Energy Conversion and Thermosciences

Energy Conversion Research

The global demand for energy is increasing in the midst of limitations in fossil fuel supply and required pollutant emissions reductions. Creative, innovative solutions are needed to address current energy challenges worldwide.  Students, faculty, and staff working in the energy conversion area are carrying out research to respond to the energy issues we face.  Students gain experience solving current, real-world problems, applying state-of-the-art research techniques and instrumentation.

The Energy Conversion and Thermosciences area encompasses a wide range of activities.  These activities deal with internal combustion engines, combustion, building energy use, bio-fuels, laser applications, solar cells, and plasmas.   More specific research areas include engine technology development for alternative fuels, bio-fuels development, pollutant formation and control, advanced ignition systems development (prechambers and laser ignition), clean cook stoves for the developing world, fundamental combustion studies, high-performance computational combustion modeling and optimization, waste heat utilization, intelligent control of networked distributed energy resources, hybrid vehicles, laser diagnostics in combustion, CdTe solar cell development, and ion propulsion.

Research in the Energy Conversion and Thermosciences area is well supported by government and industrial sponsors.  Graduate students have the opportunity to interface with sponsors, enhancing their research experience and providing potential opportunities beyond graduate school.  The research in this area is driven by a growing need for energy solutions in the marketplace.  Consequently, our graduates with advanced degrees are having a high impact as they move beyond graduate school into industry, government, and academia.

Current faculty members within the CSU Department of Mechanical Engineering that are actively involved in Energy Conversion and Thermosciences:

Thomas H. Bradley, Ph.D.: Automotive and aerospace system design; energy system management and supervisory control; designed experiments and validation.

Lakshmi P. Dasi, Ph.D.: Experimental fluid flow analysis; turbulence and mixing; bio-inspired fluidic designs.

Xinfeng Gao, Ph.D.; Computational combustion and turbulence-chemistry modeling; high-performance computing on energy-efficient parallel computer architectures; CFD-based design, analysis and optimization of practical low-emission and high-efficiency combustion systems with geometric complexity.

Allan T. Kirkpatrick, Ph.D.: Fluid flow; heat transfer in buildings; heat transfer in engines; computation and experimentation on the web.

Anthony J. Marchese, Ph.D.: Combustion kinetics and pollutant formation in biodiesel; emissions measurements in diesel engines; multi-phase chemically reacting flow modeling; microgravity, combustion and heat transfer; rocket propulsion.

Daniel B. Olsen, Ph.D.:  Reduction of pollutant emissions from gaseous fueled engines; high energy ignition systems; selective catalytic reduction (SCR); characterization of alternative gaseous fuels.

W. S. Sampath, Ph.D.: Thin film solar cells; low heat rejection engines; high throughput vacuum processing.

John D Williams, Ph.D.:  Modeling of erosion phenomena on ion thruster components such as ion extraction grids and hollow cathodes; experimental evaluation of plasma and ion beam interactions with materials for both aerospace and terrestrial applications.

Bryan D. Willson, Ph.D.:  Two-stroke cycle engines; biomass and biological fuels; formation and control of emissions from IC engines, including both criteria pollutants and hazardous air pollutants; improved cookstoves for developing countries; sustainable development.

Azer P.Yalin, Ph.D.:  Laser-based diagnostics and non-intrusive measurement of gases, plasmas, and plasma-surface interactions; laser combustion diagnostics of engines; laser ignition of engines; and laser sensing for security, environmental, and health applications.

 

Research Areas

Research Resources