David R. Kassoy
Professor Emeritus
David.Kassoy@colorado.edu
303-492-6066

ECOT 257

Research Interests

Liquid propellant rocket engine instability driven by combustion transients. Thermo-mechanical principles are used study the response of a gas to spatially distributed, transient heat addition,  The modeling is based on non-dimensional reactive Navier Stokes equations, enabling the identification of significant non-dimensional parameters

Societal Impact

My rocket engine stability modeling is designed to familiarize the research community with a variety of instabilities not considered in the past and to enable liquid propellant rocket engine designers to be aware of physical processes that can occur to the detriment of performance.

Selected Publications

  • Application of Thermo-mechanical  Concepts and Modeling to Stability Physics in Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines, AIAA J. 55, 2043-2051, (2017).
  • The Zeldovich spontaneous reaction wave propagation concept in the fast/modest heating  rate,  Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 791, 439-463, (2016).
  • Non-diffusive ignition of a gaseous reactive mixture following time-resolved, spatially distributed energy deposition, Combustion Theory and Modeling, 18, 101-116, (2014).
  • Mechanical Disturbances Arising from Thermal Power Deposition in a Gas, AIAA Journal, 52: 2328-2335, (2014).
  • The Response of a Compressible Gas to Extremely Rapid Transient, Spatially Resolved Energy Addition: An Asymptotic Formulation, Journal of Engineering Mathematics:  68, 249-262, (2010).

Selected Awards

  • Award for Excellence in Service: Boulder Faculty Assembly, University of Colorado, 2006
  • Associate Fellow, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, 2002
  • Outstanding Ph.D. Recipient, The H.H. Rackham Graduate School, University of Michigan, 1988
  • Fellow, American Physical Society, Elected November 1986
  • Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellowship, June 1985
  • Senior Visiting Fellowship, Science and Engineering Research Council, United Kingdom, 1982 - 1983
  • Fulbright Research Grant, The Netherlands, 1983
  • College of Engineering and Applied Science Outstanding Scholarship Award, 1980
  • John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, 1972 - 1973