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Melany L. Hunt B.S., University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, 1983; M.S., University of California, Berkeley, 1985; Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1987 1200 East California Boulevard | website
Research The work covered by Professor Hunt's research group encompasses problems in multiphase flows and convective heat and mass transfer. The applications studied have ranged from the flow through porous materials, and the transport in liquid-fluidized beds to the cooling of pumps in high temperature environments, and the slot injection cooling of supersonic flows. A primary area of recent work involves flows of particulates or granular materials. These flows occur in industry (for example, dry chemicals, pharmaceutical powders, plastic pellets, toner), in agriculture (grains, food products), and in natural environments (sand and debris flows). Dry flows of these materials are governed by the particle collisions, and the interstitial fluid has negligible effect on the momentum transport. These flows are often modeled analytically by exploiting ideas from dense-gas kinetic theory, and through discrete particle simulations. If the interstitial fluid is a viscous liquid, the transport of the liquid/solid mixture results from a combination of particle/particle and viscous interactions. These particulate flows may also be accompanied by heat transfer processes. Although the interstitial fluid does not affect the momentum transport in dry flows, heat transfer through the fluid phase is a critical mechanism in heating, cooling, drying, or energy dissipation during mixing of granular materials. Recent additional work in single-phase heat transfer involves transitional or turbulent flows that are affected by termperature gradients. One area is in flow between rotating concentric cylinders. A radial temperature gradient affects the stability of the flow, which leads to significant variations in the heat transfer rate. A second area involves buoyant flows in vertical shafts with heating from the bottom, which can occur during fires in high-rise buildings. Turbulent mixing and thermally-induced pressure gradients significantly enhance the transport of smoke or toxic gases to upper regions of the building that are not engulfed in flames.
Selected Publications G.G. Joseph, R. Zenit, M.L. Hunt & A.M. Rosenwinkel, Particle-Wall Collisions in a Viscous Fluid, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 433, 329-346 (2001). M.L. Hunt, R. Zenit, C.S. Campbell & C.E. Brennen, Revisiting the 1954 Suspension Experiments of R.A. Bagnold, J. Fluid Mechanics, 452 1-24 (2002). C.R. Wassgren, M.L. Hunt, P.J. Freese, J. Palamara & C.E. Brennen, Effects of Vertical Vibration on Hopper Flows of Granular Materials, Physics of Fluids, 14, 3439-3448 (2002). G.G. Joseph & M.L. Hunt, Oblique Particle-Wall Collisions in a Liquid, J. Fluid Mechanics, 510, 71-93 (2004). B. Muite, M.L. Hunt & G.G. Joseph, The Effects of a Counter-Current Interstitial Flow on a Discharging Hourglass, Physics of Fluids, 16, 3415-3425 (2004). |
