Alina A. Alexeenko BS, MS, PhD

Professor Alexeenko’s research is centered on computational and experimental studies of rarefied gas flow phenomena occurring in both high-altitude flight such as smallsat propulsion, spacecraft contamination, plume interactions, high-altitude aerothermodynamics; and in emerging technologies such as micro-electro-mechanical systems for space communications and micropropulsion and in vacuum manufacturing processes. Broadening applications of rarefied gas dynamics is one of her long-term research goals.

Alexeenko's group at Purdue has developed fast computational algorithms and solvers for the deterministic, as opposed to the stochastic DSMC, solution of rarefied flow problems. Such new techniques are especially useful in studying low-speed and/or unsteady flows and have allowed to address several challenging problems, such as the aerodynamic damping in MEMS and shock wave propagation at microscale. Additionally, the research led to novel microdevice concepts that exploit the unique microscale, rarefied flow physics for gas sensing and smallsat propulsion.