Email: kasseris@mit.edu
Emmanuel Kasseris
About Emmanuel:
Emmanuel Kasseris is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at MIT working on Knock in Boosted Direct Injected engines with Professor John Heywood. As part of his PhD studies, he has also completed a minor in Controls and Mechatronics. Prior to his PhD, Emmanuel received a Masters in Mechanical Engineering from MIT. His MSc. research was a Technology Assessment Study of Future Automotive Powertrains. For the purposes of that study, extensive vehicle modeling was performed for conventional and hybrid powertrains. Before MIT, Emmanuel received a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. As a part of his Diploma Thesis research, Emmanuel designed a system to improve wind energy penetration in small island grids. He has also worked as an HVAC engineer and completed internships in the oil/chemicals and food industry in Greece and Germany.
Current Research:
Boosted Direct Injected Spark Ignited (SIDI) engines hold significant promise in reducing automotive fuel consumption while meeting emissions requirements at a very small cost premium. The main advantage versus conventional port fuel injected (PFI) technology is that in SIDI engines, the enthalpy of vaporization of the fuel is extracted from the charge, thus cooling it. Charge cooling can be used to increase the engine compression ratio and thus its efficiency. This effect is especially pronounced for alcohol fuels such as ethanol due to its high heat of vaporization. However, the understanding of mixture formation processes as well as their interaction with thermochemistry is critical in realizing these benefits. For the purpose of understanding the phenomenon, a set of carefully designed experiments is being carried out on a boosted SIDI engine retrofitted with a PFI system as well. The experiments are also being supported by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling as well as chemical kinetics and 1-D gas dynamics models.