Andrea's Team

Dr. Andrea Vacca

Maha Assistant Professor
Mechanical Engineering
Agricultural and Biological Engineering
(click here for the Department webpage)

e-mail: avacca@purdue.edu
phone: 1 (765) 430-0081

Short Biography: Born on June, 2nd 1974, in 1999 Andrea Vacca earned his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Parma (Italy) and in 2005 his doctorate in Energy Systems from the University of Florence (Italy). For both degrees he presented theses in the field of Heat Transfer and Gas Turbine Blade Cooling Technology. Before joining Purdue University, Andrea Vacca was Assistant Professor in Fluid Machinery at the University of Parma (Italy), where he was lecturer of Testing Methods in Fluid Machinery and of Fluid Power Systems; at same University he was also teaching assistant of Fluid Machinery and Power Plants.
In 2002 Andrea Vacca started his first research activities in the fluid power field, focusing on the analysis of the phenomena related to the flow through hydrostatic pumps and hydraulic valves through numerical modeling.
At present, all Andrea Vacca’s research activities are related to the fluid power discipline. His main interests concern the analysis, modeling and testing of fluid power systems and of hydraulic components. Research goals are: the improvement of efficiency, the reduction of noise emissions and the increment of system’s controllability. Current research projects are aimed to define new solutions for valve controlled systems for mobile applications and to formulate new designs for external gear pumps and motors.
Andrea Vacca is author of more than 50 papers, most of them published in international conferences or journals.

Graduate Students

Ram Sudarsan

Master Student

e-mail: rdevendr@purdue.edu phone: (765) 714-5103

BS: BITS Pilani, India

Origin: India

September 2010-present

Research Topics:

• External gear machines teeth profile optimization by means of DOE (Design of Experiments).

Timothy Opperwall

Master Student

e-mail: tjopperwall@gmail.com
phone: (616) 826-3166

BS: Calvin College, USA

Origin: Michigan, USA

August 2010-present

Research Topics:

• Development of a noise emission model for external gear machines.
• Optimization of the external gear machines design for noise emission reduction.

Sujan Dhar

PhD Student

e-mail: sdhar@purdue.edu
phone: (765) 543-4317

BS: Birla Inst., India;

MS: SUNY at Buffalo, USA

Origin: India

August 2010-present

Research Topics:

• CFD simulation of flow in lubricating gaps of external gear machines.
• Study the effect of the flow in lubricating gaps on the performance and efficiency of the gear machines.

Davide Cristofori

PhD Student

e-mail: dcristof@purdue.edu
phone: 1 (765) 426-6196

BS, MS: University of Parma

Origin: Italy

March 2010-present

Research Topics

• Oscillation damping in hydraulic lifting machines through adaptive control strategies.
• Proportional valve modeling.
• Proportional magnet modeling.

Visiting Scholars

Junjie Zhou

e-mail: zhou260@purdue.edu
phone: 1 (765) 588-7602

BS: Beijing Institute of Technology, China.

Origin: China

September 2011-present

Research Topics:

• Water hydraulic system modeling
• Noise emission in high pressure water hydraulic

Simone Tondelloni

e-mail: stondell@purdue.edu
phone: 1 (765) 337-6465

BS: University of Parma, Italy.

Origin: Italy

August 2011-present

Research Topics:

• Design and realization of a versatile test-rig for the characterization of hydraulic components and systems.

Past Team Members

Wolfgang Schweiger

e-mail: wschweig@ecn.purdue.edu
phone: 1 (765) 418-7033

BS, MS: Graz University of Technology, Austria. Current PhD Student.

Origin: Austria

April 2011-present

Research Topics:

• Design and optimization of internal gear ring pumps for automotive application

Nicholas W Louis

2011 SURF Student*

e-mail: nlouis@purdue.edu
phone: (630) 701-4090

BS: Purdue University

Origin: Illinois, USA

Research Topics:

Final development of a water-hydraulic test rig to be used as support for teaching activities.

* "Top Research Talk" winner during the SURF Symposium 2011

Kevin Seibert

2011 SURF Student

e-mail: kaseiber@purdue.edu
phone: (832) 647-6663

BS: Purdue University

Origin: USA

Research Topics:

Johan Magnusson

Visiting Scholar

January 2011 - July 2011

e-mail: magnusson@purdue.edu

BS: Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Origin: Sweden

Research Topics:

• CFD simulation of flow in lubricating gaps of external gear machines.
• Study how changes in gap modelling physics influence the simulation results.

Massimo Dall'Asta

Visiting Scholar

October 2010 - March 2011

e-mail: mdallast@purdue.edu

BS: University of Parma

Origin: Italy

Research Topics:

• Water-hydraulic test rig design.
• Characterization of water-hydraulic components.

Alessandro Vassena

Visiting Scholar

March 2010-November 2010

e-mail: avassena@purdue.edu

BS, MS: University of Parma

Origin: Italy

Research Topics:

• Optimization of hydraulic components design by means of DOE (Design of Experiments). Main case study: external gear pumps, spool valves.

Giovanni Campanella

Visiting Scholar

March 2010-November 2010

e-mail: gcampane@purdue.edu

BS, MS: University of Parma

Origin: Italy

Research Topics:

• Study of a hybrid solution for an articulated boom lift.
• Testing of innovative external gear pumps design by means of DOE (Design of Experiments).

Andrew O'Bannon

2010 SURF Student*

e-mail: aobannon@purdue.edu
phone: 1 (317) 414-2897

BS: Purdue University

Origin: Indiana, USA

Research Topics: