MAE Colloquium: Sadaf Sobhani (Cornell MAE)

Architected Thermofluidics

Advances in manufacturing allow us to engineer the materials from which thermofluidic systems are made and the geometry through which heat, mass, and momentum are transported. This creates an opportunity to design material architecture and transport phenomena together, particularly for systems operating in extreme environments. In this talk, I will present our group’s work in architected thermofluidics, where we combine transport modeling, design and optimization, with advanced manufacturing to develop new approaches to thermal management and energy systems. I will first discuss how geometric architecture can be used to control coupled transport processes in porous and multiphase systems. I will then describe our development of ceramic additive manufacturing to realize complex, high-temperature and chemically resistant thermofluidic structures. Finally, I will show how these ideas come together in aerospace applications, from combustion and propulsion systems to spacecraft thermal management technologies.

Bio: Sadaf Sobhani is an assistant professor in the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell University, where she leads the Sobhani Lab for Architected Thermofluidics. Her research focuses on thermal management, energy conversion, and advanced manufacturing. Prior to joining Cornell, she was a Research Associate at NASA Ames Research Center and a Postdoctoral Scholar at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Sobhani earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University in 2020, where she also completed her B.S. and M.S. degrees. Her research is supported by NASA, DARPA, AFRL, and industry sponsors. She is the recipient of the 2023 NASA Early Career Faculty Award.