Metamaterials from the deep: optimized mechano-fluidic materials inspired by deep-sea sponges
Glass-sponge skeletons inspire lattice metamaterials co-optimized for strength and internal flow. With the Grigoropoulos and Koumoutsakos groups.
Experimental fluid mechanics · UC Berkeley
Making the invisible measurable.
We advance the physical understanding of high-Reynolds-number single- and multiphase flows — and build the instruments that make them measurable. Those methods now reach well beyond fluids, from drones to cryobiology.
128 energy-threshold CT O(1 kHz) in-lab X-ray velocimetry O(50 µm) tungsten X-ray tracers
Recent work
Selected recent publications
Interaction of a turbulent boundary layer with a free surface
What happens when wall turbulence meets a deformable free surface — the canonical question underneath every air-layer application.
Error quantification of frequency-based measurements with event cameras
When can you trust a neuromorphic camera's frequency readout? Systematic error bounds for event-based flow monitoring, from cavitation to vortex shedding.
Added uncertainty in X-ray densitometry and CT due to time-varying material distribution
Time-averaged X-ray measurements of unsteady flows carry a hidden bias — here is how large it is, and how to bound it.
Premature transition to supercritical flow with bubbly flow around a circular cylinder
Injected bubbles push the cylinder wake into its supercritical regime well below the single-phase Reynolds number — with direct consequences for drag and shedding. With IRENav / École Navale.
Demonstration and analysis of volumetric additive manufacturing via sub-orbital spaceflight testing
Volumetric 3D printing demonstrated and analyzed aboard a sub-orbital flight — including the multiphase fluid dynamics of printing in microgravity.
What we work on
Four themes, shared principles and tools
The themes differ; the way we work does not. We design, build and run our own experiments; we pair the standard instruments of an experimental fluids lab with ones that exist nowhere else, from custom X-ray systems to neuromorphic imaging; and we work from first principles, so the physics — not the technique — sets the direction. That is why the same group can take on ship drag and organ cryopreservation.
Theme 01
Decarbonizing marine transport
Shipping moves ~80% of world trade and burns fuel mostly to overcome friction. We study the multiphase physics that could cut that bill.
- Air lubrication
- Superhydrophobic surfaces
- Boundary layers & free surfaces
Multiphase flows in energy & industrial systems
Bubbles, cavities and phase change govern heat transfer, loading and noise in reactors, pumps, valves and propulsors.
- Narrow-gap mixing (nuclear)
- Bubble–vortex interaction
- Cavitation
Phase change & transport for health and environment
The same nucleation and transport physics decides whether an organ survives freezing and where an airborne droplet lands.
- Vitrification & cryobiology
- Droplet & aerosol transport (earlier work)
Measurement science: seeing the inaccessible
Many flows that matter are opaque, fast, or sealed inside metal. We build the instruments that make them measurable — and those instruments now travel far beyond fluids.
- X-ray imaging, CT & velocimetry
- Event-based cameras
Join us
Curious, hands-on, and into fluids?
We typically add 1–2 PhD students a year and welcome postdocs, visiting scholars, and Berkeley undergraduates through URAP.
Sponsors
National Science Foundation
Office of Naval Research
Naval Nuclear Laboratory
