4/30/2015 Taylor Tucker
Written by Taylor Tucker
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) recently awarded a research proposal submitted to its Summer Faculty Fellowship Program by MechSE assistant professor Kelly Stephani.
Stephani and her team of graduate students will spend 12 weeks at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, conducting research alongside Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) scientists.
“I’m looking forward to the new questions and methodologies that are often inspired by these collaborations,” Stephani said.
Entitled “Phase-space coupling approach for the efficient solution of non-equilibrium thermo-chemical processes,” Stephani’s proposal focuses on developing methods for computing non-equilibrium flows, which can be indicated by strong, abrupt changes in velocity, temperature, and other characteristics over a short distance.
“The ability to predict the characteristics of these flow structures, or the way that they interact with external environmental factors, requires a specific class of computational methods that my group develops,” Stephani said.
The Air Force is particularly interested in this research because it directly pertains to its high-speed aircraft. As it passes through the atmosphere, the aircraft’s interactions with it create a non-equilibrium flow environment that envelops it.
Stephani and her team have already started preparing for the fellowship. “One of the objectives that I have laid out is to develop new computational techniques to resolve thermo-chemical processes that are driven by the high-energy distribution tail,” Stephani said.
Vehicles that operate in the hypersonic regime are often subject to extreme conditions where energy is transferred from the vehicle to the gas surrounding it while it experiences hypervelocity. This energy transfer sparks complex thermal and chemical processes in the ambient environment. Stephani plans to develop models with AFRL for these processes in response to a variety of environmental conditions.
She said she feels confident in the potential of this fellowship. “Problems that were once deemed computationally intractable are becoming within reach,” Stephani said. “I’m really excited about this opportunity, and I think we are well-poised to make some substantial contributions from these efforts.”
Stephani received her BS in aerospace engineering and mechanics from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. She pursued her graduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, where she obtained her MS and PhD, both in aerospace engineering. She is the recipient of several other honors, including the Engineering Foundation Endowed Graduate Presidential Fellowship and the Stanford CTR Summer Program Fellowship.