Dissertation Presents Compact Heat Exchanger Development for Extreme Environments

CEEE researcher Zhengda Yao defended his dissertation “Experimental and Computational Analysis of an Extreme Environment Heat Exchanger Co-Designed for Manufacturability and Thermal-Hydraulic Performance.”

Congratulations to Zhengda Yao on successfully defending his Ph.D. dissertation this spring. He presented a highly compact supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) heat exchanger designed for extreme environments, such as power generation systems and aerospace. Developing a high-performance heat exchanger for extreme environments is challenging because they must adhere to strict size weight, and power consumption criteria to ensure efficient thermal systems.

Yao’s research leverages sCO₂ power cycles, additive manufacturing and advanced optimization techniques to enhance the heat exchanger performance. The findings provide theoretical and experimental insights that can drive the advancement of high-performance, cost-effective, compact metal heat exchangers for extreme environments.

Yao is a member of CEEE’s Advanced Heat Exchangers and Process Intensification Consortium; CEEE Co-Founder Michael Ohadi was his advisor. Yao is continuing with CEEE as a research associate in AHXPI’s Smart and Small Thermal Systems Laboratory, where he is developing a large-scale sCO₂ heat exchanger, as well as assisting with other projects in the laboratory.

A searchable listing of CEEE theses and dissertations published 2003-2024 is available online.

Published May 21, 2025