Welcome to the web page of Lasers and Fluids Group, part of the Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. We are a new group at Georgia Tech (previously at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies), with facilities in the Ben Zinn Combustion Laboratory and Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions building.
Our work generally is motivated by the following situation.
In order to solve problem X, we need to understand Y.
In order to understand Y, we need to measure Z in a really complicated situation S.
We do not know how to measure Z, particularly not in S.
So…
Let’s figure out how to measure Z (or something as close as possible) in S (or something as close as possible) in order to understand Y and solve X.
X and Y are in the general field of thermo-fluids (combustion, plasmas, turbulence) and S most often is some form of aerospace propulsion or power generation engine (gas turbines, rockets).
In order to measure Z, we typically use lasers.
This was perhaps a convoluted way to say that we develop and use laser-based (and other optical) measurement techniques to solve fundamental and applied problems of relevance to next-generation propulsion and power systems… we shoot lasers at engines (to make them work better)!
If your interest is piqued, please check out our current research topics for more information.