Professor Nicholas Hutchins

Nicholas Hutchins obtained his PhD from the University of Nottingham, UK in 2003 under the supervision of Professor Kwing-So Choi. From 2003 – 2009 he completed two 3-year postdoctoral appointments, one at the University of Minnesota, USA and one at the University of Melbourne, Australia. Since 2009 he has been a faculty member in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Melbourne.  His research interests are high Reynolds number turbulent boundary layers, large-scale structures, rough-wall bounded turbulent flows, drag reduction and forced convective heat transfer in smooth and rough wall bounded turbulent flows.

Abstract:

I plan to give an overview of work that has been ongoing at the University of Melbourne over the last 5 or so years looking at forced convective heat transfer in smooth and rough wall bounded turbulent flows. This will include an analysis of Reynolds Analogy, and how the similarity between velocity and temperature fluctuations (and the similarity between wall friction and Stanton number) can break down for rough surfaces, and also for certain spectral scales and wall-normal locations in smooth wall heated boundary layers. Though my efforts in this regard have been largely experimental, I will also discuss DNS results from colleagues that have been critical in shedding light on these processes.