I am a PhD student in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I study the effects of obstructions in a two-phase annular flow. My goal is to:
- develop a models to predict disturbance wave characteristics for different flow conditions and applied wall heat flux,
- describe the effects of flow obstructions on the waves, and
- propose obstruction geometries to enhance the heat transfer ability of the fluid flow.
I am interested in causal inference because it can be a useful tool in characterizing disturbance wave in a chaotic environment under different flow conditions. Wave characteristics, such as velocity, amplitude, shape and intermittency, are not constant for a particular flow condition. There is a spread for each of these quantities, and should be described in a statistical way. Causal inference can help describe the relationships between different flow conditions (ex. flow rate, density, velocity, viscosity, etc) and the associated wave characteristics.