10/1-31/2014

Orlando Ugarte had visited Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, MA, USA.

9/16/2014

Orlando Ugarte has given his proposal defence.

8/3-8/2014

Dr. Akkerman, Berk Demirgok and Orlando Ugarte have attended the 35th International Symposium on Combustion (Sanfrancisco, CA, Aug 3-8 2014)

Dr. Akkerman, Berk Demirgok and Orlando Ugarte have attended the 35th International Symposium on Combustion (Sanfrancisco, CA, Aug 3-8 2014), which is the major periodic (biannual) meeting of the combustion community over the world; last time such a symposium occurred in the U.S. in 2004. Akkerman's group has delivered one oral and five poster presentations at the Symposium. Specifically, Berk Demirgok has given an oral talk entitled "Effect of Thermal Expansion on Flame Propagation in Channels with Nonslip Walls." In this work, the threshold conditions distinguishing the exponential and non-exponential regimes of flame acceleration induced by wall friction in tubes have been were quantified. It is noted that the selection procedure for symposium oral presentations is quite competitive (it is even more competitive than that for journal papers: the symposium acceptance rate is circa 1/3). Consequently, giving a talk at the symposium is a honor not only for students like Berk, but even for senior researchers. We therefore should congratulate Berk with this opportunity, which is an identification of his research skills, hard work and enthusiasm. It is also noted that Berk was the only oral presenter from West Virginia at the Symposium.;

6/22-29/2014

Orlando Ugarte, Berk Demirgok and Ram Chalagalla  have attended the Princeton Combustion Summer school

6/18-20/2014

Dr. Ali Rangwala of Worcester Polytechnic Institute visited our group

Dr. Ali Rangwala, an Associate Professor of Fire Protection Engineering and Mechanical Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). Dr. Rangwala is our subcontractor through the Alpha Foundation project, and the primary purpose of his visit was our collaboration through this project. In addition, Dr. Rangwala gave an invited MAE departmental seminar on 06/19/2014. His talk was entitled  “Flame Propagation in Hybrid Methane - Coal Dust - Air Flames”

June 2014

06/05/2014

04/21/2014

Serdar Billgili joined our group as a GRA (M.S. Candidate)

Dr. Akkerman received a WVU PSCoR grant
Dr. Akkerman received the Spring 2014 WVU Research Corporation’s Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (PSCoR) Grant in the amount of $ 24,900 to develop a scenario of Particulate Flow Fires in Mining and Industrial Accidents”

Dr. Akkerman received a grant from the Alpha Foundation
Dr. Akkerman and Dr. Ali Rangwala of Worcester Polytechnic Institute received $150,000 grant from the Alpha Foundation for the Improvement of Mining Safety  and Health to develop a Gas and Dust Explosion Model    

03/10/2014

Dr. Akkerman received a WVU Senate Research Grant
Dr. Akkerman received the 2014 WVU Senate Research Grant in the amount of $ 18,400 to develop a Computational Platform for Turbulent Combustion and Explosion in Gaseous and Dust Environments

January 2014

Ram Chalagalla joined our group as a GRA/GTA (M.S. Candidate)

12/20/2013

Berk Demirgok has graduated with a MS degree

11/24-11/26/2013

Berk Demirgok and Orlando Ugarte gave talks at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Mechanics inPittsburgh, PA, USA

Our group attended the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society’s Division of Fluid Mechanics (Pittsburgh, PA, USA, Nov 24-26, 2013). Our research was represented by two oral presenations, namely, Berk Demirgok gave a talk entitled “Analytical and Computational Study of Flame Acceleration due to Wall Friction in Combustion Tubes and Channels” , while Orlano Ugarte gave a talk entitled “Acoustic Coupling to Kelvin-Helmholtz Instability at a Discontinuity Layer of Zero and Finite Thickness and Viscosity”

10/13-10/16/2013

Berk Demirgok gave two talks at the 39th Fall Meeting of the Eastern State Section of the Combustion Institute in Clemson, SC, USA

Berk Demirgok represented our group at the 39th Fall Meeting of the Eastern State Section of the Combustion Institute (Clemson, SC, USA, Oct 13-16, 2013), where he have two oral presentations: “Effect of Thermal Expansion on Flame Propagation in Channels with Nonslip Walls: Numerical and Analytical Consideration”, and “Analysis of Ethylene-Oxygen Combustion in Micro-Pipes”

August 2013

Orlando Jesus Ugarte Almeyda joined our group as a GRA (Ph.D. Candidate)

07/14-08/02/2013

Dr. Akkerman visited several universities in India and gave an invited lecture at the International Workshop on Detonation for Propulsion in Taiwan

From July 14th till Aug 2nd, 2013, Dr. Akkerman has undertaken an extensive business trip to India and Taiwan. This multipurpose travel, in particular, included
Visiting (a) Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) (10-days stay), where he had initiated cooperation with Prof. S. Chakravarthy’s group; (b) Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore (2-days stay), where he had renewed his collaboration with Prof. S. Chaudhuri and his colleagues; (c) Taiwanese National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) (2-day stay), where he had promoted his cooperation with Prof. M.H. Wu and his team. In IITM and IISc, Dr. Akkerman gave invited seminars and communicated with numerous researchers, thereby extending the research and personal networking of our group
Dr. Akkerman’s visit to India was supported by the Indian National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD), having branches in Madras/Chennai and Bangalore, through a special program aiming to intensify India-US academic relations. In this respect, his trip aimed not only the extension of his own research network, but also the facilitation of the overall WVU’s interaction with IITM and IISc.

During his trip to Asia, Dr. Akkerman participated in two international conferences (giving invited lectures in both meeting), namely:
a) International Workshop on Detonation for Propulsion, Tainan, Taiwan, July 25th-28th, 2013. Here Dr. Akkerman gave invited lecture was entitled “Combustion Tubes: Various Mechanisms of Flame Acceleration and Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition.”
b) International Workshop on Fire Research, Kanpur, India, July 31st-Aug 1st, 2013. Dr. Akkerman’s invited lecture therein was entitled “Combustion Intensification and Detonation Triggering in Tunnels, Channels and Tubes.”

5/19-5/22/2013

Dr. Akkerman and Berk Demirgok gave three talks at the 8th US National Combustion Meeting at Park City, UT, USA

Dr. Akkerman and Berk Demirgok attended the 8th US National Combustion Meeting (Park City, UT, USA, May 19-22, 2013). Our research was represented by four oral presentations. Specifically, Berk Demirgok gave a talk entitled “Theory of Flame Acceleration in Tubes due to Wall Friction: Intrinsic Limitations and Accuracy”, and Dr. Akkerman gave two talks: “Fast Flame Acceleration and Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition in Smooth and Obstructed Tubes, Channels and Slits” and “Evolution and Morphology of Globally-Spherical and Bubble-Shaped Accelerating Deflagration Fronts: Stability, Dynamics and Possibility of Detonation Triggering”. One more talk, entitled “Stage of Quasi-steady Propagation in Premixed Flame Acceleration in Narrow Channels” was given by our collaborator Dr. Valiev.

04/09/2013

Dr. Akkerman organized a minisymposium “Multi-Discipline Advances in Combustion Tubes”

Dr. Akkerman organized a minisymposium “Multi-Discipline Advances in Combustion Tubes” as a part of the 2013 SIAM International Conference on Numerical Combustion (San Antonio, TX, April 8–10, 2013). Besides, Dr. Akkerman gave a primary overview talk there, entitled “On Flame Acceleration and Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition in Tubes”

January 2013

Berk Demirgok has joined our group as a GRA (MS Candidate)

11/28-11/29/2012

Dr. Akkerman attended the 2nd NETL-RUA Annual Energy and Innovation Conference (Canonsburg, PA, November 28–29, 2012).

09/14/2012

09/13/2012

Dr. Akkerman gave an invited seminar at Sandia National Laboratories

Dr. Akkerman visited Sandia National Laboratories (Livermore, CA, September 14-16, 2012) as an invited speaker (host: Dr. Jacqueline Chen)

Dr. Akkerman gave a talk at the AFOSR Propulsion & Power Program Contractors Meeting
Dr. Akkerman attended the AFOSR Propulsion & Power Program Contractors Meeting (Washington, DC, September 10-14, 2012), where he presented his previous results at Princeton University funded through this program.

08/16/2012

Dr. Akkerman joined WVU as an Assistant Professor of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering