Sydney Rzepka

Department: Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Faculty Adviser: Michael Mueller
Year of Study: G3
Undergraduate School: Cornell University
Undergraduate Major: Mechanical Engineering

Personal Bio

Hey everyone! I’m Sydney and I’m from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to specialize in within the broad field of MAE, so I tried a lot of different things. I did undergraduate research with the Space Systems Design Studio where I worked on the integration and testing of a small satellite which utilized a novel water electrolysis propulsion system. For three years I was a member of Cornell Electric Vehicles, an undergraduate student-run project team that designs and manufactures an electric vehicle optimized for energy efficiency. These experiences led me to intern in the Engine Design department at Honda, where I realized my interests in combustion and going to graduate school.

There are a lot of things that I like to do for fun when I’m not studying flames. I love staying active by lifting, running, and playing basketball. I also enjoy reading and being creative by painting and writing.

Fun Fact

When I was 13, I won a Pi Day contest at my school for memorizing the most digits of pi. At the time I knew about 240 digits, and the first 150 digits are still stuck in my brain.

Research Pitch

I am a part of the Computational Turbulent Reacting Flow Lab. We focus on developing high-fidelity computational tools and models to build on our fundamental understanding of turbulent reacting flows.

My research is motivated by the need to identify alternative fuels that are feasible for power plant applications and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

My project considers using partially cracked ammonia as a carbon-free hydrogen-carrying fuel. The goal is to understand how this fuel burns under the thermodynamic conditions of a stationary gas turbine engine. Specifically, the presence of hydrogen in the fuel leads to some interesting phenomena. Hydrogen is so small that it will diffuse faster than the heat of combustion, and this leads to something called a thermodiffusive instability. This means that the flame curvature increases over time, and the increased flame surface area affects how fast the reactions occur, as well as the amount and composition of greenhouse gases produced (while this system does not produce carbon dioxide, it does produce nitrous oxides). I work to understand how these thermodiffusive instabilities develop and impact combustion performance to assess the feasibility of ammonia-hydrogen as a carbon-free fuel for power plants.

Upcoming Programs That I Am Attending:

Plans for Summer 2025

Interested in participating in Summer 2025 ReMatch+ program.