Kenneth Ball
L. S. Randolph Professor
Mechanical Engineering
207 Randolph Hall
(540) 231-6661
(540) 231-9100 FAX
| Education | Research | Experience |
Education
| Ph.D. | Mechanical Engineering | Drexel University Philadelphia , PA |
1987 |
| M.S.M.E. | Mechanical Engineering | Drexel University Philadelphia , PA |
1984 |
| B.S. | Mechanical Engineering | Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA |
1982 |
Research
- Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Heat Transfer
- High Performance Computing
- Transport Phenomena in Unsteady and Chaotic Flows
- Transport Phenomena in Manufacturing, Materials Processing, Biomedical and Nuclear Systems
- Hydrodynamic Stability, Transition, and Turbulence
- Turbulence Control and Drag Reduction
- Radiation Heat Transfer
- Buoyancy Induced Flows
- Chaos and Dynamical Systems Theory
- Homeland Security and Counter-Terrorism:
- Dispersion of contaminants in air (including chemical, biological, and nuclear agents)
- Disposition of special nuclear materials including weapons-grade plutonium
- Risk analysis, assessment, and mitigation of damage resulting from terrorism or natural disasters
Teaching Activities
No current teaching activities.
Experience
| L. S. Randolph Professor and Head | Dept. of Mechanical Engineering Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA |
2001 - Present |
| Professor and Thermal/Fluid Systems Area Coordinator |
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas |
2000 - 2004 |
| Temple Foundation Endowed Faculty Fellow in Engineering No. 5 |
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas |
1994 - 2004 |
| Associate Professor |
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas |
1994 - 2000 |
| Assistant Professor | Dept. of Mechanical Engineering The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas |
1989 - 1994 |
| Post-Doctoral Research Associate | Center for Fluid Mechanics, Turbulence, and Computation, Division of Applied Mathematics Brown University Providence, RI |
1987 - 1989 |
Honors
- Young Investigator Award, National Science Foundation, 1992.
- Halliburton Foundation, Inc. Faculty Excellence Award, 1996.
- College of Engineering Departmental Teaching Award, 1998.
- Registered Professional Engineer, State of Texas.
- Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
- Pi Tau Sigma, National Honorary Mechanical Engineering Fraternity.
- Associate Technical Editor, ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, 2001-2004.
- Editorial Advisory Board, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 2001-present.
- ASME, AIAA, ASEE, APS.
- Chair, 3rd Engineering Foundation International Conference on Turbulent Heat Transfer, 2001.
Technical Program Chair, 2007 National Heat Transfer Conference.
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Publications
- "Stability Analysis for Three-Dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard Convection with Radiatively Participating Medium using Spectral Methods," International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 46 , 1371-1383, 2003 (with C. H. Lan, O. A. Ezekoye, J. R. Howell).
- "Parallel Implementation of a Fourier-Chebyshev Collocation Method for Incompressible Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer," Numerical Heat Transfer, Part B 36 , 309-329, 1999 (with R. W. Hill).
- "Direct Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Forced Convection Between Counter-Rotating Disks," International Journal for Heat and Fluid Flow 20 , 208-221, 1999 (with R. W. Hill).
- "Dynamical Eigenfunction Decomposition of Turbulent Channel Flow," International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids 12 , 585-604, 1991 (with L. Sirovich and L. R. Keefe).
- "Plane Waves and Structures in Turbulent Channel Flow," Phys. Fluids A 2 , 2217-2226, 1990 (with L. Sirovich and L. R. Keefe).