Faculty

Research Overview

I'm interested in how the performance of liquid metal batteries, an emerging technology for grid-scale energy storage, depends on transport in their liquid layers. I'm interested in how ecological dynamics of marine phytoplankton depend on mixing by ocean currents. I'm interested in how Earth's magnetic field arises out of mixing and waves in our planet's outer core. And I'm interested in the fundamental physics of mixing, particularly Lagrangian Coherent Structures.

Representative Publications

• D. H. Kelley and J. H. Thomas. Cerebrospinal fluid flow. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 55:1, 2023.
• J. S. Cheng‡ , I. Mohammad† , B. Wang† , D. F. Keogh, J. M. Forer∗ , and D. H. Kelley. Oscillations of the large-scale circulation in experimental liquid metal convection at aspect ratios 1.4–3. J. Fluid Mech. 949 A42, 2022.
• I. Mohammad†, M. DuPuis, P. D. Funkenbusch, and D. H. Kelley. Oscillating currents stabilize aluminium cells for efficient, low carbon production. JOM 74(5):1908–1915 (2022).
• A. Raghunandan‡, A. Ladrón-de-Guevara, J. Tithof‡, H. Mestre, T. Du, M. Nedergaard, J. H. Thomas, and D. H. Kelley. Bulk flow of cerebrospinal fluid observed in periarterial spaces is not an artifact of injection. eLife 10:e65958 (2021).
• H. Mestre, T. Du, A. M. Sweeney, G. Liu, A. J. Samson, W. Peng, K. N. Mortensen, F. F. Staeger, P. Bork, L. Bashford∗, E. R. Toro∗, J. Tithof‡, D. H. Kelley, P. G. Hjorth, E. A. Martens, R. M. O. Solis, P. Blinder, D. Kleinfeld, H. Hirase, Y. Mori, and M. Nedergaard. The glymphatic system is the earliest contributor to brain edema after ischemic stroke. Science 9 eaax7171-24 (2020).
• H. Mestre, J. Tithof‡, T. Du, W. Song, W. Peng, A. M. Sweeney, G. Olveda, J. H. Thomas, M. Nedergaard, and D. H. Kelley. Flow of cerebrospinal fluid is driven by arterial pulsations and is reduced in hypertension. Nat. Comm. 9:1 4878 (2018).
• D. H. Kelley and T. Weier. Fluid mechanics of liquid metal batteries. Appl. Mech. Rev. 70:2 1–23 (2018).

Research Interests

• Fluid dynamics of the brain’s waste removal system
• Mixing in the inner ear
• Liquid metal batteries and grid-scale energy storage
• Mixing in metals casting
• Coherent structures in reactive mixing