Flux publications Open Science

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c.morzadec — 2019-10-16T15:21:34Z

Annafederica Urbano is a professor in Launchers and Space Systems. She carries out her research activities in the Advanced Space Concepts team at the Department of Design and Control of Aerospace Vehicles (DCAS).

A. Urbano is an expert in space propulsion and space transportation systems. She obtained her Ph.D. in 2012 from La Sapienza University of Rome with a thesis on the regenerative cooling system of methane liquid rocket engines. Her research areas of expertise are related with the numerical simulation of reactive and two phase flows in liquid rocket engines : supercritical combustion, thermoacoustic instabilities, nucleate boiling in micro-gravity, two phase compressible flows, transcritical fluids and heat transfer deterioration. Part of her activity is also devoted to space system analysis (rocket engines and launchers) : multi-disciplinary analysis and optimisation, surrogate models from CFD and artificial intelligence.

She is the coordinator of the ESA Topical team “Propellant management physics”. She has been member of the Space Propulsion Committee of the International Astronautical Federation since 2022.
She is author or co-author of 26 ranked-A journal articles.
She is a reviewer for several scientific journals, including International Journal of Heat and mass Transfer, Journal of Multi-phase flows and Combustion and Flame.

In the Advanced Space Concepts team, A. Urbano is responsible for the SaCLaB2 chair funded by Ariane Group and Airbus Defense and Space and she leads the research activities devoted to liquid propulsion and launchers.

Background

2006 B.Sc Aerospace Engineering, Sapienza University
2008 M.Sc. Space Engineering, Sapienza University
2012 Ph.D. Aeronautical and Space Technology, Sapienza University, Heat transfer to transcritical methane in regenerative cooling channels of LRE
2012 - 2013 Research Fellow, Sapienza University
2013 - 2015 Postdoc, Institut Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, LES combustion instabilities in LRE
2015 - 2016 Research Engineer, Safran Tech
2016 - 2018 Postdoc, Institut Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, Nucleate boiling in micro-gravity
Jan 2019 - Research Engineer, ISAE SUPAERO, Space Advanced Concepts Laboratory (SaCLab)
Jan 2022 - Associate professor, ISAE SUPAERO, DCAS
April 2024 - Full professor, ISAE SUPAERO, DCAS

Publications

c.morzadec — 2019-10-16T15:21:20Z

Peer-reviewed journals

S. Coseru, S. Tanguy, P. Freton,J.-J. Gonzalez, A. Urbano, M. Bibal, G. Bourdon, "An Immersed Boundary Method for Pressure Based Compressible Solvers with Applications to Free-Convection Flows, Acoustic Wave Propagation and Thermal Plasma". J. of Comput Phys. (2025). (http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4812715)
J. F. Zapata Usandivaras, M. Bauerheim, B. Cuenot and A. Urbano, "Data-driven multi-fidelity surrogate models for rocket engines injector design",
Data-Centric Engineering, Volume 6 , e2 (2025)(https://doi.org/10.1017/dce.2024.56)
J-F. Zapata Usandivaras, M. Bauerheim, B. Cuenot, A. Urbano, “Deep convolutional autoencoders for the time-space reconstruction of liquid rocket engine flames”, Proceeding of the Combus-
tion Institute 40 , 105382 (2024) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proci.2024.105382
A. Simonini, M. Dreyer, A. Urbano, F. Sanfedino, T. Himeno, P. Behruzi, M. Avila, J. Pinho, L. Peveroni and J.-B. Gouriet, "Cryogenic propellant management in space : open challenges and
perspectives",NPJmicrogravity- Nature,10:34(2024)https://doi.org/10.1038/s41526-024-00377-5
M. Bibal, M. Deferrez, S. Tanguy and A. Urbano, "A compressible solver for two phase-flows
with phase change for bubble cavitation." Journal of computational physics 500 (2024), 112750,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2023.112750,
L. Torres, A. Urbano, S. Tanguy and C. Colin, "On the coupling between Direct Numerical
Simulation of Nucleate boiling and a Micro-Region model at the contact line". Journal of com-
putational physics, 497 (2024), 112602, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2023.112602
J-F. Zapata Usandivaras, A. Urbano, M. Bauerheim and B. Cuenot, "Data driven models for the design of rocket injector elements", Joural of Aerospace, Liquid Rocket Engines special is- sue,9(10) :594 (2022) 10.3390/aerospace9100594
M. Balesdent, L. Brevault, J. Valderrama-Zapata and A. Urbano, "All-At-Once formulation inte- grating pseudo-spectral optimal control for launch vehicle design and uncertainty quantification", Acta Astronautica, 200 :462-477 (2022) DOI : 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.08.032
M. Krugener, J. F. Zapata-Usandivaras, M. Bauerheim and A. Urbano, "Coaxial-Injector Sur- rogate Modeling based on Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes Simulations using Deep Learning", Journal of Propulsion and Power, 38(5) :783-798 (2022) DOI : 10.2514/1.B38696
A. Urbano, M. Bibal and S. Tanguy, "A semi-implicit compressible solver for two-phase flows of real fluids", Journal of Computational Physics, 456 :111034 (2022) DOI : 10.1016/j.jcp.2022.111034
L. Beauregard, A. Urbano, S. Lizy-Destrez, J. Morlier "Multidisciplinary design and architec- ture optimization of a reusable lunar lander", Journal of Spacecrafts and Rockets, (2021) DOI : 10.2514/ 1.A34833
A. Urbano, S. Tanguy, C. Colin, "Direct Numerical Simulation of nucleate boiling in zero gra- vity conditions", International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 143 :118523, (2019) DOI : 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.118521
A. Urbano, G. Huber, S. Tanguy, C. Colin, "Direct numerical simulation of nucleate boiling in micro-layer regime", International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer,123 :1128-1127, (2018) DOI : 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2018.02.104
A. Urbano, L. Selle, "Driving and damping mechanisms for transverse combustion instabilities in liquid rocket engines”, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, (2017) vol. 820, R2, doi :10.1017/jfm.2017.227
A. Urbano, Q. Douasbin, L. Selle, G. Staffelbach, B. Cuenot, T. Schmitt, S. Ducruix, S. Candel, "Study of flame response to transverse acoustic modes from the LES of a 42-injector rocket en- gine.", Proceedings of the Combustion Institute, 36 :2633-2639, (2017). DOI :10.1016/j.proci.2016.06.042.
A. Urbano, L. Selle, G. Staffelbach, B. Cuenot, T. Schmitt, S. Ducruix, S. Candel,“Exploration of combustion instability triggering using Large Eddy Simulation of a multiple injector liquid rocket engine", Combustion and Flame, 169 :129-140, (2016). DOI : 10.1016/j.combustflame.2016.03.020.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “Parametric analysis of cooling properties of candidate expander cycle fuels", Journal of Propulsion and Power, 30(1) :153-163, (2014). DOI : 10.2514/1.B34852.
Urbano A., Nasuti F, “Conditions for the occurrence of heat transfer deterioration in light hy- drocarbons flows", International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 65 :599-609, (2013). DOI : 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2013.06.038.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “An approximate Riemann solver for real gas parabolized Navier-Stokes Equations", Journal of Computational Physics, 233 :574-591, (2013). DOI : 10.1016/j.jcp.2012.09.019.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “Onset of heat transfer deterioration in supercritical methane flow chan- nels", Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, 27(2) :298-308, (2013). DOI : 10.2514/1.T4001.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, "The influence of LNG composition on its behavior as a coolant", Progress in Propulsion Physics, 4 :185-204, (2013). DOI : 10.1051/eucass/201304185.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “Numerical study of liquefied natural gas as a coolant in liquid rocket engines", Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G : Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 227(7) :1130-1143 (2013). DOI : 10.1177/0954410012451376.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “Parametric analysis of heat transfer to supercritical pressure methane", Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, 26(3) :450-463, (2012). DOI : 10.2514/1.T3840.
A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “Numerical analysis of heated channel flows by a space-marching finite volume technique", Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, 25(2) :282-290 (2011). DOI : 10.2514/1.51741.
M. Pizzarelli, A. Urbano, F. Nasuti, “Numerical analysis of deterioration in heat transfer to near-critical rocket propellants", Numerical Heat Transfer Part A-Applications, 57(5) :297-314 (2010). DOI : 10.1080/10407780903583016.
A. Urbano, M. Pizzarelli, F. Nasuti, “Numerical analysis of transcritical fluids heating in liquid rocket engine cooling channels", Aerotecnica, Missili e Spazio. Journal of Aerospace Science, Technologies and Systems, 88(1-2) :20-30 (2009). DOI : 10.19249/ams.v88i1-2.32.