Aero-propulsion workshop participants.
The Energy Systems division (ES) recently hosted a workshop on multi-phase and reacting flows for aero-propulsion at Argonne.
The two-day workshop brought together research engineers from Argonne, aerospace industry leaders, and government entities to focus on challenges in aerospace applications of multi-phase and reacting flows, a relatively new domain where Argonne is building scientific leadership.
“The last couple of years, we have started doing more aerospace and aero-propulsion work within the lab,” said workshop co-organizer Prithwish Kundu, ES research scientist. “However, the aerospace community didn’t know we had the expertise and resources to tackle significant challenges within this field.”
Over the years, Argonne’s development of research capabilities in fuel injectors and flows, as well as several successful piston engine workshops, generated collaboration in aerospace and aero-propulsion. This led to the opportunity to bring aerospace professionals together to demonstrate Argonne’s skills and discover what work is ongoing in the larger community.
The workshop included keynote addresses and guest speakers from across the industry, Q&A sessions, and 1-on-1 meetings, all focused on defining state-of-the-art aerospace applications for multi-phase and reacting flows. Tours of the Advanced Photon Source and the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility helped demonstrate the breadth and depth of expertise and tools Argonne brings to these problems. Participants and leaders of the workshop discussed challenges and research gaps, developed new approaches, and determined how Argonne’s capabilities can be utilized.
“We were able to engage experts in gas turbine engines, rotating detonation engines and high-speed flows who all work on the same physical problems, but do not work together under the aerospace umbrella,” said workshop co-organizer Brandon Sforzo, ES mechanical engineer. “Hosting the workshop provided a way to have crossover and look at commonalities.”
The team is focused on generating a workshop report that summarizes the discussions and analyzes a questionnaire sent to all attendees. The goal is to not only form new working relationships within aero-propulsion, but to secure more funding to advance research in this space.
“It is a good time to apply our capabilities and expertise to this area where there are needs that aren’t being met,” Sforzo said. “There are opportunities for other divisions across the lab such as materials, manufacturing, experimental, and theoretical to work within aerospace as well.”
Anyone interested in learning more can contact Sforzo at bsforzo@anl.gov or Kundu at pkundu@anl.gov.