Brian Muzás | The University of Texas at Austin (original) (raw)
Papers by Brian Muzás
This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills ... more This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills that they can apply to all academic and professional pursuits. The ultimate goal is to complete a well-written, strongly argued, and thoroughly documented Senior Research Project. This course and the Senior Research Project you will produce this semester are designed as a capstone experience: the goal is to use the knowledge you have gained throughout your program in order to produce an original, well designed, well-researched and well-written piece of research. The course will include a combination of group meetings (at the beginning and the end of the semester), mandatory peer-group meetings, and mandatory one-on-one meetings with the instructor
35th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 1997
In order to investigate the structure of Mach 8 flowfields and the mixing of wall injected fuels,... more In order to investigate the structure of Mach 8 flowfields and the mixing of wall injected fuels, two different diagnostic imaging techniques have been developed. The first uses carbon dioxide enhanced Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS) for imaging the freestream flow and the boundary layer. The second technique uses laser induced fluorescence of sodium seeded into helium as a fuel simulant to provide information on injection and mixing in hypersonic flows. This paper will discuss the development of these diagnostics and their transition into the Mach 8 test facility at the Princeton Gas Dynamics Laboratory. Data are presented from an investigation of a Mach 8 zero pressure gradient boundary layer using the carbon dioxide enhanced FRS technique and from a study of the injection and mixing of sodium seeded helium into the boundary layer to illustrate the importance of these Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Senior Member, AIAA i Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Member, AIAA i Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg, § Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Student Member, AIAA II Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg. Dept., California Institute of Technology, Student Member, AIAA " Senior Research Scientist, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Member, AIAA Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Associate Fellow, AIAA This paper is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. diagnostics to the understanding of the relevant fluid mechanics. An analysis of the boundary layer flow is provided along with an assessment of the implications of perturbing the flowfield using these seeding techniques.
Wake interactions behind concentric annular rings at different spacing ratios were experimentally... more Wake interactions behind concentric annular rings at different spacing ratios were experimentally investigated. The flow visualization, laser Doppler velocimetry data and results from the particle tracking velocimetry are presented and discussed. Jets through individual slots merged in multiply-stable, axisymmetric manners. Most flow patterns were persistent unless the flow was strongly disturbed. The vortex interactions from individual annular elements were also
This course is designed to introduce students to the major theoretical traditions of internationa... more This course is designed to introduce students to the major theoretical traditions of international relations and diplomacy. We will begin with a critical investigation of the competing assumptions and concepts that form the heart of various or maybe traditional theoretical approaches to the study of world politics. As a class we will discuss the key actors, processes, and variables highlighted by each theory, and assess their relative strengths and weaknesses. Throughout this investigation, we will consider various theoretical tradeoffs relating to the issues such as levels of analysis, parsimony versus accuracy, and the types of research questions being addressed. There is an important underlying goal of the course: to provide students with an opportunity to improve their ability to engage in critical analysis. As a result, the course centers on the examination of competing theoretical perspectives. It is expected that students will use this course to develop further three sets of ...
This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills ... more This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills that they can apply to all academic and professional pursuits. The ultimate goal is to complete a well-written, strongly argued, and thoroughly documented Senior Research Project. The course is structured to include both class and individual meetings. The first several weeks mix class and individual meetings with the professor to focus on helping students turn their research interests into a research puzzle, find and use primary and secondary sources, develop hypotheses, conceptualize variables, identify an effective research design, and present their ideas professionally in public settings. The next several weeks help students shape their particular projects, with a focus on writing, revising, and providing effective feedback to fellow students. During the last weeks the students formally present their research findings and constructively critique one another’s presentations
This course provides a knowledge base and background for understanding contemporary international... more This course provides a knowledge base and background for understanding contemporary international relations in which nuclear weapons play a central role. Currently, nuclear weapons policy is of critical importance in U.S. relations with Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. Questions of stockpiles, safety, proliferation and deployment have been ongoing with the Russian Federation since 1991 and with the previous Soviet Union dating back to the dawn of the Atomic Age. In addition, the real but often unacknowledged, nuclear strike capabilities of Israel play a critical role in shaping the dynamics of Middle East affairs. Since the Al Qaeda attack of 9/11, the potential use of nuclear weapons by non-nation states has become a priority focus of national and international attention. The specter of Nuclear Terrorism has become a more central concern than that of Nuclear Deterrence. In order to understand these issues, the course will include study of the fundamentals of nuclear weapons technolo...
This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills ... more This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills that they can apply to all academic and professional pursuits. The ultimate goal is to complete a well-written, strongly argued, and thoroughly documented Diplomacy Honors Research Project. The course is structured to include both class and individual meetings. The first several weeks mix class and individual meetings with the professor to focus on helping students turn their research interests into a research puzzle, find and use primary and secondary sources, develop hypotheses, conceptualize variables, identify an effective research design, and present their ideas professionally in public settings. The next several weeks help students shape their particular projects, with a focus on writing, revising, and providing effective feedback to fellow students. During the last weeks the students formally present their research findings and constructively critique one another’s presentations
The objectives of this class are twofold. The first goal is to develop a critical understanding of... more The objectives of this class are twofold. The first goal is to develop a critical understanding of the use of scientific research in the practice and academic study of international affairs. While we will consider issues central to all research and some unique to qualitative analysis, the emphasis in this class is quantitative research. Whether you are primarily interested in security, finance, development, trade, or social issues, much research that is likely of interest to you uses some form of quantitative analysis. This is equally true for policy reports published by the UN, World Bank, Brookings, RAND, or other relevant organizations. In order to be a productive participant in the world of international affairs, you need to be able to understand the assumptions that underlie quantitative analyses, to disentangle proper and improper uses of quantitative evidence, and to ask intelligent questions about the validity of quantitative measurement and statistical methods. A second goal of ...
textPresidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald W. Reagan embody a paradox. All ... more textPresidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald W. Reagan embody a paradox. All three presidents made nuclear decisions ranging from hawkish and belligerent to dovish and restrained. How can such marked differences be explained? I argue that religious cultural heritage (RCH) can provide a parsimonious link which unifies the seemingly disparate nuclear choices of these presidents. I propose a theory to connect religious cultural heritage, decision-making frameworks, and nuclear choices. I apply this theory to Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan at the individual level of analysis. Since these three presidents were immersed in a Christian cultural milieu, I move beyond the simplistic treatment of religion as a proxy for morality to explore both Christian thought on war and the philosophical ethics, philosophy of government, and philosophy of human nature which underlie Christian thought. Using secondary and primary sources including archival research, I analyze each president and his nuclear decisions. Each presidential chapter presents the RCH of each president, pieces together each worldview, establishes patterns of thought and patterns of action, and analyzes a number of salient nuclear decisions ranging from choices in the midst of crises to programs for nuclear sharing and cooperation. In the final chapter I discuss and integrate my findings through the lenses of history and policy science, present avenues for future work, and draw policy lessons which can be applied today.Public Polic
14th Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference, 1997
The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions behind porous disks that consist of multiple... more The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions behind porous disks that consist of multiple annular elements was experimentally investigated. Annular jets through individual slots merged into groups of positive momentum regions which displaced a global recirculating region downstream. Multiple wake patterns resulted from the same overall conditions, but once the pattern formed, it remained nearly unchanged unless the flow was disturbed. Compared to the flow behind a solid disk, three-dimensional large scale motions were suppressed downstream and the wake motions were more axisymmetric. The patterns of jet mergings were also axisymmetric and persistent. The mean velocity and time dependent large and smallscale velocity fluctuations at different spacing ratios and flow patterns were analyzed and compared with flow visualizations.
35th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 1997
AIAA Journal, 1998
The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions immediately behind porous disks that consist... more The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions immediately behind porous disks that consisted of multiple annular elements is investigated experimentally. Annular jets through individual slots merge into groups of high-momentum regions that displace a global recirculating region downstream. Multiple wake patterns result from the same overall conditions. Once the pattern forms, it remains nearly unchanged unless the flow is disturbed. Compared to the flow behind a solid disk, three-dimensional large-scale motions are suppressed downstream and the wake motions are more axisymmetric. The patterns of jet mergings are also axisymmetric and persistent. The mean and time-dependent large- and small-scale velocity fluctuations are characteristic of individual spacing ratios and flow patterns, and they are analyzed and compared with flow visualizations. The process of how the wake settles into a certain flow pattern also is addressed
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the concepts and issues that are part of the ... more The goal of this course is to introduce students to the concepts and issues that are part of the developing field of human security. Human security is a relatively new academic discipline, but it has been practiced for thousands of years. The term human security predates the end of the Cold War but began to penetrate academic and policy discourse only after its formulation and comprehensive elaboration in the UNDP\u27s 1994 Human Development Report. Some states have incorporated the concept of human security into their foreign policies. Interestingly, none seem to have incorporated it into their domestic policies. The human security idea remains controversial and we will explore these controversies. Start by thinking about the following questions: Security for whom? Security from what? Security by what means? Students should be prepared to do a significant amount of reading each class and to discuss it constructively. Courses work well only when everyone comes prepared for a critica...
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Civic and Political Studies, 2016
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, 2015
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, 2013
This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills ... more This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills that they can apply to all academic and professional pursuits. The ultimate goal is to complete a well-written, strongly argued, and thoroughly documented Senior Research Project. This course and the Senior Research Project you will produce this semester are designed as a capstone experience: the goal is to use the knowledge you have gained throughout your program in order to produce an original, well designed, well-researched and well-written piece of research. The course will include a combination of group meetings (at the beginning and the end of the semester), mandatory peer-group meetings, and mandatory one-on-one meetings with the instructor
35th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 1997
In order to investigate the structure of Mach 8 flowfields and the mixing of wall injected fuels,... more In order to investigate the structure of Mach 8 flowfields and the mixing of wall injected fuels, two different diagnostic imaging techniques have been developed. The first uses carbon dioxide enhanced Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS) for imaging the freestream flow and the boundary layer. The second technique uses laser induced fluorescence of sodium seeded into helium as a fuel simulant to provide information on injection and mixing in hypersonic flows. This paper will discuss the development of these diagnostics and their transition into the Mach 8 test facility at the Princeton Gas Dynamics Laboratory. Data are presented from an investigation of a Mach 8 zero pressure gradient boundary layer using the carbon dioxide enhanced FRS technique and from a study of the injection and mixing of sodium seeded helium into the boundary layer to illustrate the importance of these Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Senior Member, AIAA i Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Member, AIAA i Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg, § Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Student Member, AIAA II Graduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg. Dept., California Institute of Technology, Student Member, AIAA " Senior Research Scientist, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Member, AIAA Professor, Mechanical & Aerospace Engrg., Associate Fellow, AIAA This paper is declared a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. diagnostics to the understanding of the relevant fluid mechanics. An analysis of the boundary layer flow is provided along with an assessment of the implications of perturbing the flowfield using these seeding techniques.
Wake interactions behind concentric annular rings at different spacing ratios were experimentally... more Wake interactions behind concentric annular rings at different spacing ratios were experimentally investigated. The flow visualization, laser Doppler velocimetry data and results from the particle tracking velocimetry are presented and discussed. Jets through individual slots merged in multiply-stable, axisymmetric manners. Most flow patterns were persistent unless the flow was strongly disturbed. The vortex interactions from individual annular elements were also
This course is designed to introduce students to the major theoretical traditions of internationa... more This course is designed to introduce students to the major theoretical traditions of international relations and diplomacy. We will begin with a critical investigation of the competing assumptions and concepts that form the heart of various or maybe traditional theoretical approaches to the study of world politics. As a class we will discuss the key actors, processes, and variables highlighted by each theory, and assess their relative strengths and weaknesses. Throughout this investigation, we will consider various theoretical tradeoffs relating to the issues such as levels of analysis, parsimony versus accuracy, and the types of research questions being addressed. There is an important underlying goal of the course: to provide students with an opportunity to improve their ability to engage in critical analysis. As a result, the course centers on the examination of competing theoretical perspectives. It is expected that students will use this course to develop further three sets of ...
This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills ... more This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills that they can apply to all academic and professional pursuits. The ultimate goal is to complete a well-written, strongly argued, and thoroughly documented Senior Research Project. The course is structured to include both class and individual meetings. The first several weeks mix class and individual meetings with the professor to focus on helping students turn their research interests into a research puzzle, find and use primary and secondary sources, develop hypotheses, conceptualize variables, identify an effective research design, and present their ideas professionally in public settings. The next several weeks help students shape their particular projects, with a focus on writing, revising, and providing effective feedback to fellow students. During the last weeks the students formally present their research findings and constructively critique one another’s presentations
This course provides a knowledge base and background for understanding contemporary international... more This course provides a knowledge base and background for understanding contemporary international relations in which nuclear weapons play a central role. Currently, nuclear weapons policy is of critical importance in U.S. relations with Iran, Pakistan and North Korea. Questions of stockpiles, safety, proliferation and deployment have been ongoing with the Russian Federation since 1991 and with the previous Soviet Union dating back to the dawn of the Atomic Age. In addition, the real but often unacknowledged, nuclear strike capabilities of Israel play a critical role in shaping the dynamics of Middle East affairs. Since the Al Qaeda attack of 9/11, the potential use of nuclear weapons by non-nation states has become a priority focus of national and international attention. The specter of Nuclear Terrorism has become a more central concern than that of Nuclear Deterrence. In order to understand these issues, the course will include study of the fundamentals of nuclear weapons technolo...
This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills ... more This course is designed to help students learn research, writing, and oral communications skills that they can apply to all academic and professional pursuits. The ultimate goal is to complete a well-written, strongly argued, and thoroughly documented Diplomacy Honors Research Project. The course is structured to include both class and individual meetings. The first several weeks mix class and individual meetings with the professor to focus on helping students turn their research interests into a research puzzle, find and use primary and secondary sources, develop hypotheses, conceptualize variables, identify an effective research design, and present their ideas professionally in public settings. The next several weeks help students shape their particular projects, with a focus on writing, revising, and providing effective feedback to fellow students. During the last weeks the students formally present their research findings and constructively critique one another’s presentations
The objectives of this class are twofold. The first goal is to develop a critical understanding of... more The objectives of this class are twofold. The first goal is to develop a critical understanding of the use of scientific research in the practice and academic study of international affairs. While we will consider issues central to all research and some unique to qualitative analysis, the emphasis in this class is quantitative research. Whether you are primarily interested in security, finance, development, trade, or social issues, much research that is likely of interest to you uses some form of quantitative analysis. This is equally true for policy reports published by the UN, World Bank, Brookings, RAND, or other relevant organizations. In order to be a productive participant in the world of international affairs, you need to be able to understand the assumptions that underlie quantitative analyses, to disentangle proper and improper uses of quantitative evidence, and to ask intelligent questions about the validity of quantitative measurement and statistical methods. A second goal of ...
textPresidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald W. Reagan embody a paradox. All ... more textPresidents Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Ronald W. Reagan embody a paradox. All three presidents made nuclear decisions ranging from hawkish and belligerent to dovish and restrained. How can such marked differences be explained? I argue that religious cultural heritage (RCH) can provide a parsimonious link which unifies the seemingly disparate nuclear choices of these presidents. I propose a theory to connect religious cultural heritage, decision-making frameworks, and nuclear choices. I apply this theory to Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan at the individual level of analysis. Since these three presidents were immersed in a Christian cultural milieu, I move beyond the simplistic treatment of religion as a proxy for morality to explore both Christian thought on war and the philosophical ethics, philosophy of government, and philosophy of human nature which underlie Christian thought. Using secondary and primary sources including archival research, I analyze each president and his nuclear decisions. Each presidential chapter presents the RCH of each president, pieces together each worldview, establishes patterns of thought and patterns of action, and analyzes a number of salient nuclear decisions ranging from choices in the midst of crises to programs for nuclear sharing and cooperation. In the final chapter I discuss and integrate my findings through the lenses of history and policy science, present avenues for future work, and draw policy lessons which can be applied today.Public Polic
14th Aerodynamic Decelerator Systems Technology Conference, 1997
The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions behind porous disks that consist of multiple... more The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions behind porous disks that consist of multiple annular elements was experimentally investigated. Annular jets through individual slots merged into groups of positive momentum regions which displaced a global recirculating region downstream. Multiple wake patterns resulted from the same overall conditions, but once the pattern formed, it remained nearly unchanged unless the flow was disturbed. Compared to the flow behind a solid disk, three-dimensional large scale motions were suppressed downstream and the wake motions were more axisymmetric. The patterns of jet mergings were also axisymmetric and persistent. The mean velocity and time dependent large and smallscale velocity fluctuations at different spacing ratios and flow patterns were analyzed and compared with flow visualizations.
35th Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, 1997
AIAA Journal, 1998
The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions immediately behind porous disks that consist... more The effect of spacing ratio on the near-wake regions immediately behind porous disks that consisted of multiple annular elements is investigated experimentally. Annular jets through individual slots merge into groups of high-momentum regions that displace a global recirculating region downstream. Multiple wake patterns result from the same overall conditions. Once the pattern forms, it remains nearly unchanged unless the flow is disturbed. Compared to the flow behind a solid disk, three-dimensional large-scale motions are suppressed downstream and the wake motions are more axisymmetric. The patterns of jet mergings are also axisymmetric and persistent. The mean and time-dependent large- and small-scale velocity fluctuations are characteristic of individual spacing ratios and flow patterns, and they are analyzed and compared with flow visualizations. The process of how the wake settles into a certain flow pattern also is addressed
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the concepts and issues that are part of the ... more The goal of this course is to introduce students to the concepts and issues that are part of the developing field of human security. Human security is a relatively new academic discipline, but it has been practiced for thousands of years. The term human security predates the end of the Cold War but began to penetrate academic and policy discourse only after its formulation and comprehensive elaboration in the UNDP\u27s 1994 Human Development Report. Some states have incorporated the concept of human security into their foreign policies. Interestingly, none seem to have incorporated it into their domestic policies. The human security idea remains controversial and we will explore these controversies. Start by thinking about the following questions: Security for whom? Security from what? Security by what means? Students should be prepared to do a significant amount of reading each class and to discuss it constructively. Courses work well only when everyone comes prepared for a critica...
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Civic and Political Studies, 2016
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, 2015
The International Journal of Interdisciplinary Global Studies, 2013