Vinod K. Lakshminarayan

Postdoctoral Fellow

Durand Building Room 023B
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94035
Phone: 650.725.9420
Link to webpage

Background

• Research Associate, Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, June 2009- September 2011
• Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, 2009
• M.Tech, Aerospace Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India, 2004
• B.Tech, Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, India, 2003

Research Interests

My primary research interest is in the development and application of numerical methods to simulate fluid flows pertaining to aerospace applications. Currently, I am involved in computational studies to understand the aerodynamics, and therefore to improve the productivity of wind turbines/farms. To ensure that numerical errors do not overwhelm the accuracy of these calculations, the errors are estimated and adaptively controlled using adjoint based methods.

In the recent past, I have performed detailed analysis of the aerodynamics of different micro air vehicle (MAV) configurations using CFD. This includes simulation of unconventional rotary wing configurations like ducted and cycloidal rotors along with studying avian-based flapping wing MAVs. I have also extensively worked on improving connectivity algorithms for overset (chimera) meshes and have applied them to simulate complex flow-field such as those of helicopter rotors operating close to the ground.

Publications