Professor Bianca Viggiano of the Department of Mechanical Engineering invites you to a seminar on Friday, March 27th, 2026, titled “Particle–turbulence interactions from wind-tunnel” given by Professor Martin Obligado of the Centrale Lille Institute (France).
- March 27th, 2026, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
- M-2101, Pavillons Lassonde
In this seminar, professor Martin Obligado will present wind-tunnel experiments exploring preferential concentration, settling dynamics, and the role of turbulence unsteadiness across a wide range of flow conditions.
The seminar is relevant for students in mechanical engineering at all levels.
About the seminar:
Particle-laden turbulent flows are ubiquitous in environmental and industrial systems, yet key questions remain about how turbulence affects particle clustering and settling. In this seminar, professor Martin Obligado will present wind-tunnel experiments exploring preferential concentration, settling dynamics, and the role of turbulence unsteadiness across a wide range of flow conditions. These laboratory results are connected with field measurements of rainfall near a wind farm, linking controlled experiments with atmospheric observations.
About the speaker:
Martin Obligado is a Professor at Centrale Lille Institut (France) and a Junior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France since 2025. His research focuses on the experimental investigation and modeling of turbulent flows, with particular emphasis on particle-laden and multiphase turbulence. He obtained his PhD in fluid mechanics from LEGI (Grenoble) in 2013 and subsequently held a postdoctoral position at the Department of Aeronautics at Imperial College London. Before joining Centrale Lille, he was an associate professor (maître de conférences) at LEGI.
His work aims to understand how turbulence interacts with dispersed phases. Current research topics include the settling and clustering of inertial particles in turbulence, bubble-induced turbulence in gas–liquid flows, and the dynamics of non-canonical turbulent flows such as pulsed jets and shear flows. His research combines laboratory experiments, field measurements, and theoretical modeling to address problems relevant to environmental and industrial flows.
