Uncertainty Quantification and Data Assimilation for Predictive Computational Wind Engineering

Event Date/Time

Friday, April 9, 2021 - 12:30

Location

Virtual
Please contact the MAE Department for the zoom information.

Series/Event Type

MAE Departmental Seminars

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can inform sustainable design of buildings and cities in terms of optimizing pedestrian wind comfort, air quality, thermal comfort, energy efficiency, and resiliency to extreme wind events. An important limitation is that the accuracy of CFD results can be compromised by the large natural variability and complex physics that are characteristic of urban flow problems. In this talk I will show how uncertainty quantification and data assimilation can be leveraged to evaluate and improve the predictive capabilities of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulations for urban flow and dispersion. I will focus on quantifying inflow and turbulence model form uncertainties for two different urban environments: Oklahoma City and Stanford’s campus. For both test cases, the predictive capabilities of the models will be evaluated by comparing the model results to field measurements.

Speaker Bio

Catherine Gorlé is an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University. Her research activities focus on the development of predictive computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations to support the design of sustainable buildings and cities. Specific topics of interest are: the coupling of large- and small-scale models and experiments to quantify uncertainties related to the variability of boundary conditions, the development of uncertainty quantification methods for low-fidelity models using high-fidelity data, and the use of data assimilation to improve CFD predictions. Catherine received her BSc (2002) and MSc (2005) degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Delft University of Technology, and her PhD (2010) from the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in cooperation with the University of Antwerp. She has been the recipient of a Stanford Center for Turbulence Research Postdoctoral Fellowship (2010), a Pegasus Marie Curie Fellowship (2012), and an NSF CAREER award (2018).