Kheirkhah, Sina

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Research Interests

• Combustion
• Turbulence
• Laser-Based Diagnostics
• Low/Zero Carbon Fuels
• Sprays
• Gas Turbine Engines.

Research Projects

• Thermoacoustics: Thermoacoustics (heat release and pressure) oscillations often arise in combustion equipment, e.g., gas turbine engines. In-phase heat release and pressure oscillations result in a positive net energy transfer to the engine, which causes resonance, and, in extreme cases, engine destruction. Studying dynamics of pressure and heat oscillations allows for understanding the underlying reasons that drives themoacoustic oscillations. This understanding is crucial for development of themroacoustic mitigation technology.
• Turbulent Premixed Combustion: Development of current and next generation gas turbine engine combustors requires computation fluid dynamics efforts, specifically, large eddy simulations. These simulations substantially rely on accurate sub grid scale models that can be obtained from experiments. These models will have to be developed for conditions that replicate real engineering applications. Figure below demonstrates how improving turbulence conditions towards those of realistic engineering applications changes topology of turbulent premixed flames.
• Flame-Vortex Interaction: Turbulence is a complex subject by nature. It is even more complex at the presence of heat release- that is when flames are present. Interaction of turbulent flow with flame fronts simplified to interaction of an individual vortex with a flame surface can provide stepping stones towards understanding and solving the complex problem of turbulent combustion. Studying this interaction allows for development of efficiency functions used in simulation of turbulent flames that are in turn utilized in design of engineering equipment. This project requires combination of several high resolution and/or high speed cameras along with pulsed lasers. Thus, the project is currently performed within measurement campaigns and in collaboration with Professors Fabien Halter (from University of Orleans, France) and Adam Steinberg (from University of Toronto, Canada).