News

On January 5 and 6, 2022, Dr. Chehroudi attended the 2022 AIAA SciTech Conference held in San Diego, California, under a new hybrid in-person/virtual format. He was also a Session Chair for the following two technical sessions: titled "Spray, Droplet, and Multiphase Combustion" and "Combustion Dynamics and Instabilities". Session Chairs and co-Chairs are also responsible for review of the original extended abstract submitted and based on that invite for full paper submission.

Sample Presenters and Presentations:

• Orifice Cavitation and Column Breakup of Heated Liquid Jets in High Temperature Subsonic Crossflows (AIAA-2022-1257)

  • Vincent G Shaw - University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Pierce Elliott - University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Matthew Boller - University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science

  • Ephraim Gutmark - University of Cincinnati College of Engineering and Applied Science

• Preferential Vaporization Effects on the Droplet Burning and Lift-off Behaviors of Jet Fuel Surrogates (AIAA-2022-1258)

  • Christopher B Reuter - US Naval Research Laboratory

  • Tanvir I Farouk - University of South Carolina

  • Steven G Tuttle - US Naval Research Laboratory

• Investigation of a Solution Approach to Quadratic Eigenvalue Problem for Thermoacoustic Instabilities (AIAA-2022-1855)

• Musa Onur Ozturkmen - Roketsan Roket Sanayii ve Ticaret AS

• Yusuf Ozyoruk - Orta Dogu Teknik Universitesi

• Global Dynamics of the Velocity-coupled Response of Spray Flames (AIAA-2022-1856)

  • Vishal S Acharya - Georgia Institute of Technology

• Parametric Combustion Instabilities (AIAA-2022-1857)

  • John Mathew Quinlan - University of Colorado Colorado Springs

On May 4, 5, 12, 2021 Dr. Chehroudi was invited by the  Polaris Company ( https://www.polaris.com/en-us/ ) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), to conduct a special 3-day seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from engines.

Attendees are design engineers, combustion engineers, technical managers, research scientists/engineers, and specialists in the field.

Combustion is a key element of many of modem society’s critical technologies. Electric power production, home heating, ground transportation, spacecraft and aircraft propulsion, and materials processing all use combustion to convert chemical energy to thermal energy or propulsive force. Although combustion, which accounts for approximately 70 percent of the world’s energy usage, is vital to our current way of life, it poses great challenges to maintaining a healthy environment. Improved understanding of combustion will help us deal better with the problems of pollutants, atmospheric change and global warming, unwanted fires and explosions, and the incineration of hazardous wastes. Despite vigorous scientific examination for over a century, researchers still lack full understanding of many fundamental combustion processes. The list below shows key topics discussed with reference to many applications in design and engineering of relevant components. For more information, please visit www.sae.org.

_Hydrocarbon and alternative fuels

_Distillation curve for fuels and its importance

_Distinction between "overall" A/F and cylinder-based, or local A/F

_Black-box operation of the "oxygen sensor" and its purposes

_Equivalence ratio and "lambda" _Adiabatic flame temperature and its physical meaning/importance

_Heating value

_Combustion efficiency_Equilibrium and chemical kinetics_Concept of "mechanism" of overall reaction

_The nature of (heterogeneous) catalytic reaction on surfaces

_Flame propagation _Laminar burning speed

_Turbulent flames_Effects of turbulence on flame propagation

_Effects of residual burned gases (or EGR) on Flame propagation

_Impact of multiple spark plugs on flame propagation

_Cylinder pressure measurements and its behavior

_Effects of spark timing (advance/retard) on cylinder pressure

_Mass fraction burned curve & heat release analysis

_Autoignition and Knock in SI engines

_Physical meaning of "specific heat"

_Cyclic variability and how it is quantified

_Mixture preparation

_Effects of design and operating conditions on combustion & emission of pollutants

_Diagnostics

_Laser and optical diagnostics for engine research

_Case studies and discussions

On August 25-26, 2020, Dr. Chehroudi attended the AIAA Propulsion & Energy Forum held in virtual format. He was also a Session Chair for the "Energetic Materials, Liquids, and Solid Propellants," in which the Q&A for the following technical papers are presented. Session Chairs are responsible of review of the original extended abstract submitted and based on that invite for full paper submission.

Presenters and Presentations:

• 1. The Application of Energetic Materials Genome Approach for Development of the Solid Propellants through the Space Debris Recycling at the Space Platform (Presenter: Amrith Mariappan:  Grad Aeronautical Engineering of Univ of Buffalo, NY).

  2. Burning Rate Characterization of Ammonium Perchlorate Pellets Containing Micro- and Nano-Catalytic Additives (Presenter: Felix A. Rodriguez, Grad Student at Texas A&M Univ).

  3. Measurements of the Vapor Pressure of Liquid Hydrazine Above Its Normal Boiling Point (Presenter: Dr. John DeSain: Graduated from Siena College (NY); Rice Univ (in chemistry- PhD); worked for SANDIA CRF; Propulsion Sciences at Aerospace Corp (>2003).

  4. Evaluation of Plateau Burning Behavior in HTPB-AP-Al Composite Propellants (Presenter: Dr. Luiz Eduardo N. de Almeida; PHD Aeronautical Institute of Tech; Brazillian AF; Currently works at Avibras Divisao Aerea e Naval Company  for 34 years as Product Develop Manager, experience in ammunitions, rockets, guided rocket, combustion, internal ballistics, etc).

  5. Characterization of the Melt Layer of Ammonium Perchlorate Single Crystals (Presenter: Monique McClain: Grad RA; Purdue Zucrow la; with background in Propulsion Additive ).

  6. Developing a Theoretical Approach for Accurate Determination of the Density (Presenter: Dr. Yang Li: Postdoc in King Abdullah Unv of Science and Tech (KAUST); specialized in ignition delay time experiments of real gasoline/diesel mixture; detailed Chem Kinetic model; quantum chemistry; core developer of AramcoMech 2.0 model).

In January 6-10, 2020, Dr. Chehroudi will attend the AIAA Propulsion & Energy Forum held in Orlando, Florida. He is also a Session Chair for the "High Pressure Combustion" in which the following technical papers are presented. Session Chairs are responsible of review of the original extended abstract submitted and based on that invite for full paper submission.

AIAA-2020-1153:

Turbulent high-pressure reaction rate modeling using the Double conditioned Conditional Source-term Estimation method.

W. Bushe, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; C. Devaud, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada; J. Bellan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA.

AIAA-2020-1154:

A thermodynamic look at injection in aerospace propulsion systems D. Banuti, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM.

AIAA-2020-1155:

Inter-species molecular attraction effect in the development of a twospecies mixing layer

D. Banuti, J. Bellan, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

AIAA-2020-1156:

Turbulent mixing in supercritical jets: effect of compressibility factor and inflow condition

N. Sharan, J. Bellan, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA

AIAA-2020-1157:

Accelerating Numerical Simulations of Supercritical Fluid Flows using Deep Neural Networks

P. Milan, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA; X. Wang, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL; J. Hickey,

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Canada; Y. Li, V. Yang, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA

On Monday, December 9-11, 2019, Dr. Chehroudi  has  delivered a 3-day seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from Automotive Engines at  the Society of Automotive Engineers facility in Troy, Michigan. 

Thorough and in-depth understanding of the thermodynamics, gas dynamics,  and  combustion chemistry is at the heart of the intelligent approach towards control of the engine combustion and emission of pollutants. To this end, Dr. Chehroudi's seminar covers key aspects of the combustion of the fuel air mixtures for best fuel economy at the lowest emission of the harmful/regulated pollutants.

On November 18-20, 2019, Dr. Chehroudi  was an invited speaker by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)  to deliver a 3-day seminar on Effective Management of Research and Development in San Diego, California.

In today's technology-driven global economy, innovation is at the core of the survival-of-the-fittest organization. The innovation process begins with the identification of market needs or technology opportunity and then goes through stages, such as adopting or adapting existing technology that satisfies the identified need or opportunity, inventing when needed, and finally transferring this technology by commercialization or other instrumental means. Effective and efficient R&D management can have profound and determining consequences, considering the key role it plays in the economic health of a nation and the world as a whole, the profitability of a business enterprise, the effectiveness of a technology-based governmental agency, and the enormous investment nations make in R&D activities. Today, the complexity of the technology creates complex organizations in which many disciplines have to be coordinated. It is the manager's primary responsibility to bring components together so they can operate smoothly and harmoniously, each making an optimal contribution to the R&D organization.

On September 6-7, 2019, Dr. Chehroudi  attended (by invitation only) the Frontiers of Fluid and Thermal Sciences in Aerospace Engineering which was organized in Celebration of 60 Years of Scholarly Contributions by Professor William A. Sirignano at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering, University of California, Irvine.

Attendees were from around the globe and gathered to celebrate this historical event. Modern developments in fluid and thermal sciences have had a tremendous impact in many aspects of aerospace engineering. The fields of combustion and propulsion, in particular, have benefited significantly from these developments. The aim of this conference was to bring leading experts in key areas of fluid-thermal sciences as pertain to aerospace engineering. The objectives were to review important past achievements, examine recent progresses, and help chart future directions. The major themes of the conference was  combustion, propulsion, turbulence, computational methods, and applied mathematics. Examples of topics include but not limited to advances in modern diagnostics, analysis and simulation of reactive and non-reactive flows, RANS, LES or DNS of turbulence, asymptotic analysis, high-performance computing, and data enabled modeling and design.

The fluid and thermal sciences and aerospace engineering communities have been blessed by an extraordinarily influential figure in the field, Dr. William Alfonso Sirignano, the Samueli Endowed Chair Professor of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. His vision and seminal contributions in this research arena over six decades have had huge impacts in the science and technology development, and the training of generations of educators and engineers in this field. His success in combining the use of applied mathematics and computational methods to tackle challenging problems in fluid-thermal sciences is exemplary. His deep physical insight combined with superb analytical skills have lead to innovations in propulsion technologies and design. As we celebrate Professor Sirignano’s tremendous achievements in the past, we look forward to his continued engagement and contributions to our community.

September 6, 2019: Invited Lectures:

On November 15-16, 2018, Dr Chehroudi is an Invited Speaker at the R&D 100 Conference  to be held in Orlando, Florida.  Dr Chehroudi will be delivering a presentation focusing on "R&D Evaluation Approaches for Efficiency and Effectiveness".    Here is a synopsis of his  talk:

R&D managers in the Federal government are responsible for the performance of their divisions and they not only need to be aware of current evaluation methods they also should be able to choose the most appropriate ones for strategic planning and continuous improvement. Considering that in 2018 nearly $553 Billion, or 2.8% of the GDP, is spent on R&D in USA, the selection and use of—not just one—but a portfolio of evaluation methods is of paramount importance.

Considering the U.S. Federal Government R&D expenditure of about $117.7 Billion in FY18, and the highly competitive nature of global R&D, it is imperative that R&D program managers involved in the Federal government be fully aware and understand the strengths and short-comings of these evaluations tools and choose the best ones for performance assessment of their R&D activities. Evidence generated by using a variety of R&D evaluation methods would improve program planning and implementation and strengthen the defense of programs with the OMB and Congress.

R&D program managers need to know if their R&D activities are done right, focused on the right research areas, created knowledge that generated additional benefits to the nation, stimulated collaborations that affected the nation’s R&D capabilities, and if initiatives have been and will be beneficial. The more R&D managers can show that they offer value for the money, the more credible the case for increased resources become.

In this presentation, R&D productivity, efficiency and effectiveness are defined. A concise overview of a number of evaluation methods found to be useful to program managers in Federal agencies will be discussed. Examples of successful applications by R&D managers in the Department of Energy (DOE), National Science Foundation (NSF) and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will be offered as case studies.

See the following link for a short review of the conference talks:  https://www.rdworldonline.com/the-rd-100-conference-concludes-with-unique-new-events-insightful-discussions/

On August 6-8, 2018, Dr. Chehroudi was an invited speaker by the Society of Automotive Engineers, to conduct a seminar on Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) in Troy, Michigan.

This is a highly updated version of the seminar introduced in 2010 which, in view of recent market share of GDI Engines, has become a very popular professional seminar to attend amongst R&D/application engineers, researchers, technical managers, regulators, and policy makers.

The objective of the seminar is to present  sufficient foundational information on combustion and emission of pollutants for GDI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge in direct injection spark ignition engines.  

Dr. Chehroudi will be a  member of the Organizing Committee and a Keynote Speaker at the Mech Aero 2018 Conference in Atlanta, Georgia (Nov 7-8, 2018).  Dr. Chehroudi will be giving a presentation titled "Supercritical Fluid and Applications in Propulsion Systems". 

The theme in this conference will be New Advanced & Innovations in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

Tentative schedule

On  July 10, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi attended the AIAA Propulsion & Energy Forum held in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a Session Chair for the "Combustion Instability I" in which the following five technical papers were  presented. Session Chairs are responsible of review of the original extended abstract submitted and based on that invite for full paper submission. 

Numerical Simulation of Thermoacoustic Combustion Instabilities in the Volvo Combustor (E. Gonzalez, Combustion Science & Engineering Inc.)

Quantitative Comparisons Between LES Predictions and Experimental Measurements of Sound Pressure Spectra in a Confined Swirl Combustor (M. Merk, Technical University of Munich, Munic, Germany; R. Gourdron, M. Gatti, C. Mirat, CentraleSupelec, Paris, France; W. Polifke, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; T. Schuller, CentraleSupelec, Paris, France)

Development of a Novel Approximate Solution to teh Acoustic Wave Equation with ean Gradient and its Application to Predicting Combustion Instabilities in a Dump Combustor (V. Rani, S. Rani, University of Alabama, Hunsville, AL)

 Large-Eddy Simulation of Single-Element Gas-Centered Swirl-Coaxial Injectors for Combustion Instability Prediction (C. Umphrey, Sierra Lobo, Inc., Edwards AFB, CA; M. Harvazinski, S. Schumaker, V. Sankaran, Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards AFB, CA)

Time-resolved Single-Element Gas-centered Swirl-Coaxial Injector Simulations for  Combustion Stability Prediction (C. Lietz, Sierra Lobo, Inc., Edwards AFB, CA; M. Harvazinski, S. Schumaker, V. Sankaran, Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards, AFB, CA)

On July 6, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi was an invited guest at the 2017 Mid-Year Meeting of the Arkansas Valley Alliance for Economic Development. The event was held at Noon in Arkansas Tech University West Dinning Hall.  Dr Chehroudi met many of the local and regional business and political leaders in which he discussed areas of mutual interest exploring opportunities for collaborations benefiting Arkansas Tech University and the community and the sate of Arkansas.  Dr. Chehroudi  had the pleasure and honor of meeting  Congressman Steve Womack and had a very productive discussion regarding future prospects and opportunities to work together  contributing towards local and regional economic development in which Arkansas Tech University plays a key role. 

On Thursday, May 25, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi attended  the graduation ceremony for the Russellville Leadership program sponsored by the Russellville Chamber of Commerce.

Leaders are not born; they are developed.

Leadership Russellville (LR) is aimed at developing a network of competent leaders for present and future community needs. To meet this goal, LR seeks to

• Identify and motivate individuals with leadership potentials;

• Acquaint them with community needs, challenges and opportunities;

• Offer a forum of exchange on methods for dealing with community issues;

• Challenge potential leader to become involved with local issues and the decision making process. 

Leadership Russellville seeks to develop community leaders by training and informing participants on a wide array of local public policy issues and concerns, In-depth training sessions focus on these issues, exploring their background, origin and present day-status. The program covers a full slate of topics including government, the area's economy, education, social services and much more. The sessions combine lectures, tours, dialogue and interaction between speakers and participant. 

For more information please visit the following link: http://www.russellvillechamber.org/chamber_information/leadership_russellville.aspx

Professor  Chehroudi organized  a theme on higher education and  invited speakers for this event. see teh following link :   Education Day  for Leadership Russellville by Prof.  Bruce Chehroudi.

Selected excerpts on Leadership and Governance collected throughout the years:

• • The real leader has no need to lead-- he is content to point the way.  By   Henry Miller ["The Alcoholic Veteran with the Washboard Cranium", The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941]

  • A nation or an organization reveals itself not only by the men it produces but also by the men it honors, the men it remembers.  By   John F. Kennedy [1963]

  • The fate of American cannot depend on any one man. The greatness of America is grounded in principles and not on any single personality.  By  Franklin D. Roosevelt  [speech, 1932]

  • You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.  By  Sam Rayburn [1961]

  • All ambition's are lawful except those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.  By  Joseph Conrad  [1912]

  • Blessed is he whose fame does not outshine his truth.  By  Sir Rabindranath Tagore [Stray Birds, 1916]

  • I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors, and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.  By  Abraham Lincoln letter to Horace Greeley, [1862]

  • Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it.  By  William Pitt 1st Earl of Chatham [1770]

  • I spoke. I had to. It is action that puts fervor to work. But it is words that create it.  By  Charles De Gaulle [Memoires de guerre: L'Appel, 1955]

  • We believe in equal opportunity for all, but we know that this includes the opportunity to rise to leadership, to be uncommon ! The great human advances have not been brought about by mediocre men and women.   By  Herbert Hoover [remarks, 1948]

  • Those who spend their time on small things usually become incapable of large ones.   By  Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld  [Reflexions, ou Sentences et maximes morals, 1665]

  • The renown of the great men should always be measured by the means which they have used to acquire it.  By   Francois, Duc de La Rochefoucauld  [Reflexions, ou Sentences et maximes morals, 1665]

  • The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his action. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes and the upsetting of our calculations; but with this shield, however the fate may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.  By  Sir Winston S. Churchill  [speech, ~1940]

  • Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.  By  Friedrich Nietzsche [Beyond Good and Evil, 1886]

  • No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore to us the belief in our own guidance.  By  Henry Miller ["The Alcoholic Veteran with the Washboard Cranium", The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941]

  • We may make mistakes - but they must never be mistakes which result from faintness of heart or abandonment of moral principle.  By Franklin D. Roosevelt [4th inaugural address, 1945]

  • Our sense of power is more vivid when we break a man's spirit than when we win his heart.  By  Eric Hoffer [The passionate State of Mind, 1954]

  • The final test of a leader is that he leaves behind him in other men the conviction and the will to carry on.  By  Walter Lippmann [New York Herald Tribune, 1945]

  • The highest proof of virtue is to possess boundless power without abusing it.  By  Lord Macaulary  [review of Lucy Aikin Life and writings of Addison, 1843]

On May 22 to 24, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi is  invited by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)  to conduct a seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from  Gas Turbine Engines.

Attendees  are design engineers, combustion engineers, technical managers, research  scientists/engineers, and specialists in the field.

Controlling the emission of pollutants from gas turbine engines, whether they come from aircraft, ground-based energy conversion or mechanical drives, is one of the grand challenges of our time.  Design strategies for many gas turbine components, specifically combustors and fuel nozzles, require a thorough understanding of the control of regulated combustion pollutants released into the atmosphere.

This course presents a balanced look at current and future low-emission design strategies for both aircraft and ground-based gas turbine engines. It demonstrated that the formation mechanisms for the regulated pollutants is critical for efficient engineering design strategies and technology development.

The course will over a wide range of topics, including premixed or partially-premixed combustor designs, staging in lean-premixed prevaporized (LPP) mixture and its consequences on designs of the combustor, prevaporization, combustion efficiency, lean stability, auto-ignition, flashback, fuel nozzles, and lean direct injection (LDI).

Operability issues (such as part-load emissions, stability and lean blowout, ignition, thermal managements, pattern factor, combustor pressure losses, combustion oscillations, and alternative fuels) will also be discussed.

Using case studies from manufacturers and technology developers, the class discussion will emphasize the system-level and practical issues that must be addressed in developing different types of gas turbines that emit pollutants at acceptable levels. The course will be especially valuable to those who are new in the field as well as those who wish to increase their understanding of gas turbine emission control strategies. For more information please visit www.asme.org, 

On May 15 to 17, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi is  invited by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE),  to conduct a seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from  engines. 

Attendees  are design engineers, combustion engineers, technical managers, research  scientists/engineers, and specialists in the field.

Combustion is a key element of many of modem society’s critical technologies. Electric power production, home heating, ground transportation, spacecraft and aircraft propulsion, and materials processing all use combustion to convert chemical energy to thermal energy or propulsive force. Although combustion, which accounts for approximately 70 percent of the world’s energy usage, is vital to our current way of life, it poses great challenges to maintaining a healthy environment. Improved understanding of combustion will help us deal better with the problems of pollutants, atmospheric change and global warming, unwanted fires and explosions, and the incineration of hazardous wastes. Despite vigorous scientific examination for over a century, researchers still lack full understanding of many fundamental combustion processes.  The list below shows key  topics discussed with reference to many applications in design and engineering of  relevant components. For more information, please visit www.sae.org. 

_Hydrocarbon and alternative fuels

_Distillation curve for fuels and its importance

_Distinction between "overall" A/F and cylinder-based, or local A/F 

_Black-box operation of the "oxygen sensor" and its purposes

_Equivalence ratio and "lambda" _Adiabatic flame temperature and its physical meaning/importance 

_Heating value

 _Combustion efficiency_Equilibrium and chemical kinetics_Concept of "mechanism" of overall reaction

_The nature of (heterogeneous) catalytic reaction on surfaces

_Flame propagation _Laminar burning speed

 _Turbulent flames_Effects of turbulence on flame propagation

 _Effects of residual burned gases (or EGR) on Flame propagation

 _Impact of multiple spark plugs on flame propagation

_Cylinder pressure measurements and its behavior

_Effects of spark timing (advance/retard) on cylinder pressure 

_Mass fraction burned curve & heat release analysis

_Autoignition and Knock in SI engines 

_Physical meaning of "specific heat" 

_Cyclic variability and how it is quantified

_Mixture preparation

_Effects of design and operating conditions on combustion & emission of pollutants

_Diagnostics

_Laser and optical diagnostics for engine research

_Case studies and discussions  

Dr. Chehroudi  acted as a member of the PhD Committee for Dr. Luciano Strafella from Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento,   for  his work titled " A Novel Approach to Initiate Combustion: Performance and Application Potential in Internal Combustion Engines.  Dr. Chehroudi was involved in the progress and direction  of the work and reviewed / commented on the dissertation.  May 4, 2017.

On April 27 to 29, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi along with Senior Design Students and a number of student volunteers participated the  2017 Shell Eco-marathon Americas in Detroit, Michigan. The following is a short report of the events:

This activity was primarily managed and sponsored by the Shell Corporation and co-sponsored by the following companies: Hewlett Packard, Southwest Research Institute, Penske,  Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and Linde. The program was designed to provide a challenging platform for the new generation of young engineers to design, build, test, and drive the world’s ultimate-energy-efficient vehicles. Our primary objective was for students to go through the design process and new product development experience from idea generation to prototype demonstration.

The ATU team consisted of a core of senior design students from the Mechanical Engineering department and other volunteers who dedicated their times. Two female engineers (as drivers) and seven male students were in the team.  Succession planning was at the core of the team design, as such the next year’s project manager was an active member of the team and will carry the torch into the upcoming academic year. The senior design team began working with Dr. Chehroudi around September 2016, shortly after he joined the ATU.   The initial decision to participate in this international student activity was made on or about Fall semester of 2015.  Some components were already designed, manufactured   and handed to the current team.  We would like to thank and commend them for taking the first, but an important, step in the right direction.  The senior design team members were primarily responsible of the progress and design of the remaining components to bring the pieces into a real product, that is, a one-passenger prototype car that operates on gasoline fuel injected into a single-cylinder internal combustion engine.

The road competition in the so-called prototype category started on Saturday, April 29, 2017.  Only cars that passed a very stringent series of tests were allowed to have them on the neighboring streets around the Cobo Arena in downtown Detroit.  The streets were blocked exclusively for this activity.  Attendees were from national and international universities as well as the high schools. There were two general types of attendees. The ones who were participating for the first time, like us; and the those who were coming for the 2nd and 3ed times.  All vehicles must pass the following tests or check points: weight, dimension, slalom, brake, driver visibility, driver exit, driver controls, seat belt, safety, technical design, and fuel/ engine start.  On the official website reporting the tests outcomes one reads, “Before they get on track, vehicles need to pass a series of technical inspections. For some, the only goal is getting through this test. Many never even make it that far.” Indeed, that was the case and a very large majority of the first-timers could not pass what needed to prepare the vehicle to go on the road.  Once we thought things were in good shape, the strategy was to take the car through the check points to see what we needed to fix. It seems that they raised the bar higher this year in terms of safety issues and for good reasons.  The first inspection stage was the review of the technical report, which we passed with a minor modification. The technical inspectors were very stringent on safety aspects of the vehicle operation.  They wanted nothing less than perfection given the constraints. Even the driver’s gloves had to be of the right type and not every fire resistance unit was accepted.  Upfront, students learned from the expert inspectors how critical   safety matters are in what they design and ultimately sell to customers. This entire experience was a highly effective way of addressing what students ought to learn on concept design, new product development, testing, team management, project planning, safety matters, time management,  and more. As we all know, no textbook or lecture can come close to such a unique experience.

One  by one,  the ATU students solved  issues raised by the inspection engineers, harmoniously, creatively,  and professionally right to the last minute.  I have not seen even a small sign or gesture from these students to yield or leave things to destiny.  Out of about 113 checks, the ATU team was eventually able to pass them all until a component failed at the last minute. After passing all the tests, a conical piece connecting the chassis to a front wheel yielded due to what is judged to be as a weakness in the welding.  This piece was previously designed and manufactured by the original team during the previous (2015-16) academic year.  The piece has apparently reached or exceeded its mean-time-to-failure point and it was just about time for this to happen. At that  time, only  about 20 minutes left to the end of the inspection period. I observed one of the unique moments in life when “one-plus-one” surpasses the usual “two” and all of us reached the highest level of cooperation and synergy to fix the problem within the short time left.  By the time we had the piece welded by a professional technician welder it was only a few minutes left and we were not allowed to proceed!  I shared with students that every time when the test did not deliver what Edison was looking for, he, as oppose to others who called it a failure, said he was one step closer to invent the light bulb and proved yet another way it could not be done.  It is known that he needed nearly 100 steps to see the light.  True innovators and great inventors think and act this way  and I saw similar noble  attributes in many of them and the team as a whole.

While students did not have the opportunity to have their vehicle on the track during this year’s marathon, they learned so many precious things that will be instrumental for their future success. I reminded them that life is full of experiments and only when we learn from them is that we truly win the real race in life.  Just being able to attend the competition this far, passing all the inspections, demonstrating that what they designed and built worked (or were able to make it work), are critical and is considered a bright list of great achievements.  Indeed, this year’s ATU Eco-marathon team leveled the road for the next year’s team to ride comfortably and safely. We will have a list of good practices, lessons learned, and measures to be taken as we move into the future.  I admire these students’ determination, persistence, teamwork, bravery, hard work, technical efforts, and resilience.

We could not have been able to even go this far without our students’ teamwork, creativity, collaboration, self-motivation, and the generous ATU administration's support. Thanks.

Bruce Chehroudi, PhD

Professor and Head, Mechanical Engineering Department

Interim Head, Electrical Engineering Department

On Tuesday, November 22, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi was invited to Environment Canada, Quebec, to conduct a three-day presentation.  Dr. Chehroudi has presented his views on the combustion in gasoline-fueled IC Engines and emission of pollutants  combustion efficiency, emission of pollutants, and performance of automotive engines.  Below is a partial list of topics discussed during the presentation. Presentation was followed by a consulting session exploring areas of mutual interest and future collaboration.

-Distillation curve for fuels and its importance

-Distinction between "overall" A/F and cylinder-based, or local A/F

-Black-box operation of the "oxygen sensor" and its purposes

-Equivalence ratio and "lambda"

-Adiabatic flame temperature and its physical meaning/importance

-Heating value

-Combustion efficiency

-Equilibrium and chemical kinetics

-Concept of "mechanism" of overall reaction

-The nature of (heterogeneous) catalytic reaction on surfaces

-Flame propagation

-Laminar burning speed

-Effects of turbulence on flame propagation

-Effects of residual burned gases (or EGR) on Flame propagation

-Impact of multiple spark plugs on flame propagation

-Cylinder pressure measurements and its behavior

-Effects of spark timing (advance/retard) on cylinder pressure

-Mass fraction burned curve & heat release analysis

-Autoignition and Knock in SI engines

-Physical meaning of "specific heat"

-Cyclic variability and how it is quantified 

Dr Chehroudi was invited to conduct a 3-day seminar on in-cylinder processes (liquid atomization, vaporization, mixing, liquid spray-flow interactions, chemically reactive flows, flame-turbulence interactions, pollutants formations, etc) in Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) engines that affect efficiency, performance and tailpipe emission of pollutants. The GDI engine is projected to be the fastest growing market in the next 10 years and will become the dominant internal combustion engine by 2025. EPA's 2025 projection of the fuel economy is at the 54.5 mpg level. Downsizing and turbocharging is one approach towards this level of fuel economy along with host of other combustion strategies such as stratified charge operation (Sept 11-13, 2017). 

Dr. Chehroudi and his collaborators (Professors A. P. Carlucci, A. Ficarella, D. Laforgia, and researcher L. Strafella) from the University of Salento were invited to contribute a chapter in a book titled "Carbon Nanotubes - Recent Progress". The book is edited by M. M. Rahman and A. M. Asiri (ISBN 978-953-51-5707-6). The chapter title is "Potential Application of Photo-Thermal Volumetric Ignition of Carbon Nanotubes in Internal Combustion Engines". It will be published in INTECH Open Science / Open Minds (https://www.intechopen.com/ ). Other topics covered in the book are Nanocomposites, Carbon, Chiral, Charcoal, Carbon based sensors, Nanotubes, Conductors, Metallic tubes, Nano-structural materials, Fibers, Carbon related material, Electrochemistry, Catalysis, Mechanical property, Nanowires, Composites, Percolation, Mediators, 3D materials, Modelling, Energy conversion, Splitting, 3rd generation, Solar cells, Supercapacitor, Fabrication, Nanocarbon, Graphitic carbon, Core-shell study, Nanotechnology, Electronic properly, Conductivity, Nanobuds, Peapod, Silicon (Aug 27, 2017). 

Dr. Chehroudi has been collaborating with professors and researchers at the Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, Italy, which led to a recent acceptance of a publication in the Journal of Fuels (Elsevier) in a special Volume for Dual-Fuel and Fuel Additives (coming soon). The work is quiteunique, further demonstrating original and pioneering work by Dr Chehroudi in applications of nano-structured materials for ignition and combustion of fuels to achieve light-activated Volumetric ignition of fuel-air mixtures, especially under lean conditions. Collaborators were Prof. Antonio Ficarella, Prof. Antonio Paolo Carlucci, Prof. Domenico Laforgia (former President of the University of Salento), and the PhD Student Dr. Luciano Strafella who did an excellent job in such a difficult research work. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0016236117309079#! (July 12, 2017)

Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) Bonded with Ferrocene Particles as Ignition Agents for Air-Fuel Mixtures

Abstract:

The potentials and characteristics of a new ignition system for air-fuel mixtures are discussed. This ignition method (referred to as photo-thermal ignition) is based on light exposure of Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs), bonded with other nano-Structured Materials (nSMs), (collectively referred here as “nanoignition agent”), using a low-consumption camera flash. Here, ferrocene, an organometallic compound, was used as the nSMs. Results from, and benefits of, this new ignition method are compared with a conventional spark-plug-initiated ignition used in automotive engines.

The main objective of this research is to demonstrate ignition feasibility of mixtures of both gaseous and liquid fuels with air under high pressures using the photo-thermal ignition (PTI) phenomenon. Specifically, the ignition and subsequent combustion characteristics of gaseous air-fuel mixtures at different air-fuel ratios were investigated by means of light exposures of nano-ignition agents (nIAs) after they are mixed with air-fuel mixtures.

Analysis of the acquired data showed that for the range of air-fuel ratios tested, the photo-thermal ignition with a flash lamp resulted in a higher peak chamber pressure when compared to those obtained with a conventional spark ignition system. Heat release rate analysis showed that shorter ignition delays and total combustion durations for the Photo-thermal ignition are achieved. Comparative percent reduction of these values for photo-ignition ranges from 20% to 50% for LPG and methane, whereas values up to 70% were observed for the hydrogen. The positive impact of the photo-thermal ignition appears to be primarily at the ignition delay period of the combustion. With liquid fuels, photo-thermal ignition was capable to ignite mixtures as lean as a relative air-fuel ratio of 2.7 while the spark ignition was incapable to initiate combustion. Additionally, tests with the liquid gasoline injection highlighted that the combustion process with a higher “residence mixing time” exhibited higher peak pressures and shorter ignition delay times.

High-speed camera images were used to capture images of the light emission during the combustion process in visible range, allowing investigation of the ignition processes. In particular, the results showed that the photo-thermal ignition process of the air-fuel mixtures with nano-ignition agents led to a spatially-distributed ignition followed by a faster consumption of the air-fuel mixture with no evidence of any discernible flame front formation or propagation.

On July 10, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi attended the AIAA Propulsion & Energy Forum held in Atlanta, Georgia. He was also a Session Chair for the "Combustion Instability I" in which the following five technical papers were presented. Session Chairs are responsible of review of the original extended abstract submitted and based on that invite for full paper submission.

Numerical Simulation of Thermoacoustic Combustion Instabilities in the Volvo Combustor (E. Gonzalez, Combustion Science & Engineering Inc.)

Quantitative Comparisons Between LES Predictions and Experimental Measurements of Sound Pressure Spectra in a Confined Swirl Combustor (M. Merk, Technical University of Munich, Munic, Germany; R. Gourdron, M. Gatti, C. Mirat, CentraleSupelec, Paris, France; W. Polifke, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany; T. Schuller, CentraleSupelec, Paris, France)

Development of a Novel Approximate Solution to teh Acoustic Wave Equation with ean Gradient and its Application to Predicting Combustion Instabilities in a Dump Combustor (V. Rani, S. Rani, University of Alabama, Hunsville, AL)

Large-Eddy Simulation of Single-Element Gas-Centered Swirl-Coaxial Injectors for Combustion Instability Prediction (C. Umphrey, Sierra Lobo, Inc., Edwards AFB, CA; M. Harvazinski, S. Schumaker, V. Sankaran, Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards AFB, CA)

Time-resolved Single-Element Gas-centered Swirl-Coaxial Injector Simulations for Combustion Stability Prediction (C. Lietz, Sierra Lobo, Inc., Edwards AFB, CA; M. Harvazinski, S. Schumaker, V. Sankaran, Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards, AFB, CA)

On July 10, 2017, Dr Chehroudi as a Senior members of the Propellant and Combustion Technical Committee, attended the evening meeting with the rest of the members. Topics such as management of technical sessions and papers, creation of new technical sessions, Best Paper awards, Student Best Paper, Year-End highlights of technical progress and advances, continuing education, membership, etc.

On July 10, 2017, Dr Chehroudi as a Senior members of the Propellant and Combustion Technical Committee, attended the evening meeting with the rest of the members. Topics such as management of technical sessions and papers, creation of new technical sessions, Best Paper awards, Student Best Paper, Year-End highlights of technical progress and advances, continuing education, membership, etc. 

On May 22 to 24, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi is invited by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) to conduct a seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from Gas Turbine Engines.

Attendees are design engineers, combustion engineers, technical managers, research scientists/engineers, and specialists in the field.

Controlling the emission of pollutants from gas turbine engines, whether they come from aircraft, ground-based energy conversion or mechanical drives, is one of the grand challenges of our time. Design strategies for many gas turbine components, specifically combustors and fuel nozzles, require a thorough understanding of the control of regulated combustion pollutants released into the atmosphere.

This course presents a balanced look at current and future low-emission design strategies for both aircraft and ground-based gas turbine engines. It demonstrated that the formation mechanisms for the regulated pollutants is critical for efficient engineering design strategies and technology development.

The course will over a wide range of topics, including premixed or partially-premixed combustor designs, staging in lean-premixed prevaporized (LPP) mixture and its consequences on designs of the combustor, prevaporization, combustion efficiency, lean stability, auto-ignition, flashback, fuel nozzles, and lean direct injection (LDI).

Operability issues (such as part-load emissions, stability and lean blowout, ignition, thermal managements, pattern factor, combustor pressure losses, combustion oscillations, and alternative fuels) will also be discussed.

Using case studies from manufacturers and technology developers, the class discussion will emphasize the system-level and practical issues that must be addressed in developing different types of gas turbines that emit pollutants at acceptable levels. The course will be especially valuable to those who are new in the field as well as those who wish to increase their understanding of gas turbine emission control strategies. For more information please visit www.asme.org .

On May 15 to 17, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi is invited by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), to conduct a seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from engines.

Attendees are design engineers, combustion engineers, technical managers, research scientists/engineers, and specialists in the field.

Combustion is a key element of many of modem society’s critical technologies. Electric power production, home heating, ground transportation, spacecraft and aircraft propulsion, and materials processing all use combustion to convert chemical energy to thermal energy or propulsive force. Although combustion, which accounts for approximately 70 percent of the world’s energy usage, is vital to our current way of life, it poses great challenges to maintaining a healthy environment. Improved understanding of combustion will help us deal better with the problems of pollutants, atmospheric change and global warming, unwanted fires and explosions, and the incineration of hazardous wastes. Despite vigorous scientific examination for over a century, researchers still lack full understanding of many fundamental combustion processes. The list below shows key topics discussed with reference to many applications in design and engineering of relevant components. For more information, please visit www.sae.org.

_Hydrocarbon and alternative fuels

_Distillation curve for fuels and its importance

_Distinction between "overall" A/F and cylinder-based, or local A/F

_Black-box operation of the "oxygen sensor" and its purposes

_Equivalence ratio and "lambda" _Adiabatic flame temperature and its physical meaning/importance

_Heating value

_Combustion efficiency

_Equilibrium and chemical kinetics

_Concept of "mechanism" of overall reaction

_The nature of (heterogeneous) catalytic reaction on surfaces

_Flame propagation

_Laminar burning speed

_Turbulent flames

_Effects of turbulence on flame propagation

_Effects of residual burned gases (or EGR) on Flame propagation

_Impact of multiple spark plugs on flame propagation

_Cylinder pressure measurements and its behavior

_Effects of spark timing (advance/retard) on cylinder pressure

_Mass fraction burned curve & heat release analysis _Autoignition and Knock in SI engines

_Physical meaning of "specific heat"

_Cyclic variability and how it is quantified

_Mixture preparation

_Effects of design and operating conditions on combustion & emission of pollutants

_Diagnostics

_Laser and optical diagnostics for engine research

_Case studies and discussions 

Dr. Chehroudi acted as a member of the PhD Committee for Dr. Luciano Strafella from Department of Innovation Engineering, University of Salento, for his work titled " A Novel Approach to Initiate Combustion: Performance and Application Potential in Internal Combustion Engines. Dr. Chehroudi was involved in the progress and direction of the work and reviewed / commented on the dissertation. May 4, 2017. 

On March 20- 22, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi was an invited speaker by the Society of Automotive Engineers, to conduct a seminar on Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI) in Troy, Michigan.

This is a highly updated version of the seminar introduced in 2010 which, in view of recent market share of GDI Engines, has become a very popular professional seminar to attend amongst R&D/application engineers, researchers, technical managers, regulators, and policy makers.

The objective of the seminar is to present adequate information on combustion and emission of pollutants for GDI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge in direct injection spark ignition engines. Below is the table of content for this seminar:

Mixture Formation
In-cylinder flow characteristics and GDI combustion
Fuel-air mixing process
Spray-wall interactions
Cold start and wall wetting issues
Combustion Process and Control Strategies
Engine Operating Modes and Fuel Injection Strategies
Early-injection, late-injection, stoichiometric operation
Operating mode transition
Split Injection Strategy
Two-stage, split, and post injection
Combustion characteristics
Homogeneous-charge and stratified-charge combustion
Effects of Engine Operating and Design Parameters on GDI Combustion
Injection and ignition timings
Spray cone angle
EGR
Knock resistance characteristics
Air-assisted versus single-fluid GDI fuel system
Injector, Combustion Chamber, and Intake Valve Deposits
Emissions of Pollutants - Reduction Approaches
Hydrocarbon, NOx and particulate
Fuel Economy
Factors affecting improved fuel economy
Fuel economy versus emissions compromise
Select Gasoline Direct-Injection Engines
Benefits of Turbocharging a GDI engine

On January 11, 2017, Dr. Chehroudi chaired a technical session on Combustion Dynamics during the Science and Technology Forum

and Exposition (SciTech 2017), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) , Grapevine, Texas, Jan 9-13, 2017.

Speakers from Air Force Research Laboratory, Georgia Tech University, University of Cambridge, Sapienza University of Rome, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and Purdue University presented their research.

On November 14-16, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi  will be  an invited speaker by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)  to deliver a 3-day seminar on Effective Management of Research and Development in San Diego, California.

In today's technology-driven global economy, innovation is at the core of the survival-of-the-fittest organization. The innovation process begins with the identification of market needs or technology opportunity and then goes through stages, such as adopting or adapting existing technology that satisfies the identified need or opportunity, inventing when needed, and finally transferring this technology by commercialization or other instrumental means. Effective and efficient R&D management can have profound and determining consequences, considering the key role it plays in the economic health of a nation and the world as a whole, the profitability of a business enterprise, the effectiveness of a technology-based governmental agency, and the enormous investment nations make in R&D activities. Today, the complexity of the technology creates complex organizations in which many disciplines have to be coordinated. It is the manager's primary responsibility to bring components together so they can operate smoothly and harmoniously, each making an optimal contribution to the R&D organization.

On August 8 to 10, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi  was an invited speaker at the  US Army, Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, AL to give a talk on Liquid Atomization, Sprays, and Fuel Injection.

Dr Chehroudi discussed  some of the advances in liquid atomization, sprays and fuel injection and their applications in advanced  small diesel engines.  Dr Chehroudi discussed some of his ideas, particularly the "Interacting-Sprays Injection System" in order to have equal or even better atomization quality while lowering the system weight for small engine applications. The concept of Interacting-Sprays  Injection System was first proposed by Chehroudi's group, something that was inspired by impinging-jets injectors in liquid rocket engines. Mr. Joseph A Gibson, US Army Propulsion Division, Small and Certified Engines Team,  was his host.

This in-house seminar was organized by the Society of automotive Engineers (SAE).

Dr. Chehroudi will be chairing a session on Ignition in Propulsion Systems during the 2016 American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA)  held in Salt Palace Convention Center,  Salt Lake City, Utah, July 25 -  27. The following papers will be presented in this session.

On June 16, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi was an invited speaker at the Kasetsart University (KU), Bangkok, Thailand.  This meeting was kindly organized by Prof. Klanarong Sriroth who is also a distinguished member of the Board of Directors of the Mitr Phol company.  Dr. Chehroudi presented a work on university-industry collaboration on R&D, titled "Corporate-University R&D," to a large number of attendees: Click on the KURDI link. During this visit he has the opportunity and the honor to meet with the President of the university (Dr. Chongrak Wachrinrat), Vice President for Research (Dr. Siree Chaiseri), and Director of the Research and Development Institute (KURDI) (Dr. Thongchai Sunwonsichon).  During this visit he was kindly escorted by Prof. Chinnathan Areeprasert, from the Mechanical Engineering department.

 Dr. Chehroudi has also met the following members of the university community:

Dr. Punpiti Piamsa-nga, Deputy Director for IT & Associate Professor

Dr. Wirat Vanichsriratana, Assistant Dean for Information Systems

Dr. Vejapong Juttijudata, Associate professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Prapot Kunthong, Head of Department of Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Peerayuth Charnsethikul, Dean, School of Engineering

Dr. Tanet Aroonsrisopon, Deputy Head of Mechanical Engineering Department

Dr. Chawalit Kittichaikarn, International Undergraduate Program Director

Dr. Orapin Chienthavom, Vice Dean for Research and International Affairs

Dr. Chaiwat Klampol, Department of Aerospace Engineering

Dr. Wichai Siwakosit, Rail Engineering Program Director

During this visit, Dr Chehroudi  and the Kasetsart University discussed avenues in which they can cooperate on matters related to  Research and Development and industry collaborations.  Some suggestions were made to pursue the matters in the near future.

From June 12 to 15, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi was an invited consultants for the Mitr Phol company in Thailand.  Dr. Chehroudi and Ms. Hooshmand acted as consultants regarding the training and future growth of company's innovation and management of research and development (R&D). This meeting was initiated byProf. Klanarong Sriroth who is also a distinguished member of the Board of Directors of the Mitr Phol company.

Dr. Chehroudi and Ms. Hooshmand also had a great pleasure of meeting  Prof. Dr. Pavinee Chinachoti, President of the FoSTAT(www.fostat.org).

The Mitr Phol company is a privately-owned group of companies, mainly owned by the Vongkusolkit family. It is  now ranked as the world's third largest sugar producer, and the largest producer in Asia. It is Thailand's largest sugar producer and the 2nd largest in China through its joint venture company East Asia Sugar. In addition to Thailand and China, Mitr Phol has operations and investments in Lao PDR, Cambodia, and most recently Australia. Its key business units include sugar, wood substitute materials, and renewable energy.

Dr. Chehroudi had opportunities to meet the following distinguished members of the Mitr Phol:

Mr. Suppapong Sooksangchaya, Vice President, Sugar Farm Technology and Management, Mitr Phol Sugar Corp., Ltd.

Mr. Chusak Vongkusolkit, Chief Operating Officer, China Business Group

Mr. Borwornman Thongkalya, Senior Executive VP, Human Resources and Management Group

Mr. Apiwat Boonthawee, Executive VP, Sugarcane Management (Central Area)

Dr. Sarayuth Saengchan, Senior Executive VP, FinanceMr. Paitoon Praphatharo, Executive VP Sugarcane Management (Northeast Area 2)Mr. Ali Sajjad Dharamsey, Executive VP, International Sales and Molasses Marketing GroupMr. Worrawat Sriyook, VP, Risk Management, Safety Occupational Health and Environment

Dr. Sunisa Chatsurachai, Senior Researcher (Bioinformatics), Research & Development Division, Innovation and Research Center, Mitr Phol Sugarcane Research Center Co., Ltd.

Dr. Sansanalak Rachawong, Senior Manager - Bio-based Chemicals & Energy, Research & Development Division, Innovation and Research Center, Mitr Phol Sugarcane Research Center Co., Ltd.

Mr. Piyanan Tessen, Researcher (Technology Analyst), Mitr Phole Sugarcane Research Center Co., Ltd

Pichai Noonto, Manager, Office of Senior Executive VP, Manufacturing

Krist Kroopasa, Human Resources Manager (Phu Vieng), Human Resources Department, United Farmer & Industry Co., Ltd.

Dr. Jetnapa Techawipharat, Deputy Manager, Corporate Strategy, Mitr Phol Sugar Corp., Ltd.

Suchat Olannaranon, Business Analyst, Mitr Phol Sugar Corp. Ltd.

Mr. Reaz Sheriff, Group Managing Director, Panel Plus Co., Ltd., Mitr Phol Group

On Monday, May  25 - 27, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi was  an invited speaker by the Lubrizol Corporation (R&D Center), to conduct an in-house seminar on Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI), Additives, and Deposit Formations in  Wickliffe, Ohio.

This is  a specially prepared seminar for Lubrizol that is supplemented and enhanced with information on additives and deposit formation issues in injectors, combustion chamber, and valves.

The objective of the seminar was to present adequate information on combustion and emission of pollutants, additives and deposit formation in GDI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for  an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge in direct injection spark ignition engines.

During this visit, Dr. Chehroudi Met with some of the senior members of the engine oil and fuel testing as well as R&D  centers. There were exchanges of information. The ATC and Lubrizol explored avenues for future collaborations in areas of mutual interest.

In 2016, Dr. Chehroudi's paper on applications of Graphene (a nanotechnology product) in fuels and combustion systems has been published  by the  special volume of the CRC Handbook of Graphene Science - Applications and Industrialization, Taylor and Francis.  The title of the article is "Applications of Graphene in Fuel/Propellant Combustion". The set includes contributions from top researchers in the field and a foreword written by two Nobel Laureates in Physics. Below, is the abstract of this work:

Graphene is the strongest material ever studied and can be an efficient substitute for silicon. This six-volume handbook focuses on fabrication methods, nanostructure and atomic arrangement, electrical and optical properties, mechanical and chemical properties, size-dependent properties, and applications and industrialization. There is no other major reference work of this scope on the topic of graphene, which is one of the most researched materials of the twenty-first century. The set includes contributions from top researchers in the field and a foreword written by two Nobel laureates in physics.

Abstract

Use of nanostructured materials, in particular graphene, in combustion and ignition of fuels has recently shown promising results to enhance fuel burn rate and potential for light-activated volumetrically-distributed ignition. For example, addition of functionalized graphene (FG) sheets to nitromethane, has been demonstrated to act as a catalyst and substantially increase the linear burning rate of the fuel. Functionalization of the graphene is considered as a great opportunity for tailor-made material with specific properties of interest. For example, it consists of chemical functional groups on the surface such as epoxides and hydroxides and on the edges of the sheet as hydroxides and carboxylates. These oxygen-containing functionalities bring about catalytic properties for fuel decomposition and other intermediate fragments during the fuel oxidation process. The defect structures in the FG sheets have also been shown to act as active sites. Such augmented fuel thermal decomposition and its derivatives have been verified through use of molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. FG sheets are easily dispersible in many hydrocarbon fuels and propellants with no need for surfactants and may also offer a substantially higher surface area than other nanostructured materials such as metal oxides and carbon nanotubes. Also, because FG is entirely oxidized in high temperature combustion zones with virtually no additional residues other than the common combustion products, it can be viewed as a fuel supplement, contributing towards the energy density. In this paper, applications of the graphene oxides and FG sheets in ignition and combustion of fuels are briefly reviewed, highlighting potentials and future prospects of these materials.

• Table of Contents

• BIOMATERIAL

  • Design and Applications of Graphene- and Biomolecule-Based Nanosensors and Nanodevices [Ke Xu, Preeti Pratap, Mitra Dutta, and Michael Stroscio]

  • Graphene-Based DNA Sensors [Hatef Sadeghi]

  • Antimicrobial Perspectives for Graphene-Based Nanomaterials [Archana Ramchandra Deokar, Madhulika Sinha, Ganesh Gollavelli, and Yong-Chien Ling]

  • Biomedical Applications of Graphene [Maria Caffo, Lucia Merlo, Daniele Marino, and Gerardo Caruso]

  • Graphene Biodevices [Xiaochen Dong, Beibei Zhan, and Wei Huang]

  • Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of Graphene Nanosheets [Montree Sawangphruk]

  • Applications of Graphene in Biosensing [P. Nikolelis, Z. H. Ibupoto, G.-P. Nikoleli, and M. Willander]

  • Graphene-Based Biosensor Technologies [Arzum Erdem, Ece Eksin, and Mihrican Muti]

  • Graphene-Based Laser Desorption/Ionization Mass Spectrometry for Bioanalytical Applications [Suresh Kumar Kailasa, Hui-Fen Wu, and Jigneshkumar V. Rohit]

  • Richness of Graphene-Based Materials in Biomimetic Applications [Bhaskar Garg and Yong-Chien Ling]

• NANOCOMPOSITES

  • Graphene-Based Polymer Nanocomposites [Chatterjee and B. T. T. Chu]

  • Preparation of Cellulose/Graphene Nanocomposites [Nguyen Dang Luong and Jukka Seppälä]

  • Straightforward Routes for the Preparation of Graphene-Based Polymer Nanocomposites [Giulio Malucelli and Alberto Mariani]

  • Polymer Devices with Graphene: Solar Cells and Ultracapacitors [Agnieszka Iwan, Bronislaw Szubzda, and Andrzej Sikora]

  • ELECTRICAL/SENSOR DEVICES

  • Graphene-Based Sensors: Current Status and Future Trends [Goutam Koley, Amol Singh, and Ahsan Uddin]

  • Effect of External Electric Fields on the Multifunctional Applications of Graphene [Zhimin Ao, Qing Jiang, Sean Li, Shixue Dou, and Guoxiu Wang]

  • Impact of the Structural Properties of Graphene on SiC Surfaces on Their Electronic Applications: An Assessment [Jolanta Borysiuk and Jakub Sołtys]

  • Resistive Nonvolatile Memories Based on Graphene-Related Materials: State of the Art [Bondavalli, D. Ihnatov, D. Pribat, and P. Legagneux]

  • Applications of Graphene-Based Materials in Electronic Devices [Gaurav Gupta, Minggang Zeng, Argo Nurbawono, Wen Huang, and Gengchiau Liang]

  • Graphene- and Graphene-Oxide-Based Gas Sensors  [Vladimir Aroutiounian]

• NEW APPLICATIONS

  • Graphene-Based Materials for Fuel Cells: Approaches and Applications [Junrui Li and Haolin Tang]

  • Chemistry and Applications of Supramolecular Graphene Derivatives [Hugo Bares, Jean-Baptiste Verlhac, and Dario M. Bassani]

  • Applications of Graphene in Tissue Engineering [Eoin Murray, Brianna C. Thompson, and Gordon G. Wallace]

  • Graphene in Space [Domingo Aníbal García-Hernández and Franco Cataldo]

  • Graphene Materials in Energy Storage Applications [Grzegorz Lota, Krzysztof Fic, Ilona Acznik, and Katarzyna Lota]

  • Applications of Graphene in Fuel/Propellant Combustion [Bruce Chehroudi]

  • Fabrication of Graphene-Based Porous Materials and Their Applications in Environmental Fields [Zhu-Yin Sui, Ding Zhou, and Bao-Hang Han]

  • New Energy Material: Graphene [Hongying Hou, Xianxi Liu, and Jinhui Peng]

  • Potential Applications of Graphene in Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell [Avijit Ghosh and Anil Verma]

On Monday, March 21-23, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi  has  delivered a 3-day seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from Automotive Engines at  the Society of Automotive Engineers facility in Troy,   Michigan.  Thorough and in-depth understanding of the thermodynamics, gas dynamics,  and  combustion chemistry is at the heart of the intelligent approach towards control of the engine combustion and emission of pollutants. To this end, Dr. Chehroudi's seminar covers key aspects of the combustion of the fuel air mixtures for best fuel economy at the lowest emission of the harmful/regulated pollutants.

Representatives from the following organizations attended the seminar:

_ US Environmental Protection Agency

_ Honda R&D America Inc.

_ Mercedes Benz R&D North America

_ Southwest Research Institute

_ Toyota Technical Center USA, Inc.

_ Kohler Co

_ Mitsubishi Motors R&D of America Inc

_ General Motors

On March 3-9, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi was  an invited speaker by the Society of Automotive Engineers, to conduct two  seminars as listed below. The seminars were held in  the Le Royal Meridian Shanghai Hotel, Shanghai, China.

First,  "Ignition Issues and Their Impacts on  Performance, Efficiency and Emission of Pollutants" in Shanghai, China.

Second, "Gasoline Direct Injection" engines

Updated version of the Ignition seminar was presented to attendees from the following organizations:

_United Automotive Electronic Systems Co. Ltd.

_GBI SOURCING LIMITED

_Blue Crown Technology (Suzhou) Co. Ltd.

_Chang An Ford (Chongqing)

_Shanghai Automotive Industry Company

_Chang An Ford Automotive Company, Ltd Power Train Branch

_Toyota

_Shell (Shanghai) Technology Limited

_SAIC

Engineers and researchers from the following companies attended the Gasoline Direct Injection engine seminar:

_ SAIC Motor Corporation Limited (Passenger Vehicle Co.)

_ Changan Ford Automotive Co. Ltd

_ GBI Sourcing Limited

_ United Automotive Electronic Systems Co. Ltd (Joint Venture Bosch & Zhong-Lian Automotive Electronics Co., Ltd)

_ Exxon Mobile

_ Shell (Shanghai) Technology Limited

On January 25 - 27, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi was  an invited speaker by the Society of Automotive Engineers, to conduct a seminar on Gasoline Direct Injection in Norwalk, California (Auto Partners Building, Cerritos College).

This is a highly updated version of the seminar introduced in 2010 which, in view of recent market share of GDI Engines, has become a very popular professional seminar to attend amongst R&D/application engineers, researchers, technical managers,  regulators, and policy makers.

The objective of the seminar is to present adequate information on combustion and emission of pollutants for GDI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for  an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge in direct injection spark ignition engines. Below is the table of content for this seminar:

• Mixture Formation

• In-cylinder flow characteristics and GDI combustion

• Fuel-air mixing process

• Spray-wall interactions

• Cold start and wall wetting issues

• Combustion Process and Control Strategies

• Engine Operating Modes and Fuel Injection Strategies

• Early-injection, late-injection, stoichiometric operation

• Operating mode transition

• Split Injection Strategy

• Two-stage, split, and post injection

• Combustion characteristics

• Homogeneous-charge and stratified-charge combustion

• Effects of Engine Operating and Design Parameters on GDI Combustion

• Injection and ignition timings

• Spray cone angle

• EGR

• Knock resistance characteristics

• Air-assisted versus single-fluid GDI fuel system

• Injector, Combustion Chamber, and Intake Valve Deposits

• Emissions of Pollutants - Reduction Approaches

• Hydrocarbon, NOx and  particulate

• Fuel Economy

• Factors affecting improved fuel economy

• Fuel economy versus emissions compromise

• Select Gasoline Direct-Injection Engines

• Benefits of Turbocharging a GDI engine

During this visit, Dr. Chehroudi had the pleasure of meeting Ms. Jannet Malig, Director of the Advanced Transportation Technology and Energy Center (ATTE) at the Cerritos College. During  this meeting, avenues for future collaborations have been explored  on areas of mutual interest.  This is an exciting opportunity for the ATC to offer services towards goals and objectives of the ATTE Center. ATC looks forward to such future opportunities with ATTE Center.

On March 27-31, 2016 Dr. Chehroudi is an  Invited Speaker to the EMN Meeting on Carbon Nanostructures, Energy Materials Nanotechnology, Hawaii, USA.  He will deliver a talk titled "Applications of Nanotechnology in Fuel Energy and Propulsion" The abstract of this work is presented below.

The modern advent of nano- science/technology is usually marked with a lecture delivered by the Noble laureate Richard Feynman in 1959 titled “There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. Since then, there have been tremendous progresses in a large number of directions using products manufactured, and information learned, from nanoscale materials. Nano-science is truly a multidisciplinary subject which has penetrated into a large number of other areas/applications such as medicine, pharmaceutical, dentistry, textile, sports, automotive, computers, and energy, to name a few. In this presentation, a select number of applications of knowledge learned at the nanosized range are briefly discussed in the context of fossil fuel production and propulsion. The aim is to demonstrate the great potential of nanostructured materials in petroleum refining industry, contributing towards efficient production of fuels and thereby of different forms of energies. In particular, the catalytic role they play is of paramount importance, especially considering that energy producers are switching to ever-heavier fossil feedstocks (heavy oil, tar sands, shale oil, and coal) while the supply of light petroleum feedstock (high in hydrogen and low in sulfur and nitrogen) is rapidly depleting. Applications of nanostructured materials in naphtha reforming, hydrotreating (or hydrodesulfurization), conversion of syngas (Water-gas shift and Fisher-tropsch), and use of graphene/carbon-nanotubes in ignition, combustion and propulsion are presented.

Click on the image to the right  for the list of  invited presentations and the titles of their research work.

Click on the image below for the details of the Program & Abstracts and to download  the file.

On January 4-8, 2016, Dr. Chehroudi  attended  the SciTech 2016, organized by the  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to chair a session  (Friday, January 8, 2016,  9 am to 12:30 pm) on Rocket and Air Breathing Combustion II.  The conference was held in Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel, San Diego, California, USA.  Presentations will be made from the following organizations:

United Technologies Aerospace Systems

University of CincinnatiAir force Institute of TechnologyAir Force Research LaboratoryInstitute of Combustion Technology for aerospace EngineeringUniversity of StuttgartKassoy Innovative Science Solutions LLCCentral Connecticut State University

Paper Titles:

1. Effect of Nozzle Spacing on NOx Emissions and Lean Operability- 2314538

2. Modeling Fuel Film Cooling on Rocket Engine Walls _ 2317860

3. Numerical Simulations of a Single Injector Gaseous Methane Rocket Combustion Chamber Abstract

4. Formulation of Equations to Describe the Thermomechanical Response of a Gas to Transient, Spatially Resolved Thermal Energy Addition-2320582

5. Performance Characterization of the Busek BGT-X5 Monopropellant Thruster using AF-M315 and Other Proprietary Blends-

6. Study of the Combustion of Beeswax and Beeswax With Aluminum Powder in Hybrid Propellant Rocket Engine_ 2311882 _

Also, as a senior member of the AIAA Propellant & Combustion Technical Committee, Dr. Chehroudi has attended the committee meeting on Monday, January 4, 2016 in which discussions were held on issues pertaining to future technical directions and sessions in AIAA meetings, technical publications, continuing education activities, best paper awards, etc and decisions are made to move forward.

Dr Chehroudi has accepted  a position  as a Professor and Head at the Mechanical Engineering Department  and Interim Head at the  Electrical Engineering Department of the Arkansas Tech University to temporarily help the  department's progress into the future, secure ABET accreditation,  and restructure/strengthen  its graduate program. More information is available at  the following link: https://sites.google.com/site/brucechehroudi/home. 

 On November 3-4, 2015, Dr. Chehroudi has attended the Family Office Forum  held in Dolder Grand  Hotel located in  Zurich, Switzerland. The Dolder Grand Hotel  is a spectacular mountain top location, overlooking the city of Zurich and its stunning lake. During the Forum, Dr. Chehroudi had opportunities to meet and have discussions with fund manager, family office representatives, venture capitalists, biochemists,  invited speakers, and organizers.  These initial discussions are  currently being followed in areas of  mutual interest.

This Forum, was the annual meeting of more than 160 Family Offices from all over the world, a truly global and international gathering of genuine Family Offices held in English.  The Principals or Family Offices  were from at least $150 million of assets (usually much more). These assets were from only one or few families / wealth owners, and the Family Office was working for one or few (not as a solution provider to many 3ed parties). The conference was also a networking event with all-day-long networking, plus 5 parallel streams to choose from.

The Forum was based on (1) years of research with over 100 Single and Multi Family Offices, many UHNWI, plus private banks with UHNWI management, academics, and partners, (2) the precise whishes  and the active support of Family Offices. The agenda was based on the requirements and challenges of Family Offices in their day-to-day business, (3) the long-standing expertise of the partners at Prestel & Partner, in particular with Family Offices. The genuine interests of Family Offices were at the core of the Forum.

The Forum offered all participants a platform to exchange experiences, hear about the latest strategies and discuss them afterwards. It was the ideal environment to nurture important relationships and to meet new interesting contacts.

There were sessions in which invited speakers presented works pertaining to the following topics:

• Governance & NextGen,

• Investment Criteria,

• Asset Management,

• Real Estate, Offshore,

• Oil & Gas, Ships,

• Family Wellbeing,

• Philanthropy,

• collectables,

• International Operations,

• Investing with an ethical mindset,

• Agriculture, Forestry, Infrastructure,

• New Media, Technology, Internet,

• Private Equity,

• M&A and Venture Capital,

• Family Wellbeing and Education,

• Hospitality and Tourism as Investment,

• BioTech and HealthCare

On Monday, September 21, 2015, Dr. Chehroudi  has  delivered a 3-day seminar on Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from Automotive Engines at  the Society of Automotive Engineers facility in Troy,  Michigan.  Thorough and in-depth understanding of the thermodynamics, gas dynamics,  and  combustion chemistry is at the heart of the intelligent approach towards control of the engine combustion and emission of pollutants. To this end, Dr. Chehroudi's seminar covers key aspects of the combustion of the fuel air mixtures for best fuel economy at the lowest emission of the harmful/regulated pollutants.

 The objective of this seminar is to present adequate information on combustion in engine and emission of pollutants for gasoline-fueled SI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge. The presentation style was designed to be "physical and intuitional" than mathematical and concepts are promptly related to applications.

 These are amongst the topics discussed: Fuel and impact of fuel composition, air and volumetric efficiency, application of thermodynamics (energy balance), equilibrium composition, chemical kinetics, auto-ignition, Knock, Homogeneously-Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI),  flame propagation and effects of fuel and engine operating conditions, mass fraction burn and heat release analysis, formation mechanisms for NOx, HC, and CO, alternative fuels, exhaust catalytic treatment of pollutants, advanced diagnostics, effects of engine design and operating conditions on performance and emission of pollutants, and more.

Attendees were from the following organizations:

- Volkswagen

- Honda R&D

- Toyota

- Ford Motors Company de Mexico

- MTD Products Inc

- General Motors Co

- DENSO International America Inc

- Faurecia Exhaust Systems Inc

- Litens Automotive Group

From September 17 to 18, 2015, Dr Chehroudi  visited the  facility of the Armored Auto Group in Pleasanton, California as a consultant. Representatives from the R&D, Marketing, and Test/Engineering departments have attended this technology roadmapping and brainstorming session on a number of areas of strategic importance to Armored Auto Group.  Upon conclusion, Dr. Chehroudi accepted to act as a consultant on areas of mutual interest. Spectrum Brands has purchased the Armored Auto Group.

From October 28 to November 3, 2015, Dr. Chehroudi is invited to the SAE 2015 Energy Savings & Emission Reduction Forum held in Shanghai, China.  He will deliver two seminars on Gasoline Direct Injection engines and Ignition Issues &  Their Impacts on Engine Performance, Efficiency and Emissions.  Topics discussed in these seminars can be found  at the ATC website. More information including that related to registration can be found at the following link: www.saeeser.org. Also, click on the image to the right for viewing the conference brochure.

On November 12-13, 2015, Dr Chehroudi  is an Invited Speaker at the  2015 R&D 100 Awards by the R&D 100 Magazine where the 100 most innovative technologies introduced in the last year are personated.  Dr. Chehroudi  will deliver a presentation entitled "The Power of an R&D Triad: Integrating Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship into an Effective R&D Environment". For more information visit the R&D 100 link at http://www.rd100awards.com/speaker/481.

Innovation is now considered a crucial source of competitive advantage for R&D organizations. Additionally, because innovation is followed by entrepreneurship to secure the technology-market interface, entrepreneurship is also a critical source of competitive advantage. Once creativity is added to the mix of the innovation and entrepreneurship, we have a triad that needs to be combined with effective management strategy to build a framework for a successful R&D organization (or team). In this presentation, attributes associated with each of these three components are described along with ingredients necessary for an effective management strategy. There are also a set of barriers originating from behavioral, organizational culture, corporate policy, strategy and management that tend to slow down or even abort the chain of events from creativity to innovation and finally to entrepreneurship. After an abridged discussion of a list of barriers, particularly internal to the organizations, attributes of innovative organizations are explored and presented.

About the R&D 100 Awards

Widely recognized as the “Oscars of Invention”, the R&D 100 Awards identify and celebrate the top technology products of the year. Past winners have included sophisticated testing equipment, innovative new materials, chemistry breakthroughs, biomedical products, consumer items, and high-energy physics. The R&D 100 Awards spans industry, academia, and government-sponsored research.

View the complete list of 2014 R&D 100 Award winners.

 On Tuesday, July 28, 2015, Dr. Chehroudi attended the Propulsion and Energy Conference, organized by the  American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to chair a session  (Teusday, July 28th, 9 am to 12 pm) on Propellants and Fuels.  The conference will be held in Orlando, Florida, USA.  Presentations have made from the following organizations:  Digital Solid State Propulsion, LLC, Moog, Pennsylvania State University, 

Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, and Texas A&M University.

AIAA-2015-3971 Material Compatibility and Aging Testing for HAN-Based Monopropellants  [K. Gaworski; J. Moore; T. Manship, M. McPherson, S. Williams]

AIAA-2015-3972 Multi-Injector Impinging Jet Studies of Ignition Delay for Hydrogen Peroxide and Gelled Hydrocarbon Fuel Containing Reactive or Catalytic Particles [T. Connell, G. Risha, R. Yetter,; B. Natan]

AIAA-2015-3973 Aging Effects of Composite AP/ HTPB Propellants Containing Nano- Sized Additives [T. Sammet, A. Demko, C. Dillier, E. Petersen]

On Monday, April 20-22, 2015, Dr. Chehroudi  has delivered a 3-day seminar on Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI)  Engines during the SAE  2015 World Congress and Exhibition  at Cobo Hall, Detroit, Michigan. This seminar was  sponsored by the SAE International.  This is a highly updated version of the seminar introduced in 2010 which has become a very popular professional seminar to attend amongst R&D/application engineers, researchers, technical  managers,  regulators, and policy makers.

The objective of the seminar was to present adequate information on combustion and emission of pollutants for GDI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for  an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge in direct injection spark ignition engines. There were heated discussions about the  injector and intake value deposits on  GDI engines and some of the causes and potential remedies were discussed. Representatives from the following companies have attended.

Chevron R&D

Ford Motor Co

Honda R&D

Ricardo

Energy Technology Group

On an invitation by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Dr. Chehroudi has conducted a three-day  seminar on Effective Management of Research and Development Teams and Organizations in Sacramento, California from  April 13 to 15, 2015.

Attendees from automotive, pharmaceutical, and aerospace industries as well as national and international government research organizations have attended this seminar. A Table of Content of the seminar is given here. There were numerous case studies which provided ample opportunities for the highly-educational interaction amongst the attendees, directed by Dr. Chehroudi. Attendees are divided into several teams and  engage in a design a R&D division from a fictitious corporation.  After completion of the design phase, teams discuss and critique each other  to enhance intra-team learning and realize advantages and disadvantages of  their designs. Dr. Chehroudi  also provides his comments.

On Tuesday, March 10, 2015, Dr. Chehroudi was invited to Environment Canada, Ottawa, ON, to conduct a two-day presentation.  Dr. Chehroudi has presented his views pertaining to the effects of gasoline fuel composition, renewable fuels, and additives on combustion efficiency, emission of pollutants, and performance of automotive engines.  Below is a preliminary table of contents of the presentation. Presentation was followed by a consulting session exploring areas 

 of mutual interest and future collaboration.

DAY ONE

• Historical evolution of Reciprocating IC Engines

• Some terminologies

• What is Combustion

•  Fuels

• _Pure hydrocarbon fuels classifications

• _Gasoline fuel / diesel fuel composition analysis

• _Fuel blending components

• _Renewable fuels and their use in gasoline and diesel fuels

• _Understanding fuel distillation

• _What is a fuel vapor pressure and vapor lock?

• _Drivability Index

• _List of some important gasoline ASTM test methods

• _List of Important fuel properties and preliminary descriptions

• Air

• Stoichiometric or theoretical Air/Fuel (A/F) MASS ratio & equivalence ratio

• How can we get A/F by examining the exhaust gases? And why?

• Cylinder-to-cylinder variability

• Understanding 1st law of thermodynamics or Energy Balance

• Adiabatic flame temperature, its meaning and applications

• What is heating value of a fuel?• Chemical equilibrium composition and its comparison with exhaust gases

• Energy balance (1st law) applied in an engine

• Combustion efficiency: definition, meaning, and significance

• Understanding Chemical Kinetics

• Catalytic reaction in the catalyst

• Autoignition and its importance to both gasoline- and diesel-fueled engines

• HCCI Engine: The Net Big Thing

• Knock and impacts of fuel properties on Octane Number (ON) / Cetane number

• Effects of some fuel, design, and operating parameters on ON Requirement (ONR)

• Flame and laminar flame burning speed

• Effects of some additives, fuel composition & other parameters on flame burning speed

• Role of turbulence in engine and its impacts on fuel burning speed

• Cylinder pressure measurement and its analysis as combustion diagnostics

• What is cyclic variability and why it is important?

DAY TWO

• • • Health impacts of engine emissions

    • Emission of major regulated pollutants

    • Hydrocarbon emission mechanisms in SI engines

    • NOx formation in engines and role of EGR

    • Residual burned gas fractions in engines

    • Effects of some parameters on emission & fuel economy

_A/F ratio
_Compression ratio
_Chamber surface-to-volume ratio
_Spark timing
_Injection timing (PFI)
_Number of spark plugs (faster burning)
_Running lean versus EGR
_Valve overlap, timing, and lift
_Cooling system
_Stroke/bore ratio
_Swirl and tumble (Turbulence: faster burning)
_Alternative fuels
_Fuel properties (Distillation properties)
_Fuel Effects on emissions
_Origin, composition, and properties
_Requirements of engine technologies on fuel quality
_Additives
_Influence of gasoline quality on emissions
_Trends in gasoline specifications developments
_H2 addition

On Monday, March 2-4,  2015, Dr. Chehroudi presentd a three-day seminar sponsored by the United States Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE),  Troy, Michigan, on Advances in Combustion and Emission of Pollutants from engines used for automotive industry.

Topics revolved around advanced combustion technologies to simultaneously improve fuel economy and bring down the engine-out emission of regulated pollutants. There has been a series of lectures and discussions to understand the rationale behind these advanced technologies.

On Monday, Jul 28, 2014, Dr Chehroudi's proposal for a new professional seminar on Liquid Atomization, Sprays, and Fuel Injection in Gas Turbine Engines has been approved by the Propellant and Combustion Technical Committee of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA).

Atomization of liquids is at the heart of operations of many of the devices we use on a daily basis. From our shower in the morning (water atomization at the shower head), to liquid-fueled engines in ground transportation (gasoline and diesel engines), to gas turbine in airplanes/power stations and rocket engines. Other areas such as electrostatic car-body spray painting, agricultural crop spraying, ink jet printing, pharmaceutical nebulizers, spray drying, and chemical liquid rockets, are just a few examples of the very wide applications of the liquid spray production technology.

In the aerospace industry, the engine thrust, efficiency, and the emission levels are directly related to the performance of the liquid fuel injector designs. For this reason, R&D activities in this area have intensified in the past two decades in a quest to design and operate efficient and low-emission gas turbine engines.  It is imperative then individuals involved in  research, design, and operation have the requisite knowledge and training to choose intelligent and innovative  approaches when it comes to liquid fuel nozzle and its optimum performance.

This  seminar is about understanding the processes of liquid atomization and spray formation and relating this understanding to fuel injection systems and emission of pollutants  in modern engines. The approach in this course is to build sufficient background through  introduction of a consistent and widely-used terminology in sprays and atomization. Justifications, reasons, and purposes of the liquid atomization and spray formation are discussed along with presentation of different designs of atomizers and nozzles employed in various industries.  Characterization methods of sprays are discussed after the definition and meaning of different averaged liquid droplet diameters are touched. Droplet size measurement devices are covered and examples are shown. Armed with these critical background information, the focus of the course is then  heavily directed to  gas turbine fuel nozzle designs and their performance requirements for optimum engine operation with lowest possible emission of  harmful pollutants.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand and be familiarized with important terminology commonly used in atomization and sprays

• Gain a general physical understanding of the important processes in atomization and spray formation

• Possess adequate background and foundation to educate yourself beyond the depth and topics covered

• Be able to intelligently  judge, adapt, and, transfer technological advances from one discipline to  the other

• Understand effects of  fuel nozzle design and operating conditions on engine performance, combustion and emission of pollutants

• Be able to communicate intelligently with engineers working on fuel nozzle and fuel system design aspects in your company

• Grasp the technology and the logic behind different injector designs

• Gain sufficient knowledge to intelligently contribute to human being's efforts in minimizing emission of pollutants and maximizing efficient usage of earth's energy resources

• Anticipate future trends and technology developments in fuel nozzles

• Learn and appreciate the role the fuel nozzles play in combustion and emission and how it is used to provide guidance in design of low-emission combustion systems

• Effectively contribute to the design of the critical engine components affected by the fuel nozzle performance

Day 1

• Description of the Atomization Process

• Disintegration of the liquid jets

• Disintegration of liquid sheets

• Drop breakup in air flow, turbulent flow, and viscous flow

• Types of Atomizers and their design features

• Spray drop size distribution and measurements

• Drop  and spray evaporation

 Day 2

• Fuel spray in the combustor confines

• Spray flame in gas turbine combustors

• Spray flame stabilization

• Effects of  fuel nozzle design and operating parameters on spray characteristics and combustor performance

• Effects of fuel nozzle design and operating parameters on emission of pollutants

• Matching of Fuel spray with the  combustor

• Fuel nozzles for Lean Direct Injection

• Advanced concepts

As a member of the AIAA Propellant & Combustion Technical Committee, Dr. Chehroudi will be attending the committee meeting on Monday, January 5, 2015 in which discussions will be held on  issues pertaining to technical publications, continuing education, organizing the technical sessions in AIAA conferences, best paper awards, etc and decisions are made.

On Monday, November 24, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi will make a presentation in the 2nd International Conference on Ignition for Gasoline Engines, Berlin, Germany.  The title of his presentation is"Light-Activated Volumetrically-Distributed Ignition of Lean Gaseous Fuel/Air Mixtures for HCCI Engines Using Nanostructured Materials".  The Abstract of this paper is given below:

Strict and precise control of  the autoignition process is at the heart of the HCCI engine operation and  the central technology barrier being addressed here through a hitherto-nonexistent and innovative light-activated volumetrically-distributed ignition technology. Based on the test results so far, this new ignition method is now considered as a potential enabling technology for volumetric and distributed ignition of liquid fuel sprays  as well as  gaseous fuel-air mixtures with the lowest incident power intensity possible. This means remote and spatial ignition of th charge within any desired and adjustable region inside the cylinder defined by the shape of the light from a pulsed light source.  Test results indicated that average intensities in between 10 to 150 W/cm2 are required for ignition of single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). This is a factor of 80 less than anything relevant reported in the literature. Results from a premixed gaseous fuel-air mixture in a cylindrical combustion chamber, comparing a spark plug with the light-activated volumetrically-distributed ignition of SWCNTs, confirmed the author’s  patented original concept and showed  that a truly on-demand activation of the autoignition  process for  the homogeneously-charged compression-ignition (HCCI) engine is feasible.  Faster (but adjustable) fuel-air mixture burn rate reaching up to a factor of 3 has been demonstrated for distributed ignition under lean fuel-air mixture as compared with that of a conventional electric-discharge spark ignition system.  A preliminary single-cylinder engine study tends to suggest feasibility in an operating engine.

Dr. Chehroudi's presentation can be viewed by clicking on the following title: Light-Activated Volumetrically_Distributed Ignition of Lean Gaseous Fuel/Air Mixtures for HCCI Engines

On Monday, October 6, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi delivered a 3-day seminar on Effective Management of  R&D Teams and Organizations, held in Atlanta, Georgia. The seminar was sponsored and organized by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers  (ASME). Attendees were quite diverse  from automotive, oil & gas, aerospace, and pharmaceutical industries.  There have been several  modifications  incorporated this time. Attendees in three groups of 2  or 3  individuals went through an exercise in which they all had to create an new and/or modified R&D division  within their companies with the annual budget of  at least 50 million dollar.  The following components had to be discussed

1. R&D strategy (using the procedure discussed)

   1. -Architecture (where?)

   2. -Processes (how?)

   3. -People (who?)

   4. -Portfolio (what?)

   5. 2. How R&D strategy is integrated with the corporate strategy

   6. 3. Personnel (attributes, recruiting, number, etc)

   7. 4. Budget (> $50 mil)

   8. 5. Ideation process

On Monday, September 8, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi was invited as a consultant to UCI-FRAM Group, Orion Township, Michigan, for an in-house presentation on Gasoline Direct Injection. The pr

esentation was focused on an overview of  the GDI technology and how fast it is evolving, future penetration and substitution of the conventional  multi-port fuel injection system.  During this visit, Dr. Chehroudi met with director of engineering and product design and several senior  managers.  Also, there were discussions as to ATC's  engagement modes in UCI-FRAM Group's future interest entering into the GDI market.

On Monday, August 11, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi has delivered an Invited Presentation  at the Federal Aviation Administration, FAA William J. Hughes Tech Center, Atlantic City International Airport, New Jersey. 

The topics presented were targeted towards the combustion and emission of the next generation of the fuels to be used in the aircraft engines. Dr. Chehroudi was given a tour of the facilities such as  engine research laboratory and fire research and investigation laboratory.  There were several meetings in which Dr. Chehroudi had the opportunity to speak with the director of the laboratory and other key senior personnel.  Avenues for possible future collaborations in areas pertaining to fuels and combustion were explored.

On Monday, July 28, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi attended the AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum and Exposition in Cleveland, Ohio. 

He has also been an invited  Session Chair for the Spray Combustion (PC-04 session) on Monday from 2:30 pm to 6:00 pm.  There have been five presentations from  around the world on  topics such as sub-grid models for liquid fueled turbulent combustion, LES/FMDF on spray flames, experimental study on the characteristics and factors of UDMH single droplet combustion, supercritical pseudo-boiling and its relevance to transcritical injection, aluminum particles in composite propellants, etc. For more details click on the image shown to the right and then click on the Agenda.  The  following researchers  presented  their works:

1430 hrs: AIAA-2014-3569. On The TFNS Sub-Grid Models for Liquid-Fueled Turbulent Combustion. N. Liu, T. Wey, NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH.

1500 hrs: AIAA-2014-3570. Experimental study on the droplet evaporation process and influence factors Y. Ting, Academy of Equipment, Beijing, China.

1530 hrs: AIAA-2014-3571. Supercritical Pseudo-Boiling and its Relevance for Transcritical Injection, D. Banuti, K. Hannemann, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Göttingen, Germany.

1600 hrs: AIAA-2014-3572. Performance Prediction of Apogee Attitude and Orbit Control Thruster for MMH/NTO Hypergolic Bipropellant, Z. Lianbo, X. Xu, Beihang University, Beijing, China.

1630 hrs: AIAA-2014-3573. Agglomeration characteristics of aluminum particles with changing pressure in AP/AN composite propellants, K. Takahashi, S. Sakai, M. Nakagaki, T. Sasaki, T. Kuwahara, Nihon University, Funabashi, Japan; T. Shimada, Japan, Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sagamihara, Japan.

Dr. Chehroudi was an Invited Speaker at the First International Workshop 2HE on “Strategies and Perspectives for Research on Human Health and Environment” hosted at the Universita Del Salento, Lecce, Italy. The workshop is sponsored by the Union Europea (Fondo Europeo di Sviluppo Regionale), PON Ricerca e Competitivita, Ministero dell Istruzione dell Universita e della Ricerca, Ministero della Sviluppo Economico, and the Uniersita del Salento. June 26-27, 2014.

The tiitle of Dr. Chehroudi’s talk was: “Nanotechnology, Graphene, and a Select Number of Applications in Fuel Energy”.

Abstract:

Nano-science (and –technology) refers to understanding (and applications) of material behavior at the 10 to 100 nm range length scale. The modern advent of this science/technology is usually marked with a lecture delivered by the Noble laureate Richard Feynman in 1959 titled “There is Plenty of Room at the Bottom”. Since then, there have been tremendous progresses in a large number of directions using products manufactured, and information learned, from nanoscale materials. Nano-science is truly a multidisciplinary subject which has penetrated into a large number of other areas/applications such as medicine, pharmaceutical, dentistry, textile, sports, automotive, computers, and energy, to name a few. In this talk, a select number of applications of knowledge learned at the nanosized range are briefly discussed in the context of fossil fuel production. The aim is to demonstrate the great potential of nanostructured materials in petroleum refining industry, contributing towards efficient production of fuels and thereby of different forms of energies. In particular, the catalytic role they play is of paramount importance, especially considering that energy producers are switching to ever-heavier fossil feedstocks (heavy oil, tar sands, shale oil, and coal) while the supply of light petroleum feedstock (high in hydrogen and low in sulfur and nitrogen) is rapidly depleting. Applications of nanostructured materials in naphtha reforming, hydrotreating (or hydrodesulfurization), conversion of syngas (Water-gas shift and Fisher-tropsch), and use of graphene/carbon-nanotubes in combustion are presented. The following is the Table of Content of the talk:

•  Nano-science & -technology

• Nanotechnology & energy: some applications

• Nanostructured materials in fuel/propellants

• Metallic nanoparticles

• Carbon nanotubes (CNT)

• Graphene oxide applications in fuels/propellants

• Experimental tools used

• Petroleum Refining

• Cracking

• Naphtha reforming

• hydrocracking

• Hydrotreating

• Conversion of syngas

• Water-gas shift (WGS):                CO + H2O --> CO2 + H2

• Fisher_Tropsch synthesis (FTS): CO + H2    -->  HC  + H2O

• Methanation

• Methanol synthesis

• Conclusions

On July 8-10, 2014 Dr Chehroudi is an invited Session Speaker at the 1st International Symposium on  Energy Challenges and  Mechanics held in  Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. The subject of his talk will be on  the application of nanotechnology in ignition  and combustion of fuels in engines. His talk will be in the Energy Conversion and Fuels session. His talk is titled "Volumetric Ignition Control for HCCI Engines Using Nanostructured materials and Light".  For more details click on the image at right.

On Monday, May 19-21, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi  has delivered a 3-day seminar on Gasoline Direct Injection at the SAE Professional Education Center, Troy, Michigan. This seminar was  sponsored by the SAE International.  This is a highly updated version of the seminar introduced in 2010 which has become a very popular professional seminar to attend amongst R&D/application engineers, researchers, technical managers,  regulators, and policy  makers.

The objective of the seminar was to present adequate information on combustion and emission of pollutants for GDI engines in order to elevate attendee's background knowledge for  an intelligent application and comfortable understanding of the existing body of knowledge in direct injection spark ignition engines.

The following companies had their representatives present during the seminar:

_Lubrizol Corp

_Synerject LLC

_Honda R&D

_BASF Corp

_JE Piston Inc

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi paid an invited visit to the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia.  Dr. Chehroudi was hosted by Prof. Pat  Dr. Chehroudi was hosted by Prof. Pat Kirchen for a tour of the engine research laboratory and other related  test setups. In particular, two projects were highlighted in which natural gas was directy injected into the chamber and pilot ignited by a diesel fuel. The objective of one of the projects was to redesign a single-cylinder engine for  optical access to perform optical diagnostics such as spectroscopic, LDV, PIV, etc.

Dr. Chehroudi also delivered a presentation  titled "Distributed-Ignition Lighter: An Enabling Technology for Controlled Autoignition in HCCI Engines". He has shown some recent results on this novel ignition strategy and discussed the technology roadmap for this ground-breaking invention. A broad range of applications of the phenomenon was also presented and potential future success of each was assessed.

On Monday, March 3, 2014, Dr. Chehroudi delivered a 3-day professional education seminar at the Society of Automotive Engineers Professional Education Center, Troy, Michigan. He presented a comprehensive view of the combustion  in IC engines and ways/means to reduce emission of pollutants while simultaneously improving engine fuel economy. Attendees also had initial discussions on several possible projects in which Dr. Chehroudi could play as a consultant.

Representatives from the following companies attended this seminar:

_Tenneco

_MTD Consumer Products

_Faurecia (Emission Control Technologies)

 GAS TURBINE EMISSION: 

Dr. Chehroudi's  expertise in emission of pollutants on gas turbine engines has been solicited by the American institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) to review a book titled Gas Turbine Emissions, edited by Tim Lieuwen and Vigor Yang, published by the Cambridge University Press. It is to be polished by the AIAA Journal soon in 2014.

Read the 2-page review: Gas Turbine Emissions Review

Download the full review of the Gas Turbine Emission Review from ATC site.

On December 9, 2013, Dr. Chehroudi visited the Chrysler Group LLC at Auburn Hills, Michigan to deliver a 2-day invited seminar on Ignition in Internal Combustion Engines and its impacts on engine combustion, emission , and performance.  During this  seminar Dr. Chehroudi presented the following topics:

_A Short background on combustion in spark ignited (SI) engines

_Ignition fundamentals

_Spark ignition

_Four phases of spark ignition

_Effects of some key parameters

_Alternative ignition methods (Corona, Plasma-jet, Flame-jet, Activated-Radical)

_Diagnostic and control opportunities (Cylinder pressure, A/F ratio, knock, misfire, mass fraction burned, etc)

_Ignition systems for highly-diluted mixtures

_Conclusions

On November 25, 2013, Dr. Chehroudi attended the American Physical Society's 66th Annual Meeting, Division of Fluid Dynamics, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He also chaired a session on Reacting Flows Experiments in which the following research works were presented:

1. Experimental investigation of laboratory fire whirls, by Katherine Hartl and Alexander Smits, from Princeton University.

2. Laser diagnostic mapping of temperature and soot statistics in a 2-m diameter turbulent pool fire, by Sean Kearney, from SANDIA National Laboratory.

3. Experimental investigation of boundary layer flashback in swirl flames, Dominik Ebi and Noel, Clemens.

4. Oscillatory flame reponse in acoustically driven fuel droplet combustion, by Brett Lopez, Cristhian Sevilla, Takeshi Shoji, Ari Ekmekji, Owen Smith, and Ann Karagozian, from UCLA.

5. Similariyu and scaling of turbulent flame speeds for expanding premixed flames, by Fujia Wu, Abhishek Saha, Swetaprovo Chaudhuri, Sheng Yang, and C. K. Law, from Princeton University.

6. Structure and dynamics of a reacting jet in a swirling vitiated crossflow, by Pratikash Panda, Mario Roa, and Robert Lucht, from Purdue University.

7. Construction and characterization of a shock tube for ignition and pollutant formation studies, by Cory Prykull, Robert Dreiker, Marcos Fernandes, Mazen Eldeeh, Ben Akih-Kumgeh, from Syracuse University.

8. Schlieren imaging of chemically-induced flow instabilities during step-growth polymerization, by Patrick Bunton, Michael Rawat, Simone Stewart, Anne De Wit, John Poiman.

For more information see: http://www.apsdfd2013.pitt.edu/  or  http://www.aps.org/units/dfd/meetings/meeting.cfm?name=DFD13 .