Professor Rob Sturman
- Position: Professor
- Areas of expertise: dynamical systems; applications of ergodic theory; fluid mixing; piecewise isometries.
- Email: R.Sturman@leeds.ac.uk
- Phone: +44(0)113 343 5139
- Location: 9.24 Mathematics
- Website: Maths, mixing, modelling and music | Googlescholar | ORCID
Profile
Exploiting ideas from chaos theory to mix fluids efficiently has a large range of applications throughout engineering. Understanding the mathematical details of this process, for example how fast or how well a device mixes, is a challenge. I use the ergodic theory of dynamical systems to investigate this.
Responsibilities
- Pro Dean International
Research interests
I am interested in applying ideas from ergodic theory and dynamical systems to fluid mixing problems. Chaotic mixing in fluids has for a long time been studied from the topological viewpoint, with the existence of a horseshoe frequently pointing the way towards chaotic dynamics, and hence mixing. However, horseshoes are objects of zero volume, and as such do not guarantee that islands of unmixed fluid do not exist. Ergodic theory, and in particular linked twist maps, gives a framework in which mixing results on sets of positive (and even full) volume can be formulated. I have applied these ideas to a range of different physical situations, including DNA hybridisation chambers, channel flows and granular tumblers. I have recently become interested in the idea of mixing by cutting and shuffling.
<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Any research projects I'm currently working on will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://eps.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>Research groups and institutes
- Applied Mathematics
- Applied Nonlinear Dynamics