NathalieÌýVriend

  • Associate Professor
  • MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
Nathalie Vriend
Address

Office: ECME 222
Lab: ECNW 1B90

Thermo fluid sciences • Mechanics of materials

Vriend leads Mechanical Engineering's Granular Flow Laboratory. She is an expert in performing detailed laboratory experiments and targeted field work involving particulate flows such as sand and snow. In addition, she also employs numerical simulations and theoretical modelling to complement observations, often in collaboration with scientists from multidisciplinary fields.Ìý

She has active projects in granular rheology and avalanching, and dune structure and migration. In the past she worked on the dynamics of real snow avalanches, singing sand dunes, silo honking, and seismic wave propagation.

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Vriend's profile in Mechanical Engineering

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Societal Impact

Climate change impacts weather patterns and meteorological long-term data and subsequently erosion rates in deserts. Desertification is a global concern and mobile hyper-arid desert dunes threaten settlements and infrastructure of as many as one billion people worldwide. To effectively mitigate the hazard for downwind communities and infrastructure, we need to understand the dynamics of their evolution, from the growth of a bedform to the steady-state processes of a mature dune.

Flowing granular materials arise everywhere around us, in industry from pharmaceutical processes to bulk goods transport lines, and in nature from snow avalanches to devastating landslides. To mitigate industrial economic losses and reduce hazards of naturally occurring flows, we need to be able to measure and model static and flowing granular materials, with transitions strongly depending on the spatial boundary conditions of the flow, external forcing, and time-dependent starting and stopping phenomena

Education

  • PhD (Mechanical Engineering): Caltech, 2009
  • MS (Aeronautics): Caltech, 2005
  • BS (Mechanical Engineering): University of Twente, 2004

Research group

In my research group, I promote and advance "Be A JEDI" (*): Belonging, Accessibility, Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. To me, this means that I want to create a welcoming environment for you (as my future group member) where you can reach your full potential and feel part of our crew. I highly value a balanced integration of work, family and private time: I am aware of the importance of this due to extended periods of leave and a non-linear career path I have taken, and I want to meet your personal needs such that you can reach your full potential in your professional research career. Please contact me directly if you have any questions, considerations or concerns.

Current students

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Publications

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