Dr Preethi Rajendram Soundararajan
College Research Associate, (Ph.D. 2022 Université Paris-Saclay) Research Associate, Department of Engineering (Hopkinson Laboratory)
Research interestsDr Preethi Rajendram Soundararajan is currently working in the Engineering Department, focussing on decarbonising combustion in the aviation and energy sector. Prior to this, Preethi completed her PhD at CentraleSupélec, France (formerly Ecole Centrale Paris), with a focus on understanding and mitigating thermoacoustic instabilities encountered in high-performance engines. Preethi is a recipient of the Marie Skłodowska Curie Fellowship and Amelia Earhart Fellowship during her PhD.
Hydrogen is one of the key fuels for carbon-neutral air travel and has been the recent focus of both academic as well as industrial research. Being a highly flammable fuel, hydrogen is easy to burn but poses other challenges in terms of flame flashback and the formation of other pollutants, such as oxides of nitrogen. To tackle these problems, in her current research, Preethi is working closely with industrial partners in developing future low-carbon engines by performing experiments on lab-scale burners to determine the optimal injector configuration that can produce good mixing and flame stabilisation. She is also focussing on improving combustion efficiency by studying the mechanism of plasma-assisted combustion through lab-scale experiments.
Hydrogen is one of the key fuels for carbon-neutral air travel and has been the recent focus of both academic as well as industrial research. Being a highly flammable fuel, hydrogen is easy to burn but poses other challenges in terms of flame flashback and the formation of other pollutants, such as oxides of nitrogen. To tackle these problems, in her current research, Preethi is working closely with industrial partners in developing future low-carbon engines by performing experiments on lab-scale burners to determine the optimal injector configuration that can produce good mixing and flame stabilisation. She is also focussing on improving combustion efficiency by studying the mechanism of plasma-assisted combustion through lab-scale experiments.