[Emily Ryan] Developing Energy Technologies for the Future: Micron to Device Scale
Developing Energy Technologies for the Future: Micron to Device Scale
Emily Ryan
Junior Faculty Fellow, Hariri Institute for Computing
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering/Division of
Materials Science and Engineering
Boston University
Abstract: With increasing concerns over global warming and decreasing recoverable fossil fuel reserves, development of advanced energy technologies is critical to a sustainable future. Efficient energy conversion and storage technologies, such as fuel cells and high energy density batteries, are needed along with technologies to control and remediate pollution from existing technologies, such as coal burning power plants. Computational modeling can be a powerful tool for the design of new technologies and understanding the operation and performance of existing technologies. A major computational challenge for energy technologies is the complex multi-physics occurring over multiple length and time scales. Resolving the overall operation and performance of a device from the micron through meter scales in one model is computationally intractable. Instead multiple computational models and methods are needed and frameworks for coupling these models together need to be developed. In this talk I will discuss the development of computational models at various scales and the coupling and upscaling of computational models to simulate overall device scale performance of energy technologies. As part of the discussion the issues of verification, validation and uncertainty quantification will be addressed along with their impact on model development and use.
Bio: Professor Emily Ryan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University. She received her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon University in 2009, where her dissertation research focused on numerical modeling of chromium poisoning in the cathode of a solid oxide fuel cell. After graduating from Carnegie Mellon she worked as a post-doctoral research associate and staff computational scientist in the Computational Mathematics and Engineering group at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Since joining Boston University in 2012, she founded the Computational Energy Laboratory, which focuses on the development of computational models of advanced energy systems, including fuel cells, carbon capture technologies, and advanced battery technologies. Funding for her research comes from the Department of Energy, Samsung Electric Corporation, and Boston University.