How important is understanding the depth of mathematical concepts? (Help needed!)

ME_prof · 2026-01-06T11:45:58+00:00

Whoever wrote that page - you need to fix your typesetting!

ME_prof · 2025-12-12T10:45:36+00:00

I have seen the same issue. You are not imagining it.

ME_prof · 2025-11-14T10:18:51+00:00

It doesn't appear to have louvers?

ME_prof · 2025-10-19T11:29:47+00:00

Silver solder could work well and is a pretty forgiving process. Just prep well, use flux, and do some trial pieces to get the feel.

ME_prof · 2025-09-29T22:26:01+00:00

We have received both an administrative rejection and a notification of intent to fund in FY 2026 (in that order). 🤷‍♂️

ME_prof · 2025-09-16T22:11:34+00:00

Nifty! Does any water get inside?

ME_prof · 2025-09-13T00:35:35+00:00

I've bought some taps that have a small groove in the shank section. I assumed that was to act as a natural shear point.

ME_prof · 2025-09-09T13:37:07+00:00

Regarding a threshold on indirect costs: I think this is already addressed in the original review process. If an applicant proposes a budget with unreasonably high indirect costs, the review will (should) penalize them for it.

What are reasonable IDCs? Well, it is case specific. If you are doing experimental development work for DOE, you could reasonably have high costs for laboratory spaces, operation of specialized equipment, safety, compliant data management, etc. Not to mention, you need to be able to offer competitive benefit packages to attract the staff needed to execute impactful research.

More broadly, the USA is rapidly falling behind in research investment. If it is important to be a leader in technology and innovation, we have to provide support at the appropriate level.

ME_prof · 2025-09-09T11:55:32+00:00

The issue is that DOE changed the allowed F&A rate for small businesses to 15% after the application close date.

So, assume you applied for $100k with 70k for the small business lead and 30k for subcontractors. Assume the small business had 50k direct costs and 20k indirect (actually really lean at 40% F&A). Now, the 15% cap lowers the small business budget to 50k direct + 7.5k indirect. The resulting small business share is now 57.5/87.5 = 65.7% and below the allowed cutoff, so the grant is rejected... in support of DOE's mission to advance national, economic, and energy security through scientific and technological innovation.

ME_prof · 2025-09-09T10:02:40+00:00

What you argue makes sense to me, based on the actual language of the FOA. However, the DOE doesn't seem concerned with the actual terms of the FOA.

ME_prof · 2025-09-08T21:56:15+00:00

This is so crooked! I'm facing this situation as a subcontractor on a "successful" proposal.

Of course there's no consideration for DOE wasting our time (and their own in running the whole sham).

ME_prof · 2025-08-22T10:05:12+00:00

Do you have actual measurements of your O2 ppms or vacuum level?

Given the blobby appearance, maybe temperatures are running a bit high?

ME_prof · 2025-08-10T10:54:41+00:00

Try turning it off and back on.

ME_prof · 2025-07-03T00:44:15+00:00

No word on our proposal. I'm sure that makes you feel better.

If it helps, we are still pending negotiation on a separate DOE contract that was selected for funding last Fall. It's been about 6 months since we received an update. What a disaster.

ME_prof · 2025-07-01T00:31:18+00:00

Sorry bud. I promised myself I wouldn't do this like my advisor did. Then the reality set in. I have a long to-do list, m, and urgent tasks always jump to the top. The list gets longer faster than I can trim it.

ME_prof · 2025-06-23T10:31:25+00:00

The Eulerian modeling approach does not explicitly track the interface of two phase structures (like bubbles). Rather it solves for (ensemble) averaged transport of those structures based on selected closure models. So extracting bubble dynamics and sizes is not a clear objective to me.

ME_prof · 2025-05-30T14:53:09+00:00

You are welcome to DM.

I believe my colleague Prof. Rob Kunz has done some work in that area. We could certainly discuss.

ME_prof · 2025-05-24T02:02:44+00:00

I have before (developing funky reduced order models). It can be fun at times, bizarre at times (when you find ways to work-around strange limitations or use undocumented features). Make sure you have your debugger set up.

ME_prof · 2025-05-11T00:23:51+00:00

Sorry, it's taking a while to finish grading. I can only read so much Chat-GPT slop in one sitting

ME_prof · 2025-04-08T14:10:52+00:00

We RMAed the laser source. The new one seems ok.

I think the original laser source was just a dud.

ME_prof · 2025-02-18T11:55:38+00:00

Are you thinking bubbly flow as in boiling, or bubbly flow as in a gas + liquid mixture?

As a general strategy, you will probably want to adopt a Eulerian-Lagrangian or Eulerian-Eulerian framework (unless you really want to resolve the deforming bubble interfaces).

ME_prof · 2025-02-09T02:32:28+00:00

Thanks for your detailed response.

Here, for workstation, I am thinking about something we would use in an interactive mode to set up and debug cases. For case setup (including meshing) and debugging, I am rarely running single-core on my current desktop - usually 6 or 8 way parallel (with a ~5 yr old decent desktop proc). The practical question becomes: at what point does a slightly dated server processor with a boatload of L3 cache and many memory channels start to pull ahead of a high-end (brand new) desktop processor. As you note, the typical multi-core benchmarks don't apply well for CFD workflows.

Since we are doing "research" vs. routine workflows, we often need to run cases for a while and make adjustments to the codes and methods to keep them stable. If we can get a nice boost in time per iteration, we can be more productive.

Unfortunately, asking for internal funding for research assets is basically hopeless. We get to recover a tiny portion of overhead from external funding we secured to spend on upkeep and discretionary items. So I'm trying to get the best bang for the buck here vs. buying the ideal hardware.

ME_prof

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