FREDERICK A. COSTELLO
Consulting Engineer fac @ facinc.com
Dr. Costello's combination of industrial experience for a wide range of companies and academic experience in teaching and research gives him a practical approach to engineering, with a solid basis and facility with the theoretical underpinnings.
Education
At GE, supervised and technically reviewed the work of 15-engineer group responsible for developing experimental and analytical methods for predicting aerodynamic heating and heat transfer to missiles and re-entering spacecraft. Personally developed prediction methods for base heating and for effects of mass injection in boundary layer. Led development of base-heating prediction technique using numerical solution to Navier-Stokes equations. Electronic Equipment Packaging: For TRW, analyzed and modified thermal design of over 30 electronic packages for extensive field instrumentation and data acquisition system. Packages were highly compact, with mulitple boards. Also for TRW, developed computational-fluid-dynamic model of flow and heat transfer in complex natural-convection cooling geometries, both interior and exterior to enclosure, as needed to evaluate design alternatives. Conducted laboratory test of units, verifying theoretical predictions. For various clients, designed temperature-control systems for space and ground electronics packages and computed part and junction temperatures. Ground systems included forced and natural convection, rack and desk mounted. Many systems used multi-chip modules. Some used ceramic boards. For Perkin Elmer, was responsible for thermal design of NIR, a industrial instrument requiring temperature control to within 0.1 C. Work included specifying requirements and simulating performance of feedback-control system. Under SVG contract, designed and analyzed precision (0.1 C) thermal-control system for advanced, small-feature, microchip-manufacturing machine. For FAC, Inc., developed, through analysis and experiment, new natural-convection fin design that provides the maximum heat transfer per unit volume. For TRW solved noise-generation and transmission problems in forced-convection cooling systems. For NASA built and tested single- and two-phase cooling systems using water and refrigerants, including ammonia and non-azeotropic fluids. For Perkin Elmer, computed stresses in enclosures and boards.Energy Conservation and Alternative-Energy Systems: Evaluated existing and new HVAC systems for residential and commercial buildings for Gas Research Institute, using DOE-2 HVAC simula-tion program. Modified DOE-2 to accept unitized heat pumps. Also for GRI, developed simulation models of advanced desiccant air-conditioning systems; compared technologies. Wrote the technical portions of Dept of Energy's Emergency Building Temperature Regu-lations. Evaluated impact of the Regulations via simulations, site inspections. Settled dispute between MMM Design and GSA on alternative HVAC systems for US Old Post Office Bldg. Evaluated cost/benefits of HVAC system at Cox School in Norfolk. Obtained, analyzed field data from commercial buildings; compared performance to DOE Building Energy Performance Standards. Simulated, evaluated potential heat-pump technologies for GRI. For GSA, simulated, evaluated desiccant cooling system for HUD building in DC. Under DOE contract, deve-loped plan for ASHRAE for analysis of effect of building dynamics on energy consumption. Analyzed for AGA and National Bureau of Standards the utility of the Second Law of Thermodynamics in energy-conserving design. In on-going work, perform detailed, on-site visits to client facilities, evaluate costs and savings of 50 building energy-conservation measures based on VBDD and DOE-2 simulations. Designed and supervised installation of energy-conversation measures on five Milford, Delaware, school buildings. Presented energy-conservation seminars to ITT and to C&P Telephone. Designed and carried out building HVAC inspection system for 3 million sq.ft. of buildings for U.S.Navy, Warminster, Pa; developed replacement/maintenance plan. Energy consultant to 8 architect-engineer companies. For NBS, developed TI-59 VBDD program for residential energy consumption, developed theory for heat-pump frosting, developed analytical model for heat-pump cyclic performance, analyzed utility of microcomputers in energy analyses. For AGA determined cause of anomalous field data on electric heat pumps. For Salt River Project evaluated electrical vs heat-driven air-conditioning systems. Developed and market VBDD program for PC for energy-conservation cost tradeoffs. Solar Heating, Cooling and Power Systems Participated in design of cascaded PV thermal system at Univ of Delaware. At ITC, supervised evaluation of liquid-piston Stir-ling engine for water pumping. Analyzed system performance and market potential for solar-thermal-electric and PV total-energy systems for Sandia Labs. Developed for Dept of Energy's Federal PV Utilization Program, under a support contract with PRC: life-cycle costing procedure; ways of identifying cost-effective applica-tions quickly; system-design procedures; and typical specifications. Presented nationwide seminar in PV system design. Developed highly acclaimed design procedure for stand-alone PV systems based on stochastic insolation model; developed handbook for NASA-Lewis with the procedure. For Solarex: designed fast-erecting and transportable struc-tures; estimated "Solar Breeder" life; presented seminar on PV pumping systems; developed design procedure for PV-driven refrigeration systems. Designed wiring system, main-tenance system for Hughes Aircraft-Solar Power (Exxon) team, including reliability analysis. Simulated, evaluated Diesel/PV/wind hybrids for EER. Design engineer of record (licensed engineer) for 15 kW grid-connected PV systems for U.S. Embassy in Dakar, Senegal, and Lisbon, Portugal. Supervised installation in Lisbon; designed and ran acceptance test. Developed and now market set of PC programs for design and simulation of PV systems.
Designed ten solar heating and cooling projects from concept to construction supervision, including 11,000 sf industrial system in Blue Earth, Minnesota, and heating/cooling commercial system in West Virginia. Supervised evaluation of over 100 potential projects for DOE. Simulated and evaluated over 100 potential projects for Dept of Labor. Tested, evaluated salt-hydrate thermal-energy storage at Univ of Delaware. Developed simulation models for solar total-energy systems for SANDIA. Developed the conceptual design for National Wildlife Federation in Vienna, Virginia, and ten buildings for Dept of Labor nationwide. Designed passive solar library for Air Force, Dover, Del. Designed and tested thermosyphon system for Dept of State. Licensed invention for solar cooling to Honeywell; consulted to Honeywell. Supervised DOE Solar-Process Heat project at ITC. Analyzed solar heating for asphalt and textile industries. Participated in collector design for ITC Solar and Natural Energy Corps. Reduced support structure cost from $8 to $3 per sq.ft. Planning and Policy Analysis: For Univ of Delaware, developed optimization technique for selecting research projects, combining cost/benefits and risk aversion. Team leader and primary engineering analyst to quantify renewable energy resources for Portugal: solar, wind, biomass, ocean, hydro --included on-site inspections. Under DOE contract, taught quantification procedures for use in Korea and Argentina. While at ITC, supervised design and evaluation of biomass energy systems, including plant growth strategies. Developed market-penetration model for solar heating and cooling products (technical performance, supply, demand, economic environment and risk aversion). Provided technical-performance part of a similar study on solar total-energy systems. Supervised market study for worldwide use of photovoltaic systems. Under contract with HBC, forecasted trends in PV industry via engineering and market evaluation of 100 consecutive PV patents.
Affiliations:
Publications:
Over 50 professional publications, including:
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