A Brief Introduction to our Research Group

Group composition: Usually between six to eight doctoral students, three to five research staff and post-doctoral fellows, and some visitors.
Research interests: Combustion, propulsion, energy, alternate fuels, the environment.
Research methodology: Experimental, computational, mathematical analysis.
Goal of mentoring
- As a researcher: Skilled and rigorous in methodologies; ability to identify, formulate, execute, and bring to fruition projects of significant scientific and technological impact; broadly knowledgeable in scientific disciplines and technological interests, effective in written and oral presentations.
- As a scholar: Serious and dedicated in research; sincere and generous in collegial interactions; ethical in conduct.
- As a leader: Broad vision; strong initiative and advocacy; sense of optimism, activism, and community.
Typical doctoral program and career placement
- Period of study: 4 to 5+ years.
- First meeting/journal paper: 2^nd to 3^rd year.
- At graduation: At least two conference presentations and four journal papers.
- Career placement: ~50% academia, ~40% industry; ~10% other.
Current research activities
- Flame dynamics: Flame-front cellular and pulsating instabilities; flame extinction and stabilization; turbulent flames; combustion control.
- Flame chemistry: Experimental studies of flame chemistry at high-pressures and for fuel mixtures; development of detailed and reduce-order reaction mechanisms of fuels oxidation; unified kinetic-thermal theories of flames.
- Two-phase combustion: Dynamics of droplet and jet collision; nano-particle and soot formation, energetic and catalytic nano-particles.
Potential research projects
- Hydrogen economy, combustion, and hazards.
- Combustion of biomass and high-hydrogen content fuels.
- Flame chemistry.
- Mathematical and computational algorithms for mechanism reduction
- Soot chemistry and particulate formation.
- Combustion control.
- Supercritical combustion and waste incineration.
- Combustion synthesis of nano-particles.
- Dynamics of droplet and jet collision.
- Computational simulation of flame dynamics.
Some relevant papers
- Reduced chemistry and facilitated computation: "Towards accommodating realistic fuel chemistry in large-scale computation," by C.K. Law and T.F. Lu, AIAA-2008-0969, 46th Aerospace Sciences Meeting, Reno, NV, Jan. 7-10, 2008.
- Detailed chemistry: "High-pressure laminar flame speeds and kinetic modeling of carbon monoxide/hydrogen combustion," by H.Y. Sun, S.Y. Yang, G. Jomaas, and C.K. Law, Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, Vol. 31, pp. 439-446 (2007).
- Dynamics of droplet collision: "Dynamics of droplet-film collision," by K.L. Pan and C.K. Law, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 587, pp. 1-22 (2007).
- Flame-front instabilities: "On transition to cellularity in expanding spherical flames," by G. Jomaas, C.K. Law, and J.K. Bechtold, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 583, pp. 1-26 (2007).
- Turbulent flames: "The effect of flame structure on soot formation and transport in turbulent nonpremixed flames using direct numerical simulation," by D.O. Lignell, J.H Chen, P.J. Smith, T.F. Lu, and C.K. Law, Combustion and Flame, Vol. 151, pp. 2-8 (2007).
- Leadership & survey article: "Combustion at a crossroads: status and prospects," by C.K. Law, Proceeding of the Combustion Institute, Vol. 31, pp. 1-29 (2007).
- High-pressure combustion: "Propagation, structure, and limit phenomena of laminar flames at elevated pressures," by C. K. Law, Combustion Science and Technology, Vol. 178, pp. 335-360 (2006).