Fueling Expansion

The von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center inaugurated its new Fuels and Combustion Laboratory at the University of Dayton Research Institute’s Shroyer Park Center today. The new lab space will facilitate existing and new areas of fuels research at UDRI. The space includes 3,500 square feet for fuels and combustion work, about 750 for environmental engineering, and about 750 for bio-environmental work.

Dilip Ballal, director of the von Ohain Center, said the labs were built because the center has been “inundated with work.” Research volume has increased 33 percent in the past year from the previous year, Ballal said. Since the center was established in February 2003, work has been performed on campus and at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, but the increase in sponsored research has outgrown available space at the base, he added.

Bill Borger, director of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Propulsion Directorate, dedicated the lab space with a keynote speech and ribbon cutting.

The von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center performs fuels, combustion, modeling and simulation, and environmental engineering research and engineering services for the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, the U.S. Army, Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, the state of Ohio and industrial clients such as GE and DuPont. It was named after propulsion pioneer Hans von Ohain (1911-1998), co-inventor of the jet engine. He retired in 1979 as Chief Scientist of the Aerospace Research Laboratories and the Air Force Aero Propulsion Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio and joined the University of Dayton as a professor of mechanical engineering.

The von Ohain Fuels and Combustion Center also develops multidisciplinary educational courses in fuels and combustion, conducts sponsored research, and facilitates technology transfer.

July 19, 2007