PSU EFD Group

11/1/2018: A new course titled "Computing in Civil and Environmental Engineering" got approved by department undergraduate committee. Initial launch is Fall 2019. Lecture notes preparation underway and is live on GitHub. And preview on nbviewer.

10/5/2018: A newly accepted Geophysical Research Letters paper on the flow resistance in subglacial conduits. Turbulent flow within such system is for the first time simulated and quantified with CFD.
2/1/2018: A newly accpeted JHE paper on how to deal with suspended sediment boundary conditions in conjunction with Low Reynolds Number (LRN) turbulence models. And an accetped JHR paper on the (un)suitability of current anisotropic turbulence models for roughness induced secondary current in open channels.

10/30/2017: A DoE project to develop and apply a coupled hyporheic model for fluid dynamics, transport, and biogeochemistry (link to ICS news story).

8/25/2017: A new research project to design and study a nature-like fish passage on the lower Susquehanna River (link to Penn State news).

7/31/2017: Xiaofeng is a co-PI of a new NSF project to study the impact of oil and gas wastewater disposal on lake and river sediments, a follow up study of the work reported in a recent ES&T paper (link to Penn State news story).

4/7/2017: A new research project to develop a 3D ecohydraulic model for rivers with complex instream structures.

3/25/2017: A new research project to investigate the motion and fate of underwater munitions (link to CEE news story).

1/20/2017: Another couple of papers published: density current over macro-roughness, roughness estimation of a subglacial conduit, CFD analysis of an instream structure - Engineered Log Jams (ELJ).

3/30/2016: Another accepted paper with the title "Quantification of the bedload effects on turbulent open channel flows" by Journal of Geophysical Research - Earth Surface.

3/11/2016: Our paper on analystical solution for 2D suspended sediment transport has been accepted by Journal of Hydraulic Research.

2/20/2016: A paper on a new analytical model for sediment oxygen demand has been published by ASCE Journal of Environmental Engineering.

01/20/2016: Xiaofeng gave a one-day short course to Taiwan Water Resources Agency.

06/15/2015: A new research project from NSF to study the hydraulics in subglacial conduits.

06/01/2015: Xiaofeng will work with U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers this summer for three months through an Intergovernmental Personnel Assignment ((IPA) aggreement, on computational model development and applications.

05/25/2015: A new research project to use CFD to evaluate the accuracy of two USGS suspended sediment samplers.

05/17/2015: Xiaofeng co-taught a one-day short course on SRH-2D modeling at EWRI Congress 2015 with Dr. Yong Lai (developer of SRH-2D model at Bureau of Reclamation). Course matrials can be found on our GitHub portal (link)

03/05/2015: Our group won an internal grant funded by PSIEE with the title "3D Data Acquisition and 3D Printing to Construct “Digital Twins” for Water and Biogeochemical Research", with co-PIs Drs William Burgos and Li Li. This grant will fund a 3D printer and scanner.

01/09/2015: Xiaofeng has been appointed as Associate Editor to the Journal of Hydrualic Engineering, ASCE.

04/15/2014: A coorporative agreement between PSU and U.S. Bureau of Relcamation has been signed to do computational modeling on hydraulics and morphodynamics around large woody debris.

01/24/2014: Our paper on the analytical solution of suspended sediment distribution with arbitrary diffusivity distributions has been accepted by Journal of Hydraulic Engineering. see Research.

10/01/2013: Our new modeling framework will be used to simulate flow at pore-scale for U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers.

9/25/2013: Our paper on near-wall treatment of suspended sediment similar to wall functions has been accepted by Journal of Hydraulic Engineering. It deals with the gap between wall and reference height. See Publications.

4/15/2013: Our paper on DNS of density current in wall-bounded and open channels will be published in Environmental Fluid Mechanics. See Publications.

4/10/2013: Xiaofeng organized a technical clinic "Modeling of Earth Surface Dynamics and Related Problems using OpenFOAM" at the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) annual meeting.

10/15/2012: Our paper with Technical University of Denmark on porous scour protection around mono-piles will be published in Coastal Engineering. See Publications.

4/15/2013: Our paper on DNS of density current in wall-bounded and open channels will be published in Environmental Fluid Mechanics. See Publications.

4/10/2013: Xiaofeng Organized a technical clinic "Modeling of Earth Surface Dynamics and Related Problems using OpenFOAM" at the Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS) annual meeting.

10/15/2012: Our paper with Technical University of Denmark on porous scour protection around mono-piles will be published in Coastal Engineering.

3/13/2012: Xiaofeng organized a two-day workshop with the San Antonio River Authority (SARA). The main theme of the workshop is to use the open source platform OpenFOAM for river hydraulics, sedimentation, and water quality problems.

3/10/2012: Our group won an award from NSF to start international collaborative research on foundation scour protection for offshore wind farms. Xiaofeng and one graduate student will visit the Technical University of Denmark during the summer of 2012.

8/1/2011: Xiaofeng and Prof. Jennifer Duan (University of Arizona) are organizing a session titled "Sediment Transport Modeling" at ASCE EWRI World Water Congress 2012. The congress will be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from May 20 to 24, 2012. Key deadlines and other information can be found in the congress's web site.

Xiaofeng will also give a one-day short course on the development and application using open source computational package OpenFOAM for water resources and environmental problems. More details will be available at the congress's website and ASCE's various publications. Download a flyer.

8/1/2011: Xiaofeng and Prof. Marcelo H. Garcia (UIUC) will organize a session titled "High-Dimensional Computational Modeling of Rivers and Streams" at the XIX International Conference on Computational Methods in Water Resources (CMWR 2012). This conference will be held from June 17–21, 2012 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in Urbana, Illinois, USA. Abstract submission is now open. Details can be found in the conference's website.

8/1/2011: Our paper on a new numerical algorithm for DNS simulations with generalized velocity boundary conditions will be published by the Journal of Computational Physics.

6/27/2011: Xiaofeng was invited to gave a presentation at the National Association of State and Utility Consumer Advocates (NASUCA)'s mid-year meeting. He was on a panel discussing the ongoing hydraulic fracturing practice for natural gas and its impact on water resources. His presentation can be found here.

Dr. Xiaofeng Liu's Environmental Fluid Dynamics Group