Overview

The faculty and students in the Environmental Fluid Mechanics Laboratory (EFML) in the EEnvironmental Fluid Mechanics and Hydrology Program(EFMH) of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University study turbulence and mixing in natural flows, natural and forced convection in energy systems, energy and mass transfer between the ocean and the atmosphere, mesoscale phenomena in the oceans and surface layers of the atmosphere, and transport and mixing of pollutants at regional and global scales in the atmosphere.

Research in the EFML employs both experiments and numerical simulations. The EFML has six major experimental research facilities, including a rotating table, a flume for studying the hydrodynamics of benthic bivalve feeding, two wave flumes, and a stratified flow facility. Numerical simulations are run on a Cray mini-supercomputer and Silicon Graphics workstations. The EFML is also the home site of the Peter A. McCuen Environmental Computing Center for high performance computing to enable real-world predictions as a basis for design, decision-making, and action to preserve and enhance our environment.