About

Matthew Clarke is an Assistant Professor in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Howard University, an M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University, with his doctoral thesis focusing on computational approaches for quantifying trade-offs in electric aircraft design for regional and urban air mobility. His research interests include aeroacoustics and aircraft noise emissions, physics-based AI design methods, fault tree analysis, applied aerodynamics, and aircraft systems analysis, with a particular emphasis on hybrid and all-electric aircraft propulsion architecture design. Professor Clarke has contributed to the field through various research areas such as aerospace systems design and simulation, applied aerodynamics, and electric aircraft technology. He has authored numerous articles in journals and conference proceedings related to lithium-ion battery modeling, electric aircraft handling qualities, thermal management systems, and the impact of alternative fuels on aviation emissions. His work has been featured in prominent outlets, and he has been recognized on the Forbes 30 Under 30 Science List in Fall 2023. He is actively involved in teaching courses such as Applied Aerodynamics and Aircraft Flight Mechanics, and he is affiliated with several research laboratories and centers dedicated to advancing electric aircraft design and sustainability.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Aerospace engineering
• Automotive engineering
• Engineering
• Reliability engineering
• Marine engineering
• Aeronautics
• Simulation

Selected publications

• RCAIDE: A multidisciplinary analysis toolbox for aircraft design and flight simulation

  Aerospace Science and Technology · 2026-04-10

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Experimental Characterization of Electric Aircraft Battery Degradation Using Accelerated and Evolving Load Profiles

  2025-06-18

  articleSenior author

  The electrification of aviation represents a key step toward decarbonizing the transportation sector. Battery degradation testing is a critical aspect of understanding the performance and longevity of electric vehicles. This work aims to explore two innovative approaches for characterizing electric aircraft battery degradation: accelerated aging and evolving load profiles. Accelerated aging testing subjects batteries to intensified conditions, allowing for expedited performance evaluation. The evolving load profile modifies an electric aircraft's load profile to account for battery degradation over time, reflecting real-world usage more accurately. Experiments were conducted by applying the load profile of an electric conventional takeoff and landing aircraft and an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to an array of lithium-ion battery cells. Comparisons between base profiles and those incorporating accelerated aging and/or evolving load profiles have been performed through incremental capacity analysis and state-of-health measurements. In contrast to the baseline profile, heightened degradation is seen alongside a reduction in total testing time for the modified profiles. Results and considerations from this study may be applicable to electric automobile battery degradation testing.

  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Thermal Management Systems to Augment the Operational Longevity of Electric Aircraft

  2025-01-03

  articleSenior author

  This study investigates the relationship between thermal management system design and battery life in electric aircraft. While typical approaches size thermal management systems for maximum heat extraction during climb, this analysis examines alternative sizing strategies focused on minimally-sized systems that maintain battery temperature within operational limits while demonstrating superiority in extending state-of-health. The analysis incorporates often neglected system-level interactions, where the thermal management system's mass affects propulsion power requirements, while drawing additional power from the battery pack. Through a detailed examination of multiple configurations and Latin Hypercube sampling of the design space, this study evaluates how the resulting thermal and current profiles influence battery pack longevity. Sensitivity analysis reveals that while reservoir volume dominates system weight considerations, all thermal management components have a comparable influence on battery life through direct and coupled effects. These findings provide insights into optimal thermal management system design that balances weight penalties against thermal performance for maximum battery life.

  PublisherDOI

• Participation of Domestic and Foreign Military Forces in Disaster Relief

  2025-01-27

  book-chapterSenior author

  Military forces responding to domestic and international disasters is a common component of disaster and humanitarian response. Military engagement can enhance and expand disaster relief operations through the addition of logistical capabilities and assets, medics and search and rescue (SAR) teams, and trained engineers and crisis leaders. While militaries are often-well suited to support response efforts that require rapid decision-making and the delivery of critical support, such assistance must be grounded in humanitarian principles of accountability, participation, and human rights, and in operational principles around which the civilian community centers its response efforts. Furthermore, military engagement should be limited to the short term as militaries are not skilled in long-term development and a protracted military presence could create issues both domestically and internationally. After discussing these concerns, case studies on Pakistan and Australia are presented before suggesting five key principles for the future participation of militaries in the disaster setting.

  PublisherDOI

• The Impact of Alternative Fuels on U.S. Domestic Aviation Emissions

  2025-07-16 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  The transition to alternative energy carriers offers a promising pathway to reduce the environmental footprint of aviation. This study investigates the impact of replacing conventional jet fuel with Liquid Hydrogen (LH2), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), and Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) across five representative classes of transport aircraft operating within the U.S. domestic network. To isolate the effects of fuel utilization, the analysis assumes fixed aircraft weight and performance, and focuses on direct operational emissions. Mission simulations are performed utilizing RCAIDE, a multifidelity preliminary aircraft design framework, while emissions are estimated through a Chemical Reactor Network (CRN) model representing a Rich-Burn, Quick-Mix, Lean-Burn (RQL) combustor. The study captures operational trends for each aircraft-fuel combination and quantifies the influence of alternative fuel properties on combustor-level and mission-level emissions. Results reveal trends associated with each energy carrier and emphasize the role of their specific properties in shaping direct emissions at the fleet level. These findings aim to offer insights into the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating alternative fuels into the existing U.S. domestic aviation network.

  PublisherDOI

• Informing Metropolitan Noise Mitigation for Urban Air Mobility Operations

  Research Square · 2025-11-06

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Proposed Urban Air Mobility Operations Will Lead to Socioeconomic Disparities in Noise Pollution

  2025-01-03 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Urban air mobility (UAM) represents a promising frontier in transportation, yet concerns over its potential contribution to noise pollution are increasingly undervalued or, at worst, disregarded. Aircraft noise and the associated annoyance have been linked to adverse health impacts, such as hearing loss and heightened anxiety in those who face high exposure. Additionally, the psychological effects of disproportionately affected groups enhance the feeling of existing inequalities. This paper seeks to reduce the probability of ill-planned air traffic management by distilling the relationship between proposed UAM aircraft operations and human activity and proposing a new community annoyance noise metric derived from current regulations, population density, and land use. More holistic in nature, this metric can better inform implications for public health and quality of living in lower-income and racial minority communities that are traditionally subjected to heightened aircraft noise due to their proximity to airports. A trade study of the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area was undertaken to demonstrate the utility of this new metric and the application of this work. Three distinct electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft configurations were modeled to simulate hourly operations between theorized vertiports. The findings suggest that for direct vertiport-to-vertiport flight operations, the degree to which specific demographics of people are impacted varies with configuration.

  PublisherDOI

• Assessment of Lithium-Ion Battery Degradation in Electric Aircraft Under a Cycle-Progressive Load Profile

  2025-10-24

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  The electrification of aviation is a key step toward reducing emissions, yet uncertainties remain surrounding the long-term behavior of electric aircraft batteries. Conventional degradation testing often relies on fixed profiles that fail to capture the relationship between cell aging and auxiliary power demands. To address this gap, this study experimentally introduces a cycle-progressive load profile, which incrementally increases simulated system power demands to reflect the rising demands of aging of batteries on the active battery thermal management system. Representative flight load profiles for an electric conventional takeoff and landing aircraft and an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft were generated using the RCAIDE modeling framework and applied to 24 Molicel P30B lithium-ion cells over 1000 flight cycles. Results show that cycleprogressive profiles accelerate degradation compared to fixed profiles, with up to 22.1% higher state-of-health loss and distinct shifts in incremental capacity signatures. To extend the work, a physics-based PyBaMM model was optimally parameterized to simulate cycle-progressive behavior and predict end-of-life under replicated mission scenarios. These findings highlight the importance of testing protocols that incorporate the coupled effects of aging and system power demand, hopefully leading to more realistic assessment of battery systems in electric vehicles.

  PublisherDOI

• Optimizing Thermal Management Systems to Extend Battery Life of Electric Aircraft

  Journal of Aircraft · 2025-10-28

  articleSenior author

  This study investigates the relationship between thermal management system design and battery life in electric aircraft. While typical approaches size thermal management systems for maximum heat extraction during climb, this paper examines alternative strategies to size thermal management systems that maintain cell temperatures within safe limits while reducing the rate of diminishing performance. The analysis incorporates system-level interactions, where the mass of the thermal management system has a non-negligible effect on propulsion requirements while drawing additional power from the battery pack. Through a detailed examination of multiple configurations and Latin hypercube sampling of the design space, this study explores how the resulting thermal and current profiles influence battery pack life. Sensitivity analysis reveals that while reservoir volume predominantly affects the weight, the thermal management system as a whole has a consequential influence on battery life through direct and coupled effects. These findings provide insights into optimal thermal management system designs that balance weight with heat removal potential to maximize battery life.

  PublisherDOI

• Physics-Based Approaches for Sizing Thermal Management Systems for Battery-Electric Regional Aircraft

  2024-07-27 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Dissipating the waste heat produced by electrical losses is pertinent for achieving optimal performance of electromechanical systems, particularly for electric aircraft that operate at megawatt power levels. This paper presents a comprehensive design methodology for battery thermal management systems (BTMS) tailored to the unique demands of electric aircraft. The approach utilizes physics-based modeling to size the heat acquisition system, heat exchanger system, and auxiliary components. For the heat acquisition system, a conjugate cooling strategy is deployed within each battery pack module to extract heat efficiently. This heat is then ejected into the atmosphere via a fuselage-integrated heat exchanger. This study aims to quantify the power requirements of individual components of the BTMS across the different flight stages. Moreover, by determining the upper bounds of the achievable range for this 19-seater aircraft, which stands among the largest vehicles that fall under the Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 23 jurisdiction, we are able to provide realistic estimates of regional air mobility within metropolitan areas. This study enables exploration into BTMS controller design to optimize its utilization to prolong battery life during nominal flight operations, as well as demonstrate safe thermal management during emergency engine failure scenarios. It therefore marks a pivotal stride in the ongoing advancement of thermal management systems tailored for the unique challenges posed by electric aviation.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Paddy Horner

  Sexual Health Clinic

  18 shared

• Megan Crofts

  University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust

  13 shared

• Helen Wheeler

  University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

  13 shared

• Rebecca Gardiner

  Charing Cross Hospital

  12 shared

• Juan J. Alonso

  Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology

  12 shared

• Lindsey Harryman

  University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

  12 shared

• S Moses

  8 shared

• Kevin Murfitt

  Deakin University

  8 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1990

• M.S., Aerospace Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1986

• B.S., Aerospace Engineering

  University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

  1984

Awards & honors

• Forbes 30 Under 30 Science List (Fall 2023)
• AIAA Aviation/Ascend Forum. Outstanding Recent Alumni Award