“Construction of Non-Equilibrium Hydrodynamic Models for Atmospheric Entry Plasmas” by Marco Panesi, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Speaker: Professor Marco Panesi
Affiliation: Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

Abstract:

High-speed atmospheric entry simulations are complex problems due to their multi-physics and multi-scale nature. Progress in the ability to accurately model these systems has been hindered by the lack of reliable physical and chemical models for collisional and radiative processes. Furthermore, the predictive capabilities of these models are often established by a simple comparison of the model predictions against results from legacy experimental measurements, the accuracy of which is often not well characterized. Substantial progress in the area of computational chemistry, along with increased computational resources, have allowed for the construction of realistic models based on molecular-scale dynamics. I propose to use state-specific collisional radiative models as a powerful tool to derive macroscopic conservation equations, energy exchange terms and chemical production rates for atmospheric entry plasmas. I will cover the key aspects involved in model development, namely: (1) using ab-initio quantum calculations as a powerful tool to construct high-fidelity physics-based models; (2) defining reduced-order models for the simulation of 2D and 3D flows (e.g., coarse-grained modeling); (3) validating physical models and determining the uncertainty in their predictive capabilities, based on the most recent developments in Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) algorithms (e.g., Bayesian inference).

 

Biosketch:

Dr. Marco Panesi has been an Assistant Professor in the Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign since 2012. He received his M.S. degree of Engineering (Aeronautical and Aerospace) in 2003 from the University of Pisa in Italy. In 2009, he received the Ph.D. degree from the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in Belgium for his work on “Physical models for non-equilibrium plasma flow simulations at high speed re-entry conditions”. He completed a post-doc with the PECOS center, one of the five DOE funded PSAAP centers, at the Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences (ICES) at The University Texas at Austin. In 2011 he became a Research Associate at UT Austin. His research activities include the development of high-fidelity models for atmospheric entry plasmas and the application of the Bayesian framework for Uncertainty Quantification, Calibration, and Validation, to chemistry models used in computer simulations of entry vehicles. Dr. Panesi received a Young Investigator Program Award from the AFOSR in 2015.

Date/Time:
Date(s) - Aug 12, 2015
12:00 pm - 1:00 pm

Location:
38-138 Engineering IV
420 Westwood Plaza Los Angeles CA 90095