Background
Ali's research is broadly defined by multiphysics problems in fluids and transport engineering, commonly involving phenomena such as: interfaces, shocks, electrohydrodynamics, turbulence, and micro/nano-scale engineering. His work contributes to the understanding of these problems primarily through theoretical tools such as large-scale computation and techniques of applied mathematics. Numerical simulations enable quantitative visualization of the detailed physical processes which can be difficult to detect experimentally. They also provide insight for the development of reduced-order models. The ultimate goal in each problem is to provide a simple representation of the essential physics (ideally ODE-level) which would naturally induce insight into design, optimization and control. While these efforts at core rely on mathematical techniques such as asymptotic methods or statistical analysis, close interaction with experiments is crucial in identification of practical bottlenecks and validation of the theoretical assumptions.
Ali Mani is an Associate Professor at the Flow Physics and Computational Engineering and the Mechanics and Computation groups in the Mechanical Engineering Department at Stanford University. He received his Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering from Sharif University of Technology in 2002, and his Master of Science in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 2004, followed by his Ph.D in 2009. He worked as an engineering research associate at Stanford and a senior postdoctoral associate at MIT's department of chemical engineering before joining Stanford as a faculty.
Recent Journal Publications
- Assessment of diffuse-interface methods for compressible multiphase fluid flows and elastic-plastic deformation in solids. S.S. Jain, M.C. Adler, J.R. West, A. Mani, P. Moin and S.K. Lele. Journal of Computational Physics, 475(111866), 2023. (URL) (BIB)
- The Discrete Green's function paradigm for two-way coupled Euler-Lagrange simulation. J.A.K. Horwitz, G. Iaccarino, J.K. Eaton and A. Mani. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 931(25), 2021. (URL) (BIB)
- A conservative diffuse-interface method for compressible two-phase flows. S.S. Jain, A. Mani and P. Moin. Journal of Computational Physics, 418(109606), 2020. (URL) (BIB)
- A benchmark for particle-laden turbulent duct flow: A joint computational and experimental study. M. Esmaily, L. Villafane, A.J. Banko, G. Iaccarino, J.K. Eaton and A. Mani. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 132:103410, 2020. (URL) (BIB)
- Electroconvection near electrochemical interfaces: experiments, modeling, and computation. A. Mani and K.M. Wang. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, 52:509-529, 2020. (URL) (BIB)
- Characterization of chaotic electroconvection near flat inert electrodes under oscillatory voltages. J. Kim, S. Davidson and A. Mani. Micromachines, 10(3):1-30, 2019. (URL) (BIB)
- Birth of microbubbles in turbulent breaking waves. W.H.R. Chan, S. Mirjalili, S. Jain, J. Urzay, A. Mani and P. Moin. Physical Review Fluids, 4:100508-1-4, 2019. (URL) (BIB)
- Comparison between the diffuse interface and volume of fluid methods for simulating two-phase flows. S. Mirjalili, C. Ivey and A. Mani. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 116:221-238, 2019. (URL) (BIB)
- Effect of texture randomization on the slip and interfacial robustness in turbulent flows over superhydrophobic surfaces. J. Seo and A. Mani. Physics Review Fluids, 3(044601):1-15, 2018. (URL) (BIB)
- Predictive model of convective flows induced by surface reactivity contrast. S.M. Davidson, R.G.H. Lammertink and A. Mani. Physics Review Fluids, 3(053701):1-16, 2018. (URL) (BIB)
- Turbulent flows over superhydrophobic surfaces: flow-induced capillary waves, robustness of air-water interfaces. J. Seo, R. Garcia-Mayoral and A. Mani. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 835:45-85, 2018. (URL) (BIB)
- A scalable geometric multigrid solver for nonsymmetric elliptic systems with application to variable-denstiy flows. M. Esmaily, L. Jofre, A. Mani and G. Iaccarino. Journal of Computational Physics, 357:142-158, 2018. (URL) (BIB)
- Multiscale model for electrokinetic transport in networks of pores, Part I: Model derivation. S. Alizadeh and A. Mani. Langmuir, 33(25):6205-6219, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Multiscale model for electrokinetic transport in networks of pores, Part II: Computational algorithms and applications. S. Alizadeh and A. Mani. Langmuir, 33(25):6220-6231, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Coherent clusters of inertial particles in homogeneous turbulence. L. Baker, A. Frankel, A. Mani and F. Coletti. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 833:364-398, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Confinement effects on electroconvective instability. M.B. Andersen, K.M. Wang, J. Schiffbauer and A. Mani. Electrophoresis, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Spectral analysis of energy transfer in turbulent flows laden with heated particles. H. Pouransari, H. Kolla, J.H. Chen and A. Mani. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 813:1156-1175, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Demonstrating the potential of a novel model to improve open-loop control of electrostatic comb-drive actuators in electrolytes. O. Dibua, V. Mukundan, B. Pruitt, A. Mani and G. Iaccarino. ASME, IMECE2017-71092:1-10, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Effects of Preferential Concentration on Heat Transfer in Particle-Based Solar Receivers. H. Pouransari and A. Mani. Journal of Solar Energy Engineering, 139(2):021008, 2017. (URL) (BIB)
- Optical depth in particle-laden turbulent flows. A. Frankel, G. Iaccarino and A. Mani. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer, 201:10-16, 2017. (URL) (BIB)