Boyu Fan

About me

I'm a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT, where I work with Professor Triantaphyllos R. Akylas. I am funded as a NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

Prior to MIT, I was an undergrad at Caltech, where I worked with Mory Gharib and Julia R. Greer.

Research interests

I'm interested in a range of problems relating to the modeling of fluid systems, especially ones of the nonlinear flavor. Currently, I've been exploring various instabilities of internal gravity wave beams.

Education

2020  PhD in Mechanical Engineering, MIT

2017  SM in Mechanical Engineering, MIT

2015  BS in Mechanical Engineering, Caltech

Contact info

You can find out more using ORCID, Google Scholar, or LinkedIn.

Publications

1. B. Fan & T.R. Akylas (2021). Instabilities of finite-width internal wave beams: from Floquet analysis to PSI. J. Fluid Mech. 913, A5. link pdf
2. B. Fan & T.R. Akylas (2021). Near-inertial PSI of internal wave beams in a background mean flow. J. Fluid Mech. 911, R3. link
3. B. Fan & T.R. Akylas (2020). Finite-amplitude instabilities of thin internal wave beams: experiments and theory. J. Fluid Mech. 904, A16. link pdf
4. B. Fan, C. Huertas-Cerdeira, J. Cossé, J.E. Sader & M. Gharib (2019). Effect of morphology on the large-amplitude flapping dynamics of an inverted flag in a uniform flow. J. Fluid Mech. 874, 526-547. link pdf
5. B. Fan & T.R. Akylas (2019). Effect of background mean flow on PSI of internal wave beams. J. Fluid Mech. 869, R1. link pdf
6. B. Fan, T. Kataoka & T.R. Akylas (2018). On the interaction of an internal wavepacket with its induced mean flow and the role of streaming. J. Fluid Mech. 838, R1. link pdf
7. C. Huertas-Cerdeira, B. Fan, & M. Gharib (2018). Coupled motion of two side-by-side inverted flags. J. Fluid Struct. 76, 527-535. link pdf
8. J.E. Sader, J. Cossé, D. Kim, B. Fan, & M. Gharib (2016). Large-amplitude flapping of an inverted flag in a uniform steady flow -- a vortex-induced vibration. J. Fluid Mech. 793, 524-555. link pdf