Researcher Story
Modeling Particulate Emissions from Residential Wood Heaters
Wood-based heating appliances, such as wood stoves, remain a common source of residential heating across the United States, including within Tennessee. However, particulate matter released from these appliances can negatively affect air quality and human health.
Researchers at Tennessee Tech are using computer simulations of fluid flow and particle transport to improve the methods used to measure these pollutants. The research focuses on modeling solid and liquid aerosol particles across sizes ranging from nanometers to micrometers.
This work aims to support the design of systems that can accurately quantify particulate emissions and enable reliable evaluation of residential heating appliances against emissions standards.
How RCD Supports the Research
Research Computing & Data provides access to the high-performance computing resources needed to run computational fluid dynamics (CFD) applications and model particle transport across a wide range of sizes.
With support from RCD staff, the researchers also develop customized software for accurately modeling solid and liquid aerosol particles spanning the nanometer-to-micrometer size range. These resources make it possible to perform computationally intensive simulations that would be difficult to conduct efficiently on an individual workstation.
Research Team
Dr. Austin Andrews, Leander Tenbarge, Benjamin Landsberg, Samuel Ellis
Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering