Hemanth Venkatesan

Background: 

I graduated with my Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Bangalore, India, in 2018. After my graduation, I worked as a lead engineer at FLSmidth, Chennai, India, for two years, where I handled one of the company's products in a cement production line, the ATOX mill, which is used to crush limestone extracted from the quarry. I arrived at KTH to pursue my Master's degree in Aerospace Engineering with a specialization in Space Technology in 2021. I graduated with my Master's degree and enrolled in my doctoral studies in 2023 at KTH. 

Project Overview: 

With the rising need for rocket launches every year, there has been increasing interest in the reusable rocket domain from space agencies and companies around the world; SpaceX has been leading the charge to land lower rocket stages at precise locations after they have accomplished their goal of providing the required acceleration to the higher rocket stages. There is ambition in Europe to develop similar capabilities and competencies for the upcoming ESA rockets; GKN Aerospace Sweden AB is one of the companies working on such projects, participating in ESA's Prometheus project. 

Within the scope of reusable rockets, several aspects are being investigated, one of them being additive manufacturing (AM), which is touted to take over from conventional manufacturing, such as casting and forging. There are several benefits to AM, some of them being shorter product development times, shorter lead times and the possibility to accommodate design changes quickly; however, there is an inherent problem with this method which is the surface roughness of as-built surfaces compared to conventional methods which needs to be treated for good properties, and hence undercuts the benefit of shorter production times with this method. 

Research:

My research focuses on studying the effects of surface roughness on aerodynamic and heat transfer performance of additively manufactured components in turbomachinery.