Announcements of Opportunity
SURF: Announcements of Opportunity
Below are Announcements of Opportunity posted by Caltech faculty and JPL technical staff for the SURF program. Each AO indicates whether or not it is open to non-Caltech students. If an AO is NOT open to non-Caltech students, please DO NOT contact the mentor. Announcements of Opportunity are posted as they are received. Please check back regularly for new AO submissions!
Remember: This is just one way that you can go about identifying a suitable project and/or mentor. Click here for more tips on finding a mentor. Announcements for external summer programs are listed here.
*Students applying for JPL projects should complete a SURF@JPL application instead of a "regular" SURF application.
*Students pursuing opportunities at JPL must be U.S. citizens or U.S. permanent residents.
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| Project: | Simultaneous velocity and thermal measurement applied to combustion processes | ||||||||
| Disciplines: | Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace | ||||||||
| Mentor: | Joseph Shepherd, Prof., (EAS), joseph.e.shepherd@caltech.edu | ||||||||
| AO Contact: | Dr. Charline Fouchier, charline@caltech.edu | ||||||||
| Background: | Ignition is a key process in combustion which remains poorly understood. Our laboratory has extensively investigated this process following the ASTM-E659 method [1][2]. One of our experimental setup is currently being modified to allow an optical characterization of the phenomenon. The method used by Witkowski et al. [3] for simultaneous velocity and thermal measurements of a flow will be adapted for combustion processes. The technique relies on seeding the flow with phosphor particles, lighting them with a pulsed laser sheet, and recording the scattered light with a high-speed camera. Once correctly processed, the experimental images lead to the velocity field of the flow (method called the Particle Image Velocity or PIV [4]) – and as phosphor particles are thermo-reactive, they also lead to the thermal field (phosphor thermography [5] [6]). Once functional, the method will be a powerful tool to characterize combustion processes. | ||||||||
| Description: | The project aims at developing and validating an experimental method for simultaneous velocity and thermal measurements. A bibliographical review will first be conducted to become familiar with the experimental techniques. The best-fitted phosphor particles (composition, diameter, density) will be selected based on the acquired knowledge. An experimental setup will be designed, and the experimental method will be tested and validated by investigating a turbulent flow around a heated cylinder. At the end of the project, experimental results will be compared with theoretical estimations to validate the method and estimate the associated uncertainties. | ||||||||
| References: |
[1] Martin, C. D., & Shepherd, J. E. (2021). Low temperature autoignition of Jet A and surrogate jet fuel. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 71, 104454. [2] Martin, C.D., Shepherd, J.E. (2020). Autoignition testing of hydrocarbon fuels using the ASTM-E659 method. Galcit report EDL2020-001. [3] Witkowski, D., Rothamer, D. A., Lynch, A., & Belovich, V. (2013). Measurements of the temperature and velocity fields in a free shear flow between a vitiated stream and clean air stream using a Pr: YAG thermographic phosphor. Measurements, 070DI-00321. [4] Raffel, M., Willert, C. E., & Kompenhans, J. (1998). Particle image velocimetry: a practical guide (Vol. 2). Berlin: Springer. [5] Witkowski, D., & Rothamer, D. A. (2019). Scattering referenced aerosol phosphor thermometry. Measurement Science and Technology, 30(4), 044003. [6] Abram, C., Fond, B., & Beyrau, F. (2018). Temperature measurement techniques for gas and liquid flows using thermographic phosphor tracer particles. Progress in energy and combustion science, 64, 93-156. |
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| Student Requirements: |
Background needed: Fundamentals of fluid and thermal sciences, Fundamentals of laser safety (training available). Skills needed: Impeccable laboratory safety discipline, Working knowledge of programming on Matlab or Python. Knowledge goals: Advanced measurement techniques applied on complex flows (PIV and phosphor thermography), Experimental characterization of ignition processes, Image processing. |
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| Programs: |
This AO can be done under the following programs:
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