Prof. Ramesh Agarwal

Washington University in St. Louis Campus

ASME Fellow, IEEE Fellow

Professor Agarwal has worked in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Computational Acoustics and Electromagnetic, Computational Materials Science and Manufacturing, and Multidisciplinary Design & Optimization and their applications to problems in mechanical and aerospace engineering, and in energy and environment. He is the author and coauthor of over 600 publications. He is a Fellow of 28 professional societies including American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), American Association for Advancement of Science (AAAS), American Physical Society (APS), and U.K. Institute of Physics among others. He has received many prestigious honors and national/international awards from various professional societies and organizations for his research contributions including the AIAA Reeds Aeronautics Award, SAE Medal of Honor, ASME Honorary Membership and Honorary Fellowship from Royal Aeronautical Society.

Speech Title: Analysis and Design of a Hydrogen Fuel Cell Powered Commercial Aircraft

This talk provides details of the conceptual design of a couple of short- to mid- range hydrogen fuel cell powered commercial aircraft. First, details of a hydrogen fuel cell powertrain are provided in which the design of each individual component is analyzed. A battery-fuel cell hybrid mode of propulsion is also presented in which a battery array supplements the fuel-cell power during the increased power requirements at takeoff and climb. An automated process is presented in which the fuel cell stacks are sized based on the power requirements of the propulsion system and the components of the powertrain. The aircraft is sized considering the required components and fuel tanks. A numerical code has been developed in Python to automate this process in conjunction with an analysis code which uses various empirical and numerical methods to estimate the overall range and performance of a given aircraft configuration. Using this combined code called WUADS (Washington University Aircraft Design Software), two hydrogen fuel cell powered aircraft configuration closely based on the Bombardier CRJ200 and Boeing 717-200 are analyzed. It was found that approximately 2000 nmi range seems to be the point at which the hydrogen fuel cell powered aircraft configurations cease to be competitive in efficiency as the hydrogen powered gas turbine combustion configurations.

Prof. Xu Long

Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

IAAM Fellow

Prof. Xu Long is a faculty member at Northwestern Polytechnical University, serving as a Ph.D. supervisor. He is a Fellow of the International Association of Advanced Materials (IAAM) and a Senior Member of IEEE. He has been recognized as a young top-notch talent in the "Ten Thousand Talents Program" by the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC and is listed among the top 2% of scientists globally. Prof. Long's main research areas focus on the mechanical properties, life analysis, and reliability evaluation of materials and structures under extreme loads. Prof. Long has led four projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, an international cooperation project under the Shaanxi Provincial Key Research and Development Program, a general project under the Shaanxi Province Natural Science Basic Research Program, a general project under the Guangdong Province Natural Science Foundation, and two projects under the Aerospace Science and Technology Fund. He is also the principal investigator of a Huawei Innovation Research Program, an industry-academia-research cooperation fund project with ZTE Corporation, and over ten technical research and pre-research projects with institutes like China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation. As the first or corresponding author, he has published over 80 papers in top international journals in solid mechanics and SCI journals in materials and electronic packaging fields. His work includes seven ESI highly cited papers (including two hot papers), with 19 papers published in Q1 journals and 13 in Q2 journals according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences classifications. He has authored three academic books and serves as an associate editor for the SCI journal CMES, an editorial board member for JPM and IJAMD, and a guest editor for several SCI journals.

Prof. Zilong Zhao

Beihang University，China

National Outstanding Young Overseas Talent，Australia National Outstanding Young Talent

Professor Zilong Zhao's research encompasses a wide range of interdisciplinary fields including solid mechanics, biomechanics and bionics, medical devices, innovative structure and device design, topology optimization, computational mechanics, high-performance composite materials, machine learning, intelligent robot development, fracture mechanics, impact dynamics, photomechanics, and civil engineering, among others. He serves as an editorial board member for the internationally renowned SCI journal "Engineering Fracture Mechanics" (Q1 category, top-tier journal in mechanics) and will be the chairman of the International Conference on Aerospace and Control Engineering in 2024. He is also a reviewer for over 30 leading SCI journals, including the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). He has published more than 50 SCI papers in major national and international journals, such as the "Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids" (top tier in solid mechanics), "Materials Science and Engineering C" (top tier in engineering technology), "Additive Manufacturing" (top tier in materials science), and "Composite Structures" (top tier in composite materials mechanics), with 49 papers in the JCR Q1 category. Several of his papers have been featured on journal covers and selected as highlight papers, featured articles, and editor-recommended papers. In addition to leading national-level talent projects (one each in China and Australia), general projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), other major national ministerial research projects, the Beihang University's "Dare To Act" initiative, Central Universities' Basic Scientific Research Fund projects, and various horizontal technology projects, he has also participated in key research projects, such as the key NSFC projects, the Australian Research Council's Discovery projects, and the Top-notch Undergraduate Training Program 2.0 research topics (key topics).

Prof. Bo Song

Jiangsu University of Science and Technology，China

ASME Fellow,  AIAA Associate Fellow,Turbomachinery Committee Member of IGTI

Prof. Bo Song received his BS and MS fromDepartment of Power Engineering,Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, China. After MSgraduation he servedthe same universityas a lecturer in the area of thermal fluid science untilhe went to Virginia Tech in USA to pursue Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering,focusing research onturbomachinery. Upon completion of his Ph.D., he joined Gardner Denver in Georgia, USA, assenior design engineer and later promoted to chief R&D engineer, with engineering efforts mostly on centrifugal compression technology and products.After thenhewent back to China andfoundeda companydedicated to R&D, manufacture, sales, and service ofair compression equipment. In 2022, he took a fulltime professor position in School of Mechanical Engineering of Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, with research mostly on gas turbine and fluid machinery.   

Prof. Bing Li

Northwestern Polytechnical University, China

IAAM Fellow

Professor Bing Li 's primary research areas include the design of lightweight functional aerospace superstructures, wave dynamics, structural health monitoring, and impact on composite materials. He has authored over 40 SCI papers in high-impact journals such as Compos. Sci. Tech., Compos. Part A, Compos. Part B, Compos. Struct., Phys. Rev. Appl., Phys. Rev. B, Commun. Phys., J. Sound Vib., Appl. Phys. Lett., Int. J. Mech. Sci., and Int. J. Impact Eng. Professor Li has contributed to two English books and one translated work. He has applied for more than 10 U.S. and national invention patents and led over 10 research projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation (Youth and General Projects), JKW Basic Enhancement, Aerospace Foundation, and key provincial and ministerial R&D projects. He serves as the secretary of the Mechanics Terminology Review Working Committee of the Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, a director of the Chinese Society of Metamaterials, associate editor of Frontiers in Physics, guest editor for a special issue of Sensors, and a young editorial board member of the International Journal of Extreme Manufacturing, the Journal of Materials Science & Technology, the Chinese Journal of Applied Mechanics, and Engineering Science and Technology. Professor Li has also chaired the International Symposium on Aerospace Structural Dynamics (2023) and the International Symposium on Aerospace Engineering and Systems (2022, 2023) and has served as a session chair/academic committee member and delivered invited talks at over 30 domestic and international academic conferences. His awards include the First Prize in Scientific and Technological Progress for Higher Education in Shaanxi, the Scientist of the Year Award from the International Association of Advanced Materials, the National Teaching Achievement First Prize, and the Advances in Engineering's "Excellence in Engineering" Key Scientific Article Award.

Assoc. Prof. Xiaojun Fan

Jiangsu University of Science and Technology，China

Assoc. Prof.  Xiaojun Fan holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from the School of Energy and Power Engineering at Xi'an Jiaotong University. He is currently serving as an associate professor at the School of Energy and Power Engineering, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology. He has led various research projects, including the National Natural Science Foundation's Young Scientists Fund, the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province's Youth Project, and the Basic Science Research Project (Natural Science) for Higher Education Institutions in Jiangsu Province. He was selected as a "Double Innovation Doctor" in Jiangsu Province. Professor Fan has published over 10 SCI-indexed papers as the first or corresponding author, 5 core EI papers as the first author, and 1 international conference paper. He has been dedicated to the research and exploration of efficient turbine blade cooling technology in gas turbines. His specific research interests include numerical and experimental studies of efficient blade cooling technology, the study of flow and heat transfer mechanism phenomena, the design and research of efficient heat exchangers, and thermal management of batteries.