Dr. Kamkar is formally trained in the field of computational aerodynamics. His background includes topics of numerical analysis, while his primary focus has been directed towards developing software to analyze and model helicopter aerodynamics. Additionally, he has several years of experience with numerical optimization, high- and low-speed aerodynamics, inviscid and viscous flows, unsteady and steady flows, flow visualization, feature extraction, parallel computing systems, and the development and testing of scientific software.
Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Kamkar was a researcher at both the Aerospace Computing Laboratory at Stanford University and NASA Ames Research Center, where he developed state-of-the-art rotorcraft simulation software. During this period, he focused on improving the software’s aerodynamic predictive capabilities, where he pioneered methods that provided an automated, efficient, and accurate strategy for obtaining high-fidelity flow resolution in rotor wakes. To do so, he combined elements of feature extraction and solution error estimation, so that key regions of the flow-field could be targeted with adequate grid refinement. In addition to the theoretical development, he spent several years writing software, and later performing code integration of his work into the larger software platform. Dr. Kamkar performed extensive validation and verification of the bundled software, and successfully demonstrated its utility to the rotorcraft research community by considering both theoretical and practical cases. It has since been used by several other government- and industry-based research organizations and applied to problems involving other rotorcraft vehicles, as well as fixed-wing aircraft.
Journal Publications
Kamkar SJ, Wissink AM, Sankaran V, Jameson A. Feature-driven Cartesian adaptive mesh refinement for vortex-dominated flows. Journal of Computational Physics 2011; 230:16:6271–6298.
Selected Conference Publications
Kamkar SJ, Wissink AM. An automated adaptive mesh refinement scheme for unsteady aerodynamic wakes. Paper presentation, 50th AIAA Aerosciences Conference, Nashville, TN, 2012.
Wissink AM, Kamkar SJ, et al. New capabilities in Helios version 3.0: a high fidelity CFD/CSD rotorcraft simulation code. Paper presentation, 50th AIAA Aerosciences Conference, Nashville, TN, 2012.
Potsdam M, Wissink AM, Kamkar SJ, Jayaraman B. CFD adaptive mesh refinement for rotorcraft wake simulations. Paper presentation, 37th European Rotorcraft Forum, Paris, France, 2011.
Kamkar SJ, Wissink AM, Sankaran V, Jameson A. Automated off-body Cartesian mesh adaption for rotorcraft simulations. Paper presentation, 49th AIAA Aerosciences Conference, Orlando, FL, 2011.
Kamkar SJ, Jameson A, Wissink AM, Sankaran V. Using feature detection and Richardson extrapolation to guide adaptive mesh refinement for vortex-dominated flows. Paper presentation, ICCFD: 6th International Conference on CFD, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2010.
Wissink AM, Kamkar SJ, Pulliam TH, Sitaraman J, Sankaran V. Cartesian adaptive mesh refinement for rotorcraft wake resolution. Paper presentation, 28th AIAA Applied Aerodynamics Conference, Chicago, IL, 2010.
Kamkar SJ, Wissink AM, Sankaran V, Jameson A. Feature-driven adaptive mesh refinement in the Helios code. Paper presentation, 48th AIAA Aerosciences Conference, Orlando, FL, 2010.
Selected Presentations
Kamkar SJ. Adaptive mesh refinement for overset grids using solution-based error. Speaker, 2nd Bay Area Overset Network Symposium on Overset Composite Grids and Solution Technology, Stanford, CA, 2011.
Kamkar SJ. Overset methods for rotorcraft simulations using the Helios code. Poster presentation, 10th Symposium on Overset Grids and Solution Technology, Moffet Field, CA, 2010.