Our Research

Our research group started in 2004, focusing on subsonic film cooling experiments. Early work focused on detailed thermal mixing and wall temperature measurements under adiabatic conditions. The research group welcomed 2 more graduate students, focusing on different aspects of the film cooling problem, allowing the expansion of our research objectives. Experimentally, a new test section was built, with adiabatic and non-adiabatic capabilities. This allowed us to expand our experimental data sets to include heat transfer and kinematic measurements. Simultaneously, we started the development of an in-house CFD code (RANS and LES) to investigate film cooling flows from a numerical perspective. Additional research efforts have also been undertaken from an analytical standpoint, expanding current models to account for pressure gradient and compressibility effects.

Currently, we are working on a completely new experimental setup that will allow us to investigate film cooling flows under supersonic conditions. Using the knowledge gained from the subsonic experiments and numerics, our goal is to implement some of the diagnostics in this new experimental challenge, as well as performing modeling of such flows. We are also using NASA's LOCI-Chem code to design the experiment, as well as to simulate our experimental conditions.