People Faculty

Tinkan Hung, Ph.D.

Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

Professor,Department of Neurological Surgery

Associate Faculty, Department of Bioengineering

Email: Phone: (412) 624-9896 Fax: (412) 624-0135 Office: BENDM 942

Education

Ph.D. in Mechanics and Hydraulics, University of Iowa, 1966

Professional Interests

Professor Hung received his B.S. in Hydraulic Engineering in 1959 from the National Cheng Kung University, Tainan; M.S. in Civil Engineering in 1962 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; and PhD in Mechanics and Hydraulics in 1966 from the University of Iowa.  He served as a research engineer and instructor for a year at the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research.  As an assistant professor, he jointed Professor George Bugliarello at Carnegie-Mellon University in 1967 to develop bioengineering education and research and became an Associate Professor in 1970.  Since1975 he has worked for the University of Pittsburgh as a Research Professor of Bioengineering, Civil Engineering and Neurosurgery. Currently he is Professor of Bioengineering in the Department of Bioengineering, and Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Dr. Hung’s research activities began in early sixties at the Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research.  He was engaged in numerical solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations and studied two-dimensional and axisymmetric laminar flows in conduit expansions.  He compared the kinematic and dynamic characteristics of laminar vortices in steady and unsteady flows.  His activities were extended to numerical solutions of non-Newtonian flow and density stratified flow.  He investigated a time-dependent axisymmetric spiral flow and blood flow past heart valves, and conducted computational and experimental investigations of nonlinear peristaltic flow, creeping flow with particles, microcirculation, transport processes in oxygenators, and membrane oxygenation in animal experiments. Other challenging computational analyses included pulsating blood flows through distensible stenotic arteries, pulsating flows in rigid and distensible curved arteries, intra aortic balloon pumping, intra vena-cava balloon pumping, and hemodynamic analysis and evaluation of cardiac pumping. 

Another new research developed by Hung was the biomechanics of experimental spinal cord injuries.  He successfully conducted in-vivo measurements of viscoelastic properties of animal spinal cords.  The neurological sequelae of cats and dogs were correlated with the experimentally induced stress and deformation on the spinal cords. 

Professor Hung also interested in earthquake hydrodynamic analyses.   He investigated nonlinear hydrodynamic pressures on dam with surface waves and dam vibrations, and sediment effects on reservoir's natural frequencies and dynamic pressures on dam.

Selected Publications

• "Kinematic and Dynamic Characteristics of Pulsatile Flows in Stenotic Vessels", Journal of Engineering Mechanics, (with Tommy M.-C. Tsai), ASCE, Vol.123, No. 3, 247-259, March 1997.
• "Pulsatile Blood Flows in Stenotic Artery," (with Tommy M.-C. Tsai), J. of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 122, No. 9, 890-896.
• "A Three-dimensional Analysis of Pressures on Dams," (with M.H. Wang), J. of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 116, No. 6, 1290-1304, ASCE, 1990.
• "Nonlinear Hydrodynamic Pressure on Dams," (with B.F. Chen,) J. of Engineering Mechanics, Vol. 116, No. 6, 1372-1391, ASCE, 1990.
• "An In-vivo Measurement and Analysis of Viscoelastic Properties of the Spinal Cord of Cats," (with G.L. Chang and others), Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Vol. 110, 115-122, ASME, 1988.
• "A Numerical Method for Solving the Navier-Stokes Equations in Orthogonal Curvilinear Coordinates," J. of Computational Physics , Vol. 23, 343-363, 1977.
• "The Mass Transfer and Rheological Characteristics of an Etched Channel Membrane Oxygenator," Annals of Biomedical Engineering , Vol. 5, 343-361, 1977.
• "Computational and Experimental Investigation of Two-Dimensional Nonlinear Peristaltic Flows," (with T.D. Brown), J. of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 83, 343-363, 1976.
• "An Analysis of the Hemodynamics of the Opening of Aortic Valves," "Solid Particle Motion in Two-Dimensional Peristaltic Flows," (with T.D. Brown), J. of Fluid Mechanics , Vol. 73, 77-97, 1976.
• "Pressure, Bernoulli Sum and Momentum and Energy Relations in a Laminar Zone of Separation," (with E.O. Macagno), The Physics of Fluids , Vol. 10, #1, 78-92, 1967.
• Computational and Experimental Study of a Captive Annular Eddy,” J. of Fluid Mechanics , (with E.O. Macagno), Vol. 28, 28, #1, 43-64, 1967.