Florian Chavagnat

Florian Chavagnat is a PhD candidate whose research sits at the boundary of applied physics and computational methods. Specifically, he is developing physics-based models that represent the complex nature of boiling heat transfer with the objective of supporting NASA’s potential moon and Mars explorations. As a MathWorks Fellow, Florian will advance his cutting-edge study of the management and transfer of cryogenic fuel. His achievements include: the development of a novel method to deliver experimental diagnostics for cryogenic boiling; a low-cost approach to demonstrate the applicability of boiling diagnostics; and the creation of a flight-ready apparatus to study the influence of reduced gravity on microscale boiling parameters. MATLAB is central to Florian’s research, enabling him to postprocess and analyze data and optimize the formulation of the constitutive relations using the Curve Fitting Toolbox, Global Optimization Toolbox, and Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox. In addition to providing NASA with a first generation of closure models, Florian’s ongoing research is generating new data in a broad range of conditions and advancing the fundamental understanding of the boiling mechanism.