About the lab

The Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Aerodynamics (LabMFA) is one of the oldest laboratories of DEM/PEM at Politécnica/COPPE – UFRJ. Over approximately three decades of existence, LABMFA members have been orienting their activities towards the training of human resources and the development of new knowledge that provide scientific and technological advances in the areas of fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, wind energy and atmospheric sciences. The training of human resources has been carried out at all levels, from scientific initiation programs, with undergraduate students, to postgraduate programs, with master's and doctoral students.

In undergraduate research programs, undergraduate students actively participate in all activities and usually work closely with a student or group of graduate students. Graduate programs, in turn, are always associated with scientific and technological research and development activities, and the students involved come not only from UFRJ itself, but also from other universities in Brazil and other countries in South America. South.

LabMFA also has a tradition of receiving recently graduated doctors and, mainly, professors from other universities, including those from abroad. In order to develop scientific and technological cooperation projects, formal and informal agreements are maintained with renowned institutions in the country and abroad. In the last decade, scientific cooperation agreements were signed in the areas of fluid mechanics and aerodynamics involving LABMFA and two renowned English universities, Imperial College and the University of Bristol, in addition to an informal cooperation with Yokohama National University, in Japan. In the area of Wind Energy, a technological cooperation program between LABMFA and the CDG – Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft e.V., a German Foundation linked to the German Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, ended recently. More recently, LAbMFA has established a cooperation with the Petroleum Engineering Laboratory at the University of Tulsa, OK, USA, in the area of two-phase flow in pipelines.

In general terms, the laboratory accommodates three research projects. The first, called “Aerodynamics”, is the biggest one, as it has been the Coordinator's main line of research over the years and involves most of the work team. This sub-project aims to study problems commonly encountered in fluid mechanics and aerodynamics, where two-dimensional, incompressible, transient, and high Reynolds number flows develop around blunt bodies and aerodynamic bodies. For this purpose, a numerical method called Discrete Vortex Method is used, and, when necessary, wind tunnel experiments are used to support the creation of numerical models or to corroborate calculated numerical results. This type of study finds motivation in real problems of various engineering, such as mechanical engineering (flow around blunt bodies, heat exchanger banks, turbomachinery blades), aeronautics (airfoils of aircraft) and naval (risers and airframe structures). offshore platforms), among others.

The second sub-project, called “Atmospheric Sciences”, involves the study of the Atmospheric Boundary Layer. Here, turbulence models are used in the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy for micro or mesoscale aiming to carry out an analytical, analytical-numerical or numerical study of the turbulent flow of the atmospheric boundary layer. The results obtained are compared to experimental data from other authors collected in field measurement campaigns or to analytical or numerical results available in the literature. The problem is also analyzed numerically, using commercial computer codes, such as RAMS – Regional Atmospheric Modeling System.

The second sub-project, called “Wind Energy”, uses models of orography, roughness, obstacles and microscale models for turbulent flow over complex terrains to treat wind data collected by anemometers installed in anemometric towers of several Brazilian institutions (INMET, INPE , CEPEL, Marinha, Aeronáutica, INFRAERO, DEPV etc.) and evaluate the wind potential of a region. The objective is to carry out a forecast of the wind regime that allows the assessment of the wind potential of a region. For these works, a methodology based on the models of the WAsP computer program (Wind Atlas Analysis and Application Program) is used for the analysis of wind data in complex terrain regions. Also as applications within the scope of this sub-project, one can cite the calculation of the flow over profiles (airfoils) of wind turbine blades, which is also included in sub-project I. Numerical studies of the flow in the Boundary Layer