Philip Ansell
Associate Professor
Allen Ormsbee Faculty Scholar
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Department of Aerospace Engineering

About the seminar:
The aeronautics industry has been challenged on many fronts to increase flight efficiency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and decrease dependence on traditional hydrocarbon fuels. Recently, the aviation sector has surpassed a CO2 production rate of 1 billion metric tons per year, which without new interventions in policy, technology, and business practices, will further increase alongside the growing air-transport market. Electrification of aircraft systems offers a promising avenue for decarbonizing aviation, though in a fashion unique from approaches used in other transportation markets. This talk will provide a background into aircraft electrification, describe technological developments that enable improvements towards environmentally-responsible air transportation, and forecast a vision for future generations of aircraft systems. A case study is provided, focusing on the integration of hydrogen-electric systems for zero-emissions aircraft operations.

About the speaker:
Dr. Phillip J. Ansell is an Associate Professor and Allen Ormsbee Faculty Scholar in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is also the director of the Center for High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA) focused on developing advanced technologies for electrified aircraft propulsion. His primary areas of work include subsonic and transonic aerodynamics, sustainable aviation, aero-propulsive integration, air-vehicle design, and aircraft propulsion electrification.