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<p>Basically any CFD research that isn’t utilizing a DNS (direct numerical simulation) will be utilizing a turbulence model of some sort. In case you aren’t familiar with the term, a DNS directly solves the full, discretized Navier-Stokes equations over a domain of interest on a typically very fine grid such that none of the physics of the problem are lost due to averaging of the equations. This is a very powerful technique if you have time to do it.</p>
<p>As it turns out, it takes an extraordinarily large amount of time to complete a DNS simulation at any realistic Reynolds number for something like the flow over an airfoil, so it really isn’t practical for a lot of things. Instead, many CFD simulations utilize turbulence models in order to decrease the problem size. This usually means some sort of averaging of the governing equations (e.g. RANS) and the use of empirical models to try to help make up for the physics that have been averaged out of the governing equations. These techniques are much more common and have many different uses.</p>
<p>So back to the original question, turbulence modeling is going to be used in the vast majority of CFD simulations, meaning pretty much any aerospace engineering department and most mechanical engineering departments are going to be utilizing turbulence modeling in some form. The real question is whether you are looking to just get experience utilizing these models or if you are interested in finding research involving the development of new models or the improvement of existing models. If you are looking for the former, then you can go just about anywhere. If you are looking for the latter, I am afraid I can’t help you a whole lot directly.</p>
<p>As a general practice, I avoid turbulence modeling like the plague. It is a little bit too hand-wavy for my taste. That isn’t to say it isn’t valuable, however. I just don’t enjoy it. At any rate, the developmental type research on the topic may not be an area of expertise for me, but I can at least give you a brief picture that hopefully will help you in your search. Developing turbulence models is going to require two main branches of research: computational and experimental. You obviously need computational researchers since the technique is a computational one. They are generally trying to find ways to modify the governing equations so that some of the pressure, strain or stress terms (probably others, too) are modeled instead of directly solved. You will want to search for research topics that sound like they may be related to that.</p>
<p>On the other hand, you absolutely need experiments as well. Without experiments, CFD means nothing since you have nothing to prove that the results make sense. In other words, turbulence modeling is a computational technique, but before a model is useful, it first must be extensively compared against experimental results. You will see a fair amount of experimental research on turbulent flows, and most of them will be involved to some degree with turbulence modeling since they are already studying the flows and can usually grab the sorts of turbulence statistics that the CFD guys covet fairly easily.</p>
<p>Hopefully that helps. Like I said, I generally stay away from turbulence models. I am much more a fan of the actual flow physics as opposed to finding a way to ignore those physics. My actual research pretty much sticks to laminar flows as well, so I am not even involved in the modeling on the experimental side of things.</p>
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<p>Yes I am currently at TAMU. There is at least one professor that I know of in the aerospace department that work computationally on turbulence modeling: Sharath Girimaji. From my interactions with his students (I have severall good friends who work for him), I know that his managment style is a bit odd. I know I would not enjoy working for him, but some people do so don’t just go off of my opinion.</p>
<p>I seem to recall there being couple of guys possibly in the mechanical engineering department working in turbulence research, but I am not sure if any of them specifically work on turbulence models.</p>
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<p>Most undergraduates are coming into it rather blind, as are you. The bottom line though is that CFD is pervasive in fluid dynamics research. Basically any topic currently being studied in the field will likely have some computational component to it. That stretches from the applied (e.g. whole vehicle flow simulations for design purposes) to the esoteric (e.g. isotropic turbulence, boundary-layer stability). In other words, it is really all about the problems you are interested in studying.</p>