Contact Information
Phone:(808) 956-2370
Office: POST 207D
Email:bchao@eng.hawaii.edu
Research Website

Theoretical investigation on chemically reactive flows: Study of various combustion phenomena such as flame propagation, ignition, extinction, stability flammability and soot formation under the effects of flow non-uniformity, conductive and radiative heat loss, preferential diffusion, product dissociation, natural convection and stoichiometirc mixture fraction by appropriate mathematical and numerical methods.

•Combustion in porous media: Investigation of combustion and heat transfer in an inert or catalytic porous bed and the smoldering combustion in chemically reactive porous materials under various flow conditions by theoretical approaches.

•Combustion synthesis of advanced materials: Theoretical study of various combustion phenomena in the self-propagating, high-temperature synthesis (SHS) processes, such as the pulsating and spinning propagation of combustion wave, and extinction of the combustion front; as well as the gas-phase combustion synthesis of metal and ceramic particles, to gain a better understanding on the combustion characteristics of such techniques.

Honors and Awards

Board of Regents’ Medal for Excellence in Teaching
Award, UH, 2002

Selected Publications

Liu, S., Chao, B. H. and Axelbaum, R. L., A Theoretical Study on Soot Inception in Spherical Burner-Stabilized Diffusion Flames, Combustion and Fame, in press (2005).

Sunderland, P. B., Urban, D. L., Stocker, D. P., Chao, B. H. and Axelbaum, R. L., Sooting Limits of Microgravity Spherical Diffusion Flames in Oxygen-Enriched Air and Diluted Fuel, Combustion Science and Technology 176, 2143–2164 (2004).

Z. Sun , R.L. Axelbaum, B.H. Chao " A multicomponent sectional model applied to flame synthesis of nanoparticles," Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 29: 1063-1069 Part 1, 2003.

P.B. Sunderland, R.L. Axelbaum, D.L. Urban, B.H. Chao and S. Liu , " Effects of structure and hydrodynamics on the sooting behavior of spherical microgravity diffusion flames," Combustion and Flame 132 (1-2): 25-33 2003

Chao, B. H., Instability of Burner-Stabilized Flame with Volumetric Heat Loss, Combustion and Flame 126, 1476–1488 (2001).S. Liu, B. H. Chao and R. L. Axelbaum, “On Combustion with Condensed Phase Products: Applications to Droplet Burning of Magnesium in Carbon Dioxide,” Combustion Science and Technology, 170: 35-65, 2001.

B. H. Chao and R. L. Axelbaum, “On By-Product Production in Nonpremixed Flames with Implications Towards Emission of Organics during Waste Incineration,” Combustion Science and Technology 160, 191-220, 2000.

B. H. Chao and R. L. Axelbaum, “Triaxial Burke-Schumann Flames with Applications to Flame Synthesis,” Combustion Science and Technology 156, 291-314, 2000.

B. H. Chao and Y. Q. Xia, “Diffusional-Thermal Instability of Cylindrical Burner-Stabilized Premixed Flames,” Combustion and Flame 121, 625-639, 2000.

B. H. Chao, S. Liu and R. L. Axelbaum, “On Soot Inception in Nonpremixed Flames and the Effects of Flame Structure,” Combustion Science and Technology 138, 105-135, 1998.

B. H. Chao, F. N. Egolfopoulos and C. K. Law, “Structure and Propagation of Premixed Flame in Nozzle-Generated Counterflow,” Combustion and Flame 109, 620-638, 1997.

B. H. Chao, H. Wang and P. Cheng, “Stagnation Point Flow of a Chemically Reactive Fluid in a Catalytic Porous Bed,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 39, 3003-3019, 1996.

B. H. Chao and C. K. Law, “Laminar Flame Propagation with Volumetric Heat Loss and Chain Branching-Termination Reactions,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 37, 673-680, 1994.

B. H. Chao, P. Cheng and T. Le, “Free-Convective Diffusion Flame Sheet in Porous Media,” Combustion Science and Technology 99, 221-234, 1994.

B. H. Chao, C. K. Law, and J. S. T’ien, “Structure and Extinction of Diffusion Flames with Flame Radiation,” Twenty-Third Symposium (International) on Combustion, 523-531, The Combustion Institute, 1991.

Courses Taught

Thermodynamics; Applied Thermodynamics; Mechanics of Fluids; Computer Methods in Engineering; Advanced Mathematics for Engineers;Introduction to Gas Dynamics, Viscous and Turbulent Flows; Advanced Topics in Mechanical Engineering: Transport Phenomena in Reactive Flows.