People

Dr Andrew McMullan

Associate Professor

School/Department: Engineering, School of

Telephone: +44 (0)116 252 2538

Email: andrew.mcmullan@leicester.ac.uk

Profile

I am an expert in the use of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to study turbulent shear flows, and pollutant dispersion in urban environments.   My urban pollution simulation work has been supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering/Leverhulme Trust, through a Research Fellowship.  My main research interest is in the use of LES to create digital twins of urban environments, and combining simulation data with Virtual Reality in order to understand pedestrian and cyclist behaviour in polluted environments.  I also have research interests in turbulent mixing layers, molecular mixing and reaction in shear flows, and the simulation of hydrogen and ammonia combustion for emissions reduction.

I obtained a Masters Degree in Physics with Astrophysics from the University of Leicester, and a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics from the Department of Engineering of the same institution. I held a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at the Rolls-Royce UTC, Loughborough University from 2007-2010, where I worked on the EPSRC Jet Noise project, and the CFMS SMURF project.  Following a period as a Teaching Fellow in the Department of Engineering at the University of Leicester, I was appointed as a Lecturer in April 2013, and as Associate Professor in January 2022.

I am a Senior Member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.  I am currently Director of Research within the School of Engineering.

Google Scholar Profile

Twitter Profile

Research

My research focuses on Large Eddy Simulation (LES).  In particular:

  • Simulations of urban pollution in real cities, and in idealised wind tunnel models.  Modelling of the effects of vegetation on pollutant dispersion
  • Combining LES with Virtual Reality to create digital twins, to understand human behaviour in polluted city streets
  • Indoor ventilation simulation to understand pathogen dispersion, and fire propagation in buildings
  • Simulations of turbulent mixing layers, with an emphasis on the effects of initial conditions of coherent structure evolution
  • Simulations of mixing layers undergoing exothermic reactions (i.e. combustion)
  • Hydrogen and ammonia combustion simulation for emissions reduction
  • Inflow conditions modelling for Large Eddy Simulation

I am co-lead of the Turbulent Shear Flow Special Interest Group, as part of the UK Fluids Network.

 

Publications

A complete overview of my publications can be found on my Google Scholar Profile

  1. "The effect of tree planting on traffic pollutant dispersion in an urban street canyon using large eddy simulation with a recycling and rescaling inflow generation method." W. A. McMullan, M. Angelino, Journal of Wind Engineering and Industrial Aerodynamics, Vol. 221, 2022, pp. 104877
  2. "Large Eddy Simulation of tracer gas dispersion in a cavity." W. A. McMullan, Fluid Dynamics Research, Vol. 54, 2022, pp. 015502
  3. "Mixing and combustion at low heat release in large eddy simulations of a reacting shear layer." J. X. Huang, W. A. McMullan, Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 35, 2021, pp. 553-580.
  4. "Large eddy simulation of the variable density mixing layer." J. X. Huang, S. N. Hug, W. A. McMullan, Fluid Dynamics Research, Vol. 53, 2021, pp. 015507
  5. "The influence of velocity ratio on the evolution of streamwise vortices in the simulated plane mixing layer." S. N. Hug, W. A. McMullan, European Journal of Mechanics B/Fluids, Vol. 76, 2019, pp. 166-177.
  6. "Spanwise domain effects on streamwise vortices in the plane turbulent mixing layer." W. A. McMullan, European Journal of Mechanics B/Fluids, Vol. 67, 2018, pp. 385-396.
  7. "The effect of boundary layer fluctuations on the streamwise vortex structure in simulated plane turbulent mixing layers." W. A. McMullan, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol. 68, 2017, pp. 87-101.
  8. "Initial condition effects on large scale structure in numerical simulations of plane mixing layers." W. A. McMullan, S. J. Garrett, Physics of Fluids, Vol. 28, 2016, 0151111.
  9. "On streamwise vortices in Large Eddy Simulations of Initially Laminar Plane Mixing Layers." W. A. McMullan, S. J. Garrett, International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol. 59, 2016, pp. 20-32.
  10. "Spanwise domain effects on the evolution of the plane turbulent mixing layer." W. A. McMullan, International Journal of Computational Fluid Dynamics, Vol. 29, 2015 pp. 333-345.
  11. "A CFD study on the effectiveness of tress to disperse road traffic emissions at a city scale." A. P.  R. Jeanjean, G. Hinchcliffe, W. A. McMullan, P. S. Monks, R. J. Leigh, Atmospheric Environment, Vol. 120, 2015, pp. 1-14.
  12. "Organised large structure in the post-transition mixing layer.  Part 2: Large Eddy Simulation."  W.A. McMullan, S. Gao, C. M. Coats – Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 762, 2015, pp. 302—343.
  13. "Investigation of Streamwise and Transverse Instabilities on Swept Cylinders and Implications for Turbine Blading." J. P. Gostelow, A. Rona, M. De Saint Jean, S. J. Garrett, W. A. McMullan, Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol 135, No. 5, 2013, doi:10.1115/1.4007833
  14. "Towards Large Eddy Simulation of Gas Turbine Compressors."  W. A. McMullan, G. J. Page, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, 2012. doi:10.1016/j.paerosci.2011.12.002
  15. "Large Eddy Simulation of a compressor cascade and the influence of spanwise domain." W. A. McMullan, G. J. Page – Proceedings of IMechE Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, Vol. 25, pp. 817-831, 2011.  doi 10.1177/0957650911409318
  16. "Large Eddy Simulation of a Controlled Diffusion Cascade blade."  W.A. McMullan, G.J. Page – Flow Turbulence and Combustion, Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 207-230, 2011. doi 10.1007/s10494-010-9314-z
  17. "Jet Noise:  Acoustic Analogy Informed By Large Eddy Simulation." S. Karabasov, M. Afsar, T. Hynes, and A. Dowling, W. A. McMullan, C. D. Pokora, G. J. Page, and J. J. McGuirk, AIAA Journal, Vol. 48, No. 7, pp. 1312-1325, 2010. 
  18. "The effect of inflow conditions on the transition to turbulence in Large Eddy Simulations of spatially-developing mixing layers." W. A. McMullan, S. Gao, C. M. Coats – International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol. 30, pp. 1054-1066, 2009.  doi 10.1016/j.ijheatfluidflow.2009.07.005
  19. "A comparative study of inflow conditions for two- and three-dimensional spatially developing mixing layers using Large Eddy Simulation." W. A. McMullan, S. Gao, C. M. Coats – International Journal of Numerical Methods in Fluids, Vol. 55, No.6, pp. 589 – 610, 2007, doi 10.1002/fld.1482.
 

Supervision

PhD research projects are available in the following areas:

  • Large Eddy Simulation of urban environment flows
  • Digital twinning of cities for urban pollution mitigation
  • Development of Virtual Reality models of contaminant dispersion in indoor and outdoor settings
  • Numerical simulation of low-emissions hydrogen and ammonia combustion 
  • Growth and entrainment modelling of turbulent mixing layers
  • Molecular mixing in turbulent shear flows

PhD students supervised, to date:

  1. Ben Smith, PhD student, second supervisor, 2019-
  2. Mushrifah Al-Malki, PhD student, second supervisor, 2019-
  3. Vontas Nahan, PhD student, second supervisor, 2016-2022 [awarded]
  4. Aishah Alqami, PhD student, primary supervisor, 2016-2021 [awarded]
  5. Dr Basil Srayyih, PhD student, second supervisor, 2015-2020 [awarded]
  6. Dr Jiang Huang, PhD student, primary supervisor, 2015-2019 [awarded]
  7. Dr Robert Miller, PhD student, second supervisor, 2015-2019 [awarded]
  8. Dr Motoyuki Kawase, PhD student, second supervisor, 2015-2018 [awarded]
  9. Dr Stephan Hug, PhD student, primary supervisor, 2013-2017 [awarded]
  10. Dr Ahmed Ahmend, PhD student, second supervisor, 2013-2017 [awarded] 
  11. Dr Danilo di Stefano, PhD student, second supervisor, 2013-2018 [awarded]
  12. Dr Alessandro Mancini, PhD student, second supervisor, 2013-2018 [awarded]
  13. Dr Antoine Jeanjean, PhD student, third supervisor, 2013-2017 [awarded]
  14. Dr Salim Al-Jadidi, PhD student, second supervisor, 2012-2017 [awarded]
 

Teaching

Teaching duties involve:

  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Thermodynamics
  • Heat Transfer
  • Low-speed Aerodynamics
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics

Year 3, Year 4, and MSc level project supervision focuses on the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics to solve industrially-revelevant flow problems.  The projects will typically use the CFD packages ANSYS FLUENT, Star-CCM+, or OpenFOAM.

Press and media


Awards

Grants:

  • 2020 - RAEng/Leverhulme Engineering Research Fellowship. “City-scale air pollution: From simulation to Virtual Reality” £70k
  • 2012 - Innovation Fellowship, University of Leicester. “Capturing the commercial value in theoretical and computational studies of model fluid flows with engineering significance.” Z. Hussain, S. J. Garrett, W. A. McMullan.  £20,402

Awards:

  • 2015 - AIAA Aviation Best Paper Award for “The effect of initial conditions on streamwise vortices in the plane turbulent mixing layer.”

Conferences

  1. “Concentration measurements in simulations of the variable density mixing layer.” J. X. Huang, W. A. McMullan, 2018 AIAA Aviation, Atlanta, GA, 2018, AIAA 2018-3865.
  2. “Inflow Condition Effects on Large Eddy Simulations of Variable Density Mixing Layers.” J. X. Huang, S. N. Hug, and W. A. McMullan, 23rd AIAA CFD Conference, Denver, Co, 2017, AIAA 2017-3295.
  3. “Resolved Scalar Mixing in Large Eddy Simulations of a High Reynolds Number Plane Mixing Layer.” S. N. Hug, and W. A. McMullan, 23rd AIAA CFD Conference, Denver, Co, 2017, AIAA 2017-3611.
  4. “Competing stability modes in vortex structure formation.” S. J. Garrett, J. P. Gostelow, and W. A. McMullan, 68th Annual Meeting of the APS DFD, 2015.
  5. “Resolved scalar mixing in Large Eddy Simulations of a low Reynolds number plane mixing layer.” S. N. Hug, and W. A. McMullan, 22nd AIAA CFD Conference, Dallas, TX, 2015, AIAA 2015-2300.
  6. “The effect of initial conditions on streamwise vortices in the plane turbulent mixing layer.”  W. A. McMullan, and S. J. Garrett, 22nd AIAA CFD Conference, Dallas, TX, 2015, AIAA 2015-2617.
  7. “Streamwise vortices in plane mixing layers originating from laminar or turbulent initial conditions.” – W. A. McMullan, S.J. Garrett, 2015 AIAA SciTech, Florida, USA.
  8. “Influence of Spanwise Domain on the Large Eddy Simulation of the Idealised mixing layer.” W. A. McMullan, 2014 AIAA Aviation, Atlanta, USA. AIAA 2014-3095.
  9. “On the growth of a mixing layer from laminar or turbulent initial conditions.” W. A. McMullan, 2014 AIAA Aviation, Atlanta, USA. AIAA 2014-3096.
  10. “Stationary and travelling vortical structures on swept cylinders and turbine blades.”  J.P. Gostelow, A. Rona, S.J. Garrett, and W. A. McMullan, 43rd AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference, San Diego, CA, 2013.
  11. “Investigation of Streamwise and Transverse Instabilities on Swept Cylinders and Implications for Turbine Blading.” – J. P. Gostelow, A. Rona, M. De Saint Jean, S. J. Garrett, W. A. McMullan, ASME Turbo Expo 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark.  ASME GT2012-69055
  12. “Streamwise and crossflow instabilities on inclined circular cylinders.” S. J. Garrett, J. P. Gostelow, W.A. McMullan, A. Rona, M. de Sain Jean, ICAS Brisbane, 2012. 
  13. “The Influence of Streamwise Vorticity on Transition in the Presences of Sweep.” J. P. Gostelow, W. A. McMullan, S. J. Garrett, M. de Saint Jean - 2011 AIAA Fluid Dynamics Exhibit, Hawaii, USA. AIAA 2011-3878. 
  14. “Analysis of the variable density mixing layer using Large Eddy Simulation.” W. A. McMullan, S. Gao, C. M. Coats - 2011 AIAA Fluid Dynamics Exhibit, Hawaii, USA. AIAA 2011-3424
  15. “Influence of a numerical boundary layer trip on spatio-temporal correlations within LES of a subsonic jet.”  C.D. Pokora, W.A. McMullan, G.J. Page – 17th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, AIAA 2011-2920.
  16. “The role of streamwise vorticity in laminar separation and transition over blade surfaces.” J. P. Gostelow, W. A. McMullan, G. J. Walker, A. Mahallati – ASME Turbo Expo 2011, Vancouver, Canada.  ASME GT2011-45075
  17. “Streamwise vorticity, laminar separation and transition in flows over turbomachinery blades.” J. P. Gostelow, W. A. McMullan, G. J. Walker – 49th AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting, Orlando, FL, AIAA 2011-0285
  18. “Loss Coefficient Estimation in a Controlled Diffusion Cascade Using Large Eddy Simulation.” W. A. McMullan, G. J. Page, 48th AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting, Orlando, FL, AIAA 2010-315.
  19. “Investigation of Coherent Structures in Turbulent Mixing Layers using Large Eddy Simulation.” W. A. McMullan, S. Gao and C. M. Coats, 48th AIAA Aerospace Science Meeting, Orlando, FL, AIAA 2010-1291.
  20. “Large Eddy Simulation of a Controlled Diffusion Cascade Blade at Varying Inflow Angles.” W. A. McMullan, G. J. Page, ASME Turbo Expo 2009, Orlando, FL, ASME GT2009-59668.
  21. “Using Large Eddy Simulation within an Acoustic Analogy Approach for Jet Noise Modelling.” 
    S. Karabasov, M. Afsar, T. Hynes, and A. Dowling, W. A. McMullan, C. D. Pokora, G. J. Page, and J. J. McGuirk, 14th AIAA/CAES Aeroacoustics Conference, Vancouver, AIAA 2008-2985.
  22. “Large Eddy Simulation of a High Reynolds Number Subsonic Turbulent Jet for Acoustic Source Capture.” W. A. McMullan, C. D. Pokora, G. J. Page and J. J. McGuirk, 14th AIAA/CAES Aeroacoustics Conference, Vancouver, AIAA 2008-2974.
  23. “Large Eddy Simulation of Jet Noise.” X. Wu, G. J. Page, J. K. Luff, J. J. McGuirk, W. A. McMullan – 14th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Cairns, Australia, 2007.
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