Fluid mechanics of soft and complex systems

Welcome! We are a research group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at UC Riverside. Much of our work focuses on understanding, at a fundamental level, how fluid flows interact with the structures around them and transport objects suspended inside them. Recently, we have been interested in: flows that deform, and are in turn reshaped by, soft elastic structures; the motion and assembly of colloidal particles driven by mechanical excitation such as oscillations, or by gradients in chemical concentration; and the large-scale drift of sea ice across the ocean surface. These problems range from the microscale of a single particle to the geophysical scale of a polar coastline.

Our work has applications in areas including materials processing, biological systems, and environmental flows. To address these interdisciplinary challenges and gain new insight, we draw on ideas and tools from a wide range of disciplines, including fluid and solid mechanics, soft matter physics, and applied mathematics. While theory and simulation are at the core of what we do, we test and sharpen our models against experiments, many of which run in our own lab. More details of our recent work can be found in our publications.

We welcome new ideas, challenges, and collaborations. If you are interested in working with us, see how to join the lab or write to us!