{"502891":{"#nid":"502891","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Wenting Sun Selected for AFOSR Grant","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECombustion research initiated by\u0026nbsp;\u003Cstrong\u003EDr. Wenting Sun\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0026nbsp;has been chosen to receive a $360,000 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) through its Young Investigator Research Program (YIP).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe prestigious award will fund \u0022\u003Cstrong\u003E\u003Cem\u003EExplosive Ozonolysis Reactions for Combustion Control\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/strong\u003E\u0022 - an investigation of new techniques to control combustion in hypersonic vehicles (vehicles traveling between five to eight times the speed of sound).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESun was one of just 56 young scientists nationwide to receive the grant, which is awarded annually to rising stars in the scientific community who have received their doctorates within the last five years. This year, more than 260 scientists applied.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESun\u0027s research team will focus on both the experimental and numerical investigation of explosive ozonolysis reactions - the spontaneous reactions between ozone and unsaturated hydrocarbons. The goal is to use his findings to control combustion for hypersonic vehicles.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This (ozonolysis) is something new for aerospace, perhaps, but atmospheric scientists have been studying this process for awhile,\u0022 said Sun.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022We will be looking a their effect on flame dynamics and the kinetics relevant to flying at hypersonic speeds. Currently they are missing in combustion kinetic mechanisms.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUltimately, Sun points out, his research will give engine designers a new arsenal of tools to produce hypersonically propelled aircraft- vehicles able to travel at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Right now, the engine conditions at hypersonic speeds are too harsh to allow combustion at those speeds. The air flow is too rapid to burn the fuel. It\u0027s there for just milliseconds. And if the fuel doesn\u0027t burn, we cannot get the thrust we need.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWhy go so fast?\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022Well, I guess you could use this technology to pick a peach off the tree in Georgia and send it to California in a few minutes,\u0022 Sun quipped.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022But that would be a very expensive peach. The Air Force is interested in this because it will allow them to reach any place on earth in two hours or less. There are lots of reasons why that is an important goal, worth the expense.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn addition to supporting research that has long-interested Sun, the AFOSR grant shines some much-deserved attention on the field of combustion.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0022This is a classic field, one that has been studied for years and years, so a lot of people think that combustion research cannot yield new findings,\u0022 he said. \u0022But I think with this research we are showing that is not true. We are finding new mechanisms for this classic field.\u0022\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":"","field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Combustion research initiated by Dr. Wenting Sun has been chosen to receive a $360,000 grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) through its Young Investigator Research Program (YIP)."}],"uid":"30502","created_gmt":"2016-02-18 12:38:41","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:20:49","author":"Sapna Mistry","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2016-01-15T00:00:00-05:00","iso_date":"2016-01-15T00:00:00-05:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"497681":{"id":"497681","type":"image","title":"Wenting Sun","body":null,"created":"1455130800","gmt_created":"2016-02-10 19:00:00","changed":"1475895256","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:54:16","alt":"Wenting Sun","file":{"fid":"204641","name":"sun-wenting1.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sun-wenting1_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/sun-wenting1_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":286067,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/sun-wenting1_0.jpg?itok=nBycbdV6"}}},"media_ids":["497681"],"groups":[{"id":"1239","name":"School of Aerospace Engineering"}],"categories":[{"id":"136","name":"Aerospace"},{"id":"134","name":"Student and Faculty"}],"keywords":[{"id":"171751","name":"AFOSR Grant"},{"id":"2850","name":"combustion"},{"id":"126111","name":"GT-AE"},{"id":"133261","name":"Wenting Sun"},{"id":"171752","name":"YIP"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":["kathleen.moore@ae.gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}