Department of Chemical & Sustainability Engineering
University of Rochester
Computational Fluid Dynamics · Rochester, NY

Understanding flow.
Advancing engineering.

We use computational fluid dynamics and transport phenomena to investigate challenging problems in cardiovascular systems, industrial processes, and materials engineering.

Explore our research Meet our group
Biomedical FlowIndustrial CFDTransport Phenomena
Research visualization
CFD streamlines colored by velocity within a branching carotid artery geometry
Vascular blood-flow simulation · Velocity-colored streamlines
Our research

From arteries to industry.

We connect fundamental transport physics with computational models of complex real-world systems.

View research areas
Aortic arch CFD streamlines and five velocity cross-section contours labeled A to E
Cardiovascular CFD

Patient-specific aortic hemodynamics

Using three-dimensional vessel geometries and fluid-flow simulations to explore local velocity fields, flow structures, and vascular disease.

Three-dimensional carotid artery CFD model with velocity-colored streamlines and a velocity scale
Biomedical flow

Carotid artery flow patterns

Studying how vascular geometry influences flow behavior and the structures that emerge near branching regions.

Methods & applications

A broad view of flow and transport.

Detailed computational mesh on a branching aortic geometry
Model development

Geometry & meshing

Building accurate computational domains and meshes from complex geometries.

Composite illustration of a particle scaffold, generated packing, meshing, and modeled velocity contours
Porous materials

Transport in structured media

Exploring flow and transport through packed and porous structures.

ANSYS three-dimensional geometry of a mechanically agitated mixing vessel
Industrial CFD

Mixing & process engineering

Using numerical models to investigate fluid motion in equipment and processes.

Our group

Science built with students.

Our projects provide opportunities to work across geometry construction, meshing, numerical modeling, interpretation, and communication of computational results.

Meet the group
Build the geometryFrom physical systems and medical images to computational domains
Develop the modelMesh, boundary conditions, and fluid physics
Analyze the flowVelocity fields, transport, and detailed interpretation
Share the resultsPosters, research presentations, and publications
Teaching & scholarship

Connecting research and education.

Professor David G. Foster

Teaching transport phenomena and CFD

Courses taught at Rochester include:

  • CHE 243Fluid Dynamics
  • CHE 250Separation Processes
  • CHE 268/468Fundamentals of CFD
  • CHE 441Advanced Transport Phenomena
Official faculty profile ↗
Books & publications

Fundamentals of transport

Professor Foster is a coauthor of Fundamentals of Momentum, Heat and Mass Transfer. Work on the eighth edition is underway.

Selected article

Ansari, Gandhi, Foster & White, “Iterative Symbolic Regression for Learning Transport Equations,” AIChE Journal (2022).

Read publication ↗

Explore selected papers, conference presentations, patents and textbook information on our publications page.

Collaborate with us

Interested in computational fluid dynamics?

We welcome conversations with prospective student researchers and scientific or industrial collaborators.

Contact the group