John LaRue
Samueli School of Engineering
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, CA 92697
B.S., Sacramento State College, Mechanical Engineering, 1964
M.S., Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering, 1965
Ph.D., University of California,San Diego, Applied Mechanics, 1973
Dr. LaRue is interested in the design and development of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), fluid mechanics, heat transfer and turbulence, and other areas that bridge those fields.
Dr. LaRue's work primarily concerns the development and assessment of MEMS-based sensors and flow devices using bulk machining processes. His research in this area includes micro-flows (e.g., flows in micro-channels and flow through seals), sensors and optical MEMS devices. Dr. LaRue is developing and/or analyzing MEMS sensors including bi-directional flow sensors, binary concentration sensors and remotely sensed shear-stress sensors, and, in the area of optical MEMS, a bulk-machined Fabry-Perot interferometer.
The overall goal of Dr. LaRue's work in fluid mechanics is to better understand turbulent flows and specifically, mixing in turbulent flows. He and his group are investigating heat in turbulent flows, with the goal of increasing the efficiency of the heat transfer process. Another project concerns the study of the two-way coupling between particles and turbulent flow.
Dr. LaRue also is carrying out investigations into the effect of strain on turbulent flow and heat transfer, augmented heat exchange, particle dispersion in turbulent flows, the effect of free-stream turbulence on jet mixing, similarity in plane wake flows, near-surface measurements and olfactory-evoked potentials.