ABSTRACT: In this talk, I tell two stories, in the mystery genre. Each reflects the Goza et al. team’s quest to unlock new understanding and computational capabilities for emergent flow–structure interaction systems, where new coupled dynamics arise from structures with anisotropy, internal mechanics, and configuration dependence.

Mystery 1: Advances in metamaterials—structures with engineered microstructure—hint at new paradigms for passive, adaptive flow control in unmanned aerial craft, improved surgical implants for cardiac patients with single-ventricle physiology, and beyond. Yet, fundamental gaps block progress. The mystery of this story is that while traditional flow–structure systems have well established flow-structure mass and stiffness parameters, their counterparts for metamaterial-enriched systems remain undefined. I present a partial solution through high-fidelity computations that incorporate a phononic material—a metamaterial with designed wave-propagation properties—into a canonical aerodynamic flat-plate configuration. At a Reynolds number of 400 and angle of attack of 12°, the rigid plate lies near a bifurcation: slightly lower angles yield steady flow, slightly higher induce vortex shedding. This configuration, on the cusp of two distinct behaviors, gives a rich setting to probe the phononic-induced coupled behavior. I introduce flow–metamaterial parameters anchored in phononic behavior and show how they map to distinct flow–structure dynamics.

Mystery 2: Immersed methods offer a natural avenue for computing emergent flow–structure systems by treating the flow and structure separately, communicating only through kernel operations. This removes re-meshing needs and promises modular reuse of tuned solvers. In practice, however, accurate existing methods impose either operator modifications that compromise mass conservation and solver efficiency, or algebraic coupling that leads to new costly, high-dimensional systems. The mystery of this story is that a rigorous interface treatment appears to preclude true solver modularity and a cost scaling comparable to a body-less solver. I propose a partial solution: the interface-manifold-aware projection (IMAP) algorithm, which views the no-slip condition as a manifold on which dynamics evolve. IMAP constrains motion to this manifold via surface-local projections that scale with the number of surface points, preserving mass and no-slip to machine accuracy while leaving underlying operators untouched. I illustrate its accuracy and a scaling—of the same order as a body-less solver—for canonical cases with prescribed motion.

BIOSKETCH: Andres Goza is an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He got his BS at Rice University and MS, PhD at Caltech. The team he leads builds numerical, mechanistic, and software frameworks that expose governing principles and enable systematic exploration for emergent FSI problems. This approach, building frameworks, reflects the Goza et al team’s philosophy of constructing scaffolding for key unsolved problems, onto which others can build physical understanding and innovate in engineering discovery. Andres got into long distance running after leaving the wonderfully runnable LA hill trails for the cornfields of Illinois. He also likes murder mysteries, and greedily accepts recommendations for next reads/listens.