When   Monday, February 2, 2009   Time   4:00 PM - 5:00 PM  
Where   Technological Instit M 416 2145 Sheridan Rd.   map it
Audience   - Faculty/Staff - Student - Public
Contact   Molly E Scanlon   +1 847 491 5586  
Group   McCormick-Colloquia Engineering Sciences and Applied Mathematics

Applied Math Colloquium

Title: A dynamical systems approach to transport

Speaker: Shawn Shadden, Stanford University

Abstract:

Recent advancements in imaging and computational techniques hav enabled technologies capable of providing highly-resolved velocity data of complex fluid flow. Using this data to understand how fluid is transported is, however, not always straightforward. Even mildly-unsteady flow conditions can lead to complex fluid motion. In such cases, traditional fluid mechanics techniques used to understand the flow behavior are often inadequate for quantifying even the most basic features, such as vortex boundaries or flow separation.

The theory of chaotic advection began in the early 1980's and offered a new and powerful dynamical systems perspective for understanding how fluid is transported in time-periodic and near-integrable systems. The success of this approach has motivated a recent effort to apply this framework to more complex applications. This endeavor has led to new mathematical and computational challenges that are a current topic of much research interest. In this talk I will discuss recent developments that have helped bring the dynamical systems approach to transport to an unprecedented range of applications, including recent progress in the realm of cardiovascular medicine.