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Dr. Joe Majdalani


H. H. Arnold Chair of Excellence
in Advanced Propulsion
Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
University of Tennessee (UTSI)
Tullahoma, TN 37388-9700

Phone: (931) 393-7280
Fax: (931) 393-7530
maji@utsi.edu

WEBPAGE

Professor Majdalani

Education

  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 1995
  • M.S.  Mechanical Engineering, University of Utah, 1991

Professional Experience

Dr. Majdalani is the second professor to fill the H. H. Arnold Chair of Excellence at UTSI. He received his PhD degree in thermo-fluid science from the University of Utah, Department of Mechanical Engineering, in 1995.  Between 1991 and 1996 he served as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Utah and as a consultant to several engineering firms. These include Sarcos, the Center for Engineering Design, Halff Associates, Ram Products, S.C. Johnson Professional, Software and Engineering Associates, and Orbital Technologies Corporation (ORBITEC).  Between 1997 and 2003 he served as an Assistant and then Associate Professor with Tenure in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Marquette University, Milwaukee. He then joined the Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Tennessee (UTSI), serving as the Jack D. Whitfield Professor of High Speed Flows (2003-2006). In 2007, Dr. Majdalani was appointed as the H. H. Arnold Chair of Excellence in Advanced Propulsion.

Dr. Majdalani received the 1998-99 College of Engineering Research Award in addition to the 1998-99 and 1999-00 Outstanding Teaching Awards from Marquette University. Subsequently, he received NASA’s 2002-03 and 2003-04 Faculty Research Infrastructure Awards, the 2002-03 Higher Education Incentive Award and, from the National Science Foundation, the CAREER Award in 2003.  This was followed by the International Research and Education in Engineering (IREE) award in 2006.  In the Aerospace category, he received the 2007 Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award from SAE International and the General Henry H. “Hap” Arnold Award administered by the American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Air Force for “outstanding personal contributions to the advancement of compressible flow theory and rocket internal ballistics.” He is presently a Fellow of ASME, appointed Member of the External Advisory Board, Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets, University of Illinois, and designated AIAA Chair of Education and Technical Expert in Analytic Approaches to Hybrid Rocket Flowfields.

Courses Taught

Research Areas

Dr. Majdalani’s research is diversified in the areas of theoretical and numerical modeling of injection and swirl-driven combustion chambers. He is interested in studying thermo-acoustic instabilities, engine internal flowfields, vorticity dynamics, and singular perturbation theory.  His research activities since 1997 have materialized in over 150 papers in journal and conference proceedings.  His work on core flow modeling of liquid, solid, and hybrid rocket engines has led to the discovery of new solutions to describe cyclonic motions in liquid and hybrid rocket engines, hurricanes, and higher-order injection-driven flowfields in simulated solid rocket motors.  Recently, his work on high-speed flow problems has led to the development of a unique methodology from which multi-dimensional analytical solutions may be obtained. 

Dr. Majdalani's research is leveraged on the application of coaxial, multi-directional and multi-dimensional vortex motions to liquid and hybrid rocket engines, improving core flow models of solid, liquid, and hybrid rockets, and studying complex wave interactions with the aim of suppressing acoustic instabilities in large combustors.

Professional Societies

  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (1993—present)
    –Member of the Hybrid Rocket Technical Committee (Chair of Education)
    –Technical Expert in Analytic Approaches to Hybrid Rocket Flowfields
  • American Society for Engineering Education (1994—present)
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (1995—present)
    –ASME Faculty Moderator (1999—2003)
    –Guest Editor: ASME Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology
  • Society of Automotive Engineers (2006—present)
  • Reviewer for the following:
    NSF CAREER, CCLI, STTR/SBIR, PMP, GPG, and CMS programs.
    IET Control Theory and Applications, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Meccanica, Journal of Applied Mathematical Modeling, AIAA Progress Series in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (IJHMT), Journal of Fluid Mechanics (JFM), Transport in Porous Media, Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Fluids, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Journal of Aerospace Science and Technology, ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Journal of Applied Mathematics and Mechanics (ZAMM), Communications in Numerical Methods in Engineering, ASME Journal of Fluids Engineering, Journal of Numerical Heat Transfer, ASME Journal of Electronics Packaging, IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies, The Physics of Fluids, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, The Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, The International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, The AIAA Journal, and Journal of Propulsion and Power

Honors and Awards

  • H. H. Arnold Chair of Excellence in Advanced Propulsion, 2007
  • General H. H. Arnold Award “for outstanding personal contributions to the advancement of compressible flow theory and rocket internal ballistics,” AIAA/USAF, 2007
  • Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award, SAE International, 2007
  • Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 2006
  • Member of the External Advisory Boards instituted by the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets, UIUC, IL, 2005-2007
  • AIAA Solid Rockets Best Paper (AIAA-2004-4054)
  • Jack D. Whitfield Professor of High Speed Flows (2003-2006)
  • NSF CAREER Award, 2003
  • NASA Faculty Research Infrastructure Award, 2002 & 2003
  • NASA Higher Education Incentive Award, 2002
  • Outstanding Teaching Award, Marquette Univ, 2000
  • Outstanding Teaching Award, Marquette Univ, 1999
  • Marquette College of Engrg Research Award, 1998
  • Marquette Summer Faculty Fellowship Award, 1997
  • Univ of Utah Graduate Research Fellowship, 1992
  • Bachelor of Engineering Degree with Distinction, 1989
  • Academic Exchange Service Fellowship, DAAD, 1988

Recent Publications

  • Majdalani, J., “Analytical Models for Hybrid Rockets,” Fundamentals of Hybrid Rocket Combustion and Propulsion, Chap. 5, edited by K. Kuo and M. J. Chiaverini, AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Washington, DC, 2007, pp. 207-246.
  • Majdalani, J., “Vortex Injection Hybrid Rockets,” Fundamentals of Hybrid Rocket Combustion and Propulsion, Chap. 6, edited by K. Kuo and M. J. Chiaverini, AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Washington, DC, 2007, pp. 247-276.
  • Majdalani, J., “High Speed Flow Effects in Hybrid Rockets,” Fundamentals of Hybrid Rocket Combustion and Propulsion, Chap. 7, edited by K. Kuo and M. J. Chiaverini, AIAA Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Washington, DC, 2007, pp. 277-321.
  • Majdalani, J., “On Steady Rotational High Speed Flows: The Compressible Taylor-Culick Profile,” Proceedings of the Royal Society, London, Series A, Vol. 463, No. 2077, January 2007, pp. 131-162.
  • Abu-Irshaid, E. M., Majdalani, J. and Casalis, G., “Hydrodynamic Stability of Rockets with Headwall Injection,” The Physics of Fluids, Vol. 19, No. 2, February 2007, pp. 24101-11.
  • Sams, O. C., Majdalani, J. and Saad, T., “Mean Flow Approximations for Solid Rocket Motors with Tapered Walls,” Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 23, No. 2, March-April 2007, pp. 445-456.
  • Majdalani, J. and Rienstra, S. W., “On the Bidirectional Vortex and Other Similarity Solutions in Spherical Geometry,” Journal of Applied Mathematics and Physics (ZAMP), Vol. 58, No. 2, March 2007 pp. 289-308.
  • Fischbach, S. R., Majdalani, J. and Flandro, G. A., “Acoustic Instability of the Slab Rocket Motor,” Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 23, No. 1, January-February 2007, pp. 146-157.
  •  Vyas, A. B. and Majdalani, J., “Asymptotic Temperature Distribution in a Simulated Combustion Chamber,” Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 129, No. 7, July 2007, pp. 894-898.
  • Majdalani, J. and Saad, T., “The Taylor-Culick Profile with Arbitrary Headwall Injection,” The Physics of Fluids, Vol. 19, No. 6, 2007.
  • Jankowski, T. A. and Majdalani, J., “Symmetric Solutions for the Oscillatory Channel Flow with Arbitrary Suction,” Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 294, No. 4-5, 2006, pp. 880-893.
  • Majdalani, J., Fischbach, S. R. and Flandro, G. A., “Improved Energy Normalization Function in Rocket Motor Stability Calculations,” Journal of Aerospace Science and Technology, Vol. 10, No. 6, September 2006, pp. 495-500.
  • Vyas, A. B. and Majdalani, J., “Exact Solution of the Bidirectional Vortex,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 44, No. 10, October 2006, pp. 2208-2216.
  • Saad, T., Sams O. C. and Majdalani, J., “Rotational Flow in Tapered Slab Rocket Motors,” The Physics of Fluids, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 103601-13, 2006.
  • Jankowski, T. A. and Majdalani, J., “Vortical and Acoustical Mode Coupling Inside a Porous Tube with Uniform Wall Suction,” Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 117, No. 6, June 2005, pp. 3448–3458.
  • Majdalani, J., Flandro, G. A. and Fischbach, S. R., “Some Rotational Corrections to the Acoustic Energy Equation in Injection-Driven Enclosures,” The Physics of Fluids, Vol. 17, No. 7, July 2005, pp. 0741021-20.
  • Brucker, K. A. and Majdalani, J., “Effective Thermal Conductivity of Common Geometric Shapes,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 48, No. 8, August 2005, pp. 4779–4796.
  • Complete Publications Listing