Research on Shreyas Mandre

Feet and fins

Fri, 24 Dec 2021 02:23:21 +0000

Why do our feet look the way they do? Believe it or not, some of us do ask ourselves this question.

Oscillating hydrofoil for hydrokinetic power

Thu, 01 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Between 2013 and 2017 I led an ARPA-E programme at Brown University that took an oscillating hydrofoil for tidal and river power from the equations to 1 kW and 2 kW devices tested in the Taunton River and the Cape Cod Canal — technology readiness level 1 to 6. The physics is the lift a foil keeps after the flow separates from its leading edge, a cousin of the vortex-driven waving of marine grass; the engineering is a machine that turns it into power under both directions of the tide.

Fluid mechanical kinematic optimization

Sun, 03 Jan 2021 16:32:40 +0000

In 1696, Johann Bernoulli posed a challenge called the brachistochrone problem, which kickstarted the field of calculus of variations. Here is simplest fluid mechanical version of the brachistochcrone problem.

Flowing soap films

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 05:37:57 +0000

Ever wondered why you can blow bubbles from soap solution in water, but not from water itself or from a solution of sugar or salt?

Waving marine grass

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 06:08:23 +0000

I bet you have seen gusts of wind exciting synchronized waves on the surface of tall grass field just like observed on the beach.

Cheerios effect

Sun, 04 Jan 2015 06:39:01 +0000

Pour milk into a bowl, drop in some Cheerios (the breakfast cereal), and notice how they clump together. This attraction is mediated by gravity and surface tension. Each cheerio makes a little depression in the milk-air interface, and the neighbouring one just falls into it.