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Professor Schwartzentruber utilizes particle simulation methods to model non-equilibrium and chemically reacting gas flows. Non-equilibrium flow occurs when the mean-free-path between molecular collisions in a gas is no longer negligible compared to length-scales of interest. Applications include high-altitude hypersonic aerothermodynamics, rocket-plume flows, gas-surface interactions, and at the other end of the scale, micro-electromechanical devices. Professor Schwartzentruber's research focuses on continued algorithm development of the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) particle method. Research also focuses on molecular dynamics (MD) simulation in order to further develop gas-phase and gas-surface models used in DSMC. Finally, special focus is given to the development of multi-scale methods that combine both particle and continuum approaches to accurately and efficiently simulate non-equilibrium flows.

Education

Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan, 2007

M.A.Sc., Aerospace Engineering, University of Toronto, Canada, 2003

B.A.Sc., Engineering Science, University of Toronto, Canada, 2001

 

Professional Background

Professor, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota, 2018-Present

Director of Undergraduate Studies, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, 2017-2019

Russell J. Penrose Faculty Fellow, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota, 2015-2018

Associate Professor, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota, 2014-2018

Assistant Professor, Aerospace Engineering & Mechanics, University of Minnesota, 2008-2013

Visiting Assistant Professor, The von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Belgium, 2011

Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Michigan, 2007

Research Assistant, University of Michigan, 2003-2007

Teaching Assistant and Research Assistant, University of Toronto, Canada, 2001-2003

Design Engineer Intern, Bombardier Aerospace, Toronto, Canada, 1998-1999

Scientific & Professional Societies

Teaching Subjects

• AEM 4203 -- Aerospace Propulsion
• AEM 4295 -- Problems in Fluid Mechanics
• AEM 5251 -- Computational Fluid Mechanics
• AEM 8202 -- Fluid Mechanics II
• AEM 8295 -- Selected Topics in Fluid Mechanics

Honors and Awards

2019: AIAA Associate Fellow

2015: Russel J. Penrose Faculty Fellowship

2015: AIAA Thermophysics Best Student Paper Award

2014: George Taylor Career Development Award

2010: AFOSR Young Investigators Research Program

2007: AIAA Orville & Wilbur Wright Graduate Award

2006: Distinguished Achievement in Aerospace Engineering, University of Michigan

2003: Donald Matheson Springer Fellowship, University of Toronto 

2001: Elvie L. Smith Award (CASI, Pratt & Whitney)

2001: Best Student Paper Award (CASI)

Books

Iain D. Boyd and Thomas E. Schwartzentruber, Nonequilibrium Gas Dynamics and Molecular Simulation, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Jochen Marschall, Matthew MacLean, Paul E. Norman, and Thomas E. Schwartzentruber, Surface Chemistry in Non-Equilibrium Flows, In Hypersonic Nonequilibrium Flows: Fundamentals and Recent Advances, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2015.

Selected Publications

Macdonald, R.L., Grover, M.S., Schwartzentruber, T.E., & Panesi, M. , 2018, Construction of a coarse-grain quasi-classical trajectory method. II. Comparison against the direct molecular simulation method, The Journal of Chemical Physics , (Journal Article) 

Stern, E.C., Poovathingal, S., Nompelis, I., Schwartzentruber, T.E., & Candler, G.V., 2018, Nonequilibrium flow through porous thermal protection materials, Part I: Numerical Methods, Journal of Computational Physics, (Journal Article) 

Singh, N. & Schwartzentruber, T.E., 2018, Non-Equilibrium Internal Energy Distributions During Dissociation, National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 115, No. 1, pp. 47-52, (Journal Article) 

Singh, N. & Schwartzentruber, T. E., 2017, Aerothermodynamic correlations for high-speed flow, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 821, p. 421-439, (Journal Article) 

Schwartzentruber, T.E., Grover, M., and Valentini, P., 2017, Direct Molecular Simulation of Nonequilibrium Dilute Gases, AIAA Journal, (Journal Article) 

 

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