Transportation
We all need to get around -- but so does freight, and food, and even space cargo. To that end, Purdue researchers focus on making engines more efficient in cars and trucks, and perfecting the acoustics of tires and cabin interiors. They explore autonomous vehicles, and how they can actually make the roads safer. They work with aircraft companies to develop the next generation of jet engines. And they investigate the infrastructure of roads and systems, lending engineering expertise to one of the most vital industries in the world.
Faculty in Transportation
- Modeling of nonlinear systems
- Structural dynamics and localization
- Flow-induced vibrations
- Impacting systems
- Bifurcations and chaos
- Modeling and Analysis of Thermal Systems
- Heat Pumping, Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Technologies
- High Performance Buildings
- Refrigerant and Lubricant Properties
- Identify interactions and design spaces at the intersection of energy technologies, economics, and decision-making process to minimize the cost of transitioning to new, decarbonized energy systems
- Composites materials design and manufacturing
- Sustainable and recyclable-by-design polymers and composites
- Polymer processing and characterization
- Composites recycling
- Hybrid manufacturing systems
- Multiscale modeling
- Damage mechanics
- Principles of aerial and aquatic locomotion in animals
- Experimental fluid mechanics
- Dynamics
- Control
- Bio-inspired robotics
- Biologically inspired micro aerial vehicles and underwater robots
- Bio-sensing and sensor fusion algorithms
- Vibrations and nonlinear dynamics
- Smart material systems
- Non-pneumatic tires
- Optimization of mechanical systems
- Additive manufacturing
- Laser absorption spectroscopy diagnostics for gas temperature, pressure, velocity, and chemical species
- Laser-induced fluorescence and photophysics
- Non-equilibrium gases and reaction kinetics
- Hypersonic flows, shock waves, and detonation waves
- Combustion and propulsion
- Sustainable energy and environment
- Combustion and turbulent reacting flows
- Combustion and heat transfer in materials
- Biomedical flows and heat transfer
- Global policy research
- Thermal sciences as applied to HVAC&R systems and equipment
- Physics-based and data-driven modeling of dynamical systems
- Control theory, analysis, and design
- Control co-design
- Applications: human-machine teaming, multi-phase thermal-fluid systems, manufacturing processes, vehicle electrification
- Cooperative learning
- Acoustics
- Vibrations
- Active noise and vibration control
- Smart materials
- Intelligent structures
- Sustainable manufacturing
- Environmental life cycle assessment
- Mechanics of multilayered systems
- Adhesion in paints and coatings
- Lightweighting strategies for transportation
- Robotics
- Marine Robotics
- Unmanned Systems
- Energy Autonomy
- Systems Design
- Coordination and Controls
- Application Areas: Advancement of high-speed flow and propulsion systems, including high-enthalpy flow tunnels, rotating detonation engines, ramjets, high-speed gas turbine and combined cycle engines, and bench-scale supersonic flight test rigs
- Fundamental Studies: Experimental investigation and detailed understanding of multiphysics thermal-fluid transport in high-speed, turbulent, and multiphase reacting flow environments
- Measurement Specialties: Development and implementation of ultra-highspeed imaging and spectroscopy for a wide range of temperatures, pressures, fluid phases, flow velocities, chemical species, and physical states.
- Boiling
- Condensation
- Two-phase Flow
- High heat flux
- Thermal management systems
- Cryogenic systems
- Space vehicles
- Lunar and Martian environments
- Microgravity
- Experiments on International Space Station
- Electronic cooling
- Energy storage and conversion (batteries, fuel cells)
- Mesoscale physics and stochastics
- Reactive transport, materials, processing, and microstructure interactions
- Gas turbine combustion
- Internal combustion engines
- Laser-based spectroscopy
- Contact mechanics
- Stresses, fatigue and friction of rolling/sliding
- Micro-mechanics of boundary and mixed lubrication regimes
- Spall initiation and propagation
- Surface science and damage
- Dynamics of ball and rolling element bearings and rotating systems
- Friction induced vibration and squeal in dry contacts
- Friction and wear of dry and lubricated contacts
- Virtual tribology
- Dry and lubricated fretting wear
- MEMS for in-situ monitoring of tribological contacts
- Discrete element modeling
- Design
- Large eddy and direct simulations
- Turbulent Combustion
- Thermoacoustics
- Non-linear acoustics
- Heat-and-mass transfer
- Physical oceanography and limnology
- Numerical methods for complex geometries
- Designing and modeling hydrostatic pumps and motors
- Hydrodynamic pumps and turbines
- Fluid power systems
- Advanced computational and experimental tribological analysis
- Model-based system and control design of commercial vehicle power trains
- Connected and automated commercial vehicles
- Internal combustion engine & after-treatment system design and controls
- Flexible valve actuation in diesel and natural gas engines
- Modeling and simulation of hydraulic systems
- Modeling and testing of pumps and motors for fluid power applications
- Hydraulic valves modeling and testing
- Reduction of noise emissions in fluid power systems
- Two-Phase Flows and Heat Transfer
- High-Heat-Flux Thermal Management Systems for Several Applications, e.g., Outer Space Missions, Electric Vehicles, Ultra-Fast Charging Systems, Electronics Cooling, Avionics, Nuclear Reactors, Metal Manufacturing, Superconductors, Data Centers, etc.
- Gravitational Effects
- Experiments onboard the International Space Station (ISS)
- Two-Phase Flow Instabilities
- Fluid-Structure Interactions & Non-Newtonian Fluids in Biological Systems
- Vehicle Chassis Control Systems
- Vehicle Dynamics
- Autonomous Vehicles
- Human Driver Dynamics
- Adaptive and robust control
- Nonlinear control
- Precision control of mechanical systems
- Vehicle control
- Robotics
- Environment friendly design and life cycle engineering
- Applications of bio-based materials in manufacturing
- Fast and low-cost detection of pathogenic microorganisms
- Biomass thermo-chemical upgrading for liquid and gaseous fuel