Mark Fernelius

Biography:

Mark Fernelius is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in mechanical engineering. He received both B.S. and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering from Brigham Young University. Mark has research interests in the improvement of aircraft propulsion. Currently, he is investigating how to design turbines to be driven by high amplitude pressure pulses. Mark serves as the website lead for the AIAA Pressure Gain Combustion Program Committee. As an undergraduate, he spent two summers as an intern at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc. The first summer he measured the operating conditions of a research jet engine and the second summer he characterized propeller performance for engine matching for remotely piloted aircraft. Prior to joining the TRL, he was a research assistant in the Compliant Mechanisms Research Lab investigating the use of an off-chip lance as an alternative to the nano-injection technique developed at BYU for injecting DNA into egg cells.

Research Explanation:

Mark’s research involves investigating how to design turbines to be driven by high amplitude pressure pulses. The application of this research is integrating pressure gain combustion into gas turbine engines. Pressure gain combustion is a form of combustion that results in a total pressure rise through the combustion process and is basically a controlled explosion. Using this form of combustion in gas turbine engines shows potential to increase the engine performance. However, the disadvantages of pressure gain combustion are increased noise and unsteady, periodic flow. Mark focuses his research on the problem of unsteady turbine inlet flow. Designing a turbine specifically for the high amplitude pressure pulses generated by pressure gain combustion will allow pressure gain combustion to be integrated more effectively with gas turbine engines and further increase the performance of gas turbine engines.