Dr. Babak Shotorban

Professor, MAE

Contact

5000 Technology Drive NW
Olin B. King Technology Hall
Room N261
Huntsville, AL 35899
Campus Map

256.824.2821
babak.shotorban@uah.edu

Biography

Babak Shotorban has a general research interest in developing and using mathematical, computational, and stochastic approaches to describe multiphysics and multiphase flow phenomena. He has been a PI or Co-PI on projects supported by federal agencies including NSF, DOD, USDA, JFSP, and NIST. His recent projects have been on the stochastic fluctuations of grain charging in dusty plasmas, the pyrolysis of living fuels in wildfires, the merging of neighboring flames, and the spread of wildland-urban interface fires by embers (aka firebrands). He received a PhD from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005 and then conducted postdoctoral research with the Center for Simulation of Advanced Rockets at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign until 2007. Before joining UAH in 2008, he was a CFD software development engineer at the ESI-Group.

Curriculum Vitae

Personal Website

Education

  • Ph.D. Mechanical Engineering, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2005
  • M.S. Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 1998
  • B.S. Mechanical Engineering, Sharif University of Technology, 1996

Honors & Awards

  • Fellow of ASME
  • University Distinguished Research Award, UAH, 2018
  • Associate Fellow of AIAA
  • Outstanding Junior Faculty Award of College of Engineering, UAH, 2013
  • Individual Investigator Distinguished Research Award, UAH, 2013
  • Provost's Award for Graduate Research, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2004
  • University Graduate Fellowship, University of Illinois at Chicago, 2003

Expertise

  • Turbulent particle/droplet-laden flows
  • Reacting flows in fires
  • Dusty plasmas
  • Stochastic/probabilistic modeling
  • Computational fluid dynamics
  • High performance computing

Recent Publications

  • Zhang, J., Shotorban, B., Bayyuk, S., and Zhang, S., "Computational Fluid Dynamics Flow Simulations in Discrete Element Method-Resolved Packed Beds," Journal of Fluids Engineering - Transactions of The ASME, 141, 031304, 2019.

  • Shotorban, B., Smoke Transport, Manzello, S. L., editor, Encyclopedia of Wildfires and Wildland-Urban Interface (WUI) Fires, Springer, Cham, 2018.

  • Anand, C., Shotorban, B., and Mahalingam, S., "Dispersion and deposition of firebrands in a turbulent boundary layer," International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 109, 98–113, 2018.

  • Wilson, A., and Shotorban, B., "Investigation of surface boundary conditions for continuum modeling of RF plasmas," Physics of Plasmas, 25, 053509, 2018.

  • Matthews, L. S., Shotorban, B., and Hyde, T. W., "Discrete stochastic charging of aggregate grains," Physical Review E, 97, 053207, 2018.

  • Shotorban, B., Yashwanth, B. L., Mahalingam, S., and Haring, D. J. "An investigation of pyrolysis and ignition of moist leaf-like fuel subject to convective heating," Combustion and Flame, 190, 25–35, 2018.

  • Padhi, S., Shotorban, B., and Mahalingam, S., "A computational study of the interactions of three adjacent burning shrubs subjected to wind," Fire Safety Journal, 91, 749–757, 2017 (Special issue of The 12th International Symposium on Fire Safety Science, Lund, Sweden, June 2017).

  • Zhang, J. A., Shotorban, B., and Zhang, S., "Numerical experiment of aero-elastic stability for a rocket nozzle," Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 30(5), 04017041, 2017.

  • Anand, C., Shotorban, B., Mahalingam, S., McAllister, S., and Weise, D. R., "Physics-based modeling of live wildland fuel ignition experiments in the Forced Ignition and Flame Spread Test apparatus," Combustion Science and Technology, 189, 1551–1570, 2017.

  • Padhi, S., Shotorban, B., and Mahalingam, S., "Computational investigation of flame characteristics of a non-propagating shrub fire," Fire Safety Journal, 81, 64–73, 2016.