Title: Coming soon
Bio: Chris Dames is Department Chair and Howard Penn Brown Professor of Mechanical Engineering at UC Berkeley, with a joint appointment at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the Materials Science Division. His research focuses on fundamental aspects of the thermal sciences at the nanoscale and other challenging regimes. He earned his PhD from MIT in 2006 under Gang Chen, following a BS and MS (under Arun Majumdar) from UC Berkeley. Prof. Dames’ recognitions include an NSF CAREER Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, Viskanta Fellowship and heat transfer lectureship at Purdue University, and selection to the Faculty Leadership Academy at UC Berkeley.
Title: Smart Buildings and Neighborhoods Enabling a Sustainable Energy Future
Abstract: Residential and commercial buildings account for almost one-third of total global energy consumption worldwide. Recent IEA analysis has suggested that energy intensity in the buildings industry must decrease five times more quickly over the next 10 years than it did in the previous 5 years to reach targets in the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario. To achieve these aggressive goals, significant development and deployment of smart, connected, and efficient buildings and communities are required. Even more, these buildings and communities must synergistically interact in real time with the electric grid to provide demand flexibility that enables a more optimized, resilient, reliable, and affordable energy system. However, because significant energy inequities are persistent throughout the buildings sector, as a science and engineering community, we must prioritize a transition to a sustainable energy future where the benefits, as well as costs, are equitably distributed.
This talk will discuss smart building and neighborhood technologies and solutions that can enable a sustainable energy future for all communities. It will highlight current Department of Energy and national laboratory research, development, and deployment efforts that advance these clean energy goals. The talk will conclude by challenging the scientific community to look through a lens of equity that prioritizes an equitable distribution of benefits and costs for a sustainable energy future for all.
Bio: Dr. Roderick Jackson is the laboratory program manager for buildings research at NREL. He sets the strategic agenda for NREL's buildings portfolio, while working closely with senior laboratory management. The portfolio includes all research, development, and market implementation activities, which aim to improve the energy efficiency of building materials and practices. He also guides discussions with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Building Technologies Office to expand research ranging from grid-interactive efficient buildings to mechanical and thermal properties of building materials. He helps identify industry partnership opportunities to advance building envelope and equipment technologies.
At NREL, Dr. Jackson was recognized as a Distinguished Member of Research Staff. In 2022, he received a Black Engineer of the Year Award (BEYA), recognized with a BEYA Professional Achievement in Government Award.
He is serving a three-year appointment to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) Research Advisory Board, which began in 2021. He has been a member of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers and has received several awards in his career, including the National GEM Consortium Alumni of the Year and Greater Knoxville Business Journal's 40 under 40. In 2022, he joined the board of directors for the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP).
Dr. Jackson came to NREL from Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he was the group manager for Building Envelope Systems Research. He was on the forefront of connected communities research, leading an effort that established Alabama Power’s Smart Neighborhood. Working with Southern Company and DOE, it was the first project in the southeastern United States to connect high-performance homes with a community microgrid, deploying a transactive microgrid approach.
Another of Dr. Jackson's notable industry accomplishments is a result of his role as the technical lead for the Additive Manufacturing Integrated Energy (AMIE) demonstration project at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. With his leadership, AMIE brought together experts from multiple research teams across the lab, 20 partners from industry, and DOE scientists to design, develop, and demonstrate a 3D-printed house that shares power wirelessly with a 3D-printed electric vehicle. The first-of-its-kind research was completed in just nine months.
Title: Role of Thermal and Fluids Technologies in Support of National Security and Energy Applications
Abstract: Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program national laboratory run for the United States Department of Energy. While Sandia's roots hail from the Manhattan Project of the 1940's, the Laboratories have evolved into providing support for a wide variety of national security and energy related areas of interest to the Nation. This talk will review Sandia's history and highlight the role that Sandia plays in the development of state-of-the-art thermal and fluids capabilities that address a variety of engineering applications of national importance, including energy, homeland security, and defense.
Bio: Dr. Hassan is a native of Raleigh, North Carolina. He earned his bachelor's degree in 1988, his master's degree in 1990, and his Doctorate in Aerospace Engineering from North Carolina State University in 1993. He is currently the Director of the Chief Research Office and serves as Sandia's Deputy Chief Research Officer. In this role, Dr. Hassan leads Sandia's research strategy development including the execution of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program and oversees Sandia's external partnership and technology transfer programs. Dr.
Hassan has been employed at Sandia since 1993 and has managed all phases of research, development, and applications work. He has focused predominately on the thermal, fluid, and aero science technology areas helping Sandia to accomplish its national security mission.
Dr. Hassan has served in a variety of positions in research and development (R&D) in the areas of aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics of high-speed flight vehicles, drag reduction for low-speed ground transportation vehicles, and high- velocity oxygen fuel thermal sprays. He has overseen all aspects of engineering sciences R&D and applications work at Sandia. Most notably, he helped support National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in determining the cause of the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003 and was part of the team that shutdown the Deepwater Horizon oil well after the explosion and spill in 2010.
Dr. Hassan is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and serves on the Institute's Board of Trustees as the Immediate Past President (2022-2023). Previously, he served on AIAA's Board as Director and Vice President from 2008-2017, President-Elect from 2019-2020, and President from 2020-2022. He currently serves as the Chair of the AIAA Foundation Board of Trustees. In addition, Dr Hassan has served on several national review boards for the National Academies, NASA, DARPA, and Air Force Office of Scientific Research, and has participated as an external member of the NASA Engineering and Safety Center since 2004. Dr. Hassan currently serves on the North Carolina State University's Engineering Foundation Board and the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Educational Advisory Board and has served on similar boards for New Mexico State University, Texas A&M University, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of New Mexico, and the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was the 2008 recipient of the AIAA Sustained Service Award and a 2017 recipient of North Carolina State University's Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award.
Title: Coupled heat transfer processes of materials in extreme environments
Abstract: The heat transfer processes in materials when subjected to extreme heat fluxes, electromagnetic fields, oxidizing species, and ion irradiation play the critical role in the performance and efficacy in a wide range of materials and technologies, from nano-to-macro scales. In these environments, the large perturbations in energy density imparted on materials lead to coupled thermal transport processes that play a major role in thermal dissipation and management. For example, the high temperatures and power fluxes typical in hypersonic flight and jet engines can lead to coupled radiative and conductive processes that are critical to enhance for leading edge cooling or restrict for thermal barriers of turbine blades, respectively. At surfaces and interfaces, coupled processes also dictate thermal resistances on the nanoscale. As another example, nonequilibrium thermal processes induced by plasma or short pulsed irradiation of materials are critical for manufacturing, catalysis and material synthesis.
Clearly, coupled thermal transport processes dictate the thermal transport of materials ranging from nano-to-macro scales in extreme environments. In this talk, I will discuss our recent research efforts in developing experimental metrologies to measure the heat transfer processes of materials and across interfaces when subjected to thermal and environmental fluxes typical in extreme environments, from nanoscales to macroscales and picoseconds to seconds. I will focus on the following directions:
-Measuring the thermal conductivity and emissivity of materials up through their melting point: Derived from our recently developed Steady-State Thermoreflectance (SSTR) technique, we have developed a method to simultaneously measure the thermal conductivity, hemispherical emissivity and melting temperature of materials up to 4,000 K. We demonstrate this on W and Mo standards, and extend these measurements to a novel high entropy carbide of interest for hypersonic applications, demonstrating the near-record setting melting temperature of this high entropy ceramic.
-Thermal transport at surfaces during plasma irradiation and “plasma cooling”: Using thermoreflectance-based metrologies, we measure the temperature change on the surface of a metal irradiated with a plasma flux. The complex plasma environment consisting of high energy photons, ions, and neutrals leads to a transiently varying source of energy during the plasma irradiation. We show the possibility of “plasma cooling”, in which the initial flux of energy delivered by a plasma, which is primarily photonic, leads to a transient evaporative cooling-like effect that results in a transient temperature drop at a surface. This cooling effect is followed by subsequent heating when the sluggish heavy particles in the plasma impart their energy to the material.
-Electron-phonon nonequilibrium at interfaces for mid-IR plasmonics and polaritonics: Ultrafast laser pulses give rise to extreme conditions of nonequilibrium between the electrons and phonons in a material, often resulting in thousands of degrees in the temperature difference between these two thermal systems. At interfaces, differences in photon-electron-phonon coupling can lead to the emergence of a novel process, “Ballistic Thermal Injection” (BTI), in which nonequilibrium electrons can deposit their excess energy across an interface without the net flow of charge. We show that BTI can be used to unidirectionally control heat flow across interfaces (i.e., a transient thermal diode effect), and lead to thermally driven control of plasmon and phonon-polariton absorption in the mid-IR, paving the wave for novel method to control mid-IR responses of materials with heat.
Bio: Patrick E. Hopkins is a Professor in Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering and the Department of Physics. Patrick received his Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Virginia in 2008 under the mentorship of Professor Pamela Norris. After his Ph.D., Patrick was one of two researchers in the nation to receive a Truman Fellowship from Sandia National Laboratories in 2008, working under the mentorship of Dr. Leslie Phinney. In 2011, Patrick returned to the University of Virginia and joined the faculty. Patrick’s current research interest are in energy transport, charge flow, laser-chemical processes and photonic interactions with condensed matter, soft materials, liquids, vapors and their interfaces. Patrick’s group at the University of Virginia uses various optical thermometry-based experiments to measure the thermal conductivity, thermal boundary conductance, emissivity, thermal accommodation, strain propagation and sound speed, and coupled electron, phonon, and photon mechanisms in a wide array of bulk materials and nanosystems. In 2021, Patrick co-founded Laser Thermal, Inc., a company based in Charlottesville Virginia that is commercializing thermal conductivity measurement systems that provide non-contact, automated metrologies for thermal properties of thin films, coatings and bulk materials.
In the general fields of nanoscale heat transfer, laser interactions with matter, and energy transport, storage and capture, Patrick has authored or co-authored over 285 technical papers (peer reviewed) and been awarded 5 patents focused on materials, energy and laser metrology for measuring thermal properties. Patrick has been recognized for his accomplishments in these fields via AFOSR and ONR Young Investigator Awards, the ASME Bergles-Rohsenhow Young Investigator Award in Heat Transfer, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineering (PECASE). Patrick is a fellow of ASME and was recently awarded the ASME Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award. During 2021-2022, Patrick was awarded a Humboldt Fellowship to work on laser thermometry of materials in extreme environments at the Joint Research Center in Karlsruhe, Germany.
Title: Coming soon
Bio: Ankur Jain is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Texas, Arlington. His research interests include energy conversion in Li-ion batteries, additive manufacturing, electrochemistry and theoretical heat/mass transfer. He has published 118 journal papers, and given over 62 invited talks, seminars and tutorials. His research has helped better understand key thermal transport processes in battery materials and during polymer additive manufacturing. He has also helped develop new analytical techniques for heat/mass diffusion and convection problems, including the concept of imaginary eigenvalues in certain multilayer problems. He received the UT Arlington President's Award for Excellence in Teaching (2022), UT Arlington College of Engineering Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award (2018), UT Arlington College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Award (2017), NSF CAREER Award (2016) and the ASME EPP Division Young Engineer of the Year Award (2013). He received his Ph.D. (2007) and M.S. (2003) in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, where he received the Stanford Graduate Fellowship, and B.Tech. (2001) in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with top honors.
Title: Thermal management of electric machines for Sustainable Green Transportation
Bio: Dr. Satish Kumar is currently a Professor at George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering at Georgia Tech. Prior to joining Georgia Tech in 2009 as an Assistant Professor, he worked at IBM Corporation, where he was responsible for the thermal management of electronic devices. Kumar received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering and M.S. degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette in 2007; and B.Tech. degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati in 2001. His research interests include electro-thermal transport study in electronic devices and materials, e.g., wide band-gap devices, electric motors, etc. He is the author or co-author of over 150 journal or conference publications. Dr. Kumar is an ASME Fellow and recipient of the 2005 Purdue Research Foundation Fellowship, 2012 Summer Faculty Fellow from Air Force Research Lab, 2014 Sigma Xi Young Faculty Award, 2014 DARPA Young Faculty Award, 2017 Woodruff Faculty Fellow, and 2020 ASME K-16 Clock Award.
Title: Next Generation Heat Exchangers for Sustainable Decarbonization/Electrification of Energy Conversion Systems
Abstract: Heat exchangers are critical to efficient thermal energy exchange in numerous industrial applications and everyday life, with significant applications in building energy systems, transportation, petrochemical processing, electricity generation, waste heat recovery, among others. Meanwhile, the urgent need for substantial reducing/elimination of CO2 and other greenhouse gases is now a global high priority across industries and at all levels. Decarbonization of energy conversion systems through technologies such as energy efficiency, electrification, renewable energy and/or carbon neutral fuels requires novel technologies that may not exist today. Of particular interest are heat exchangers that are light and compact offering reduction of size, weight, and power consumption, and ultimately the cost (SWAP-C) for wide-spread next-generation high efficiency and light energy conversion systems. This presentation will offer a review of recent progress, a vision on future needs for select key energy conversion processes, and the respective research gaps, challenges, and opportunities.
Bio: MICHAEL OHADI is the Minta Martin Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. Ohadi's research has involved active and passive process intensification of fluid/thermal processes utilizing multi-scale design optimization, materials, and manufacturing techniques. In 1991 Prof. Ohadi co-founded the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) to advance innovative solutions in support of energy efficiency and carbon emission reduction. For more than 25 years he has led an industrial consortium in Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification techniques within the CEEE, with member companies from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. From 2016 to 2020, Ohadi served as Program Director (PD) at the U.S. Department of Energy, Advanced Research Project Agency-energy (ARPAE) where he led the development of programs in advanced heat exchangers and energy conversion systems, and lightweight and ultra-efficient electric motors, drives, and associated thermal management systems. Prof. Ohadi is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He has published more than 300 peer reviewed technical articles in his fields of expertise.