Staff Profile

Personal Profile

I am a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering at Newcastle University. My research interest is in experimental fluid dynamics. More information on what I do can be found on the Fluid Dynamics Lab webpages.

Google Scholar Profile

SCOPUS Profile

Higher Education

2007 - 2011: Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK

2004 - 2007: B. Eng. in Mechanical Engineering with Mathematics, University of Nottingham, UK

Class: First with honours; Rank: 1st, recipient of 4 academic prizes

Charterships

2015: Chartered Engineer, CEng

2015: Chartered Scientist, CSci

Grants

2022 - 2026: "Project 'tip-top': Harvesting more power from the wind with smart closed-loop rotor control" EPSRC ReNU CDT (EP/S023836/1), £100,744, Principal Investigator

2021 - 2022: "Project AURORA: Testing super-miniature micro sensors for aircraft applications," Northern Accelerator, £116,599, Principal Investigator  

2021 - 2022: "Project SPECTRA: Super-miniature micro sensors for wall-turbulence measurements," EPSRC Impact Acceleration Award (EP/R511584/1), £117,231, Principal Investigator  

2021 - 2023: "Project OCULUS: Flow Variation during vitrectomy with vacuum versus fluid flow controlled aspiration systems," Dutch Ophthalmic Research Centre (DORC Ltd), £383,905, Principal Investigator

2021 - 2025: "Project OCULUS: Flow Variation during vitrectomy with vacuum versus fluid flow controlled aspiration systems," EPSRC iCASE with Dutch Ophthalmic Research Centre (DORC Ltd) (EP/W52203X/1), £88,881, Principal Investigator

2021 - 2024: "Project INTEL: Taming turbulence with the Cloud", EPSRC CDT in Cloud Computing for Big Data (EP/L015358/1), £68,481, Principal Investigator

2020 - 2024: "Super-miniature engineering: MEMS wall-shear stress sensor systems," EPSRC DTP Scheme (EP/R51309X/1), £88,881, Principal Investigator

2020 - 2021: "MEMS wall-shear stress sensor systems," Northern Accelerator, £15,000, Principal Investigator

2021 - 2025: "Project EnAble: Exploiting and developing intelligent approaches for turbulent drag reduction," EPSRC (EP/T020946/1 & EP/T021144/1), £1,414,166, Principal Investigator 

2020 - 2023: "EnAble: Exploiting and developing intelligent approaches for turbulent drag reduction," EPSRC DTP Scheme (EP/R51309X/1), £83,481, Principal Investigator

2017 - 2023: "Hibernating turbulence in boundary-layer flows," United States Air Force Research Laboratory, $159,526, Principal Investigator

2017 - 2020: "Microfluidic automated platform for Osteoarthritis drug screening," NC3R CRACK IT, £999,996, Co-Investigator

2016 - 2017: "Detection and characterisation of hibernating turbulence in boundary-layer flows," Royal Society, £14,946, Principal Investigator

2015 - 2016: "Super-miniature engineering: next-generation sensors for turbulence measurements," EPSRC DTP Scheme (EP/M5079X/1), £83,481, Principal Investigator 

2015 - 2016: "Exploiting microfluidics and printing technologies to rapidly detect MRSA in nasal swabs," I-Sense: EPSRC IRC in Early Warning Sensing Systems for Infectious Disease, £260,405, Co-Investigator    

Patents

2021: Wall-Shear Stress Sensor (filed 15/01/2021 under Application No. 2100564.0) 

2021: Wall-Shear Stress Sensor and System (filed 15/01/2021 under Application No. 2100565.7) 

Prizes, Awards & Fellowships

2016: Best paper award for Ni Y, Lynch MJ, Modic M, Whalley RD, Walsh J. "A solar powered handheld plasma source for microbial decontamination," Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 2016, 49(35), 355203

2015: Best paper award for Whalley RD, Abed WM, Dennis DJC, Poole RJ. "Enhancing hear transfer at the micro-scale using elastic turbulence," Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters 2015, 5(3), 103-106

2011: EPSRC PhD Plus Fellowship

2009: American Institute of Physics Gallery of Fluid Motion Competition (video entry)

Employment Record

2019 - present: Senior Lecturer in Fluid Dynamics in the School of Engineering, Newcastle University, UK

2015 - 2019: Lecturer in Fluid Dynamics in the School of Engineering, Newcastle University, UK

2013 - 2015: Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Engineering, University of Liverpool, UK

2012 - 2013: Postdoctoral Research Associate in the School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK

2011 - 2012: EPSRC PhD Plus Research Fellow in the School of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering, University of Nottingham, UK

My current areas of interest include:

• Wall-bounded turbulent flows
• Skin-friction drag reduction
• Flow-separation control
• Lab-on-a-chip devices
• Medical diagnostics

Current Teaching:

• MEC2003: Applications of Thermofluid Dynamics  
• MEC3014: Computational Modelling 
• MEC8043: Software in the Professional Engineering Context
• MEC3018: Design for Industry
• MEC3098: Mechanical Engineering Project
• MEC8095: MSc Project

• Articles

  • O'Connor J, Diessner M, Wilson K, Whalley RD, Wynn A, Laizet S. Optimisation and Analysis of Streamwise‑Varying Wall‑Normal Blowing in a Turbulent Boundary Layer. Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 2023, 110, 993-1021.
  • Zhang H, Whalley RD, Ferreira AM, Dalgarno K. High throughput physiological micro-models for in vitro pre-clinical drug testing: a review of engineering systems approaches. Progress in Biomedical Engineering 2020, 2(2), 022001.
  • Tzivelekis C, Sgardelis P, Waldron K, Whalley R, Huo D, Dalgarno K. Fabrication routes via projection stereolithography for 3D-printing of microfluidic geometries for nucleic acid amplification. PLoS ONE 2020, 15(10), e0240237.
  • Morabit Y, Whalley RD, Robert E, Hasan MI, Walsh JL. Turbulence and entrainment in an atmospheric pressure dielectric barrier plasma jet. Plasma Processes and Polymers 2019, 17(6), 1900217.
  • Mahfoze OA, Moody A, Wynn A, Whalley RD, Laizet S. Reducing the skin-friction drag of a turbulent boundary-layer flow with low-amplitude wall-normal blowing within a Bayesian optimization framework. Physical Review Fluids 2019, 4(9), 094601.
  • Agrawal R, Whalley RD, Ng HC-H, Dennis DJC, Poole RJ. Minimizing recalibration using a non-linear regression technique for thermal anemometry. Experiments in Fluids 2019, 60(7), 116.
  • Whalley RD, Dennis DJC, Graham MD, Poole RJ. An experimental investigation into spatiotemporal intermittencies in turbulent channel flow close to transition. Experiments in Fluids 2019, 60, 102.
  • Whalley RD, Park JS, Kushwaha A, Dennis D, Graham MD, Poole R. Low-drag events in transitional wall-bounded turbulence. Physical Review Fluids 2017, 2, 034602.
  • Whalley RD, Walsh JL. Turbulent jet flow generated downstream of a low temperature dielectric barrier atmospheric pressure plasma device. Scientific Reports 2016, 6, 31756.
  • Abed WM, Whalley RD, Dennis JC, Poole RJ. Experimental investigation of the impact of elastic turbulence on heat transfer in a serpentine channel. Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics 2016, 231, 68-78.
  • Ni Y, Lynch MJ, Modic M, Whalley R, Walsh J. A solar powered handheld plasma source for microbial decontamination applications. Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics 2016, 49(35), 355203.
  • Choi KS, Jukes TN, Whalley RD, Feng LH, Wang JJ, Matsunuma T, Segawa T. Plasma virtual actuators for flow control. Journal of Flow Control, Measurement & Visualisation 2015, 3(1), 22-34.
  • Abed WM, Whalley RD, Dennis JCD, Poole RJ. Numerical and experimental investigation of heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics in a micro-scale serpentine channel. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 2015, 88, 790-802.
  • Whalley RD, Choi KS. Turbulent boundary-layer control with plasma spanwise travelling waves. Experiments in Fluids 2014, 55(1796).
  • Whalley RD, Debien A, Podlinski J, Jukes TN, Choi KS, Benard N, Moreau E, Berendt A, Mizeraczyk J. Trailing-edge separation control of a NACA 0015 airfoil using dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma actuators. ERCOFTAC Bulletin 2013, 94, 35-40.
  • Moreau E, Debien A, Bénard N, Jukes T, Whalley R, Choi KS, Berendt A, Podlinkski J, Mizeraczyk J. Surface dielectric barrier discharge plasma actuators. ERCOFTAC Bulletin 2013, 94, 5-10.
  • Wang JJ, Choi KS, Feng LH, Jukes TN, Whalley RD. Recent developments in DBD plasma flow control. Progress in Aerospace Sciences 2013, 62, 52-78.
  • Whalley RD, Choi KS. The starting vortex in quiescent air induced by dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 2012, 703, 192-203.
  • Choi KS, Jukes T, Whalley R. Turbulent boundary-layer control with plasma actuators. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society A 2011, 369(1940), 1443-1458.
  • Whalley R, Choi KS. Starting, traveling and colliding vortices: dielectric-barrier-discharge plasma in quiescent air. Physics of Fluids 2010, 22(9), 091105.

• Letter

  • Whalley RD, Abed WM, Dennis DJC, Poole RJ. Enhancing heat transfer at the micro-scale using elastic turbulence. Theoretical and Applied Mechanics Letters 2015, 5(3), 103-106.

• Review

  • Morabit Y, Hasan MI, Whalley RD, Robert E, Modic M, Walsh JL. A review of the gas and liquid phase interactions in low-temperature plasma jets used for biomedical applications. European Physical Journal D 2021, 75(1), 32.