Professor of Experimental Combustion (2002)
Academic Division: Energy, Fluids and Turbomachinery
Research group: Energy
Telephone: +44 1223 7 64098
Email: sh372@eng.cam.ac.uk
Research interests
Professor Hochgreb's research investigates problems in energy conversion and reacting flows, with the aim of maximising efficiency and minimising harmful pollutant emissions. The main theme is to understand the physics of reacting flows in energy conversion devices, and the tradeoffs in stability, efficiency and emissions.
Many of the projects involve experimentation and analysis at realistic conditions, from which simpler experiments are defined: measurements in gas turbine injectors at high pressures and temperatures provided the questions for current experiments investigating how reactant stratification behaviour affects flame structure, emissions formation, ignition, behaviour and instability. Results of the work on flame instability and soot emissions have been used by partners in industry in developing new injectors, whilst the work on flame structure and instabilities continues to serve as a database for model verification. The work is inherently collaborative, developing and sharing tools, data and models across the world.
Past research includes work on chemical kinetics, autoignition and internal combustion engine performance and emissions. Current developments are focused on understanding the emergence and fate of hot (entropy) spots in combustion, leading to emissions and instabilities in model combustors, and developing accurate and non-intrusive methods for measurements of soot, coal, spray and fine particles in reacting flows.
Additional details available on our group pages.
Strategic themes
Energy, transport and urban infrastructure
Detailed and system level analysis of chemical energy conversion devices (internal combustion and gas turbine engines), including environmental and economic tradeoffs.
Manufacturing, design and materials
Understanding materials processing in the fabrication of carbon nanofibres within the ANAM initiative.
Bioengineering
Optical diagnostics with applications to chemical systems. Particle detection and sizing.
Research projects
- Temperature measurements in reacting flows using Laser Induced Grating Spectroscopy (LIGS) (with Paul Ewart, Oxford) (EPSRC 2013-2016)
- CO and NO imaging measurements in stratified flames (E3C3, with INSA-CORIA/Rouen) (2013-2014)
- Multi-pass high spatial resolution absorption measurements of soot in flames (CSC, 2013-2016)
- Measurements of flame response characteristics to flame excitation under high pressure and temperature (2010 - 2013) (TECC/FP7, SAMULET/EPSRC)
- Measurements of soot and particulate matter at high pressures and temperatures in flames at high pressure and temperature (SAMULET/EPSRC, ENTAPS/RR) (2010 - 2013)
- International Leverhulme Network on Stratified Combustion. Long term collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, Technische Universitaet Darmstadt and INSA-CORIA Rouen, among others (2010 - 2013)
- Industry-Academia Partnerships and Pathways on Stratified Combustion for Quiet Low Emissions Aero-Engines (FP7/IAPP-STRATEGI) (2009 - 2013)
Teaching activity
Combustion, IC engines, heat and mass transfer
Research opportunities
- Reacting flows
- Optical diagnostics and measurement techniques
- Aerosol measurements
- Combustion synthesis
- Gas turbine combustion
- Engine combustion
- Thermoacoustics
- Chemical kinetics
Other positions
- Managing Engineer, Exponent Inc, 2000-2002
- Principal Investigator, Sandia National Laboratories, 1999-2000
- Associate Professor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996-1999
Biography
Simone Hochgreb is a professor in Engineering at the University of Cambridge, specialising in combustion and turbulent reacting flows. Her current work is in the application of laser diagnostics to reacting flows using real and model flames, both under steady and unsteady conditions, particularly regarding stratified flames. She has previously held positions at MIT, Sandia National Labs. She is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautics Society and the Combustion Insitute, and has received the Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award and the Society of Automotive Engineers Ralph R. Teetor Award. She holds a BSc from the University of São Paulo, and a PhD from Princeton University.