Email: greg.chini@unh.edu Phone: (603) 862-2633 Fax: (603) 862-1865 Office: 209 Kingsbury Annex Mailing Address:     Mechanical Engineering Dept    Kingsbury Hall    University of New Hampshire    Durham, NH 03824    USA

`Meeting of the waters' (Cape Reinga, New Zealand)

Click here for a  list of my publications or here for a postscript or pdf version of my C.V.

OPPORTUNITIES FOR M.S./PH.D. STUDENTS

Students seeking M.S. and/or Ph.D. degrees in the allied fields of fluid dynamics and applied mathematics are sought. The research involves fundamental  studies of fluid dynamics phenomena, especially geophysical (oceanographic and atmospheric) and physiological (pulmonary) flows.  The methodology  involves a combination of analytical (asymptotic) and numerical (finite-difference and spectral) modeling.  (See below for more information.)  Ideal candidates will possess an aptitude for applied mathematics and a background in mechanics, but all interested students are strongly encouraged to contact  me directly.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

I have broad interests in fluid dynamics and applied mathematics.  My current research activities involve mathematical modeling of geophysical and biological flows.  I am particularly interested in the existence and stability of coherent features (e.g. nonlinear waves, vortices, and boundary layers) in such flows, because these features often exert a controlling influence on the flow dynamics.   By using a judicious combination of analytical and computational methods, simplified mathematical models often can be developed which capture the qualitative (and, at times, the quantitative) behavior of the `full' (very complex!) fluid-mechanical system -- my research group follows this approach.  It is hoped that the simplified models will permit the key flow physics to be identified and understood.

My geophysical fluid dynamics research has centered on flows in the upper ocean.  Two processes of particular interest are `Langmuir circulation' and `internal-wave' propagation. Langmuir circulation  is a wind and surface-wave driven vortex motion which (according to observational oceanographer Jerome Smith of the Scripps Institute)  dominates the observed kinematics of the upper ocean.  As the name implies, internal waves propagate within the interior of the ocean rather than along the sea surface.  These waves are very efficient agents for the transport of momentum and energy within the ocean and constitute a sort of `long-distance' communication network.  Internal waves similarly play a crucial role in atmospheric dynamics (or in the dynamics of any density-stratified flow).  Theoretical and computational modeling of these upper ocean processes is carried out with colleagues P. Blossey (U. Washington), S. Leibovich (Cornell), R. Bhaskaran (Cornell), and S. Cox (Nottingham University, UK) and results are compared with observations of the ocean made by D. Farmer (URI).

The focus of my physiological fluid dynamics research is on pulmonary flows.  With Oliver Jensen (Nottingham University, UK), I am investigating the dynamics of the lung's thin liquid lining.  This lining protects the lung tissue from inhaled pathogens.  Because the smaller airways are wet, deformable, and highly curved, the liquid lining also plays an important role in the mechanics of respiration, due to the associated effects of strong surface-tension forces.   We have coupled a thin-film fluid mechanics model with a model for the motion of the elastic substrate (e.g. an alveolar wall) to analyze the distribution and stability of the liquid lining.  Collaborations with clinicians and experimentalists (who employ, e.g., Magnetic Resonance Imaging and lasers to probe flows in the lung) are planned.

A more detailed description of current research projects, both in physical oceanography and pulmonary fluid mechanics, can be found at the Fluid Dynamics Research at UNH website.