Department of Mechanical Engineering,Osaka University

For the development of energy system, high-speed transportation and bio-fluid engineering, we are studying on turbulent flows, interfacial phenomena, multiphase flows and so on. Our research interest is especially in the computational fluid dynamics (CFD), including development of computational method and physical models. Current topics are control of drag, noise and heat-and-mass transfer.

When we discard the assumption of continuum for gases and liquids, we have to confront a highly nonlinearity of dynamics of molecules and resulting nonequilibrium phenomena. Research activities in our laboratory mainly focus upon the theoretical treatment of such nonlinear and nonequilibrium phenomena that appear in the context of fluid mechanics.

We pursue mitigating gaps between theoretical thermal efficiency given by thermodynamics and state-of-the-art technologies in energy devices. We tackle minimizing energy losses by clarifying reaction and transport dynamics in the devices and improving a rate determining process for establishing next-generation energy devices. Our research interests currently cover polymer electrolyte fuel cells, flow batteries and separating/concentrating/filtering devices.

Studies of the highly efficient and clean combustion, the plasma assisted combustion/ignition, the utilization of biomass, the ammonia combustion as an energy carrier, the effective use of combustion field are conducted in the combustion engineering laboratory of Osaka university.

Our research objectives are to elucidate and utilize the relationships between macroscopic thermal fluids and structures or phenomena in nano and micro meter scales in order to develop new technology for energy saving and pollutant reductions from both experiments and numerical analyses including the molecular dynamics simulations.