Physiological pulsatile flows are unsteady and can exhibit hydrodynamic instabilities; in large blood vessels, turbulence may even arise. Such unsteady flow conditions and the resulting fluctuations in wall shear stress are known to promote endothelial dysfunction—the impairment of the inner lining of blood vessels— which plays a central role in the development of vascular diseases. Blood vessels further complicate this picture through their complex geometries, featuring diameter variations, curvature, and bifurcations that can profoundly influence flow stability. Yet, even in the simplified setting of pulsatile flow through a straight pipe, the underlying instability mechanisms and routes to turbulence remain poorly understood. The funded PhD project will focus on understanding how pulsatile forcing and geometrical perturbations (e.g. curvature and branching) influence flow stability, transition to turbulence, and wall shear stress, with direct relevance to cardiovascular flows. The research work will be primarily experimental and will involve laboratory studies of pulsatile pipe flows in straight, curved, and branched geometries. Advanced flow diagnostics will be employed, including planar and stereo particle image velocimetry (PIV) to resolve time resolved velocity fields, as well as pressure based measurements to quantify frictional drag and wall shear stress.