An engine is tested while a student inspects the results. — An engine is tested at OSU's Richmond Hills Research Laboratory while Patience Strutton, a senior MAE major, looks on.

Several research papers accepted into AMSE Turbo Expo

Thursday, March 20, 2025

Media Contact: Tanner Holubar | Communications Specialist | 405-744-2065 | tanner.holubar@okstate.edu

The School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering in the College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology at Oklahoma State University continues to widen the impact of its footprint.  

Dr. Kurt Rouser, an associate professor in MAE, has used his nearly 30 years of experience in gas turbine engines to help propel the program to greater heights. This has resulted in more students' success in the program, and Rouser has been named the chair of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Aircraft Engine Committee beginning this summer. 

His students have made their presence felt at conferences, including the ASME Turbo Expo, which will be held this year in Memphis, Tennessee, from June 16 to 20.  

Five research papers have been accepted to be presented at the conference, with one recommended to be published in the ASME journal during the conference. The research topics range from propellers, ducted fan inlet distortion and turboelectric power for unmanned aircraft. 

“To see us being this successful means that we are much more relevant and having that much more of an impact, and that is significant,” Rouser said. “I also see the sheer number of students who are publishing papers and then leaving here with a working knowledge of the industry they are going into.” 

Justice Basset (left) and Patience Strutton, both seniors in the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, work on pieces of a jet engine at Richmond HIlls Research Lab.

Two of the papers began with Rouser’s first two graduate students he worked with when he started at OSU in 2016. Rouser stuck with this research after the students graduated, and the papers have them as co-authors after being accepted this year. 

One student had designed a type of propeller flow control, but it would not work correctly on the team’s wind tunnel propeller dynamometer at that time, which measures force and power, leading to the student being unable to gather definitive data. Rouser said the research was strong, providing enough for a research paper, but definitive data would have made the paper more cumulative.  Since then, subsequent undergraduate students improved the dynamometer and tested the propeller flow control, confirming a significant performance improvement at low-speed operation.

Another student was working on a boundary layer ingestion inlet for unmanned aircraft, an intake that “ingests” slow-moving air within the boundary layer that forms on the fuselage or wing. In this design, half of the inlet is embedded in the aircraft and the other half sticks above the aircraft. This results in the aircraft’s exhaust being emptied into the wake of the aircraft, reducing overall drag.  

“We decided we were going to study that to look at how much distortion there really is,” Rouser said. “At the time, NASA was doing a lot of work with MIT on how to do this for commercial transports. NASA was studying this for aircraft going about Mach 0.8. We were studying this on unmanned aircraft going about Mach .08.” At this slower speed, the flow is expected to behave very differently, but it had not been previously studied. Though the performance benefits of the inlet configuration could be significant, the study revealed potential concerns about fan flow separation and dynamic structural loads.

Both papers had been submitted multiple times for the Turbo Expo and other publication sources, as Rouser was determined to continue the work long after the students had graduated. After seven years, the papers have been refined to the point of being accepted, following numerous rejections.  

Rouser was proud of the work both students had done, including the fact that both papers were good enough for thesis publications.  

“My philosophy is that if a paper is good enough for a thesis, I think it is worthy of a conference or journal,” Rouser said. “If it gets approved by a committee to be a thesis, there should be something in there that is publishable.”   

The papers were peer-reviewed by reviewers representing academia, government and industry. Rouser said that having papers peer-reviewed is great for students’ research. 

“You have to make it through those three reviewers, on top of the actual session chair, so it’s a big deal for us to get five papers accepted,” Rouser said. “Whenever I’ve published at the Turbo Expo myself, the best I’ve ever done before was two papers in one year.” 

Having more and more students participating in conferences like the Turbo Expo, as well as continuing an upward trajectory of success at these conferences, shows the program continues to grow under Rouser.  

In the past, it may have been mostly senior students getting hands-on experience in the lab. Now, students can get experience starting in their first year of the program, giving them a foundation to build on as they progress.  

With so many spokes in the wheel of his program, Rouser said it is key to develop student talent by providing them with research opportunities. 

“Their skills, knowledge, expertise and experiences — we’ve got to build that in the lab environment, not just the classroom,” Rouser explained.  

The influx of students presenting at these conferences has drawn the attention of several companies, highlighting the capability of OSU MAE students. 

“Suddenly, I’m getting contacted by industry professionals from across the country saying they are aware of our program,” Rouser said. “They have said they hired a student, and they have been great and looking to hire more students. So, you can help companies be more aware of what our students are doing by getting them to participate in the program. Maybe that can be companies providing some research or design ideas or coming to talk to our students.”