3:35pm September 28, 2016 1130 Mechanical Engineering 111 Church Street SE, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Minimizing the Environmental Impact Of Internal Combustion Engines: Nanoparticles, Fuel Reactivity and Connectivity Wil l iam Northrop Assistant Professor; Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Minnesota

Mechanical Engineering Department Seminar

Internal combustion engines will continue to be a dominant power source for decades to come. Their use comes with high environmental cost by depleting natural resources, impacting human health through pollutants like nano-particulate matter and forcing climate change through emissions of CO2 and methane. This talk will link three research areas that have a common goal to minimize the impact of engines on human health and the environment: nanoparticles from advanced combustion modes, fuel reforming for real-time reactivity control, and connected engines. i) In the first area, we have de-veloped fundamental understanding of semi-volatile nanoparticles from partially premixed diesel en-gine combustion. Experimental methods were devised to characterize size-selected nanoparticle vol-atility, confirming pathways for particle nucleation and growth in the primary exhaust plume. ii) The second area relates to altering fuel autoignition properties using on-board reforming to allow control of advanced low temperature combustion modes that can reduce emissions and improve fuel effi-ciency. iii) The third research area exploits connected vehicle technology to study and improve in-use emissions from engine-powered vehicles.

Bio: William Northrop is a Richard and Barbara Nelson Assistant Professor in mechanical engineer-ing at the University of Minnesota and is a principal investigator at the TE Murphy Engine Research Laboratory. Dr. Northrop received M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from University of Michigan in 2003 and 2009, respectively and a B.S in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 1997. After receiving his Ph.D., he held the position of Senior Researcher at General Motors Research and Development where he worked in the Propulsion Systems Research Laboratory. Prof. Northrop won a NSF CAREER Award in 2014, the University of Minnesota McKnight Land Grand Professorship in 2015, and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Ralph Teetor award in 2016. Dr. Northrop’s research program includes the study of emissions for-mation/characterization, homogeneous combustion and alternative fuel use with primary focus in internal combustion engines.