Lisa Pfefferle

We study intrinsic surface and gas phase reaction and transport mechanisms and their interactions in high temperature chemically-reacting flow systems in order to optimize or stabilize the performance of reactors and combustors. Challenges related to species and particulate measurements in these complex systems have led us to develop novel measurement techniques to produce new insights. Our experimental tools are laboratory-scale reactors and flames equipped with laser-based spectroscopic techniques, infrared spectroscopy, gas chromatography, and mass spectrometry. Our theoretical tools range from asymptotic to large scale reacting flow models and kinetic parameter estimation techniques.