Dr. Jerry Seitzman

Instructor information

Associate Professor

Education
* Ph.D. - Stanford University, High Temperature Gasdynamics Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering,1991
* M.S. - Stanford University, Mechanical Engineering, 1983
* B.S. - University of Texas at Austin, Mechanical Engineering, 1982

Research Interests
My research focuses on the fields of combustion, propulsion, and fluid mechanics, and the development of optical diagnostic techniques and sensors for application to these fields. My students and I have authored more than 70 papers in these areas. Our current research activities include:

* development of optical absorption and emission sensors for active control and health monitoring of combustors in practical devices like turbine engines;
* lean blowout detection sensors for gas turbine combustors;
* combustion of nanoscale metal particles;
* planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) to characterize fuel-air mixing from gaseous and liquid fuels;
* development of laser-induced incandescence (LII) for the in situ measurement of soot in combustors and engine exhausts;
* soot studies in acoustically forced combustors and flames;
* synthetic jets to control fuel-air mixing;
* measurements of fuel condensation in supersonic nozzles;
* oxide residue characterization for aluminized solid propellants; and
* measurements and modeling of near surface combustion processes for understanding plateau burning in bimodal, composite AP/HTPB solid propellants.