Heat is mainly transferred in three ways: through radiation, conduction, and convection. Convection is important because it is typically the dominant mode of heat transfer in a fluid, relevant to systems as large as the weather and climate to ones as small as the microchips of the device you are using to read this sentence. Convective heat transfer can be a difficult process to understand, however, because the flows of heat and the carrying fluid interact in a closed-loop cycle.
Previous work has focused on exploiting convective heat transfer to reduce friction in small engineered systems. We are also using methods of inverse design to find ways to optimally transfer heat in engineered systems. That said, the same ideas are applicable to much larger systems, such as urban heat islands, which are the focus of our future research. In particular, we are interested in the effects of spatial and temporal heterogeneities on urban heat islands.
Ultimately, our goal is to develop insights for urban planners in order to mitigate the urban heat island effect.