Fluid Mixing at Extreme Conditions Laboratory

FMECL

People

Faculty

Jacob A. McFarland

Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Jacob McFarland Headshot

Dr. McFarland leads the Fluid Mixing at Extreme Conditions Laboratory. While earning his graduate degrees he performed research in steam turbine aerothermodynamics, shock-driven variable density turbulence, and supercritical CO2 heat transfer. His current research interests are in shock-driven multiphase flows, energetics, detonations, supercritical vaporization, droplet breakup, and reactions in multiphase flows. He is a Texas native and a graduate of Texas A&M.

Contact

Office: MEOB 430

Email: mcfarlandja@tamu.edu

Students

Caden D. Blaies

Caden is a PhD student studying droplet breakup caused by detonations. After graduate school, he intends to pursue research in aerospace or defense, in an industrial or national lab setting. Outside of the lab, he likes to woodwork, play chess, and take walks.

Caden holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Baylor University. He is from Colleyville, Texas.

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 110A

Email: caden_blaies@tamu.edu

Ethan M. Gullett

Ethan is a PhD student working on multiphase detonation experiments.  After graduate school, Ethan would like to pursue a career at a national lab or in industry. Outside of research, Ethan enjoys lifting weights, attending concerts, and trying new restaurants and coffee shops.

He graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering. He is from Uniontown, Ohio.

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 110A

Email: gulletem@tamu.edu

Viral K. Kakadia

Viral is a PhD student investigating the interaction of multiphase detonations and droplets. After graduate school, he aspires to continue research in industry or a research lab. Apart from focusing on fast-moving things, Viral likes to slow down on the weekends, enjoy and learn music, do some amateur cooking, play badminton, and recalibrate for the action in the upcoming week.

Viral holds a Master’s degree in Space Engineering and Rocketry, with a specialization in Rocket Propulsion, from BIT Mesra, India. He is from India.

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 110A

Email: viral_kakadia@tamu.edu

Jacob M. Keltz

Jacob is a PhD student leading the lab’s experimental shock tube efforts. He currently studies the deformation and breakup processes of liquid droplets subjected to decaying shock waves. After graduate school, Jacob intends on pursuing aerospace research in industry. Outside of the lab, he enjoys hiking, shooting, and cooking for his church.

He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas at Dallas. He is from Copper Canyon, Texas.

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 110A

Email: jacobkeltz@tamu.edu

David M. Miller

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 110A

Email: mil8248@tamu.edu

Ryan J. Myers

Ryan is a PhD student performing computational work on metal ejecta. He collaborates with Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) modeling ejecta breakup and formation in LANL’s proprietary code and libraries. After graduate school, Ryan would like to pursue a career at a national laboratory then later become a professor in Oklahoma. Outside of his work, Ryan enjoys keeping up with college sports (Gig ‘Em Aggies and Boomer Sooner!), watching movies, poorly cooking new dishes, and tinkering on his home server.

Ryan holds a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Oklahoma. He is from Moore, Oklahoma.

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 301NA

Email: ryanmyers@tamu.edu

Website: https://rjzf.github.io/

Joshua I. Okechukwu

Contact

Office: Doherty Building (DRTY), Room 110A

Email: joshua.okechukwu@tamu.edu

Former Students

Stephan M. Agee

MS Texas A&M University 2025, “Polydisperse Spray Effects on Multiphase Detonations”

Calvin J. Young

PhD Texas A&M University 2025, “Interactions of Droplets and Gaseous Detonations”

MS Texas A&M University 2022, “Development of a Multiphase Detonation Tube”

Hanif Zargarnezhad

PhD Texas A&M University 2025, “Radiation Driven-Dust Hydrodynamics in Late-Phase AGB Stars”

Manoj Paudel

PhD Texas A&M University 2025, “Computational Study of Liquid Fueled Detonation”

MS Univ. of Missouri 2018, “Numerical Study of Shock Driven Multiphase Systems with Reactions”

Vasco O. Duke-Walker

PhD Texas A&M University 2024, “Shock-Driven Multiphase Mixing Physics in High-Speed Flows”

Benjamin J. Musick

MS Texas A&M University 2023, “Numerical Modeling Towards Simulations of Multiphase Detonation Tube Experiments”

Curtis Maxon

MS Univ. of Missouri 2020, “A Numerical Simulation of a Single Shock-Accelerated Particle”

Roy Allen

PhD Univ. of Missouri 2019, “Development of an Experiment for Investigating the Magnetohydrodynamic Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability”

Wolfgang Black

PhD Univ. of Missouri 2019, “Study Of Magnetohydrodynamic Effects for the Richtmyer-Meshkov Instability”

MS Univ. of Missouri 2016, “A preliminary study of shock driven multiphase hydrodynamic instabilities”

John Middlebrooks

MS Univ. of Missouri 2019, “Shock Tube Experimentation Utilizing Advanced Diagnostics to Study an Impulsively Accelerated Multiphase Cylinder”, McNair Scholar

Gargi Dashora

MS Univ. of Missouri 2018, “Parametric Study of Shock Driven Multiphase Flow”

Constantine Avgoustopoulos

MS Univ. of Missouri 2017, “The design, instrumentation, and validation of a multiphase shock tube facility”

Rajya Kothakapa

MS Univ. of Missouri 2017, “Design of experimental apparatus for generation and measurement of an aerosol”

Jeevan Dahal

MS Univ. of Missouri 2016, “Numerical method for shock driven multiphase flows with evaporating particles”