About

Alec Gallimore is a professor associated with the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan. His department conducts experimental and theoretical research in fluid dynamics, combustion, and propulsion, primarily utilizing wind tunnel experimentation. Gallimore's work involves overseeing a range of wind tunnel facilities, including subsonic, supersonic, and variable Mach number tunnels, which are used for research, education, and serving local industry. His research interests encompass aerodynamics, propulsion, and related aerospace engineering fields, contributing to the department's mission of advancing aerospace technology through experimental research, teaching, and guiding PhD theses.

Research topics

• Aerospace engineering
• Physics
• Materials science
• Computer science
• Atomic physics

Selected publications

• Langmuir Probe Measurement Approach for Capturing the Electron Drift Velocity in a Hall-effect Thruster

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2018-11-07

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• Simulation of Magnetic Field Guided Plasma Expansion

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2015-10-13

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• Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Fluorescence Measurements of Ion Velocity Distribution in the Plume of a 6 kW Hall Thruster with Unperturbed Discharge Oscillations

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2014-11-04

  articleSenior author
  Publisher

• Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Fluorescence Measurements of the Ion Velocity Distribution in the H6 Hall Thruster Plume

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2013-10-01

  articleSenior author
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• A Low-Cost Optical Approach to Evaluate the Life Time of Hall Thruster Discharge Channel

  2012-07-30

  articleSenior author

  *† This paper will present a novel procedure for performing accelerated wear test on Hall thruster discharge channels. The procedure takes advantage of a number of recent advances in optical diagnostics that have enabled increasingly accurate non-intrusive determination of both the length of the erosion zone and the erosion rate of the discharge channels in a Hall thruster. In the proposed procedure, two-axis laser-induced fluorescence is used to determine the energy and direction of the singly-charged ions responsible for the majority of the channel erosion. This data can then be used to determine the starting depth of the erosion zone inside the channel. It can also potentially be correlated to the angles of the chamfers at the end of the life of the channels. If it is determined that the predicted shape of the channels at the end of life intersect with the magnetic poles, an accelerated wear test can be performed to determine the amount of time to reach pole-exposure. This accelerated life test would involve the use of laser-induced fluorescence and cavity ring-down spectroscopy to accurately predict the change in the shape of the discharge channels in short time steps. The paper will describe in detail each step of this novel procedure, the assumptions made at each step, and the current body of scientific evidence that support these assumptions.

  PublisherDOI

• Development of a New Time-Resolved Laser-Induced Fluorescence Technique

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2012-10-29

  articleSenior author
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• Two-Axis Laser-Induced Fluorescence of Singly-Charged Xenon inside a 6-kW Hall Thruster

  49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition · 2011-01-04 · 9 citations

  articleOpen access

  Peer Reviewed

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Monte Carlo Hall Thruster Electron Trajectory Model

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2010-10-08

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• Visualization of Rotating Spoke Instabilities in a Hall Thruster

  Bulletin of the American Physical Society · 2010-11-10 · 1 citations

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• Alpha Particle Dynamics in Muon-Boosted Fusion Propulsion System

  2008-07-21 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  In a previous paper, we demonstrated that negative muons resulting from antiproton annihilation in a relatively cold deuterium-tritium (DT) plasma confined in a gasdynamic mirror (GDM) can result in catalyzing on average over 100 fusion reactions. The alpha particles produced by these reactions could contribute significantly to heating the background plasma toward ignition. In fact, it was pointed out that on the basis of energetics only, muon-catalyzed fusion would reduce the amount of antiprotons required to achieve thermonuclear burn by about 60%. This scenario, however, does not address the issue of alpha particle confinement in the GDM, and thereby leaves open the question of their true effectiveness in providing the heating noted above. In this paper, we address this problem by noting that, as they slow down, these alpha particles can escape from the system. We deduce explicit expressions for alpha particle density as a function of energy, and calculate the mean energy of these particles allowing simultaneously for slowing down and escape as reflected by the confinement time. Assuming that the alpha particles slow down primarily on the electrons, as is the case in relatively cold plasmas, we find that muon catalyzed fusion is indeed effective in heating the plasma in a GDM device.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Brian Gilchrist

  University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

  11 shared

• Frank S. Gulczinski

  United States Air Force Research Laboratory

  7 shared

• Timothy B. Smith

  6 shared

• Thomas Liu

  CentraleSupélec

  5 shared

• Daniel A. Herman

  Glenn Research Center

  5 shared

• Colleen Marrese

  Jet Propulsion Laboratory

  4 shared

• Louis D. Musinski

  4 shared

• Douglas W. Carlson

  Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

  4 shared