Welcome!

About

I am a graduate student studying naval architecture and aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. I grew up in NYC and developed a passion for hydrodynamics and materials science while pursuing my B.Sc. at Webb Institute. In my free time, I like to sail and ski.

Research

My research interests are in the design optimization of lifting surfaces for marine applications. These structures include hydrofoils, propellers, turbines, struts, and energy saving and energy harvesting devices.

The hydrodynamics of high-performance vessels are particularly challenging due to increased susceptibility to cavitation and ventilation phenomena. Furthermore, since fluid loads scale with speed-squared, the deflections of the structure can be significant enough where their impact on the hydrodynamic performance must be considered. This is called fluid-structure interaction or hydroelasticity.

Some materials like composites have directional stiffness, or material anisotropy, that can be tailored by the designer to achieve a desired shape under load. Composites offer many benefits such as high strength-to-weight ratio, passive load-dependent shape adaptivity due to material anisotropy, corrosion resistance, and the potential for self-healing technology and embedded fiber Bragg grating sensors. They can also have improved fatigue life, enhanced cavitation performance, and reduced lifetime life-cycle cost.

What happens when we combine hydrodynamics and composite structures? In-flight shape can be carefully tuned to achieve hydrodynamic and structural efficiency for a given operating envelope.