Quick links:
Micro-scale combustion and power generation
Corona discharge ignition of combustible
gases
Microbial fuel
cells, dynamics of motile bacteria and biofilms
Premixed turbulent combustion: mechanisms, burning rates, extinction
Front propagation in Hele-Shaw cells
Throttleless Premixed-Charge Engines
Premixed
Gas Flames and "Flame Balls" at Microgravity
Flame Spread Over Solid Fuel beds
Edge-flames and flame instabilities in
counterflows
Radiatively-driven flows
and instabilities in gases
Narrative description:
My research is focused mostly on
combustion problems but also more generally what I call “chemically reacting
flows” such as autocatalytic
chemical reactions, frontal
polymerization and even studies of
bacterial growth and electrical power production.
Dr. Charles Westbrook
of Lawrence Livermore National Labs describes combustion problems as having two
axes, one labeled “chemistry” and the other labeled “fluid mechanics” (or more
generally, “transport phenomena.”)
Charlie says that he works close to the “chemistry” axis. Others work closer to the “transport”
axis. I try to stay close to a 45 degree line on this plot where the interactions of
chemical reactions and transport are most prevalent.
Much of my work is fairly
fundamental in character, though several including corona discharge ignition
for internal combustion engines, micropower generation and
micropropulsion and throttleless
premixed-charge engines have near-term practical implications as well.
The underlying theme common to
almost all of this work a contrarian approach or as Willie Keeler said: “Hit ‘em where they
ain’t.” Keeler
was a baseball player in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s with remarkable
hitting statistics, which he attributed to that simple motto. I try to do the same – look for problems that
other groups aren’t working on but have the potential for “extra base hits,”
that is, research that others will find surprising, counter-intuitive, perhaps
controversial or provocative but hopefully useful. (After all, the person who wins in this
business is not the one with the most papers or most funding but the one whose
work is referenced the most by others.)
Another common theme in this work
is the “anti kitchen sink” approach.
Rather than using a “kitchen sink” approach of trying to measure every
possible property (in experiments) or model every possible process in detail
(in numerical simulations), I try to focus only on the minimum, simplest,
quickest and cheapest set of measurements or modeled processes required to gain
insight into the phenomenon of interest.
You won’t find a jungle of lasers or supercomputers in my labs.
Feel free to contact me with
questions or suggestions about any of this work. Good suggestions are much appreciated. Bad ones will be posted on my website, with
attribution, along with rude comments.