Department of Engineering / Profiles / Prof. Matthew Juniper

Department of Engineering

Prof. Matthew Juniper

mpj1001

Matthew Juniper

Professor of Thermofluid Dynamics

Academic Division: Energy, Fluids and Turbomachinery

Research group: Energy

Telephone: +44 1223 3 32585

Email: mpj1001@eng.cam.ac.uk

Personal website


Research interests

Matthew Juniper's research is in the broad area of flow instability, encompassing hydrodynamic instability and thermoacoustic instability. This research is inspired by developments in the analysis of nonlinear dynamical systems and the analysis of linear stability with adjoint methods. Its broad aim it to take concepts that have been proven for simple systems and scale them up into tools that can be used in industry.

The main application of this research is in gas turbine combustion chambers, which are susceptible to both hydrodynamic and thermoacoustic oscillations. As manufacturers strive to make engines that are cleaner and more fuel-efficient, they operate closer to the boundaries of instability. The aim of this research is to predict these instability boundaries, to analyse the behaviour beyond these boundaries, and to work out how such systems can be stabilized.

This research also has other applications, such as reducing the noise in cyclone separators, and retaining laminar flow in low Reynolds number furnaces, which could be important for the fabrication of certain new materials.

Strategic themes

Energy, transport and urban infrastructure

The vast majority of the world's hydrocarbon fuel is burnt in internal combustion engines. Just a small improvement in efficiency or pollutant production has a significant influence on the climate impact of energy production and transport.

Manufacturing, design and materials

Software developed by the group is being used with two industrial partners.

Complex, resilient and intelligent systems

The algorithms under development in the group are similar to those used in Uncertainty Quantification.

Research projects

ERC Starter Grant (Advanced Lagrangian Optimization, Receptivity and Sensitivity analysis ); Framework 7 Marie Curie Network (ANADE)

Teaching activity

  • Online course learnfluidmechanics.org
  • 3rd year Incompressible Flow
  • 4th year Flow Instability
  • Graduate level courses via the AIM Network

Other positions

Associate Editor, International Journal of Spray and Combustion Dynamics

PI of the UK Fluids Network (https://www.ukfluids.net)

Biography

Dr Matthew P. Juniper is a Professor in the Engineering Department of the University of Cambridge, U.K. He studied Natural Sciences Part 1 (1994) and Engineering Part 2 (1997) at the University of Cambridge and received his M.S (1998) and PhD (2001) from the Ecole Centrale de Paris. After a period as a consultant at McKinsey & Co. (2002-2003) he joined the University of Cambridge as a lecturer (2003) and fellow of Trinity College (2006). His research interests include nonlinearity and non-normality in thermoacoustic systems, local and global stability analyses of hydrodynamic flows, and adjoint-based methods for optimization and continuation analysis.