Teaching
Courses  ♦  Outreach


Courses @ Michigan
  • ME 320 (undergraduate fluid mechanics)

    • Fluid mechanics can be found almost everywhere in nature and engineering. The motion of fluids and the forces they exert are of key importance across disciplines, including (but not limited to) microfluidic devices for treating disease, fuel injection systems in car engines, nuclear and chemical reactors, wind farms, transport of atmospheric pollutants, weather/climate forecasting, jet noise associated with aircraft engines, and the formation of stars and galaxies. The objective of this course is to provide the basic principles needed to analyze and predict flow fields of interest.
  • ME 523 (graduate computational fluid dynamics)

    • ME 523 is intended as a first graduate-level course on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The emphasis is on steady/unsteady incompressible laminar flows and scalar transport. Techniques for turbulence, multiphase flows, and reacting flows are also introduced. In this project-based course, student build a CFD code during the course of the semester, integrating various techniques as they are discussed in class. Below are some examples of students' final projects.

  • ME 527 (graduate multiphase flow)

    • Multiphase flows play a crucial role in many engineering devices, especially in energy conversion systems. Similarly, many natural flows involve multiple phases. This course covers the fundamental physics of multiphase flow processes and explores state-of-the-art modeling techniques relevant to solid particles, liquid droplets liquid-gas interfacial flows. The main focus is on theoretical and numerical modeling,including direct numerical simulation and Eulerian-Lagrangian and Eulerian-Eulerian modeling. We also discuss stability of gas-liquid flows.

    Outreach

    Demonstrating principles of fluid dynamics through dance
    Kármán Vortex Street is a unique interdisciplinary collaboration in which principles of fluid mechanics are transformed into a dance.

    Prof. Capecelatro conceived the project as a "physics-constrained improvisation," intended to act as a teaching tool for undergraduate Fluid Mechanics students. A series of dances were choreographed and filmed ranging from low Reynolds number (creeping) flow to high-Reynolds number turbulence and inviscid (potential) flow.

    Supported by the University Musical Society and ArtsEngine, Capecelatro and choreographer Veronica Stanich created Kármán Vortex Street with a cast of nine trained dancers and eleven student volunteers. At its performance in 2019, students in the audience engaged with Capecelatro in a discussion about the fluid mechanics concepts as Video Studio crew captured the dance from several angles. A trailer can be found here.

    University Primary School at the University of Illinois
  • Guest lecturer: Science of sound, Fall 2015
  • Guest lecturer: Physics of flight, Fall 2014

    In Fall 2015 I taught lessons at the University Primary School on the "science of sound" for grades 2, 3, 4, and 5. I covered the properties of waves, the Doppler effect, and different mediums sound can travel through. The picture to the right shows a Rubens tube I built to visualize standing waves with flames. A video of the Rubens tube can be found here.

    In Fall 2014 I taught and performed demos on "the physics of flight". The classes included an introduction to Bernoulli's principle with many demonstrations, fun facts about air and other important fluids, along with concepts of pressure, velocity, and vorticity and their role in flight.

    • Sound wave demonstrations (top). Visualizing vortex shedding with water/glitter (bottom).