February 14, 2019
Making today's jet engines more efficient benefits airlines, the military and the environment.
For 15 years, the combustion and propulsion research lab of professor of mechanical engineering Mohamed Razi Nalim has been home to breakthroughs in the science behind how future airplane engines and hybrid electric car engines can become more fuel-efficient and keep their internal fire reliably alight.
A major success from this lab came in collaboration with Rolls-Royce in Indianapolis: the wave rotor combustor.
"It can significantly reduce the carbon emissions of aircraft engines and smaller, quick-response gas power plants that enable renewable power generation," Nalim explained. "This is a technology that we believe will revolutionize gas turbine engines in different applications. We have focused on particular challenges in consistent ignition of the mixture of fuel and air."