$318,000 grant will support research efforts of Department of Defense

Dr. Kristina Lemmer

Dr. Claudia Fajardo

Dr. Kristina Lemmer and Dr. Claudia Fajardo recently were awarded a $318,000 grant to be used in research in labs in the mechanical and aerospace engineering department. The award from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program will be used to purchase equipment that will help understand complex ionization processes, combustion processes and fluid decomposition. The equipment also will be used to educate engineers and scientists in using state-of-the-art laser diagnostic and imaging equipment.

Grants from the Defense University Research Instrumentation Program are used to acquire major equipment that supports current research or develops new research capabilities that support research relevant to the U.S. Department of Defense. At WMU, the funds will be used to purchase two systems -- a tunable dye laser pumped by a solid-state diode laser and an intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) camera. Combined, the systems will give WMU the capability to perform a variety of optical diagnostic techniques including high-resolution absorption, laser-induced fluorescence, multi-photon spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy.

“This is a significant grant for research that can have a far-reaching impact on some of the initiatives of the Department of Defense,” said Dr. Koorosh Naghshineh, chair of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. “The work of Dr. Fajardo and Dr. Lemmer exemplifies the kind of cutting-edge research we are doing here at the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences.”

The equipment primarily will be used to study the ionization processes for alternative propellants used in electric propulsion systems in the Aerospace Laboratory for Plasma Experiments, run by Lemmer, assistant professor of aerospace engineering. The system will also provide the means to study non-thermal plasma interactions with surfaces. Additionally, Lemmer and Fajardo will use the system to study plasma-enhanced combustion, and ignition and combustion stability of lean mixtures will be studied in Fajardo’s Combustion and Flow Research Laboratory.