Mathematics & Statistics
- Topics
data assimilation
computational fluid dynamics
uncertainty quantification
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Aug 2027
What they work on
- Develop rigorous data assimilation methods that combine measurements with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, to uncover why simulated fluid flows disagree with physical experiments.
- Quantify the uncertainty in CFD predictions of engineering fluid flows by using data assimilation within simulation software systems.
- Package CFD plus data assimilation into a tool usable by non-expert engineers, and have industry partners assess it within their current product-design workflows.
More about the research
Data assimilation (DA) is a set of methods for combining measured data with simulations. It can reveal why a simulation and an experiment disagree and estimate how uncertain a prediction is.
Why it matters
Practicing engineers who design products involving fluid flow could find out why their simulations disagree with tests and how much to trust a prediction. Easy-to-use data assimilation in commercial CFD software could reduce costly design setbacks and speed up the development of new designs.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Anil Deane
University of Maryland, MD·Earth & Environmental Science
Build a digital twin linking the University of Maryland's 3-meter liquid sodium geodynamo experiment to high-order spectral element simulations (Nek5000/RS) of the flow inside it.
Hyoungsu Park
University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI·Engineering
Measure how tsunami-driven debris damming increases forces on the first-floor columns of elevated structures, using experiments in the large wave flume at the Oregon State University NHERI facility.
Roozbeh Salary
Marshall University, WV·Engineering
Identify the airflow effects that set feature size and resolution in aerosol jet printing, using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of how gas and ink droplets move.
The school
University of Virginia: 43 labs on PI Pages, $814M a year on research, 413 research doctorates a year.
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