Biography
Tobias attended the University of Stuttgart as an undergraduate and finished his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2012. He then worked as a post-graduate student within the High Enthalpy Flow Diagnostics Group at the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart obtaining his Dr.-Ing. degree in 2017. His thesis was focused on improving the understanding of the phenomena occurring during the re-entry of spacecaft into the Earth’s atmosphere. The main goal of the project was the identification and quantification of the aerothermochemistry leading to an interaction of the radiating gas with the ablating material. Tobias developed various optical diagnostic methods including Vacuum Ultraviolet spectroscopy systems, tomographic emission spectrographs, and radiometric measurement devices.
From 2017, Tobias worked as a postdoc in the Oxford Hypersonics group of the Oxford Thermofluids Institute, where he mainly worked on the topic of transpiration cooling, an active cooling technique for spacecraft heat shields. He developed analytical methods for heat transfer in porous media, system engineering tools, and transpiration cooled wind-tunnel experiments. He also developed various diagnostic techniques such as heat flux measurements to porous media, total temperature measurements, pressure sensitive paint systems, high speed focused and regular optical Schlieren systems. Tobias started working as a Senior Research Associate in 2019 on transpiration cooling where he focused his research on the application of fundamental research to an applied system. Tobias has been teaching undergraduate Engineering Science at St. Catherine’s College from 2018 to 2019 and at St. Hilda’s College from 2019 to 2023.
Since 2021, Tobias has been working as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow on high enthalpy experimental research which includes wind tunnel experiments with the multi-mode facility T6, and the development of optical diagnostic techniques. His research interests lie in the field of high enthalpy non-equilibrium flows and in the development of measurement and instrumentation techniques.
Research
High enthalpy flows
Non-equilibrium thermochemistry
Optical diagnostics
Heat Transfer
Hypersonic flows and aerothermodynamics
Transpiration Cooling
Porous flows
Current Projects
Next-Generation Ground Testing for Spacecraft Re-entry: The development of a novel pre-heating system for replication of ablation phenomena in hypersonic ground testing facilities.
Transpiration Cooling to Enable Sharp Leading Edge Technology: The development of a sharp leading edge for hypersonic flight vehicles, using an active cooling technique.
Fundamental Non-Equilibrium Experiments for Hypersonic Flight: The experimental analysis of the thermochemical state of radiating gas behind a high speed compression
A. Drouard, P. Vernazza , S. Loehle , J. Gattacceca , J. Vaubaillon , B. Zand, M. Birlan, S. Bouley , F. Colas , M. Eberhart , T. Hermann , L. Jorda , C. Marmo , A. Meindl , R. Oefele , F. Zamkotsian and F. Zander. "Probing the use of spectroscopy to determine the meteoritic analogues of meteors". In: Astronomy & Astrophysics 613, May (2018), DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/201732225.
Löhle, S., Hermann, T. and Zander, F. "Experimental Assessment of the Performance of Ablative Heat Shield Materials from Plasma Wind Tunnel Testing". In: CEAS Space Journal Vol. 10, Issue 2 (2018), pp 203-211, DOI: 10.1007/s12567-017-0186-0
Hermann, T., Löhle, S., Zander, F. And Fasoulas, S." Measurement of the Aerothermodynamic state in a High Enthalpy Plasma Wind-Tunnel Flow". In: Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer 201C (2017) pp. 216-225. DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2017.06.022.
Zander, F., Löhle, S., Hermann, T., Fulge, H. " Fabry-Perot Spectroscopy for Kinetic Temperature and Velocity Measurements of a High Enthalpy Air Plasma Flow". In: Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics Vol. 50 No. 33 (2017), 335202 (11pp), DOI: 10.1088/1361-6463/aa7b0c.
Löhle, S., Zander, F., Hermann, T., Eberhart, M., Meindl, A., Öfele, R., Vaubaillon, J., Colas, F., Vernazza, P., Drouard, A. and Gattacceca, J. "Experimental Simulation of Meteorite Ablation during Earth Entry using a Plasma Wind Tunnel". In: The Astrophysical Journal, 837:112 (10pp), 2017 March 10. DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa5cb5.
Hermann, T., Löhle, S., Fasoulas, S., Leyland, P., Marraffa, L. and Bouilly, J.-M. "Infuence of Ablation on Vacuum-Ultraviolet Radiation in a Plasma Wind Tunnel Flow". In: Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Vol.31, No. 3 (2017), pp. 575-585, DOI: 10.2514/1.T4936.
Hermann, T., Löhle, S., Wei, H., Morgan, R., Bauder, U. and Fasoulas, S. "Quantitative Emission Spectroscopy for Superorbital Re-entry in the Expansion Tube X2". In: AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Vol. 31, No. 2 (2017), pp. 257-268, DOI: 10.2514/1.T4898.
Hermann, T., Löhle, S., Fasoulas, S. and Andrianatos, A. "Tomographic Optical Emission Spectroscopy of a High Enthalpy Air Plasma Flow". In: Applied Optics 55, Issue 36, 10290-10298 (2016). DOI: 10.1364/AO.55.010290.
Hermann, T., Zander, F., Fulge, H., Löhle, S. and Fasoulas, S. "Characterization of a Re-entry Plasma Wind Tunnel Flow with Vacuum Ultraviolet to Near Infrared Spectroscopy". In: Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer Vol. 30, No. 3 (2016), pp. 673-688. DOI: 10.2514/1.T4695.
Löhle, S., Fuchs, U., Digel, P., Hermann, T. and Battaglia, J.-L.. "Analysing Inverse Heat Conduction Problems by the Analysis of the System Impulse Response". In: Inverse Problems in Science and Engineering Volume 22, Issue 2 (2014), pp. 297-308. DOI: 10.1080/17415977.2013.780170.
Positions
- Associate Research Fellow and Lecturer in Engineering
Subjects
- Engineering
