Blunck Research Group

The Director

Dr. David L. Blunck

Associate Dean for Undergraduate Program of College of Engineering

Associate Professor in the Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering (MIME) Department

Covell Hall 121 
541-737-7095
David.Blunck@oregonstate.edu

David is a hardworking and organized researcher who believes in mentoring leaders for the future. At Oregon State University, David leads the Undergraduate Program (about 1700 students) as the Associate Head in the School of Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering. His accomplishments are so impressive that he won the Welty Faculty Fellow Award three years in a row (2015-2018). David is a leader in the cutting-edge study of reacting flows, wildfires, gas turbine engines, and infrared thermography. David has graduated 17 M.S., Ph.D., or postdoctoral scholars and is advising or co-advising an additional 10 graduate students/postdocs/faculty research associate. He has brought over $10 million dollars of research grants at Oregon State University since 2013. He established the Combustion, Ignition, Radiation and Energy Laboratory and co-founded the Propulsion Laboratory (one of a few laboratories in the Pacific Northwest Universities with remote testing in real time). David was named the 2014-2015 AIAA Pacific Northwest Section Young Engineer of the Year award and received many more listed in the Honors and Awards section.

The interesting fact is that David has a consistent track record even before joining the Oregon State University. He received the Simpson’s Team Award and was nominated for a Presidential Early Career Award at Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, OH (2010-13). From 2005-2010, he focused on studying infrared emissions from flows as a graduate student researcher at Purdue University. David was selected as the outstanding graduate student in the mechanical engineering program in 2010.

Dr. Blunck’s scholarly accomplishments are internationally recognized. He has published 40 peer-reviewed papers, over 60 conference publications, 2 book sections, and has given 40 invited presentations. His research has received international and national media attention (e.g., National Public Ratio in 2021, National Geographic in 2020, Discovery Channel in 2018, etc.). U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said, “…David Blunck has proven himself a key contributor to understanding the fundamentals of wildfire growth … This work could be critically important to understanding and preventing the growth of the catastrophic wildfires plaguing the West.” 

Perhaps Dr. Blunck’s accomplishments, however, are through mentoring and training students. David has graduated 17 M.S., Ph.D., or post-doctoral scholars and is advising or co-advising an additional 10 graduate students/post-docs. Ten of his former or current students have worked or interned at national laboratories.

Faculty Research Associate

Dr. Deepak Sharma

Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering

Email: sharmade@oregonstate.edu

Dr. Sharma is an accomplished and dedicated faculty research associate with expertise in various research fields. Currently, he is working on identifying the physics of vegetation and building material fire behavior using experimental and machine-learning methods. Deepak completed his postdoctoral research in Dec 2022, and he focused on the development of liquid fuel injectors for supersonic propulsion devices. Deepak’s doctorate research aimed at developing energy-efficient and durable water desalination technology where he developed a novel airblast atomization mechanism with complete suppression of fouling and a low-grade heat-based actuator for the desalination unit. He published 2 patents and peer-reviewed journals from his work. In 2022, he earned his doctorate degree, demonstrating his deep understanding and contribution to these areas. Dr. Sharma's research journey began with a master's degree from IIT Patna in 2017, where he laid the foundation for his research career. Prior to his Ph.D., he worked on phase-change thermal management using microchannel heat sinks. He used surface modification and vapor venting techniques to achieve excellent heat transfer and patented the design. He also worked on renewable energy technology called gasifiers to operate absorption-desorption refrigeration systems. His exceptional knowledge and extensive experience make him a valuable asset in advancing innovative solutions for sustainable energy, efficient thermal management, and environmental conservation.

Post-Doctoral Research Associate

Dr. Ajay Singh

Post Doc in CIRE/Propulsion Lab in the Mechanical, Industrial, and Manufacturing Engineering Department

Email: singhaja@oregonstate.edu

Dr. Singh is a consistent and hardworking researcher with a background and working experience in multidisciplinary areas of engineering. Currently, he is working as a postdoc in CIRE lab under the mentorship of Dr. Blunck. He is working on two research projects; 1) close-loop control of an automated woodstove to reduce PM emission (funded by DOE) and 2) identifying ignition and burning behavior of live fuel during wildfires (funded by SERDP). He earned is doctorate degree from Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (India), an institute of national importance. His Doctoral research focused on understanding cyclic combustion dynamics of advanced low temperature (HCCI & RCCI) and conventional (SI & CI) internal combustion engines using nonlinear and chaotic methods. Out of his PhD work he published 6 research papers in peer-reviewed journals with high impact factor. He has published and presented his research work in both International and National conferences. He did his Masters’ degree in Hydropower Engineering from MANIT, Bhopal, one of the prestigious institutes of national importance in India. He did his bachelor’s degree in Mechatronics.

His work and expertise include but not limited to Combustion in IC Engines and wood stoves, wildfires, statistical and nonlinear time series analysis, developing DAQ systems using LABVIEW and Arduino, Microcontroller (Arduino), Machine Learning, chaotic analysis, electromechanical systems. He has an experience of teaching various undergrad courses for more than 3 years. He has an excellent academic record securing 1st position in both his Master’s and bachelor’s program. Dr. Singh is also a good poet and performer and has won many awards for his poetry and standup.

Research Focus: Cyclic Combustion Dynamics of Low-Temperature (HCCI & RCCI) and conventional (SI &CI) combustion Engines, Non-linear and Chaotic time series analysis, Quantification of determinism in dynamics, Model/Control of burning in Wood Stove, Wildfire Spread

Nate Gardner (Ph.D)

Email: gardnena@oregonstate.edu

Research Group: CIRE LAB

Role in Research Group: Graduate Research Assistant

Major: Mechanical engineering, thermal fluid sciences

Field of Research: I study wildfire combustion with a focus on the burning behavior of live fuels. I do experimental design at a laboratory scale, carry out experiments, and perform data analysis.

Year joined/Intended graduation: 2019-2024

Notable: Bachelor of science in mechanical engineering, ARCS Foundation Scholar, selected for Gas Turbine Industrial Fellowship.

Prabin Shrestha (Ph.D)

Research Group: CIRE LAB

Role in Research Group: Identifying key physics in forced air combustion in heating stoves

Major: Mechanical Engineering (Thermal–Fluid Sciences)

Field of Research: Wood Combustion Diagnostics

Year joined/Intended graduation: 2022 / 2025-26

Notable: Responsible for managing Environmental Health and Safety portal for the Blunck Lab

David Evitt (Ph.D)

CIRE LAB

Research Focus: Identifying Scaling and Design Rules for Air Jets in Biomass Combustion.

Applying fan-driven jets of air to household-scale biomass combustion devices such as wood cooking and heating stoves can reduce particulate emissions on the order of 90% with optimized hardware and operation. This research aims to develop deisng rules based on scaling variables to help device designers implement this pollution reduction approach and accelerate adoption.

Kyle Weber (Ph.D)

Research Group: PROPULSION LAB

Role in Research Group: Propulsion Lab Researcher

Major: Thermal/Fluid Sciences

Field of Research: Detonation, Rotating Detonation Combustors

Year joined/Intended graduation: Joined in 2021/ Graduate 2025

Michelle Gee (M.S.)

Research Group: CIRE Lab 

Role: Graduate Research Assistant 

Year joined/Intended graduation: 2023/2024 

Major: mechanical engineering, thermal-fluid sciences 

Field of Research: My research focus is within combustion, on fuel consumption modeling. I am currently working on a model with detailed chemical kinetics for reacting flows in porous media. It solves transport equations from a chemical composition input of reference species cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, non-structural carbophydrates, and lipids in 1d to predict mass evolution for living vegetative fuels.  

Notable: I did my undergrad at OSU-Cascades in Bend where I did undergraduate research in the Water and Energy Technologies Lab. I graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2022 and began work as a research engineer. In 2023, I moved to Corvallis and started grad school in the CIRE lab. In my free time, I like rock climbing outside with friends and my dog Wayne. 

Marshall Andersen (M.S.)

Research Group: CIRE Lab

Role in Research Group: Graduate Research Assistant

Major: Mechanical Engineering, Thermal Fluid Science

Field of Research: Wildfire fuel pyrolysis and ignition

Year joined/Intended graduation: Spring 2022

Notable: Developed TG-FTIR-GC method to study time dependent production of pyroyzates from solid fuel. Results are expected to improve accuracy of wildfire fuel models representing living fuel.