Mechanical and aerospace engineering seminar

Energy Sustainability: A Combustion Perspective

Date and Time: Friday, October 12, 2012, 2:15-3:10, Watson Theatre, Watson Hall

Prof. Suk Ho Chung
Clean Combustion Research Center
King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST)
Thuwal, Saudi Arabia

Abstract:
Combustion is one of the key themes associated with the energy and environmental issues related to air pollution, global warming, and climate change. Worldwide, over 80 percent of energy is consumed through combustion processes for energy conversion from fossil fuels whose depletion is a growing concern. Although alternative energy sources, including renewables, are available, combustion will have an important bearing on sustainability over the next several decades.

One of the near-term solutions for the energy and environment issues is to increase the efficiency of internal combustion engines and reduce emissions. The understanding of combustion science has progressed significantly during the last 30 years thanks to the advances in kinetics modeling, laser-based measurement techniques and supercomputing power.

For further study of combustion phenomena in advanced-concept engines, it is important to clarify autoignition behavior and emission characteristics of soot of fuels. Autoignition is an ignition mode of diesel engines and is an efficiency limiting factor for gasoline engines and a controlling factor for low temperature concept engines and premixed-charge compression ignition (PCCI) engines. Soot formation is one of the most complex phenomena involving gas-phase kinetics, particle inception, surface growth, aerosol dynamics and oxidation involving various chemical species. The seminar will focus on energy/environment issues and some of recent results on autoignition and soot.

Biography
Dr. Suk Ho Chung is Director of the Clean Combustion Research Center and Named Professor of Mechanical Engineering at KAUST since August 2009. He most recently served as a professor in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Seoul National University in Korea. Additionally, he served as Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Director of the Advanced Automotive Research Center.

He has published over 100 articles in refereed international journals. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He served as a Board of Director and International Secretary of the Combustion Institute. His services include Vice President of the Korea Society of Automotive Engineers and the Korea Society of Combustion,
as an editorial board member of Combustion and Flame and as the editor-in-chief of International Journal of Automotive Technology. He earned his doctoral and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Northwestern University, Illinois, in the United States. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from Seoul National University in Korea.

Contact Person: Kathy Datthyn-Madigan, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, 443-4367, kjdatthy@syr.edu