Fabrizio Ponti

• Development of an interface for the coupling of the source module (fluid code) and the plume module (PIC code).
• Preliminary design of an experimental set-up for electric propulsion thrusters.
• Design of a code able to automatically build a mesh aligned with the magnetic field in order to reduce numerical diffusion. Such mesh shall be obtained by taking as input a specific set of parameters and shall be aligned with the magnetic field.
• Design of a code able to automatically build a mesh suitable to be used by the source module in OpenFOAM.
• Analysis of the radiative loss effects on the performance of a plasma thruster.
• Simulation of a magnetic nozzle with opensource PIC codes (Starfish,Spis,Xoopic).
• Preliminary design of a thrust balance to estimate the performance of plasma thrusters.

Solid Rocket Boosters

• Simulation of the casting process of a Solid Rocket Booster (openFoam).
• Evaluation of the convective heat exchange on a burning surface (openFoam).
• 1D-unsteady ballistic model to evaluate the combustion chamber pressure evolution of a Solid Rocket Booster (Matlab)

Aerospike

• Evaluation of the thrust generated by an aerospike and its comparison with experimental measurements (openFoam).
• Evaluation of the aerospike thrust under changing ambient and external flow conditions (openFoam).

Gas Turbines

• Adaptation of a turbo-shaft engine to run with Hydrogen fuel.