April 9
@
4:00 PM
–
5:00 PM
The ME 903: Graduate Student Lecture Series features campus and visiting speakers who present on a variety of research topics in the field of mechanical engineering. Professor Riley Barta is a professor at Purdue University.
Title: Bridging Scales: High-Fidelity Characterization and Modeling to Deploy Sustainable Working Fluids
Abstract: Climate change is driving the decarbonization of energy systems, where reducing direct and indirect CO₂ emissions is critical to lowering the environmental impact of cooling, heating, and power conversion technologies. Approximately 40% of U.S. energy is consumed by buildings, and interest in decarbonizing commercial cooling and industrial processes through heat pumps and waste heat recovery is rapidly increasing. At the same time, the environmental impact of the working fluids themselves cannot be overlooked, and evolving regulations phasing out working fluids further complicate the development of sustainable thermal systems. This talk will address these themes in the context of two research efforts: High-temperature heat pumps and expansion work recovery in transcritical CO₂ refrigeration systems. In these efforts, experimental and numerical methods were employed across a range of fidelities, from empirical correlations to high-frequency pressure pulsation measurements. The challenges and opportunities associated with low-global-warming-potential working fluids will be discussed, along with examples of ongoing research, infrastructure development, and future directions.
Bio: Riley Barta has been an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University’s Ray W. Herrick Laboratories since 2023. His research area is thermal systems technology, with a focus on the characterization and implementation of environmentally friendly working fluids and the development of equipment to utilize them in vapor compression systems, waste heat utilization, refrigerant property characterization, data center and electronics cooling as well as aircraft thermal management. In 2024, Dr. Barta received the ASHRAE New Investigator Award to focus on practical challenges surrounding zeotropic mixtures in heat pumps.
Before starting joining the faculty at Purdue University, Dr. Barta received an Alexander von Humboldt Postdoctoral Fellowship while working for several years as the Refrigeration Research Group Leader at the TU Dresden in Germany. Additionally, he received the DKV (German Refrigeration Society) Young Talent Award for his Ph.D. Dissertation on efficiency increasing measures for transcritical CO2 refrigeration systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Purdue University.