Richard N. Smith Professor 2042 Jonsson Engineering Center Tel: (518) 276-6978; Fax: (518) 276-6025; E-Mail: smithr@rpi.edu [ MANE || Faculty ]

Prof. Smith received a B.A. in Mechanical Engineering from Rice University (1970), an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Berkeley (1971, 1974). He was an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Rice (1975-1976) before joining Rensselaer, where he is now Professor of Mechanical Engineering. During 1977-78, he was a Fulbright-Hayes Senior Research Scholar visiting the Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, Romania. From 1983-91 he served as Associate Head for Graduate Studies of the Department. In 1990, he was named a Distinguished Teaching Fellow at R.P.I., and in 1993 he received the Department's Lewis T. Assini Teaching and Advising Award.

Research Interests and Activities:

Heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, materials processing, energy conversion.

Professor Smith's general interests are in the areas of heat transfer, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, materials processing, and energy conversion. Current activities are directed toward heat transfer with solid-liquid phase change, for which applications include casting and welding and materials processing, thermal storage, nuclear safety, cryosurgery; however, the principal focus at present is materials processing. The dynamics of "mushy zones" (solid-liquid two phase region) formed during alloy solidification are being studied to determine the relationships between macroscopic heat transfer and fluid mechanics processes and the resulting solid material properties.

Professor Smith has served as the adviser or co-adviser for 7 doctoral and 20 Master's students at Rensselaer and has authored or co-authored over 40 publications in the technical literature. He is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and a member of the Americal Society for Engineering Education. He recently completed service as Chair of the ASME Heat Transfer Division's Technical Committee on Heat Transfer in Manufacturing and Materials Processing.

Selected Publications:

"Development of an Integrated Thermal-Fluids Engineering Curriculum," R.N. Smith, D.A. Kaminski, M.K. Jensen, and A. Hirsa, 2000 ASEE Annual Conference Proceedings, Session 1566, Paper 00158.pdf (CD-ROM) (2000).

"A Neural Network Model for Real-Time Estimation of Workpiece Thermal Expansion," A.D. Yoder and R.N. Smith, Proc. of the 5th ASME/JSME Thermal Engineering Joint Conference, T.W. Simon and M Shoji, Editors, Paper No. AJTE-6198 (CD-ROM), ASME, New York (1999).

"Towards an Integrated Thermal/Fluids Engineering Curriculum," M.K. Jensen, R.N. Smith, D.A. Kaminski, and A. Hirsa, Proc. of the ASME Heat Transfer Division-1998 Volume 3, R.A. Nelson, et al. (editors), ASME HTD-Vol. 361-3, ASME, New York, pp. 9-16 (1998).

"Tufts-Rensselaer Thermal Manufacturing Research-Curriculum Development Program," V.P. Manno, R.N. Smith, P.Y. Wong, and R.W. Messler, Jr., Manufacturing Education for the 21st Century: Volume V Manufacturing Educaton for Excellence in the Global Economy, Soc. of Manufacturing Engineers, Dearborn, MI, pp. 171-176 (1998).

"The Influence of Forced Convection During Solidification on Fragmentation of the Mushy Zone of a Model Alloy," C.J. Paradies, M.E. Glicksman, and R.N. Smith, Metallurgical and Materials Transactions , 28A, pp. 875-883 (1997).

"An Experimental Study of Waste Heat Recovery from a Residential Refrigerator," R.A. Clark, R.N. Smith, and M.K. Jensen, Proc. 31st Intersoc. Energy Conversion Eng. Conf., IEEE, Piscataway NJ, pp. 1887-1892 (1996).

"Effects of Buoyancy on the Growth of Dendritic Crystals," Y.-W. Lee, R.N. Smith, M.E. Glicksman, and M. Koss, Annual Review of Heat Transfer Vol. 7, C.-L. Tien, Editor, Begell House, Inc., New York, pp. 59-139, (1996).

"Effects of Mixed Convection on Dendrite Fragmentation During Alloy Solidification," C.J. Paradies, R.N. Smith, and M.E. Glicksman, Transport Phenomena in Solidification, C. Beckermann, H.P. Wang, L.A. Bertram, M.S. Sohal, and S.I. Guceri, Editors, ASME HTD-Vol. 284, ASME, New York, pp. 161-169 (1994).

"Experimental Study of Dendrite Growth in an Undercooled Melt Under Microgravity Conditions," M.E. Glicksman, R.N. Smith, M.B. Koss, L.T. Bushnell, J.C. LaCombe, and E.A. Winsa, Heat Transfer in Microgravity Systems, S.S. Sadhal and A. Gopinath, Editors, ASME HTD-Vol. 290, ASME, New York, pp. 1-8 (1994).

"Solidification of Undercooled Melts: Thermal Recalescence and Mushy Zone Coarsening Dynamics," L.M. Colucci-Mizenko, M.E. Glicksman, and R.N. Smith, Journal of Metals, 46(1), pp. 51-55 (1994).

"Experimental Investigation of Freezing Within a Thick-Walled Cylinder," R.N. Smith and E. Meeks, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, 7(1), 22-29 (1993).

"Mushy Zone Modeling with Microstructural Coarsening Kinetics," M.E. Glicksman, R.N. Smith, S.P. Marsh, R. Kuklinski, Metallurgical Transactions A, 23A, 659-667 (1992).