Stephen Akwaboa
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, Southern University, Baton Rouge
Contact
+1-225-771-2709
Specialization
Computational Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer, Hypersonic flows and algorithm development.
Expertise
Modeling, processing, and thermo-mechanical property characterization of composite materials, high temperature superalloys and ceramic thermal barrier coatings.
Education
Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina A&T State University (2008).
Research
Ongoing research in our group, supported by CIMM, focuses on developing computational heat transfer models for analysis of multi-phase heat transfer in micro-scale heat sinks manufactured by metal forming. Numerical modeling and simulation approaches for analyzing additive manufacturing processes involving laser as input heat sources is under development. AM produced parts through the layer by layer addition of molten material generates large temperature gradients that cause plastic deformation. Thermo-mechanical models are developed to predict the thermal history and mechanical distortion. This enables the process to be studied and for distortion mitigation techniques to be developed. Such investigations require models that accurately capture the physics of the deposition process.
