ACTIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS:
- “Fundamental studies of hydrogen arc plasmas for high-efficiency and carbon-free steelmaking,”
- Sponsor: US Department of Energy
- Objectives: Development of model for atmospheric pressure hydrogen arc interacting with iron ore melt pools for carbon-free heating and carbon-free reduction of iron ore to steel.
- “High-fidelity computational studies of intermediate pressure capacitively coupled plasma discharges,”
- Sponsor: US Department of Energy
- Objectives: Development of models for Torr-regime capacitively coupled plasmas. The pressure regime of these discharges involve properties that are common to both low pressure (~milliTorr) and atmosphere pressure.
- “Magnetized high-frequency excited plasmas for rarefied air ionization in air-breathing electric propulsion”
- Sponsor: Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Objectives: This project concerns a new magnetized high-frequency (HF) excited plasma discharge as an ionization source for extremely rarefied gas environments encountered in air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) for very low earth orbit (VLEO) satellites.
- “Electromagnetic wave-plasma interactions in very-high frequency capacitively coupled plasma reactors”
- Sponsor: US Department of Energy
- Objectives: The objective of this project is the fundamental understanding of how electromagnetic (EM) waves interact with capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) discharges, driven at very high frequency (VHF ~10s-100s MHz).
- “PSAAP3: Exascale Predictive Simulation of Inductively Coupled Plasma torches”
- Sponsor: US Department of Energy
- Objectives: (1) develop an advanced integrated predictive computational model for an inductively-coupled plasma (ICP) torch, and use it to predict exit plasma properties and stable operating conditions; (2) develop advanced algorithms and performance portable programming tools to enable effective use of emerging exascale computing hardware, and apply them to the simulation of the ICP torch; (3) develop and apply advanced verification, validation and uncertainty quantification tools for the ICP torch, including acquisition of the required experimental data; and, (4) enable scientists at the NNSA laboratories to benefit from these developments. Check webpage for details: https://pecos.oden.utexas.edu/.
PAST RESEARCH:
Prof. Raja has been active in a wide variety of research areas over the past two decades. As evidenced by his list of peer-reviewed journal publications, the research topics he has worked on broadly include:
- Compressible gas dynamics for gas-gun launcher
- Nuclear reactor thermal-hydraulics analysis
- Capillary discharges for electrothermal-chemical ignition of ballistic guns and for materials processing
- Catalytic combustion
- Metal-Organic and Thermal Chemical Vapor Deposition for Materials Processing
- Thermal Co-Evaporation Sources for Materials Deposition
- Thermal Processing for Semiconductor Manufacturing
- Atmospherics Pressure Non-equilibrium Glow Discharges
- High-Pressure Non-Equilibrium Microdischarges
- Micro-Propulsion Devices
- Optimal Control of Plasma Discharges for Materials Processing
- Helicon Plasma Sources
- Direct-Current Glow Discharges as Supersonic Flow Actuators
- Computational Algorithms for Plasma Discharge Modeling
- Nanosecond Steamer Discharges for Plasma Actuator and Combustion Application
- Microwave Plasma Discharges for Semiconductor Manufacturing
- Electromagnetic Phenomena in Very-High Frequency Capacitively Coupled Plasma Discharges
