Lunch_and_Learn_2018_09_21_Kirsch.pdfContinued process in additive manufacturing (AM) technology has positive implications
for those in the design community. The choice to employ AM instantly lifts many design constraints
imposed by conventional manufacturing techniques, thereby opening the design space considerably.
The choice as to what exactly should be designed, however, can be overwhelming; finding an
optimal solution is a task well-suited to numerical simulations. To inform the discussion on the
relationship between AM and numerics-based design tools, a set of micro-sized cooling channels
were designed, numerically optimized, additively manufactured, and tested for pressure loss and
heat transfer performance. This talk will include details on the chosen optimization scheme, an
adjoint-based method, and the resultant manufactured parts, which were built using Laser Power
Bed Fusion.
Katie Kirsch works as an optimization engineer at KCF Technologies, Inc. in State
College, PA. She received her B.S. (’11), M.S. (’13), and Ph.D. (’17) degrees at Penn State, where
she developed research interests in the fields of heat transfer and additive manufacturing. In
between her M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, she spent time as a visiting researcher at the Karlsruhe
Institute of Technology, where her research focus was on gas turbine heat transfer.
In addition to her technical work, Katie has been active in teaching effective scientific communication
strategies for the past nine years. She has co-taught courses on the assertion-evidence slide design
and technical writing in both academic and industrial settings, including Shanghai Jiao Tong
University, Simula School of Research and Innovation, Texas Instruments, and Battelle. She also
volunteers as a speaker consultant for the regional TED conference held each year at Penn State.
You will be able to purchase the buffet.