Meet our Featured Researcher, Dr. Khosronejad
Dr. Khosronejad’s research is focused on developing and employing physics-based computational
engineering tools to tackle fluid-mechanics-related societal challenges, nationwide
and internationally. Khosronejad’s research team has recently Commissioned a high-performance
computing cluster, which is housed at the Center for Excellence and Wireless Information
Technology (CEWIT) of the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. This newly
supercomputing cluster enables the researchers in his team to conduct high-impact,
cutting edge numerical studies exploring turbulent flow dynamics, mass transport and
morphodynamics in a wide range of scales: from laboratory channel to large-scale rivers
and oceanic environments.
Recently, Khosronejad’s research team was funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)
to conduct research linking turbulent flow to the migration patterns of meandering
rivers. Below, we take a glance at this NSF-funded research. To start, it is important
to mention that rivers are focal points of human society and Earth systems. In daily
life, rivers are vital corridors for shipping, manufacturing, agriculture and recreation.
Flooding, deposition and erosion create hazards to cropland, bridges and other engineered
structures worldwide. Water-borne pollutants, as well as those carried in sediments
and deposited in floods, affect surface and groundwater quality. Rivers are primary
habitat for aquatic species and provide indispensable ecosystem services for riparian
species. On geologic timescales, rivers transport enormous quantities of sediment
and solutes from continents to the ocean, shaping continental surfaces and coastlines,
controlling the stacking and connectivity of subsurface fluid reservoirs and influencing
global geochemical cycles. Given this variety of applications, it is needed to understand
and forecast river morphodynamics over a tremendous range of space and time scales.
For meandering rivers (Fig. 1), the most common channel type, past studies have been
conducted, mainly, using over-simplified models. In this research, we will use high-fidelity
three-dimensional models that take advantage of supercomputers to model the evolution
of meandering rivers by taking into account details of river geometry, sedimentary
dynamics, and turbulent flow.
As a part of this NSF-funded research project, Khosronejad’s research team is committed to develop new mathematical algorithms to model side migration of meandering riverbanks over long periods of time (see Fig. 2). To do so, they will couple their existing parallel numerical code, the VFS-Geophysics model, with (1) the bank evolution model of Eke et al. and Parker et al. for the eroding bank and (2) a physics-based sediment mass-balance avalanche model to account for streambank erosion (see Fig. 3). The two bank evolution models will be examined and validated using measured data for bank erosion at their collaborative institute; University of Minnesota. They plan to enhance the potential of the sediment dynamic module of VFS-Geophysics model further to incorporate steep slopes to allow for deformation of the channel banks, as well.
