News - Mehdi Mortazavi

News & Announcements

January 2023: A journal paper got accepted. Article entitled "Multi-passage concept applied to water-air cross flow tubes-and-fins heat exchangers - Thermal modelling and feasibility study," got accepted in International Journal of Thermofluids. Click here to learn more about this study.

December 2022: Mehdi Mortazavi will start a new position at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in January 2023. Our research efforts will be continued at WPI.

November 2022: Mehdi Mortazavi presented a research study at 75th APS Annual Meeting of Division of Fluid Dynamics in Indianapolis, Indiana. Click here to learn more about this study.

September 2022: A journal paper got accepted. Article entitled "System sizing and transient simulation of a solar photovoltaic off-grid energy system in various climates with air heat pumps," got accepted in Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessment. Click here to learn more about this study.

September 2022: A journal paper got accepted. Article entitled "Thermal design and dynamic performance assessment of a hybrid energy system for an educational building" got accepted in journal of Energy and Buildings. Click here to learn more about this study.

September 2022: A journal paper got accepted. Article entitled "Comparative lifecycle assessment of hydrogen fuel cell, electric, CNG, and gasoline-powered vehicles under real driving condition" got accepted in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Click here to learn more about this study.

June 2022: Our proposal entitled “Acoustic Pressure Wave Superimposed (APWS) PEM Fuel Cells: In-Situ Characterization and Testing” received an award from the MassCEC Catalyst Program. The budget for this award is $65,000 and it allows the PI (Dr. Mortazavi) to design, fabricate, test, and analyze APWS PEM fuel cells.

December 2021: Dominic Myren successfully defended his MS thesis. Dominic studied sessile droplet contact line depinning in a shear gas flow with an experimental approach. He used high speed imaging to visualize dynamics of a sessile droplet exposed to a shear gas flow. Dominic also developed a MATLAB code to analyze droplet images to obtain their geometrical properties. Congratulations Dominic!

October 2021: A journal paper got accepted. Article entitled "Experimental characterization of additively manufactured metallic heat exchangers" got accepted in IEEE Transaction on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology. Click here to learn more about this study.

August 2021: Dr. Sung Yong Jung joined MTFL as a visiting scholar. Dr. Jung is an associate professor of ME at Chosun University in South Korea and joined our lab to complete his sabbatical during AY 2021-22. Dr. Jung has expertise in thermo-fluids sciences and conducts research on multiphase flow in porous media and minichannels. We are honored that Dr. Jung has chosen MTFL as his destination to spend his sabbatical year. Welcome on board Dr. Jung!

August 2021: A journal paper got accepted. Article entitled "Two-phase flow pressure drop in PEM fuel cell flow channel bends" got accepted in International Journal of Multiphase Flow. Click here to learn more about this study.

April 2021: A journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Machine learning applications of two-phase flow data in polymer electrolyte fuel cell reactant channels" got accepted in Journal of the Electrochemical Society. Click here to learn more about this study.

March 2021: Dr. Mortazavi is selected as one of the finalists for the 2021 Teaching Excellence Award! The nomination is based on students' and colleagues' recommendations to the Teaching Excellent Award Committee. Click here to learn more.

January 2021: Our proposal entitled "Supporting the Success of Mechanical Engineering Students through Sustainable Pathways that Emphasize Research and Innovation," received an award from NSF. The budget for this proposal is $649,111 and Dr. Mortazavi serves as one of the four Co-PIs. The PI on this proposal is Dr. Jingru Benner. Click here to learn more about this project.

December 2020: A journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Force scaling comparison of transport phenomena in proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell flow channels" got accepted in Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage. This study was an undergraduate research project which was completed by three undergraduate students at WNE. Click here to learn more about this study.

November 2020: A journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Additively manufactured heat exchangers: a review on opportunities and challenges" got accepted in The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology. Click here to learn more about this study.

October 2020: Journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Two-phase flow characterization in PEM fuel cells using machine learning" got accepted in Energy Reports. Click here to learn more about this study.

July 2020: Dr. Mortazavi's NSF proposal entitled "MRI: Acquisition of a High-Speed Camera for a Primarily Undergraduate Institution" got accepted. In this proposal, funding has been requested to purchase a high speed camera to enhance WNE's engineering curriculum through undergraduate research activities. The budget for this proposal is $53,290 and Dr. Mortazavi serves as the PI. To learn more, click here to read the project abstract on NSF website.

May 2020: Journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Aqueous Ammonia Wetting of Gas-Diffusion Media for Electrochemical Cells" got accepted in Journal of The Electrochemical Society.

May 2020: Our proposal entitled "Liquid water distribution and pressure characterization in an ex-situ PEM fuel cell using machine learning: Phase II" got awarded by Toyota Research Institute of North America. In this study, Dr. Santamaria (PI) and Mortazavi (Co-PI) will study liquid water distribution and transport within a flow channel of a PEM fuel cell. The budget of this proposal is $110,000 and it will end by February 2021.

March 2020: WNE ASME team, co-advised by Dr. Mortazavi, outperformed in ASME EFx Hartford event. In this event, Austen Metsack won the third place award for the oral competition (Old Guard competition). In addition, Jack Koubeck, Taylor Pedley, and Wojciech Kochanczyk won the first, second, and third place award in the elevator pitch competition, respectively. Congratulations guys!

January 2020: Journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Effect of PEM fuel cell porous media compression on in-plane transport phenomena" got accepted in Journal of Power Sources Advances. Click here to learn more about this study.

November 2019: Our manuscript entitled "Signature analysis of two-phase flow pressure drop in proton exchange membrane fuel cell flow channels" got accepted in Results in Engineering journal. Click here to learn more about this study.

July 2019: Mehdi Mortazavi presented a conference paper at ASME 2019 Summer Heat Transfer Conference in Hyatt Regency Bellevue, WA. The talk was about a senior design project completed by MTFL members in spring 2019.

June 2019: Mehdi Mortazavi presented a conference paper at ASME 2019 International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels, and Minichannels in St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. In this conference he also chaired the "Transport in Energy Systems" session.

June 2019: Journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "A discussion about two-phase flow pressure drop in proton exchange membrane fuel cells" got accepted in Heat Transfer Engineering Journal. Click here to learn more about this study.

June 2019: Our proposal entitled "Liquid water distribution and pressure characterization in an ex-situ PEM fuel cell" got awarded by Toyota Research Institute of North America. In this study, Dr. Santamaria (PI) and Mortazavi (Co-PI) will study liquid water distribution and transport within a flow channel of a PEM fuel cell. The budget of this proposal is $76,336 and it will end by February 2020.

May 2019: 2019 IEEE ITherm conference

MTFL members, Riccardo Clemente, William Yameen, and Nate Piascik attended 2019 IEEE ITherm conference in Las Vegas, NV. In this conference William presented their senior design project through a poster in the poster session. Also, Riccardo presented their project in a technical talk. The paper they prepared was selected as a Featured Paper and Riccardo was asked to talk for 24 minutes followed by a 6-minute Q&A. In addition to the IEEE ITherm travel grant that was awarded to William Yameen to present the poster, WNE Provost, Dr. Linda Jones, financially supported students trip to the conference which is highly appreciated. Click here to see a copy of their presentation slides (resolution reduced to meet website file size requirement) and here to see a copy of their poster. A copy of their paper is available from the previous post (see below).

May 2019: senior design presentation

Once again MTFL members presented their senior design projects as oral presentations as well as poster presentations at the College of Engineering Senior Design Expo event. This year, 3 projects were completed by MTFL members. In one project, William Yameen, Nathan Piascik, and Riccardo Clemente designed and assembled an experimental setup which allowed them to test heat transfer performance of air-water heat exchangers. They also designed three manifold-microchannel heat exchangers which were ultimately fabricated by additive manufacture (also known as 3D printing). The fabricated heat exchangers were from a stainless steel alloy and were tested at different air and water flow rates. The outcome of their senior design project was 2 conference papers which were presented at IEEE ITherm 2019 conference in Vegas, NV, and ASME Summer Heat Transfer conference in Seattle, WA. Click here to see their IEEE conference paper and here to see their ASME Summer Heat Transfer paper.
In another project, Cory Arden and Joseph Connors studied the effect of gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression on water percolation within the plane of the GDL. They applied different pressures on GDL samples and visualized water percolation with a CCD camera. In addition, they measured liquid water pressure during the injection to the surface of the GDL.
In the third project, Logan LaCroix designed and assembled a machine that can be used in the fin dropping process in baseboard factories. This project was sponsored by Mestek in Westfield, MA.

To learn more about these projects, please watch videos linked below.
video: Additive manufacturing heat exchanger project
video: Water percolation within the GDL
video: Fin dropping machine

April 2019: Mehdi Mortazavi presented "Enhanced Water Removal from PEM Fuel Cell Flow Channels by Superimposing Acoustic Wave" at the 4th Thermal and Fluids Engineering Conference in Las Vegas, NV. Click here to see the presentation slides.

April 2019: Journal paper got accepted. Our manuscript entitled "Enhanced Water Removal from PEM Fuel Cells Using Acoustic Pressure Waves" got accepted in Journal of the Electrochemical Society.

February 2019: Senior student William Yameen awarded IEEE ITherm 2019 travel grant to present a poster in Vegas, NV, in May 2019. William, in collaboration with Nathan Piascik, Andrew Miller, and Riccardo Clemente, designed, fabricated, and evaluated heat transfer performance of three manifold-microchannel heat exchangers. Their senior design project resulted in two conference papers (IEEE ITherm 2019 and ASME Summer Heat Transfer 2019). Congratulations William!

January 29, 2019: Researchers from Toyota Motor North America visited MTFL for potential research collaboration on transport phenomena in PEM fuel cells!

May 2018: Thomas DeMonte was awarded the 2nd place in senior design poster presentation at the College of Engineering Senior Design Expo event. Thomas, in collaboration with Brett Sherman, studied the effect of gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression on water percolation within the plane of the GDL in PEM fuel cells. Tom's project was selected for this competitive award among the pool of over 100 participants in College of Engineering Senior Design Expo. Congratulations Tom!

Senior design presentations, May 2018

MTFL students successfully presented their senior design projects. Projects were also presented at the College of Engineering Senior Design Expo event. Luke Gonyea, Edward Nemchinsky, and Thomas Kozak worked on flow boiling in microchannel project. Mohammad Salem and Abdulrahman Alfaifi studied the effect of fin perforation on heat transfer from hydronic baseboards. Abdulmajeed Aziz studied the effect of superimposing acoustic pressure wave on air stream on water removal from PEM fuel cell flow channels. Thomas DeMonte and Brett Sherman studied the effect of gas diffusion layer (GDL) compression on water percolation within the plane of the GDL in PEM fuel cells. Each project included design, fabrication, assembling, and testing of the test section and experimental setup.

To learn more about senior design projects completed by MTFL members, please watch a short video for each project by simply clicking on the projects listed below (sorry for the background noise as the battery testing machine was running at the time!)
Video: Flow boiling in microchannel
Video: Water percolation in GDL of PEM fuel cell
Video: Enhanced water removal in PEM fuel cell flow channel by superimposing acoustic pressure wave

Conference attended, Fort Lauderdale, FL, Mar 2018

Mehdi Mortazavi attended the 3rd Thermal and Fluid Conference (TFEC) organized by American Society of Thermal and Fluids Engineers (ASTFE). In this conference, he presented "Analysis of Liquid-Gas Two-Phase Flow Pressure Drop Signature in Minichannels"

Journal paper accepted in Energy, Sep 2017

Mahbod Heidari, Mehdi Mortazavi, Alfred Rufer, Design, Modeling, and Experimental Validation of a Novel Finned Reciprocating Compressor for Isothermal Compressed Air Energy Storage Applications

Conference attended, Toronto, Canada, Aug 2017

Mehdi Mortazavi Attended 2017 International Conference on Fluid Flow, Heat and Mass Transfer in Toronto, Canada, and presented "Interaction Between Liquid Droplet Growth and Two-Phase Pressure Drop in PEM Fuel Cell Flow Channels". He also chaired the Heat Transfer session on this conference.

KEEN ICE Workshop, Denver, CO, Aug 2017

Mehdi Mortazavi attended KEEN Innovative Curriculum with Entrepreneurial mindset workshop (ICE) in Denver, CO. During this 3.5-day workshop, fundamental pedagogical techniques of EML, ACL, and PBL were discussed and practiced. In this workshop, he also designed and presented an EML module for his ME 304 - Thermodynamics II course.

Mehdi Mortazavi presenting the EML course module he designed during the workshop.

Senior design presentation award, WNE, May 2017

Luke Allison, an undergraduate ME student, received Best Senior Design Presentation Award in College of Engineering Senior Design Expo. Luke joined MTFL in Fall 2016 and collaborated with Kyle Barrett on his senior design project to study enhanced heat transfer by designing perforated fins for the application of residential baseboards. Congratulations Luke!

Luke Allison (left) presenting his senior design project in COE Senior Design Expo

KEEN Integrated e-Learning Module Workshop, Columbus, OH, June 2017

Mehdi Mortazavi attended KEEN Integrated e-Learning Module Workshop developed by University of New Haven. The module he will be developing is Thinking Creatively which will be deployed in his ME 303 - Thermodynamics I class.

KEEN Winter Conference, Jacksonville, FL, January 2017

Mehdi Mortazavi attended KEEN Winter Conference in Jacksonville, FL. Small ACL and EML modules were practiced in different modules during this conference.