Luca d'Agostino
Professor of Aerospace Propulsion
Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, Pisa University
8 Via Gerolamo Caruso, 56122 Pisa, Italy
tel.: +39 (050) 221-7211; fax: +39 (050) 221-7244 (office)
e-mail: luca.dagostino@ing.unipi.it
Place and date of birth: Torino, Italy, April 30, 1953
ORCID: 0000-0003-2624-0777; Scopus Author ID: 7004468362
EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
• Laurea in Mechanical Engineering, Pisa University, Italy, 1978
• M.S. (1981), Ph. D. (1987) and Research Fellow (1987–88) in Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology, USA
• Assistant Professor (1988–92), Associate Professor (1992–99) and Professor (1999–) of Aerospace Propulsion, Pisa University, Italy.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Rocket and Airbreathing Propulsion:
• Rocket Propellant Turbopumps:
– Experimental analyses of cavitating/noncavitating turbopumps under hydrodynamic and thermal cavitation similarity conditions
– Thermal cavitation and its effects on turbopump performance and flow dynamics
– Experimental and theoretical analyses of cavitation-induced flow instabilities
– Experimental and theoretical analyses of rotordynamic whirl forces – Thermal cavitation modeling and simulation in hydraulic turbomachinery
– Development of closed-form models for geometric definition and performance prediction of inducers and turbopumps for liquid propellant rocket engines
• “Green” Propellant Rockets:
– Development and testing of advanced H2O2 catalysts for rocket propulsion
– Experimental analyses of H2O2 monopropellant thrusters
– Modeling, development and testing of H2O2/HC thrusters
• Combustion analyses in aerospace propulsion systems:
– Active control of combustion instabilities in gas turbine engines
– Aeroacoustic combustion instabilities in segmented solid propellant rockets
– Ignition transient and quasi-steady combustion of solid rocket motors
• Engine condition monitoring and fault detection by Bayesian system identification
Aerothermodynamics:
• Hypersonic and high-enthalpy flow experimentation :
– Characterization of shock wave-boundary layer interactions on heated surfaces
– Development of high-speed (>50 kHz) dual thin film total temperature probes
– Measuremenrt of turbulent pressure and temperature spectra in high-enthalpy and hypersonic flows
Two-Phase Flows:
• Experimental, theoretical and modeling analyses of cavitating flows:
– Cavitation nuclei population measurements by means of laser Doppler velocimetry, holography and Coulter counters
– Dynamics, modeling, stability, and numerical simulation of bubbly and cavitating flow with thermal cavitation and/or bubble dynamic effects
TEACHING
• Lecturer of graduate courses in Thermal-Fluid Sciences, Rocket Propulsion
VARIOUS
• Member of several scientific committees of international conferences and symposia on cavitation and its applications to inducers and pumps.
• Co-organizer and co-editor of the “Fluid Dynamics of Cavitation and Cavitating Turbopumps”, CISM Courses and Lectures No. 496.
• Co-organizer and co-editor of the “Cavitation Instabilities and Rotordynamic Effects in Turbopumps and Hydroturbines”, CISM Courses and Lectures No. 1408.
• Reviewer for AIAA, ASME, ISROMAC, CEAS, etc.