Speaker: Prof. Jun Zhang (张骏教授)

Time: 15:00-16:00, 25 May 2022 (Wednesday) (Beijing time)

Venue: A103，Lijiao Building

Tencent Meeting ID：579-857-549

Abstract

The mountain making processes are counter-acted or balanced by the erosive processes by water and rain falls, creating complex terrains and remarkable geological features on Earth. Fluid dynamics, or more specifically fluid-structure interactions may explain some of the fundamental principles behind these phenomena that have shaped all landscapes. In this talk, I will discuss a couple of simple cases as water flows transformed an erodible body by removing materials from the its surface, and its related scaling laws (between size and time). The resulting shape of the solid, which tends to keep a self-similar profile over time, also show remarkable orientational stability when facing the flows. We relate these observations to the conical meteorites that have undergone ablation (erosion by fire) through the atmosphere.

About Prof. Zhang

Jun Zhang is jointly appointed Professor of Physics and Mathematics, NYU, NYU Shanghai. He is also a Global Network Professor, NYU. Since 2001 he has been the Co-Director of the Applied Math Laboratory in the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences. He holds a PhD in physics from the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, and is now an elected Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).