2022-2024 - Dr. Yaofa Li

Dr. Li holding a chip in front of some techology

In this NASA EPSCoR sponsored research, a team at Montana State University (MSU) aims to renew our understanding of heat transfer through porous materials. The multidisciplinary team, formed by Dr. Yaofa Li, Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering, Dr. Ruhul Amin, Professor in Mechanical Engineering and Mr. Mahedi Hassan, graduate student in Mechanical Engineering, is particularly interested in understanding how thermal energy, known as heat, moves through porous materials. Knowledge learnt from this project can potentially help engineers and material scientists to design new porous materials with better insulation properties that can be used in rockets and spacecraft. As spacecraft travel at high speed through the atmosphere, extreme heat is generated. These porous materials are therefore crucial to protecting the equipment and often the crew members onboard. Previous research has shown that there are three ways for any heat to move through a porous material: conduction, convection and radiation. However, the exact contribution of each pathway is still unclear due to the lack of methods to quantify them. In this innovative research, the MSU team took advantage of microfabrication techniques to precisely control the geometry and properties of the porous material, allowing them to accurately isolate the effects of each mechanism, and help to build advanced numerical models to predict the heat transfer process. This project supported graduate and undergraduate research at MSU, helped to developed research infrastructure for thermal testing at MSU, strengthened the thermal science research thrust in the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering department and helped to achieve the educational goals at MSU.