Research Interests

On a broad scale, my general interests lie in the field of computational mathematics and high performance computing. Currently, I am working as a PhD student under Dwight Barkley to investigate instabilities found in cylindrical pipe flow via numerical simulations.

Pipe flow is an interesting (and unsolved) problem, in that although the laminar Hagen-Poiseuille equations appear to be linearly stable, it is well-known that the flow is extremely susceptible to external perturbations. Understanding the nature of these instabilities may lead to a better understanding of the underlying Navier-Stokes equations.

Our experiments involve the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of Navier-Stokes in pipes of a long length of anywhere between 25 and 150 pipe diameters, evaluated using a spectral/hp element method called Semtex, written by Hugh Blackburn and available under the GPL. Currently we are aiming to use these simulations to aid classification of states found in the transition from turbulent to laminar flow.

Publications

• D. Moxey, D. Barkley; Distinct large-scale turbulent-laminar states in transitional pipe flow, PNAS (accepted for publication).

Recent Talks

• A computational investigation of pipe flow at transitional Reynolds numbers
  British Applied Mathematics Conference, Nottingham University (April 2009).
• A numerical study of the transition from turbulence in pipe flow.
  Postgraduate Seminar Series, University of Warwick (January 2009).
• A numerical investigation of transition from turbulent to laminar flow in long pipes.
  7th European Fluid Mechanics Conference, University of Manchester (September 2008) – abstract.

Older Documents

• An introduction to the study of polymer chains using Monte Carlo methods
  Fourth year dissertation, under the supervision of Prof. Mike Allen (July 2008).