Homepage - Theoreticalibus - Software - Experimentation - Junk - About me

Theses & reports

PhD thesis, PoliMi, VKI - [May 2021]
Moment methods for non-equilibrium low-temperature plasmas with application to electric propulsion - In this thesis, I analyze Hall thruster space propulsion devices. Modeling these plasmas presents some quite unique challanges: electrons are magnetized and show some weird velocity distribution function, that is both asymmetric and donut-shaped (super-Maxwellian kurthosis). Ions on the other hand are almost collisionless, but their velocity distribution function gets very sharp due to the interplay between the electrostatic acceleration field and the ionization chemical reactions.

Here is some stuff that you'll find in the thesis (believe me, it's all related to Hall thruster modeling!)

• Rarefied Riemann problems and Supersonic jets;
• Plasma dispersion relations, 1D and 2D test cases for ions and electrons;
• Some funny strategy for injecting neutrals into a Hall thruster engine.

Research Master report, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics - [July 2017]
Simulations of electron concentration in the wake of meteors and application to radio observations - The problem of atmospheric entry of meteors is studied with the principal aim of simulating the free electrons concentrations in the tail, for radio observation purposes. DSMC simulations of spheric nonablating meteors are performed at 20 and 72 km/s. The topology of a meteor trail is analyzed. A previously developed 1D Lagrangian reactor (see MSc thesis) is extended to 2D geometries and applied to compute the electrons concentration in the diffusing and reacting trail.

MSc thesis, Politecnico di Milano - [September 2016]
Development of a Lagrangian solver for thermochemical nonequilibrium flows - My first step into nonequilibrium flows! Deals with the development of a solver in C++ that might correct a rough numerical simulation by including a more detailed chemistry and/or thermal nonequilibrium. Aimed at hypersonic flows, such as atmospheric entry.

Publications
For a list of my papers, see my Google Scholar profile.

Various (free-time stuff, not work)

Unsteady quasi-1D flows - [Theory, 2018] - A blackboard derivation for unsteady quasi-1D isentropic flows. The derivation of this unsteady case is simple, yet not so common in textbooks!

Design and SPICE simulation of BJT amplifiers and oscillators - [PDF, 2019] - Some handwritten notes on the practical design (how to pick the components values etc). Includes SPICE netlists for the simulated examples and for some transfer functions.

Notes on the angular kinematics of a rigid body - [PDF, 2023] - A handwritten derivation of the time derivatives of the Cardano angles, for a rotating rigid body (Octave/Matlab script included).