The Aerospace Propulsion and Energy Conversion Systems (APECS) Lab aims to synthesize and demonstrate safe, high-performing alternatives to monomethylhydrazine (MMH), a toxic and volatile compound used as rocket propellant. APECS researchers work to design and characterize chemical structure and reactivity relationships at representative system conditions. APECS facilities include altitude chambers for testing and flight mission support, rocket test stands.

The Purdue Experimental Turbine Aerothermal Laboratory (PETAL) is pioneering the transition to a world of clean propulsion and power generation. The team combines expertise in measurement techniques, experimental testing procedures, theoretical calculations, and computational analysis, with a focus on research and development for turbines and novel thermal-based cycles. PETAL’s experimental facilities can perform both transient and continuous tests suited for precise heat flux, efficiency, and optical measurement techniques to advance turbine aero-thermal-structural engineering.

Research in the Purdue High-Speed Compressor Research Laboratory is targeted toward understanding the effects of blade row interactions on compressor performance and durability in both axial compressors and centrifugal compressors. Steady and unsteady aerothermal measurements acquired in the compressor test facilities highlight flow phenomena that are relevant to the advancement of modern high-performance compressors.

The Son Research Group aims to improve the performance, safety, or toxicity of energetic materials by studying their fundamental characteristics. This includes engineering ingredients, fabricating tailored materials, and characterizing performance using state-of-the-art dynamic experimentation. The team also studies energy topics, advanced batteries, metals as energy carriers, cleaner coal combustion, and hydrogen storage.

The McClain Research team is working to develop the precision use of energetic materials through additive manufacturing. This includes developing complex, multi-material geometries and implementing in-situ monitoring of the manufacturing process to repeatably create high-performance and high-quality additively manufactured energetic materials (AMEMs). This interdisciplinary expertise ranges from formulation development, machine customization, process optimization, in-situ qualification, and characterization of mechanical and combustion properties.

Next-generation propulsion and energy systems require a detailed understanding of highly dynamic, multi-phase, reacting, and high-speed flows over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. The Advanced Diagnostics and Propulsion Research Laboratory specializes in advanced non-intrusive laser- and x-ray-based diagnostics to reveal the in-situ physico-chemical behavior of high-speed and reacting flows within extreme aero-thermal systems.

The Gore Research Group investigates combustion and radiation heat transfer with applications to pollutant reduction, efficiency enhancements, fire safety, and improved fundamental understanding of various combustion phenomena. This research group contributes to fields of combustion, gasification, carbon nanotubes, and hydrogen storage.