Thermal Management Solutions for Hypersonic Vehicles

Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science Seminar

Featuring Lorenzo Valdevit, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of California, Irvine

Location:  Computer Science 174
Reception to follow 

Abstract
The design of materials for thermal and structural protection of hypersonic vehicles (Mach > 6) presents enormous challenges, involving principles of engineering from many different fields. In different locations on the vehicle, severe combinations of intense and maintained heat fluxes and pressure loads defy conventional solutions. Advanced structures that are simultaneously optimized for thermal cooling and resistance to mechanical loads might open the design space considerably. In this talk, Professor Valdevit will present two design approaches that enable metallic solutions: (i) sandwich panels as combustion chamber walls, actively cooled by the fuel, and (ii) two-dimensional heat pipes for the protection of sharp leading edges. The usefulness of thermal barrier coatings (TBC) for these applications will also be discussed.  Valdevit will also briefly introduce additional areas of research (morphing structures, electronic packaging, and biomechanical response of cells) that his group at UC Irvine is pursuing.  

About the Speaker
Lorenzo Valdevit holds an M.S. degree (Laurea) from the University of Trieste, Italy and a Ph.D. degree from Princeton University. He worked as an intern at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center and as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is presently an assistant professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of California, Irvine. His current research interests include thermo-mechanical optimization of structures for aerospace applications, small-scale morphing structures, electronics packaging and the bio-mechanical response of mammalian cells.