Kayla Russell

  • kaylamr2@illinois.edu
  • M.S./Ph.D. Student in Mechanical Engineering – University of Illinois
  • B.S. Mechanical Engineering – The University of Texas at Austin (May 2020)
  • Research Interests: Control Systems; Energy Systems
  • View Kayla Russell's profile on LinkedIn
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Research Summary

With the increase of on-board electronics and avionics implemented on aircraft, the electrical power demand from aircraft drastically increases which results in excess heat generation. As aircraft become increasingly dependent on electronics, there will be a need for more advanced thermal management systems. Currently, air cycle machines and vapor compression systems are the two main thermal management systems on-board aircraft. The generally fast dynamics of electric systems and slow dynamics of thermal systems on aircraft creates interesting control challenges. Alleyne Research Group has already shown the success of hierarchical model predictive control for multi-domain, multi-timescale systems in previous work.

My current research is to create a control-oriented models of a vapor compression system. These models will be used to help improve the existing hierarchical model predictive control framework for aircraft, resulting in safer and more efficient air travel.