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Vincent H Chu

Title: 
Professor
Academic title(s): 

P.Eng., Ph.D.

Vincent H Chu
Contact Information
Phone: 
514-398-6863
Email address: 
vincent.chu [at] mcgill.ca
Biography: 

Professor Chu's teaching and research interests have been in the field of fluid mechanics and hydraulics. His research involves modelling and measurements of turbulent flows with a focus on the applications in environmental engineering.

Degree(s): 
  • B.Eng. (Civil Engineering, National Taiwan University)
  • M.A.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering, University of Toronto)
  • Ph.D. (Hydrodynamics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Areas of expertise: 

Fluid mechanics and hydraulics

Courses: 
  • CIVE 327 Fluid Mechanics & Hydraulics 4 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

  • CIVE 572 Computational Hydraulics 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

  • CIVE 574 Fluid Mech of Water Pollution 3 Credits
      Offered in the:
    • Fall
    • Winter
    • Summer

Research areas: 
Hydraulics
Brace Water Centre
Awards, honours, and fellowships: 

Awards

  • THOMAS C. KEEFER MEDAL, awarded to Shooka Karimpour and Vincent H. Chu for their paper entitled “Instability of unbounded transverse mixing layer in shallow waters” Can. J. Civ. Eng. 43: 504–510 (2016) for the best civil engineering paper in hydrotechnical, transportation or environmental engineering, 2017.
Selected publications: 

1994

Chu, V.H. Lagrangian scalings of jets and plumes with dominant eddies, Recent Research Advances in the Fluid Mechanics of Turbulent Jets and Plumes, NATO ASI Series E: Applied Sciences, Vol. 255, Davies P. A. and Valente Neves, M. J. Edited, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 45-72, 1994.

1996

  • Baines, W. D. and Chu, V.H. Jets and Plumes, Environmental Hydraulics, Chapter 2, V. P. Singh and I. Hager Editors, Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 7-61, 1996.

2002

  • Chu, V.H. Turbulent Transport Processes across Natural Streams, Environmental Fluid Mechanics — Theories and Applications, Chapter 5, H. Shen, A.D. Cheng, K.H. Wang, M.H. Teng and C.C.K. Liu Editors, American Society Civil Engineers, pp. 127-167, 2002.

2003

  • Lee, J.H.W. and Chu, V. H. Turbulent Jets and Plumes — A Lagrangian Approach, Kluwer Academic Publishers ASCE, 390 pp., 2003 (ISBN 1-4020-7520-0), 2003.

2004

  • Chu, V.H., Liu, F. and Altai, W. (2004) "Friction and confinement effects on a shallow re-circulating flow", Journal Environmental Engineering and Science, Vol. 3, pp. 463-475.
  • Chu, V. H. and Zhang, J.-B. (2004) "Starting jets in a double tank apparatus", Shallow Flows, G.H. Jirka and W.S.J. Uijttewaal Editors, A.A. Balkema Publishers, pp. 71-78.
  • Chu, V. H. (2004) "Depth-averaged RANS and LES models for shallow-flow turbulence", Advance in Hydro-Science and Engineering, Volume VI, ISBN 0-937099-12-0, pp. 442-443 and 12 pp. in CD Rom.

2005

  • Li, X. and Chu, V.H. (2005) "Experimental and numerical study of Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities", Science and Technology Review, Vol. 23, No. 11, pp. 30-32.
  • Altai, W., Pinilla, C. and Chu, V.H. (2005) "Shallow re-circulating flow in a cavity', Environmental Hydraulics and Sustainable Water Management, Lee and Lam (eds) Taylor and Francis Group, London (ISBN 04 1536 546 5), pp. 995-1000.
  • Bouhairie, S. and Chu, V.H. (2005) "Surface heat emissions from the back of a circular cylinder in a crossflow", Proceedings of the 20th Canadian Congress of Applied Mechanics (ISBN0-7717-0628-6), Montreal, pp. 228-229.
  • Li, X. and Chu, V.H. (2005) "Q2D turbulence by Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities", Environmental Hydraulics and Sustainable Water Management, Lee and Lam (eds) Taylor and Francis Group, London (ISBN 04 1536 546 5), pp. 263-268.
  • Pinilla, C. and Chu, V.H. (2005) "Turbulence by Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities", Proceedings of the 20th Canadian Congress of Applied Mechanics (ISBN0-7717-0628-6), pp. 201-202.
  • Delatolla, R.A., Babarutsi, S., and Chu, V.H. (2005) "Turbulence in shallow re-circulating flows", Environmental Hydraulics and Sustainable Water Management, Lee and Lam (eds) Taylor and Francis Group, London (ISBN 04 1536 546 5), pp. 975-980.

2006

  • Chu, V.H., Pinilla, C.E., and Altai, W. (2006) "Buoyancy effect on turbulence using block", Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, Ghent, Belgium, 6 pp.
  • Li, Xi and Chu, V.H. (2006) "Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities by overturning experiment", Proceedings of the XVth Congress of APD of IAHR, IIT Madras, Chennai, India, Theme IV, Volume 2, ISBN 81-8424-070-8, pp. 1077-1082.
  • Bouhaire, S. and Chu, V.H. (2006) "Heat wake by deferred corrected ULTRA", Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, Ghent, Belgium, 6 pp.

2007

  • Tan, L. W. and Chu, V.H. (2007) "Turbulence and wave simulations using Lagrangian Block Method", Proceedings of the 18<th Engineering Mechanics Division Conference of ASCE, Blacksburg, Virginia, 6 pp.
  • Li, X. and Chu, V.H. (2007) "Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities by overturning experiments in tank", Journal of Hydrodynamics, Ser. B, Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 303-308.
  • Bouhairie, S. and Chu, V.H. (2007) "2D simulation of unsteady heat transfer from a circular cylinder in cross flow", J. Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 570, pp. 117-215.
  • Pinilla, C. and Chu, V.H. (2007) "Turbulence and wave interaction in shallow water", Proceedings of the 18th Engineering Mechanics Division Conference of ASCE, Blacksburg, Virginia, 6 pp.

2008

  • Chu, V.H. (2008) "Wave and Turbulence Simulations using the Shallow Water Equations", Keynote Lecture, 2nd International Symposium on Shallow Flow, 12 pp.
  • Pinilla, C. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Waves and Bed-Friction Effect on Stability of Transverse Sheer Flow in Shallow Waters", Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. S52, ISSN 0749-0208, pp. 207-214.
  • Li, X. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Turbulence and Mixing across Gravitationally Unstable Interface by Tank-overturn Experiment", Journal of Hydro-environment Research, Vol 1, No. 3-4, pp. 176-186.
  • Chu, V. H. (2008) "Modelling and Simulation in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering", ICE Journal of Engineering and Computational Mechanics, Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 46-47.
  • Tan, L.W., Pinilla, C.E. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Simulation of Water Advancing over Dry Bed using Lagrangian Blocks on Eulerian Mesh", Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, 6 pp.
  • Pinilla, C.E., Bouhairie, S. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Frictional and Radiation Dampings on Shear Instability", Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Computational Fluid Dynamics, 6 pp.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Wave Run-up using Lagrangian Blocks on Eulerian Mesh", 2nd International Symposium on Shallow Flow, 6 pp.
  • Pinilla, C.E. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Wave and Turbulence Interaction in a Square Basin", 2nd International Symposium on Shallow Flow, 6 pp.
  • Pinilla, C.E., Bouhairie, S., Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2008) "Minimal Intervention to Simulations using the Shallow-Water Equation", 2nd International Symposium on Shallow Flow, 6 pp.

2009

  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2009) "Wave run-up and overtopping simulations using Lagrangian Blocks", ASME 28th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, paper OMAE2009-79395, 8 pp.
  • Pinilla, C.E. and Chu, V.H. (2009), Wave radiation and shear instability in rotating stratified flow, ASME 28th International Conference on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, paper OMAE2009-79416, 8 pp.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2009) "Simulation of Wave Fronts on Dry Bed using Lagrangian Blocks", Journal Engineering and Computational Mechanics, Vol. 162, pp. 57-66.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2009) "Lauber and Hager’s dam-break wave data for numerical model validation", Journal Hydraulic Research, Vol 47(4), pp. 524-528.

2010

  • Chu, V.H. (2010) "Shear instability, wave and turbulence simulations using the shallow water equations", Journal of Hydro-environment Research, Vol. 3, Part 4, pp. 173-178.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Wave runup simulations using Lagrangian blocks on Eulerian mesh", Journal of Hydro-environment Research, Vol. 3, Part 4, pp. 193-200.
  • Pinilla, C., Bouhairie, S., Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Minimal intervention to simulations using the shallow-water equation", Journal of Hydro-environment Research, Vol. 3, Part 4, pp. 201-207.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Flood wave dynamics using Lagrangian Block Advection", Proceedings of the 18th Canadian Society of CFD Conference, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Wet-and-dry interface on steep slopes simulations using Lagrangian Blocks", Environmental Hydraulics, CRC Press/Balkema (ISBN 978-0-415-58475-3), Vol. 2, pp. 997-1002.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Dam-break flood simulations using 2D Lagrangian blocks on Eulerian mesh method", Environmental Hydraulics, CRC Press/Balkema (ISBN 978-0-415-58475-3), Vol. 2, pp. 1003-1008.
  • Karimpour Ghannadi, S., Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Super-critical and sub-critical starting jets in shallow waters", Environmental Hydraulics, CRC Press/Balkema (ISBN 978-0-415-58475-3), Vol. 1, pp. 141-146.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Stable simulation of shallow-water waves by Block Adection", Computational Fluid Dynamics, A. Kuzmin ed., Springer, 6 pp.
  • Wang, T., Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Flood-waves simulations by classical method of consistent transport", Computational Fluid Dynamics, A. Kuzmin ed., Springer, 6 pp.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Regular periodic wave simulations by Lagrangian Blocks", Proceedings 2010 Coastal Engineering Conference, 15 pp.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Lagrangian block hydrodynamic of macro resistance in a river-flow model", River Flow 2010, ISBN 978-3-939230-00-7, Vol. 1, pp. 419-426.
  • Wang, T., Karimpour Ghannadi, S. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Retention of dye tracer in side basins exchanging with subcritical and supercritical flows", River Flow, ISBN 978-3-939230-00-7, Vol. 2, pp. 1775-1782.
  • Tan, L.W. and Chu, V.H. (2010) "Lagrangian block hydrodynamics for environmental fluid mechanics simulations", Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Hydrodynamics, Shanghai, 6 pp.

2011

2012

  • Chu, V.H. and Altai, W. (2012) "Advection and Diffusion Simulations using Lagrangian blocks", Computational Thermal Sciences, Vol. 4(4), pp. 351-363.
  • Tan, L.-W. and Chu, V.H. (2012) "Two-dimensional Simulation of Shallow-Water Waves by Lagrangian Block Advection", Computers and Fluids, Vol. 65, pp. 35-43.

2013

  • Chu, V.H. and Gao, C. (2013) "False diffusion produced by flux limiters", Computational Thermal Sciences, Vol. 5(6), pp. 503-520.

2014

  • Chu, V.H. (2014) "Instabilities in non-rotating and rotating shallow shear flows", Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 14 (5), pp. 1085-1103.
  • Karimpour Ghannadi, S. and Chu, V.H. (2014) "Transverse dam-break waves, Journal of Fluid Mechanics", Vol. 758 (R2), doi:10.1017/jfm.2014.562.
  • Tan, L.-W. and Chu, V.H. (2014) "Flood Wave Dynamics Using Lagrangian Block Advection", International Journal of Integrated Engineering, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 8-12.

2015

  • Karimpour Ghannadi, S. and Chu, V. H. (2015) “High-order Interpolation Schemes for Shear Instability Simulations,” International Journal for Numerical Methods for Heat and Fluid Flow, Vol. 25(6), pp. 1340-1360.
  • Chu, V.H. and Altai, W. (2015) “Lagrangian Block Simulation of Buoyancy at Turbulence Interfaces,” Computational Thermal Sciences, Vol. 7(2), pp.181-189.

2016

  • Karimpour, S. and, Chu, V. H. (2016) “Instability of unbounded transverse mixing layer in shallow waters," Canadian J. Civil Engineering, Vol. 43, pp. 504-510.

2018

  • Chu, V.H. and Altai (2018) "A two-dimensional inviscid model of the gravity current head by Lagrangian block simulation," Environmental Fluid Mechanics, 18(1), 267-281.

2019

  • Karimpour, S. and, Chu, V. H. (2019) “The role of waves on mixing in shallow waters," Canadian J. Civil Engineering, Vol. 46(2), pp. 134-147.
  • Xie, P. and Chu, V. H. (2019) The forces of tsunami waves on a vertical wall and on a structure of finite width, Coastal Engineering, vol. 149, 65-80.
Areas of interest: 
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • Hydrodynamic instability, waves and turbulence
  • Sediment and rock transport in steep open channel
  • Tsunami impact force on coastal structure
  • Earthquake triggered density current impact forces on seafloor infrastructure
  • Measurement and modelling of shallow-flow turbulence
  • Jets and plumes
  • Heat and mass transfer in wall region of turbulent flow
Professional activities: 
  • Member, Brace Centre for Water Resource Management
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, River Flow 2020 – The tenth International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, Delft, MO, July 7-10, 2020.
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, River Flow 2018 – Ninth International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, Lyon, September, 2018.
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, The 3rd International Symposium on Outfall Systems: Industrial and municipal discharges: Design, Treatment, Environment. Ottawa, Ontario, May 10-13, 2016.
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, River Flow 2016 – Eighth International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, St. Louis, MO, July 10-14, 2016.
  • Chair of Technical Program Committee, 22nd Canadian Hydro-technical Conference, Montreal, April 29 – May 2, 2015.
  • Lecturer, 2014 Gerhard Jirka Summer School, HKUST, Hong Kong, December 13-19, 2014.
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, 7th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics, Singapore, January 7-8, 2014.
  • Scientific Advisory Committee, 3rd International Symposium on Shallow Flows, Iowa City, USA, June 2012.
  • Editorial Panel ICE Journal of Engineering and Computational Mechanics 2008-2012.
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, 6th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics, Athens, Greece, June 2010.
  • Master of the Master Class on Mass Transport and Dispersion in Rivers, River Flow, International Conference on Fluvial Hydraulics, Braunschweig, Germany, September 2010.
  • Keynote Lecturer and Member of Scientific Advisory Committee, International Symposium on Shallow Flows, Hong Kong, December 2008.
  • International Scientific Advisory Committee, 4th International Symposium on Environmental Hydraulics, December 2004.
  • Scientific Advisiory Committee, International Symposium on Shallow Flows, Delf, The Netherlands, June 2003
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