People

Principal Investigator & Advisor

Dr. Sven Schmitz joined the faculty of Aerospace Engineering at Penn State University in 2010. He received a diploma degree in Aerospace Engineering from RWTH Aachen (Germany) in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from the University of California Davis in 2006. Sven spent four years as a post-doctoral researcher and project scientist at Davis before coming to Penn State. He is an expert in rotary wing aerodynamics with an emphasis on vortical flows. His growing research program embraces the areas of wind turbine aerodynamics and rotorcraft aeromechanics. Current activities include wind farm wake modeling, icing on wind turbines, rotor hub flows, and rotor active control.

Read more at Sven Schmitz’s biography page.

Current Students

Postdoc

Ph.D.

Pierce started his aerospace engineering journey  in his hometown Glasgow, Scotland where he attended the University of Glasgow from 2013-2018, graduating with a Masters of Engineering. Having previously enjoyed several family vacations in the US, in 2016, bored in a lecture, Pierce applied to work as a camp counsellor at a summer camp for underprivileged children. He loved his time so much that he ended up back on the other side of the Atlantic, this time as a research assistant at Penn State where he worked under Dr. Philip Morris in his aeroacoustics laboratory for 6 months. During this time he discovered a passion for research. Having “drank the blue Kool-Aid”, Pierce decided to pursue a Ph.D at Penn State when he joined Schmitz’s aerodynamic group in August 2018. Having worked on the design of ultra efficient commercial transport aircraft, developing force/drag decomposition methods over the last 4 years, Pierce aims to use his skillset to contribute towards sustainable aviation development. When he’s not in the lab you can expect to find Pierce volunteering at the local animal shelter, Centre County PAWS, or making a fool of himself lifting barbells at State College Strength & Conditioning. 

Jason Cornelius is a senior in the Schreyer Honors College pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering with a minor in Russian. His interests are in CFD and conceptual design of rotorcraft, as well as wind turbine technology. He has research experience from the NASA Ames Research Center and Bell Helicopter. While at Penn State he has been the aerodynamics lead for the Collegiate Wind Competition team which claimed multiple national victories at the Department of Energy hosted competitions. This spring semester he is finishing his undergraduate studies at the St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He will pursue a MS and PhD in Rotorcraft Aeromechanics following his return.

B.S Honors Thesis (Penn State, 2018): An Efficient CFD Approach for Co-Axial Rotor Simulations
M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2019): Efficient CFD Approaches for Coaxial Rotor Simulations

Desirae joined the Rotary Wing Aerodynamics Group in 2017 after receiving her Bachelor’s of Science and Engineering in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, along with a minor in Sustainable Energy, from Princeton University in 2016. While at Princeton, Desirae completed undergraduate thesis research studying the effect of leading-edge modifications on the aerodynamics of the blade and wake structure of a vertical axis wind turbine blade using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) under the advisement of Luigi Martinelli. As a part of the Schmitz group, Desirae completed her Master’s of Science in 2019 on the aerodynamics of leading-edge protection tapes for mega-watt scale wind turbines using experimental and computational fluid dynamics methods. Current research topics includes the coupled aerodynamic-fatigue behavior of large offshore wind turbine blade, naval ship airwakes under the influence of atmospheric boundary layer inflow, and ship airwake-rotorcraft interactions. In her spare time, Desirae is a Volunteer Assistant Coach for the Penn State Varsity Fencing Team and volunteers at Centre County PAWS.

B.S.E. Thesis (Princeton University, 2016): Exploring the Effect of Tubercles on Vertical Axis Wind Turbine Performance
M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2019): Design, Analysis, and Testing of Leading-Edge Protection Tapes for Wind Turbine Blades

Stephen is an incoming PhD student who joined the Rotary Wing Aerodynamics Group in 2022. He received a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering at Penn State University in 2020. In his time as an undergraduate student, Stephen engaged in experimental aeroacoustics research under Professor Philip Morris. For his undergraduate thesis, Stephen studied the acoustics of a co-annular jet nozzle operating in low-supersonic and high-subsonic regimes using a helium-air mixture to simulate heat. Stephen continued graduate studies at Penn State. Stephen developed noise source models of commercial aircraft in a variety of operating conditions using NASA’s ANOPP software as a Master’s student. Stephen continued experimental research as a graduate student, and his Master’s thesis research has a focus on jet noise experiments and the design and fabrication of a wind tunnel to expand the forward flight capabilities of the Penn State open jet anechoic facility. Stephen is studying experimental coaxial rotor hub flow in the water tunnel at the Penn State Applied Research Lab for his PhD research.

Masters

Gracelyne joined the Rotary Wing Aerodynamics Group in 2021 after completing her Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering at Penn State. She graduated with honors through the Schreyer Honors College, completing an undergraduate thesis outlining the implementation and simulation of an autonomous fixed-wing into a neural-network-based, nonlinear control environment. During her undergraduate studies, she served as the team lead for the AIAA Design Build Fly Competition team, mentored incoming students as a member of the Women in Engineering Program leadership team, and guided students through aircraft manufacturing processes as a PSU Sailplane teaching intern. As an MS student, she is investigating the aerodynamic design and vehicle performance of the NASA Dragonfly octocopter. Current research topics include interactional aerodynamics and mission-based rotor design.

B.S. Honors Thesis (Penn State, 2021): Autopilot Design for the Takeoff and Landing of a Tailwheel Airplane

Samuel joined the Rotary Wing Aerodynamics Group in 2021 after completing a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering with an Aerospace Emphasis at Brigham Young University. While studying at BYU, he worked as an undergraduate researcher carrying out SPIV wind tunnel tests on closely spaced propellers. During his senior year, he worked as team lead for BYU team that competed in the Collegiate Wind Competition in 2021. Currently, Samuel’s research involves predicting aerodynamic forces on prolate spheroids in low speed maneuvers with various CFD methods. Outside of school, Samuel enjoys spending time with his wife and newborn son, getting outside as much as possible, and wasting time pursuing any of his many hobbies.

Matheus is a second year master’s student. He joined Dr. Schmitz’s aerodynamic group in fall 2021 after receiving his Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace Engineering at Penn State University in 2021. During his time as an undergraduate student, he developed a strong interest in computational fluid dynamics and propulsion systems. Consequently, his current research focuses on the investigation of transonic transportation aircrafts with alternative propulsive configurations that aim to develop a more sustainable propulsion system performance. In his spare time, Matheus enjoys flying airplanes, watching soccer, as the true Brazilian that he is, and playing sports.

Undergraduate

Albert Abraham is a senior pursuing a degree in Aerospace Engineering. His interests are in drag decomposition and CFD. Currently, he is an undergraduate research assistant investigating how different actuator disk configurations effect the solutions of Boundary Layer Ingestion (BLI) cases. He will pursue a MS in Aerodynamics in Fall 2022.

Alumni

Ph.D. Dissertation (Penn State, 2016): Effects of Daytime Atmospheric Boundary Layer Turbulence on the Generation of Nonsteady Wind Turbine Loadings and Predictive Accuracy of Lower Order Models

Ph.D. Dissertation (Penn State, 2020): Time-Domain Aeroelastic Stability Predictions of Semi-Span Tiltrotor
M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2015): Optimization of Active Flap Deployment for Efficient In-plane Rotor Noise Reduction

Ph.D. Dissertation (Penn State, 2019): An Investigation of Coupled Atmospheric Turbulence and Ship Airwakes for Helicopter Ship Dynamic Interface Simulations

Ph.D. Dissertation (Penn State, 2017): Experimental Investigation of a Helicopter Rotor Hub Flow
M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2013): Water Tunnel Experiments on a Model Scale Helicopter Rotor Hub

Ph.D. Dissertation (Penn State, 2015): Characterization of Wake Turbulence in a Wind Turbine Array Submerged in Atmospheric Boundary Layer Flow

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2020): Large Eddy Simulations of Scaled Wind-Tunnel Experiments for Ship Airwake Analysis

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2019): Scaled-Model Testing of Rotor Hub Root-End Airfoil Shapes

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2017): Experimental Study of Wake Impingement on a Horizontal Stabilizer

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2017): Automated Design and Evaluation of Airfoils for Rotorcraft Applications [Co-Advisor]

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2016): Computational Investigation of Boundary-layer Ingestion Propulsion System for the Common Research Model [Co-Advisor]

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2015): Modeling Wind Turbine/Tower Interactions Within an Actuator Line Model

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2015): An Experimental and Computational Approach to Iced Wind Turbine Aerodynamics

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2012): Wind Turbines Under Atmospheric Icing Conditions – Ice Accretion Modeling, Aerodynamics, and Control Strategies for Mitigating Performance Degradation

M.S. Thesis (Penn State, 2013): A Solution-based Stall Delay Model for Horizontal Axis Wind Turbines