The Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) Young Investigator Research Program (YIP) has honored Professor Xinyu Zhao as one of just 43 scientists and engineers awarded YIP grants for her research project titled “Pockets in Highly Turbulent Premixed Flames: Physics and Implications on Modeling.” The grant is worth a total of $450,000 over three years and is intended to foster the research of young investigators in science and engineering.
Dr. Zhao’s research aims to understand the underlying physical processes of highly turbulent premixed flames, which impact the efficiency and stability of modern aeronautical engines.
The investigation targets two specific “pockets”: the fresh-mixture pockets on the product side of the flame (“FiP”) and the product pockets on the fresh mixture side of the flame (“PiF”). The existence of these pockets is a distinctive feature of flames within the broken reaction zones, and is hypothesized to contribute to the deviation of the flame statistics from those within the flamelet regimes.
Aiding the current understanding of combustion in aeronautical engines could have far reaching impacts on a number of fields and industries and would be of great benefit to the Air Force. A better understanding of the factors that affect combustion can eventually allow engineers to improve the efficiency of these engines. You can read more about Professor Zhao’s research on her laboratory’s website.