ABSTRACT:

 

Hypersonics is a physics-rich field that spans disciplines, length scales, and time scales. Investigating these physical processes is a challenging endeavor. During typical hypersonic flight conditions, different energy modes (e.g., vibrational, electronic) can be excited, and the flow can be chemically reactive. Each of these, together called thermochemical, can be in non-equilibrium due to the time scales involved. Replicating these flight conditions, especially enthalpy, is challenging in experimental facilities. Facilities either investigate flight-like enthalpy for a short duration (e.g., shock tube) or flight-like testing time for a low enthalpy (e.g., blowdown tunnel), which motivates leveraging computational approaches with experimental data to understand high-speed aerothermodynamics in flight-like conditions. The hypersonic flight regime involves an extremely high level of energy, so a small error in the modeling of the energy processes can result in drastic changes in the vehicle design, which motivates the importance of understanding these mechanisms. However, due to the varying time scales and length scales associated with hypersonics, computational investigations cannot often use the highest fidelity available due to limited computational resources. This seminar will present recent progress in understanding the impact of high-enthalpy, reactive flows using modeling and simulation and experimental collaborations for a spectrum of fidelities that investigate hypersonics at different time scales and length scales. Applications that will be briefly covered include novel thermal management techniques, plasmas, aero-optics, and fluid-structure interactions.

 

BIOGRAPHY:

 

Prof. Kyle Hanquist is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Arizona. He earned his Ph.D. (2017) and M.S.E. (2015) in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan and a B.S.E. (2012) in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Nebraska. His research group is active in the development and application of physical models and computational methods for the simulation of complex phenomena such as high-temperature flows, aerothermodynamics, and material response experienced during hypersonic and reentry flows. Dr. Hanquist is an Associate Fellow of the AIAA and has been funded by a number of government agencies including the Office of Naval Research, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Army Research Office, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Joint Hypersonics Transition Office. He is the recipient of the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2025.