My research focuses on fluid flows, in particular turbulent flows. Turbulence is present is many engineering and environmental applications and affects many aspects of our lives. The aim of my research is to better understand turbulence to be able to develop more sustainable engineering solutions and strategies.
Examples include:
Analysis of atmospheric boundary layer turbulence,
Investigation of turbulent wind impacts in renewable energy applications, including solar and wind energy,
Investigation of strategies for reducing the turbulent drag that occurs on aircraft and ships as they move through air or water.
An area of my current research interest is understanding and characterisation of turbulent canopy flows using wind tunnel experiments, field measurements and analytical modelling. Canopy flows exist in agricultural fields, forests, solar arrays and urban environments. My research aims to develop an improved understanding of the turbulent and scalar transport in these environments to inform operational strategies and design considerations in these various environmental, engineering and urban settings.
I joined the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering at the University of Queensland as a lecturer in 2024. Prior to that, I held lecturer and postdoctoral positions at the University of Adelaide. In addition to my research and teaching activities, I co-convene the Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society (AFMS) Seminar Series, a fortnightly online seminar featuring Fluid Mechanics research, and I am on the Student/Early Career Researcher sub-committee of the AFMS.
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology
Availability:
Not available for supervision
Media expert
Prof David Mee's research interests are in Hypersonic and Supersonic Flow.
After completing his PhD at UQ, he spent five years as a Research Fellow in the turbomachinery research group at Oxford University in the U.K. He returned to UQ as an ARC Queen Elizabeth II Research Fellow in 1991 and joined the academic staff of the Department of Mechanical Engineering in 1993. He served as Head of the Division of Mechanical Engineering from 2007 to 2017, acting Head of the School of Engineering from January to July 2009 and Head of the School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering from July 2009 to February 2017. He retired in 2020 and is currently an Emeritus Professor in the School.
David's main areas of research are focussed in the field of hypersonics aerothermodynamics. He has undertaken much research on rapid response, stress-wave force balances, which are essential technology for categorising the performance of scramjet engines in transient facilities, such as shock tubes. He was a member of the team that conducted the first known wind-tunnel test in which a scramjet vehicle produced net thrust. He has also published on the transient processes in the latter stages of boundary layer transition in hypersonic flows.
