Contact Information:
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Oklahoma State University
Engineering North 218
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078-5016 USA
Phone: (405) 744-5900
Fax: (405) 744-7873
E-mail: frank.chambers "at" okstate.edu
Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, University of Pennsylvania
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Honors Program, Purdue University
Registered Professional Engineer, Georgia and Oklahoma
Basic and Applied Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer, and Acoustics
Flow Visualization, Flow Field Measurements and Instrumentation
Turbulent and Transitional Boundary Layers and Free Shear Flows
Boundary Layer Drag Reduction and Active Flow Control
Aerodynamic Noise and Flow-Acoustic Interactions
Fluid Dynamics of Air Filtration and Filter Testing
Micro Flows and Micro Filtration
Industrial Aerodynamics and Flow Control
Associate Editor, AIAA Journal, 1994 – 1997
Associate Fellow, AIAA
Excellence in Oral Presentation Award, 1999 Society of Automotive Engineers International Congress and Exposition
Member, SAE Air Cleaner Test Code Committee, 1996 – 2001
NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellow, 1999 & 2000, NASA Langley Research Center
Chair, AIAA Oklahoma Section, 1991 - 1992 & 2002 - 2003, Officer, 1990 – present
Chair, ASME Central Oklahoma Section, 1999 - 2000, Officer, 1993 – present
Automotive Air Filtration – With the support of Purolator Products, Inc. and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, the role of inlet flow distributions upon automotive air filter performance has been investigated experimentally. The knowledge gained has been applied to the computational design of filter housings with desired flow distributions. Experiments using flow visualization and laser Doppler anemometer velocity measurements have documented the flow fields in laboratory test housings and vehicle housings with clean and dust-loaded filters. Fibrous filter theory has been applied to predict the effects of measured flow distributions upon initial, clean filter efficiency. Computational fluid dynamics has been applied to determine the local flow distributions between filter pleats and combined with computational optimization methods to design vehicle housings with specified filter velocity distributions.
Micro Flows and Micro Filtration - Lattice Boltzmann techniques are being applied to computations of micro channel and micro filter flows, extending filtration research to micro scale applications.
Fundamental Fluid Dynamics – Fundamental computational fluid dynamics has been applied to the problem of a channel flow separating over a backward-facing step with and without a downstream section of porous media modeling a filter. The effects of the porous medium on boundary layer separation and reattachment have been examined. Laser Doppler anemometer measurements of mean velocity profiles and turbulent flow fluctuations have been performed to validate the computational results. Turbulent boundary layers over moving walls have been studied in experiments using hot wire and laser Doppler anemometry and laser sheet flow visualizations. In research performed at NASA Langley Research Center, hot wire anemometer probe calibration relations have been investigated for probes operating into the free molecule flow regime in very low density wind tunnel tests. Changes in piezoelectric flow control actuator performance with local density also were investigated at Langley for a range of densities corresponding to the altitude range for aircraft operations. Experiments were performed for no flow and Mach 0.1 and 0.2 boundary layer flows.
Aeroacoustics – The aeroacoustic and fluid dynamic behavior of bluff body vortex shedding and separated shear layers flowing over open cavities have been investigated experimentally for applications in automotive wind noise diagnosis and reduction and aircraft noise reduction.
"Lattice Boltzmann Computations of Micro Channel Gas Flow Using Different Boundary Conditions,” Frank Chambers and Taiho Yeom. Presented at the 60th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, American Physical Society, Salt Lake City, Utah, November, 2007. (Abstract in Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Vol. 52, No. 17, November, 2007, p. 29.)
“Experiments on Backward-Facing Step Flows Preceding a Filter,” S. Yao, C. Krishnamoorthy, and F.W. Chambers, Proceedings of FEDSM2007, 5th Joint ASME/JSME Fluids Engineering Conference, San Diego, CA, August, 2007, Paper FEDSM2007-37204.
"One-Dimensional Analysis Techniques for Pulsed Blowing Distribution,” Frank Chambers and Kalyanasundaram Krishnan. Presented at the 58th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, American Physical Society, Chicago, Illinois, November, 2005. (Abstract in Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Vol. 50, No. 9, November, 2005, p. 39.)
"Lattice Boltzmann Computations of Micro Channel and Micro Orifice Flows," Ignacio Zea Caloca and F. W. Chambers, XI Congreso Internacional Anual de la Sociedad Mexicana de Ingeniería Mecánica, Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico, September, 2005.
"Effects of Turbulence on the Breakup of Round Liquid Jets in Gaseous Crossflow," R. Sankarakrishnan, K.A. Sallam, and F.W. Chambers, Proceedings of 2005 ASME Fluids Engineering Division Summer Meeting and Exhibition, Houston, TX, June, 2005, Paper FEDSM2005-77407.
“Lattice Boltzmann Computations of Micro Channel and Micro Orifice Flows,” F.W. Chambers and I. Zea Caloca. Presented at the 57th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, American Physical Society, Seattle, Washington, November, 2004. (Abstract in Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Vol. 49, No. 9, November, 2004, p. 47.)
“Optimization Technique for Design of Automotive Air Filter Housings with Improved Fluid Dynamic Performance and Filtration,” A. Al-Sarkhi and F.W. Chambers, Particulate Science and Technology, Vol. 22, No. 3, 2004, pp. 235 - 252.
“Experiments on Backward-Facing Step Flows Preceding a Resistance Element,” F.W. Chambers and S. Yao. Presented at the 55th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, American Physical Society, Dallas, Texas, November, 2002. (Abstract in Bulletin of the American Physical Society, Vol. 47, No. 10, November, 2002, p. 168.)
“Velocity Distribution Effects in Air Filter Testing,” F.W. Chambers, A. Al-Sarkhi, and S. Yao. Particulate Sciences and Technology, Vol. 19, No. 1, 2001, pp. 1-21.
“Density and Mach Number Effects on Piezoelectric Flow Control Actuator Performance,” F.W. Chambers and G.S. Jones, AIAA Paper AIAA 2001-3025.
"Velocity Distribution Effects in Air Filter Testing," F.W. Chambers, A. Al-Sarkhi, and S. Yao. Proceedings, AFS 1999 Fall Topical Conference, Air Filtration Conference, October 20-21, Minneapolis, MN, A.G. Holcomb and P.F. Gebes, Editors, AFS, 1999, pp. 85-100.
"Optimization Technique for Design of Automotive Air Filter Housings with Improved Fluid Dynamic Performance," A. Al-Sarkhi and F.W. Chambers. Proceedings of the 3rd International Filtration Conference, Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX, 1999, pp. 137-149.
"Effects of Vehicular Air Filter Housing Configuration and Filter Resistance on Filter Flow Distributions and Filtration," A. Al-Sarkhi, S.H. Yao, F.W. Chambers, Society of Automotive Engineers Paper 1999-01-0007.
"Computations of Air Films and Pressures between Webs and Rollers for Steady and Unsteady Operating Conditions," S.S. Kothari, K. Satheesh, and F.W. Chambers. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Web Handling, June 1-4, 1997, J.K. Good, Editor, OSU Web Handling Research Center, Stillwater, OK, 1999, pp. 205-222.
"Flow Distribution Dependence on Housing Geometry for Tangential Inlet Automotive Air Filter Housings," A. Al-Sarkhi, S.H. Yao, F.W. Chambers. Proceedings of the 10th Annual Technical Conference of the American Filtration and Separations Society, Minneapolis, MN, April, 1997, Advances in Filtration and Separation Technology, E.R. Baumann and L. Weisert, Editors, Vol. 11, 1997, pp. 210-215.
"Air Filter Test Housing Velocity Profile Effects on Filter Efficiencies," R.A. Newman, R. Duran and F.W. Chambers, SAE SP-1252, Topics in Automotive Filtration Design, 1997, pp. 35-48 (Society of Automotive Engineers Paper 970554).
"Filter Inlet Velocity Redistribution with Filter Loading," G. Liu, C.B. Tebbutt, R. Duran and F.W. Chambers, Particulate Science and Technology, Vol. 14, No. 3, 1996, pp. 279-291.
"Elastohydrodynamic Lubrication of Air-Lubricated Rollers," Y.B. Chang, F.W. Chambers, and J.J. Shelton, Transactions of ASME, Journal of Tribology, Vol. 118, No. 3, pp. 623-628, 1996.
"CFD Predictions of Flow Distributions through Air Filter Pleats," C.B. Tebbutt, W.C. Gimlin, G. Liu and F.W. Chambers, abstract in Proceedings of the 26th Annual Meeting of the Fine Particle Society, Chicago, Illinois, August, 1995.
"Flow Distribution Effects upon Air Filter Performance Measurements," R. D. Sabnis, Q. Cai, and F. W. Chambers, SAE 1994 Transactions, Journal of Engines, Section 3, pp. 386-397. Also appears in SAE SP-1040, Climate Control and Automotive Cabin Air Filtration, pp. 1-12, 1994.
"Diagnosis of the Flow Fields in a Housing for Automotive Air Filter Performance Testing," R.D. Sabnis, Q. Cai, and F.W. Chambers, AIAA Paper AIAA 94-0117, 1994.
"Shear Layer Resonance over Open Cavities at Angles to the Flow Direction," A. Bari and F.W. Chambers, AIAA Paper AIAA 93-4397, 1993.
"Air Films between a Moving Tensioned Web and a Stationary Support Cylinder," S.L. King, B.A. Funk and F.W. Chambers. Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Web Handling, June 6-9, 1993, J.K. Good, editor, OSU Web Handling Research Center, Stillwater, Oklahoma, 1995, pp. 286-302.
"Isolated Component Testing for the Identification of Automotive Wind Noise Sources," NCA-Vol 9, Vehicle Noise, ASME, pp. 67-74, 1990.
"Direct Measurements of Drag of Ribbon-Type Manipulators in a Turbulent Boundary Layer," S.P. Govindaraju and F.W. Chambers, AIAA Journal, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 388-394, 1987.
"Synthetically Generated Turbulent Boundary-Layer Development and Structure," AIAA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 12, pp. 1987-1993, 1986
Dr. Chambers has broad experience teaching and conducting research in fluid dynamics. This research has been performed in academia, industry, and national laboratories and includes subjects that range from basic research on turbulent flow to applied research on industrial topics. His specialty is turbulent flow, with particular expertise in experimentation, flow field diagnostics, flow control, and acoustic-turbulent interactions. He has considerable experience with hot wire anemometry, laser Doppler anemometry (LDA), turbulent and acoustic signal processing and analysis, and visualization techniques for air and liquid flows. His experience encompasses both free and wall-bounded shear flows. He has served four years as an Associate Editor of the AIAA Journal, handling papers generally concerned with turbulent flows. His dissertation research involved acoustically enhanced development of turbulent jets. At Los Alamos National Laboratory, he investigated turbulent structure and relaminarization in turbulent duct flows subjected to flow acceleration. At Lockheed, he served as principal investigator for internally funded and contract research on projects that addressed various problems of boundary layer transition, skin friction drag reduction and shear flow control, thrust vectoring, analytical and experimental aspects of ice particle interaction with gas dynamic shocks, and vortex-shedding aerodynamic noise of automobiles. He also provided project support on subjects that included the control of flow and acoustic resonance of open cavities (windows for an aircraft-mounted optical radar), hypersonic test facility renovation and instrumentation, boundary layer separation control, and the far field acoustics of the Propfan Test Assessment aircraft. A patent disclosure on the generation of micron-sized ice particles resulted from the effort on the interaction of ice particles with shocks. With the support of the Oklahoma State University Web Handling Research Center, he served as principal investigator for research on the prediction and control of the air films associated with moving plastic or paper webs and their support rollers. This work involved moving wall boundary layers and the tribology of foil bearings. With the support of Purolator Products, Inc. and the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology, he has served as principal investigator conducting research on the effects of inlet flow fields on automotive air filter performance in laboratory test housings and vehicular housings. This work has involved flow visualizations of complex separating flow fields, LDA flow field measurements, application of fibrous filter theory to measured velocity distributions, and the application of computational fluid dynamics to predictions of filter housing flow fields and the smaller scale flow distributions through filter pleats. As a NASA/ASEE Summer Faculty Fellow at NASA Langley Research Center in 1999 and 2000, he studied very low density hot wire anemometer calibration in support of the Mars Flyer program and density effects on the performance of synthetic jet flow control actuators. He has most recently directed research on the propagation of pulsed flow in ducts in support of applications of pulsed blowing to circulation control wings, and on the computations of micro channel and micro filter flows. He has administered three two-year R&D Intern programs at Mercury Mercruiser funded by the Oklahoma Center for the Advancement of Science and Technology with matching funds from Mercury. Twenty-seven OSU engineering students participated in the program. His teaching experience has included fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, and instrumentation and measurements. Recently, he regularly has been teaching the MAE 3223 Thermodynamics II, MAE 3233 Heat Transfer, and MAE 4273 Experimental Fluid Dynamics undergraduate courses, and the MAE 5233 Viscous Fluid Dynamics and MAE 6233 Turbulent Fluid Dynamics graduate courses. In MAE 6233, he covers both a traditional introduction to turbulent flow and a survey of the development of turbulence models for computational fluid dynamics. He is a Registered Professional Engineer in the states of Georgia and Oklahoma..
Artificial Turbulent Spot Downstream of a Large Eddy Break Up Device in a Water Channel
Artificial Turbulent Spot in a Flat Plate Boundary Layer in a Wind Tunnel
Schlieren Visualization of Shocks and Expansions in a Plane Jet
Schlieren Visualization of a Deflected Jet
2-Component Laser Doppler Anemometer Probe Volume
Filter Test Housing - Laser Sheet & Water Droplets
Filter Test Housing - Laser Sheet & Smoke
Has raced a Van Diemen RF81 and a 1985 Swift DB1 Formula Fords in the Midwest Division of the Sports Car Club of America. Holds SCCA National Competition License. Finished 2nd in class in SCCA Midwest Division MidAm Championship, 1995 and 1998 seasons, 3rd 1993, 2000, and 2002. Served as Driver School instructor, Northeast Oklahoma Region, SCCA, 1998. The Van Diemen was raced from 1988 through 2002. The Van Diemen was sold and the Swift acquired in 2003. The Swift went through a frame-up rebuild before returning to the track in 2006. Won SCCA Midwest Division 2007 MidAm Formula Ford Championship.
Swift DB1 at Heartland Park Topeka, June, 2007
Van Diemen RF81 at Gateway
Van Diemen RF81 at Hallett
Swift DB1 Formula Ford
Swift DB1 Frame