Pranjal Gupta

Decarbonizing the environment is the primary need today, especially using a sustainable approach being a major engineering challenge. The aviation industry is exploring the development of Zero-Carbon emission gas turbine engines. Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAFs), Biofuels and Hydrogen are some of the most eco-friendly fuels for the aerospace industry because of their unique chemical properties as they have the capability of eliminating carbon and reducing pollutants like NOx.    

My research is on laser optical diagnostics for combustion applied to aviation project - Medium-range hybrid low-pollution flexifuel/hydrogen sustainable engine (MYTHOS). The scope of the MYTHOS allows to develop/demonstrate an innovative and disruptive design methodology for future short/medium range civil engines. For a complete decarbonization, this class of engines should be operating using a wide range of liquid and gaseous fuels including SAFs and, ultimately, pure hydrogen. 

With this study, I will be performing various gas turbine combustion experiments in the high-pressure combustion facility to study the feasibility of using a range of fuels for operating conditions corresponding to idle, cruise, take-off and landing, to provide validation data for high and low-fidelity simulations. There will be experiments on different aeronautical gas turbine burners using different lasers and optical measurement techniques along with experimentation on the Jet Engine facility. 

Master's thesis at National Centre for Combustion and Aerothermal Technology (NCCAT) at Loughborough, England, UK in experimental optical diagnostics to understand hydrogen micro-mix ignition and light around in gas turbine engines.

Research Interenship at PPRIME Institute, CNRS, France on experimental study of the detonation cells (longitudnal and headon) during Deflagration to Detonation Transition (DDT) in square and circular chamber.

Former Payload Design Research Engineer for Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) Mars (MOM-2) mission for the development of sensor payload Advanced Retarding potential analyser for Martian and Venusian Ionospheric Studies (ARIS) at IIST, Department of Space, Government of India. ARIS is a space-qualified payload being tested 2 times on Earth's Ionosphere at an orbit of 485 and 560 km, launched on ISRO's PSLV C-45 and PSLV C-55 Mission respectively operated in space successfully.

Worked in the area of Aerospace structures (vibration analysis), hydrogen and Constant Volume Combustion (CVC), experimental detonation, Electric propulsion engine plasma diagnostics and vacuum techniques.