Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering : Williamson, Charles

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Charles H.K. Williamson

Willis H. Carrier Professor of Engineering
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Research Group Web Page:

Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratories

Address:

252 Upson Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY 14853

Phone:
Fax:
E-mail:

(607) 255-3838
(607) 255-1222
cw26@cornell.edu

Professor Williamson conducts research in problems of vortex dynamics and instabilities, vortex-induced vibration, aircraft wake vortices, vortex pair instabilities, vortex merging, ocean engineering, fluid loading in extreme waves, dynamics of rising and falling bodies, and turbulence transition in wakes. Professor Williamson is the Director of the Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratories, and more information can be obtained from web site:

Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratories

Current Projects

Dynamics of rising and falling bodies
Vortex-induced vibration of tethered spheres and cylinders
Aircraft Wake Vortex Dynamics
Instabilities of Vortex Pairs and Wing trailing vortices
Vortex pair dynamics in ground effect
Fluid loading of structures in extreme waves
Merging of co-rotating vortices
Analytical studies of vortex patches for 2 or more vortices
Forced vibration of bodies in a flow
SEE MORE AT THE FOLLOWING WEB SITE

Fluid Dynamics Research Laboratories

Some Selected Publications

	ANNUAL REVIEW OF FLUID MECHANICS C. H. K. Williamson and R. Govardhan (2004) "Vortex-Induced Vibration", Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 36, 413 - 455. C. H. K. Williamson (1996) "Vortex dynamics in the cylinder wake", Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 28, 477-526. SELECTED REFEREED PAPERS C. Cerretelli and C.H.K.Williamson (2003) "A new family of equilibium vortices related to vortex configurations before merging", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 493, 23-62. R. Govardhan and C. H. K. Williamson (2002) "Resonance Forever: existence of a critical mass and an infinite regime of resonance in vortex-induced vibration", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 473, 147-166. C. Cerretelli and C.H.K.Williamson (2003) "The physical mechanism of vortex merging", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 475, 41-77. M.C. Thompson, T. Leweke & C. H. K. Williamson (2001) "The physical mechanism of transition in bluff body wakes ", Journal of Fluids and Structures, 15, 607. R. Govardhan and C. H. K. Williamson (2000) "Modes of vortex formation and frequency response for a freely-vibrating cylinder", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 420, 85-130. C. H. K. Williamson, T. Leweke and G.D. Miller (2000) “Instabilities in temporally-developing vortex pairs and in spatially-developing wing vortices”, In Turbulence Structure and Vortex Dynamics, Newton Institute, Cambridge, England. A. Khalak and C. H. K. Williamson (1999) "Motions, forces and mode transitions in vortex- induced vibrations at low mass-damping", Journal of Fluids and Structures, 13, 813. T. Leweke and C. H. K. Williamson (1998) "Cooperative elliptic instability in a vortex pair", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 360, 85. T. Leweke and C. H. K. Williamson (1998) "Three-dimensional instabilities in wake transition", European Journal of Mechanics B - Fluids., 17, 571. C. H. K. Williamson and J-M. Chomaz (1997) "Instabilities of stratified vortex pairs", In the Gallery of Fluid Motion, Physics of Fluids , 9, S4. P.A. Monkewitz, C.H.K.Williamson & G.D. Miller (1996) "Phase dynamics of Karman vortices in cylinder wakes", Physics of Fluids , 8, 1. C. H. K. Williamson (1989) "Oblique and parallel modes of vortex shedding in the wake of a cylinder", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 206, 579-628. C. H. K. Williamson (1988) "The existence of two stages in the transition to three-dimensionality of a cylinder wake", Physics of Fluids, 31, 3165-3168. C. H. K. Williamson and A. Roshko (1988) "Vortex formation in the wake of an oscillating cylinder", Journal of Fluids and Structures, 2, 355-381.

Biography

While a graduate student at Cambridge University, England, Williamson spent some months working as a research associate for the National Maritime Institute in London. After receiving his doctorate, he worked as a staff engineer for a firm involved in offshore-platform research and then as a high school mathematics and physics teacher in London, and as a private tutor to Prince Pavlos, the son of King Constantine of Greece. In 1996, he spent a sabbatical at the Laboratoire d'Hydrodynamique at Ecole Polytechnique in France (LADHYX). Part of his sabbatical in early 2003 was spent working with CSIRO and Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and at GALCIT, Caltech.

Williamson was awarded the Calder Prize by the Royal Institution of Naval Architects in 1979 and six times won the Gallery of Fluid Motion competition at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society (1988-89, 1993-96). He was awarded a Dean's Prize for Outstanding and Innovative Teaching in (1992, 1994 and 2000), the departmental Shepherd Memorial Teaching Prize (1995), and in 1996 and 1999 he was awarded the Cornell Society of Engineers - Tau Beta Pi Outstanding Teaching Prize in the College of Engineering. In 1994, he was presented with the $10,000 national Keck Foundation Award for Excellence in Teaching, and in 1999, he was awarded the Stephen H. Weiss Presidential Fellowship by Cornell University.

Williamson is an editor of the Journal of Fluids and Structures, and the co-founder and Chairman of a series of international conferences on Bluff Body Flows and Vortex-Induced Vibrations (BBVIV), held in Washington DC (1998), Marseille, France (2000), Port Douglas, Australia (2002) and Santorini Island, Greece (2005). He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

Education

Ph.D. 1982	-	Cambridge, England
B.Sc. 1978	-	Southampton, England



	MAE Research Areas: Vortex dynamics Aerodynamics Turbulence Fluid-Structure interactions more about MAE Research Areas MAE Research Programs: Fluid Dynamics more about MAE Research Programs Cornell Graduate Field Affiliations: Mechanical Engineering Aerospace Engineering more about Cornell Graduate Fields