Coordinator: Dr. Vinayak Kabadi, Department of Chemical Engineering

Participating faculty:

• Dr. John Kizito, Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Dr. Nail Yamaleev, Department of Mathematics

3.1: High-Order Energy Stable Methods for Flight Control Development

PI: Dr. Yamaleev

Development of control systems that prevent loss of control or allow safe recovery from flight anomalies, such as component failure, damage, or adverse conditions, require high-accurate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools that allow effective analysis and simulation of these flight regimes. Existing second-order CFD production codes based on simplified unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes models inadequately predict dynamic derivatives in adverse conditions, where nonlinear unsteady aerodynamics and massively separated turbulent flows are present. To predict the true unsteady three-dimensional nature of the turbulent flow, sophisticated turbulence models such as detached eddy simulation (DES) and large eddy simulation (LES) are required.

3.2: Ice Formation from Impacting Subcooled Water Droplets

PI: Dr. Kizito

Despite a long history of ice aeration studies since the 1920’s, the physical mechanism of ice formation in certain flow regimes is still unknown, and the lack of this information is an important factor that may dramatically affect airplane flight safety.

3.3: Investigation of Advanced Aviation Fuels Performance

PI: Dr. Kabadi

Synthetic aviation fuel and its blends with Jet A-1 provide enhancement in desirable fuel properties and are being studied for combustion and emission properties for future applications. Simultaneously, biofuels provide an alternative fuel option to reduce the dependency on foreign oil. Biokerosene would be an interesting fuel to study as a future aviation fuel. None of these options contribute to the global goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Towards this goal some studies are available in literature on the usage of liquid hydrogen as an aviation fuel. Fundamental studies are necessary on all these fuels before their adoption for commercial usage.