Janet Scheel's research deals with pattern formation and turbulence. The particular system she studies is Rayleigh-Benard convection.
Courses | Publications | Books | Presentations | Students
Dr. Scheel has taught at California Lutheran University, Caltech, and Cornell University, among other schools. She has done research at Cal Lutheran, Caltech, Cornell, and Argonne National Laboratory. She is coauthor of Analytical Mechanics, an advanced undergraduate physics textbook. She is currently a Mercator Fellow as a part of the Priority Programme SPP 1881of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.
Courses
Physics 490/491-Senior Physics Seminar I/II (Sp15, Fa14, Sp14, Fa13, Sp13, Fa12)
Students will participate in weekly seminars and conduct library-based research on topics in physics. Students will present one seminar and one written report on their work.
Physics 350-Statistical Physics (Fa18, Sp18)
Connects the microscopic properties of the physical world with its macroscopic properties using classical and quantum statistics. Topics include partition functions, classical and quantum ideal gasses, classical thermodynamics, phase transitions, and kinetic theory.
Physics 320-Analytical Dynamics (Fa17, Fa09, Fa08)
Motion of particles, systems of particles, and rigid bodies. conservation laws; coordinate transformations, both stationary and moving; Hamilton's and Lagrange's equations.
Physics 261-SImulations in Physics (Fa12, Fa10)
An introduction to the numerical solutions of problems in physics. Applications are drawn from classical dynamics, electrostatics, magnetostatics, relativistic dynamics, and chaotic systems.
Physics 250-Thermal and Statistical Physics (Sp16, Sp15, Sp 14, Sp13, Sp12, Sp10)
Connects the microscopic properties of the physical world with its macroscopic properties using classical and quantum statistics. Topics include classical and quantum ideal gasses, classical thermodynamics, phase transitions, and kinetic theory.
Physics 240L- Modern Physics Lab (Sp14, Sp15, Sp17)
Introduction to the physics of the twentieth century, emphasizing special relativity and elementary quantum mechanics. Includes the breakdown of classical concepts; light quanta and matter waves; Schrödinger equation and solutions in 1 and 3 dimensions; hydrogen atom, exclusion principle, and the periodic table. Other topics include a selection from atomic, nuclear, particle, and condensed-matter physics.
Physics 164-Light (Sp12)
An introduction to optics and modern physics for both science and non-science majors. Topics include geometrical optics, physical optics, waves, special relativity, wave-particle duality, atomic and nuclear physics.
Physics 125/125L-General Physics II (Sp09, Sp10, Sp11)
The second of a two-course introduction to physics designed for life science and premedical students. Topics include electrostatics and electromagnetism, electric circuits, geometrical and physical optics.
Physics 117 - Waves and Thermal Physics (Sp16)
An introduction to the physics of waves with examples from optics, acoustics, and modern physics. Also an introduction to thermodynamics, including the first and second law of thermodynamics, kinetic theory, heat transport and phase transitions.
Physics 115/115L-General Physics I (Fa14)
The first of a two-course introduction to physics designed for life science and premedical students. Topics include Newton's laws of motion, gravitation, work and energy, conservation laws.
Physics 110/110L-Introductory Mechanics (Fa18, Fa17, Fa16, Sp16)
Covers classical mechanics, including kinematics and dynamics of particles and rigid bodies, conservation laws, and examination of specific force laws.
Physics 106/106L:-Waves (Fa13, Fa12, Fa10, Fa06)
In introduction to the physics of waves with examples from optics, acoustics, and modern physics.
Cultural Studies Program 14 - Chaos (Fa18)
Just how predictable is our universe? In this seminar, we will learn about chaos, i.e., the sensitivity of dynamical systems to small differences in initial conditions. We will also learn about the butterfly effect, period doubling, fractal dimensions, and strange attractors. Then applications of chaos theory will then be explored. We will learn how the mathematics of chaos helps us to better understand science, economics, psychology, and our environment.
Publications
A. Pandey, J. D. Scheel and J. Schumacher, Turbulent superstructures in Rayleigh-Benard convection, Nat. Comm. 9, 2118, 2018.
Janet D. Scheel and Joerg Schumacher, Predicting transition ranges to fully turbulent viscous boundary layers in low Prandtl number convection flows, Physic. Rev. Fluids, 2, 123501, 2017.
Joshua Yu, Adam Goldfaden, Mary Flagstad and Janet D. Scheel, Onset of Rayleigh-Benard convection for intermediate aspect ratio cylindrical containers, Phys. of Fluids, 29, 024102, 2017.
J. Schumacher, V. Bandaru, A. Pandey and J. D. Scheel, Transitional boundary layers in low-Prandtl-number convection, Phys. Rev. Fluids, 1, 084402, 2016.
J.D. Scheel and J. Schumacher, Global and local statistics in turbulent convection at low Prandtl numbers Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 802, p. 147-173, 2016.
J Schumacher and J. D. Scheel, Extreme dissipation event due to plume collision in a turbulent convection cell, Phys. Rev. E, 94, 043104, 2016.
J. Schumacher, P. Goettzfried, and J. Scheel, Enhanced enstrophy generation for turbulent convection in low-Prandtl-number fluids, PNAS, doi/10.1073/pnas.1505111112, 2015
J. D. Scheel and J. Schumacher, Local boundary layer scales in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection, Journal of Fluid Mechanics 758, p 344-373, 2014
J. Schumacher, J.D. Scheel, D. Krasnov, D. A. Donzis, V. Yahkot and K. Sreenivasan, Small-scale universality in fluid turbulence, PNAS, doi:10.1073/pnas1410791111, 2014
J. D. Scheel, M. S. Emran and J. Schumacher, Resolving the fine-scale structure in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection, New Journal of Physics, 15 , 113063, 2013
J. D. Scheel, E. Kim and K. R. White, Thermal and viscous boundary layers in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 711, p. 281-305, 2012
Francois Hebert, Ryan Hufschmid, Janet Scheel, and Guenter Ahlers, Onset of Rayleigh-Benard convection in cylindrical containers, Phys. Rev. E, 81, 046318, 2010
J.D. Scheel and P. Mutyaba and T. Kimmel, Patterns in Rotating Rayleigh-Benard Convection at high rotation rates, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 659, p. 24-42, 2010
J.D. Scheel, The Amplitude Equation for Rotating Rayleigh-Benard Convection, Phys. of Fluids, 19, 104105, 2007
J. D. Scheel and M. C. Cross, Lyapunov exponents for small aspect ratio Rayleigh-Benard convection, Phys Rev. E, 74, 066301, 2006
A. Jayaraman, J. D. Scheel, H. S. Greenside and P. F. Fischer, Characterization of the domain chaos convection state by the largest Lyapunov exponent, Phys Rev. E, 74, 016209, 2006.
N. Becker, J. D. Scheel, M. C. Cross and G. Ahlers, Effect of the centrifugal force on domain chaos in Rayleigh-Benard convection, Phys Rev. E, 73, 066309, 2006.
J. D. Scheel and M. C. Cross, Scaling laws for rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection, Phys Rev. E, 72, 056315, 2005.
J. D. Scheel, M. R. Paul and M. C. Cross, Traveling waves in rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection: Analysis of modes and mean flow, Phys Rev. E, 68, 066216, 2003.
J. D. Finch (maiden name) and L. N. Hand, Using an E-mail tutorial and student seminars to improve an intermediate-level undergraduate physics course, Am. J. Phys., 66, p. 914-919, 1998.
Books and Proceedings
J. Scheel and J. Schumacher, Numerical Simulations in low-Prandtl number convection, from Advances in Computation, Modeling and Control of Transitional and Turbulent Flows, edited by T. K. Sengupta, S. K. Lele, K. R. Sreenivasan and P. A. Davidson, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, 2015
L. N. Hand and J. D. Finch (maiden name), Analytical Mechanics, Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, (1998)
Selected Presentations
[2018] New York University, New York, NY, "Low Prandtl Number Convection"; invited talk.
[2018] International Conference on Rayleigh-Benard Turbulence, University of Twente, The Netherlands, "Low Prandtl Number Convection"; invited talk.
[2017] 70th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics (DFD) of the Americal Physicsal Society (APS), Denver, DO, "Boundary layers in turbulent convection for air, liquid gallium and liquid sodium"; contributed talk.
[2017] Euromech Colloquium 586, Erfurt, Germany, "Transitional Boudary Layers in low-Prandtl-number convection", contributed talk.
[2016] 69th Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, Portland, OR, "High-amplitude dissipation event in a turbulent convection cell"; contributed talk.
[2016], 5th Nek500 Users & Developers meeting, MIT, Cambridge, MA, "Transitional boundary layers in low-Prandtl-number convection at high Rayleigh number"; contributed talk
[2016] Technische Universitat Ilmenau, Germany, "Resolving the fine-scale structure in turbulent Rayleigh-B\'enard convection"; invited talk.
[2016] Arizona State University, Tempe AZ, "Turbulent Rayleigh-B\'enard Convection; invited talk.
[2015] 68th Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, Boston, MA, "Global and local statistics in turbulent convection at low Prandtl numbers"; contributed talk.
[2015] Turbulence Workshop, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, "Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection", invited talk.
[2015] Argonne National Lab, Chicago, IL, Nek5000 users meeting, "Resolving the fine-scale structure in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; invited talk.
[2015] Technische Universitat Ilmenau, Germany, "Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection in low-Prandtl-number fluids"; invited talk.
[2015] International Conference on Rayleigh-Beneard Turbulence, Gottingen Germany, "Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection in low-Prandtl-number fluids"; contributed talk.
[2014] 67th Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, San Francisco, CA, "Local boundary layer scales in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection"; contributed talk.
[2014] Technische Universitat Ilmenau, Germany, "Amplitude Equations"; invited talk.
[2014] International Conference on Phase Transitions at Low Temperatures, Pattern Formation and Turbulence, Gottingen Germany, "Onset of Rayleigh-Benard convection in cylindrical containers"; contributed talk.
[2013] 66th Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, Pittsburgh, PA, "Resolving the fine-scale structure in turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk.
[2013] Technische Universitat Ilmenau, Germany, "Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; invited talk.
[2012] International Conference on Rayleigh-Benard Turbulence, Chinese University of Hong Kong, "Spatial Dependence of Boundary Layers in Simulations of Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk.
[2012] 65th Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, San Diego, CA, "Spatial Dependence of Boundary Layers in Simulations of Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk.
[2012] Cal Poly Pomona, CA, "Numerical Simulations of Turbulence in Heated Fluids"; invited talk
[2011] Workshop on the Dynamics of Coherent Structures in Turbulent Flows, Bad Durkheim, Germany, "Viscous and Thermal Boundary Layers in Simulated Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; invited talk.
[2011] Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, "Viscous and Thermal Boundary Layers in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; invited talk.
[2010] Anacapa Society West Coast Meeting at Cal Poly Pomona, CA, "Viscous and Thermal Boundary Layers in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk and conference organizer.
[2010] 63rd Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, Long Beach, CA, "Viscous and Thermal Boundary Layers in Simulated Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk.
[2009] 62nd Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, Minneapolis, MN, "Numerical Simulations of Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk.
[2009] Harvey Mudd, Claremont, CA, "Go With the Flow: Numerical Simulations of Turbulence in Fluids"; invited talk.
[2009] Occidental College Summer Research Program Seminar Series, "Go With the Flow: Numerical Simulations of Turbulence in Fluids"; invited talk.
[2009] SIAM Conference on Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT "Turbulent Thermal Convection"; contributed talk.
[2007] 60th Annual Meeting of the DFD, APS, Salt Lake City, UT, "Patterns in Rotating Rayleigh-Benard Convection at High Rotation Rates"; contributed talk.
[2007] SIAM Conference on Dynamical Systems, Snowbird, UT, "The Amplitude Equation for Rotating Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; contributed talk.
[2007] CLU, Thousand Oaks, CA, "Computational Intractability"; invited talk.
[2006] CSU Channel Islands, Oxnard, CA, "Rayleigh-Benard Convection"; invited talk.
Oxy Undergraduate Research Students and Their Projects
Kwan, Michael, "Determining Lyapunov exponents for turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection", 2017-2018.
Corkrean, Ryan, "Characterizing turbulent behaviors using image analysis", 2017.
Goldfaden, Adam, "Linear Stability Analysis of Onset Patterns Found in RBC Systems as a Function of Aspect Ratio", 2015.
Yu, Joshua, "The Effects of Varying Aspect Ratio and Rayleigh Number on Onset States in Rayleigh-Benard Convection Systems", 2014-2015.
Ma, Siyuan, "The Cessation and Reversal of Low Prandtl Number Fluid Motion in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Systems" 2014.
Monroy, Raphael, "Observation of Geometrical Patterns in Rayleigh-Benard Convection", 2013.
Flagstad, Mary, "The effects of Aspect Ratio on Pattern Formation in Simulated Rayleigh-Benard Convection", 2012-2013.
Munoz, Jorge, "Spatial Dependence of Boundary Layers in Simulations of Rayleigh-Benard Convection", 2012.
Borrayo, Adriana, "The Fluid Velocity and its Reorientation in Simulated Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Systems", 2011-2012.
Cardenas-Licea, Zamara, "An Analysis of the Effect of Rectangular Boxes on the Large-Scale Circulation in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection", 2011.
Kim, Elissa, "Viscous and Thermal Boundary Layers in Simulated Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection", 2010.
Fitts, Michelle, "Large-Scale Circulation in Turbulent Rayleigh-Benard Convection", 2010.
Ackermann, Erik, "Measuring the Onset of Turbulence in Rayeigh-Benard Convection", 2009-2010.
Ing, Nicole, "The Effects of Container Geometries on the Flow of Large-Scale Circulation in Simulated Rayleigh-Benard Systems", 2009.