AETA Award Lecture:
From Colorful Fluid Dynamics To Certified For Design And Discovery
Dr. Atul Kohli
Principal Technical Fellow of Heat Transfer
Pratt & Whitney
Abstract: With exponential growth in computing capability, the past three decades have seen an ever-increasing application of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in the aircraft-engine industry. Starting with aerodynamic airfoil design of high-performance turbomachinery, the state-of-the-art now includes predictions for cooling, heat transfer, combustion, and multi-phase flows, applied to a wide range of components across the engine for solving challenging problems. In the past three decades, CFD has matured from a tool that generates pretty pictures to a dependable means of certifying designs and enabling engineering innovation.
This talk will present a retrospective of how CFD has impacted performance and durability of turbomachinery in aircraft engines. Examples related to modelling of cooling flows and other applications will be provided to illustrate the significant improvements achieved via validated CFD analyses, use of optimization techniques and most importantly associated experimental data. The interplay of CFD with appropriate validation data through experiments that capture relevant design space, from low-speed wind-tunnels and high-speed cascades, to rotating rigs and engine data, will be highlighted. The CFD journey continues with several challenges requiring fidelity that is still not practical, what does the landscape look like for the next three decades?
Biography: Dr. Atul Kohli is currently Principal Technical Fellow of Heat Transfer focused on developing Analytical Methods in the Aero-Thermal Fluids discipline at Pratt & Whitney (PW). In his more than 27 years at Pratt & Whitney, he has held positions of increasing responsibility within Turbine Aerodynamics, Multi-Disciplinary Optimization, Turbine Durability and Aero-Thermal Systems disciplines. His innovative and sustained efforts to improve analytical modeling of cooling and heat transfer have impacted a broad range of life-limited engine components and developed key technologies for current and future applications in both commercial and military engines.
As Principal Technical Fellow, Atul ensures the thermal discipline at PW remains world-class by driving improvements in design processes and enhancing proficiency of engineers. He has maintained a very strong collaboration with academia and government agencies on technology development throughout his career. As the technical focal point for the P&W Center of Excellence at Penn State University, Atul has led industry-relevant research projects by working closely with students and faculty. His efforts have led to a unique, state-of-the-art turbine testing facility that is heavily supported by government agencies. Atul has more than 30 refereed publications and 15 issued patents with over 30 pending.
For more than 30 years, Atul has been an active contributor to the heat transfer community through ASME’s Turbo Expo conference in different roles as author, reviewer, session organizer, Vanguard Chair, Point Contact and Conference Chair. Atul was elected an ASME fellow in 2009 was bestowed ASME’s Dedicated Service Award in 2020 for his efforts. He is the past Chair of the ASME K-14 Committee which focuses on Gas Turbine Heat Transfer.
Atul has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology and a MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He was a post-doctoral research fellow at the University of Wisconsin at Madison before joining PW.