Author: Mary Stevens

Xiucheng (Sheldon) Zhu
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics 
The story is about the final successful experiments after two weeks happened in 2014 summer. I was doing spark ignition of propane in CV. It was the first time we test with propane mixture. We only had experience with methane before that. We need to prepare fuel mixture (usually 800 bar in a 10 L mixing vessel) before testing and put the mixture into CV for ignition. The mixture preparation could take up to 1 hour. After making a new propane mixture, the first several ignitions were failed, then we got ignition. However, the peak pressure after combustion kept increasing which indicates the mixture composition were varying. We checked the literature, some say that it is due to the stratification of the mixture, some say that there is no stratification at all. For about two weeks, we didn’t get any normal combustion events as expected. We tried almost every method we could think of. Finally, Tejas and I tried

to make less mixture (about 400 bar in a 10 L mixing vessel) and moved the mixing vessel piston up and down to help mix the mixture better. It was very a simple solution, but it did work. We got consistent combustion with this method, and we confirmed the stratification issue of propane mixture. That was the moment, we kept our fingers crossed, and felt vast joy. It feels like that you walked in the dark for a long journal and finally reach your destination. After that, we were keeping improving the mixing procedure by changing filling orders.

Kishan Bellur
Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics

I’m a PhD candidate in Mechanical Engineering-Engineering Mechanics at Michigan Technological University working with Jeffrey Allen in the microfluidics and interfacial transport lab. After graduating with a bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from Milwaukee School of Engineering in 2013, I decided to work in industry until I secured admission into a graduate program of my choice. In a few months, I was accepted at Michigan Tech and I started graduate school shortly after. I first met my adviser in my second semester and he talked to me about a research opportunity in cryogenic propellant (rocket fuel) evaporation and condensation and thus began my 4 year-long research career.

The primary motivation for my work thus far is rocket fuel management in space. Commonly used fuels, liquid hydrogen and liquid methane, are stored in metallic containers at temperatures as low as -260° C. The liquid fuel vaporizes with even minute amounts of heat, and results in a liquid-vapor mixture. This increases the pressure in the container, requiring ventilation to avoid over-pressurization, resulting in significant fuel loss. Fuel storage/management is one of the limiting factors to long term space missions. My dissertation focuses on novel methods to visualize, investigate, and predict the behavior of these fuels and enable long term manned space travel.

I am grateful for the finishing fellowship awarded by the Graduate School. There is no doubt that the support provided will someday result in “a giant leap for mankind”.