Professor Scheel performs numerical simulations of heated fluids to better understand pattern formation and turbulence.
Research
Professor Scheel's main research focus is to understand the transitions to turbulence in heated fluids. These include both the transition to turbulence and then the additional transitions in how the heat is transported as the fluid layer is heated even more. She is also interested in the transition to convection and understanding the patterns seen above onset for various fluid-filled containers. She collaborates with researchers at the Technische Universtiaet Ilmenau, New York University and Michigan Technological University. She uses supercomputers at Juelich Forshungnszentrum, Argonne National Laboratory, and Occidental College.
Visulizations of Professor Scheel's simulation results have shown up in an art show.
Explore selected publications below (Oxy student co-authors are bolded):
- No sustained mean velocity in the boundary region of plane thermal convection, with Roshan Samuel, Mathis Bode, Katepalli Sreenivasan and Joerg Schumacher.
- Inverse cascades of kinetic energy and thermal variance in three-dimensional horizontally extended turbulent convection, with Philipp Vieweg, Rodion Stepanov and Joerg Schumacher.
- Classical 1/3 scaling of convection holds up to Ra = 1015 with Kartik Iyer, Joerg Schumacher and Katepalli Sreenivasan.
- Turbulent superstructures in Rayleigh-Bénard convection, with Ambrish Pandey and Joerg Schumacher
- Onset of Rayleigh-Bénard convection for intermediate aspect ratio cylindrical containers, with Josuha Yu, ‘16, Adam Goldfaden, ‘16 and Mary Flagstad, ‘14.
- Small-scale universality in fluid turbulence, with Joerg Schumacher, Dimitry Krasnov, Victor Yahkot and Katepalli Sreenivasan
- Thermal and viscous boundary layers in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection, with Elissa Kim, ‘12 and Katelyn White
Student Research Opportunities
Professor Scheel regularly collaborates with undergraduate students at Occidental College both during the semester with Physics 395, Directed Research and over the summer as part of the Summer Research Program. Interested students should contact Professor Scheel either via email or during her office hours.
Recent Honors
Professor of Physics Janet Scheel has been awarded an INCITE grant from the Department of Energy for 750,000 node-hours on Aurora and 50,000 node-hours on Polaris to conduct exascale simulations of Rayleigh-Benard convection in 2025. Aurora is an Intel-HPE Cray EX supercomputer recognized as the world’s fastest AI machine and the second Department of Energy system to break the exascale barrier.
She is also a coauthor of Analytical Mechanics, an advanced undergraduate physics textbook.
Teaching
Professor Scheel teaches courses that span all levels of the curriculum. Example courses include:
- Physics 350: Statistical Physics
- Physics 320: Analytical Dynamics
- Physics 240L: Modern Physics Lab
- Physics 201: Simulations in Physics
- Physics 117: Waves and Thermal Physics
- First Year Seminar: Chaos: Just How Predictable is Our Universe