TECH RESEARCHER SOLVES PROBLEMS BY THE NUMBER

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993                   TAG: 9304020442
SECTION: FOUNDERS DAY                    PAGE: FD-12   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
TECH RESEARCHER SOLVES PROBLEMS BY THE NUMBER
Michael Renardy is a problem solver - complex mathematical equations used to define, or model, the motions of viscoelastic materials.
Common viscoelastic materials are polymers used in manufacturing plastics, oils with certain additives such as engine oil, and biofluids such as egg whites and other materials used in food processing.
Renardy analyzes basic mathematical equations that describe and can be used to predict the behavior of such materials. The study of the mathematical properties of these equations guides people who set up numerical simulations - who mix numbers instead of polymers to learn what the motion might be.
Renardy will be awarded the university's Alumni Award for Research Excellence at this year's Founder Day ceremony.
"Ultimately someone compares these simulations with experiments," says Renardy. Various models can be compared with each other and with experimental data to evaluate their suitability in describing real fluids. The study of complex flows, which can be analyzed only by numerical simulation, has become prominent in the field over the past decade. The goal is to be able to use simulations to predict the flow of polymeric fluids, and to understand how the behavior of the flow depends on the physical properties of the material.
People have been trying to use numerical simulations since the 1970s, but were stuck until a deeper understanding of the mathematical properties of the equations emerged. When Renardy and others have learned about mathematical equations in the last decade has resulted in a great deal of progress and placed the Virginia Tech math professor "at the forefront of research on the mathematical analysis of viscoelastic flows," reports Harold E. Burkhard, chairman of the alumni research award committee.
In 1985, while an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Renardy received the Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. He joined the Virginia Tech faculty 1986 and became a full professor in 1989.
His productive career has included two books, more than 60 papers for scientific journals, edited a book, and is editor with four others of the Journal of Applied Math and Physics, published in Switzerland.
He teaches graduate courses related to his field of research.
Renardy's degrees were earned at the Universitat Stuttgart. Upon graduation, he came to America on a fellowship in 1980.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB