Dr Nick Gibbons
Postdoctoral Research Fellow & Postdoctoral Research Fellow
School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering
Affiliate of Centre for Hypersonics
Centre for Hypersonics
Researcher biography
Dr. Nicholas Gibbons an open-source programmer and numerical simulations expert presently employed as a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Queensland. His research interests include numerical simulation of compressible turbulence, high-temperature effects in re-entry flows, and the fluid dynamics of electrically charged plasmas. By applying this research to practical problems in space engineering and aeronautical design, he hopes to play a small part in an exciting future of space travel.
Publications
Journal Articles
Vanyai, Tristan, Gibbons, Nicholas N., Curran, Damian R., McGilvray, Matthew and Wheatley, Vincent (2024). The effect of leading edge bluntness on scramjet performance. Aerospace Science and Technology, 146 108907, 108907. doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2024.108907
Gibbons, Nicholas N., Damm, Kyle A., Jacobs, Peter A. and Gollan, Rowan J. (2023). Eilmer: an open-source multi-physics hypersonic flow solver. Computer Physics Communications, 282 108551, 1-20. doi: 10.1016/j.cpc.2022.108551
Chen, Yu and Gibbons, Nick (2022). Simulations of Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition over a Flat Plate with the Spalart-Allmaras One-Equation BCM Transitional Model. Mathematics, 10 (19) 3431, 1-25. doi: 10.3390/math10193431
Gibbons, Nicholas, Vanyai, Tristan and Wheatley, Vincent (2021). Comparison of ethylene combustion mechanisms for the simulation of a supersonic combustion experiment. Aerospace Science and Technology, 119 107201. doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2021.107201
Moura, Augusto F., Gibbons, Nicholas, Wheatley, Vincent and Jahn, Ingo (2021). Effects of oxygen enrichment on supersonic combustion in a Mach 10 scramjet. AIAA Journal, 59 (11), 4556-4568. doi: 10.2514/1.j059748
Moura, Augusto F., Gibbons, Nicholas, Wheatley, Vincent, McIntyre, Timothy and Jahn, Ingo (2021). Correction to: Characterization of supersonic turbulent combustion in a mach-10 scramjet combustor. AIAA Journal, 59 (4), 1-1. doi: 10.2514/1.J058671.c1
Moura, Augusto F., Gibbons, Nicholas, Wheatley, Vincent, McIntyre, Timothy and Jahn, Ingo (2020). Characterization of supersonic turbulent combustion in a Mach-10 scramjet combustor. AIAA Journal, 58 (5), 2196. doi: 10.2514/1.j058671
Gibbons, Nicholas, Gehre, Rolf, Brieschenk, Stefan and Wheatley, Vincent (2018). Blast wave-induced mixing in a laser ignited hypersonic flow. Journal of Fluids Engineering, 140 (5) 050902, 050902. doi: 10.1115/1.4038397
Landsberg, Will O., Gibbons, Nicholas N. , Wheatley, Vincent, Smart, Michael K. and Veeraragavan, Ananthanarayanan (2017). Improving scramjet performance through flow field manipulation. Journal of Propulsion and Power doi: 10.2514/1.B36772
Conference Papers
Ogilvie, John C., Gildfind, David, Gollan, Rowan and Gibbons, Nicholas N. (2023). Feasibility of MHD aerobraking for use in Martian atmospheric entry. AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum, National Harbor, MD United States, 23-27 January 2023. Reston, VA United States: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi: 10.2514/6.2023-2560
Damm, Kyle A., Gibbons, Nicholas N., Jacobs, Peter A. and Gollan, Rowan (2023). Application of a Jacobian-free Newton-Krylov method to the simulation of hypersonic flows. AIAA SCITECH 2023 Forum, National Harbor, MD United States, 23-27 January 2023. Reston, VA United States: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi: 10.2514/6.2023-2295
Watt, Robert, Gibbons, Nicholas and Gollan, Rowan (2022). Modelling Thermal Nonequilibrium in Hypersonic Flow Fields Relevant to Electron Transpiration Cooling. 23rd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, Sydney, NSW Australia, 4-8 December 2022. Perth, WA Australia: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
Gibbons, Nicholas N., Vanyai, Tristan and Wheatley, Vincent (2022). Large eddy simulation of multiport injector array transition. 2nd International Conference on High-Speed Vehicle Science & Technology, Bruges, Belgium, 11-15 September 2022.
Vanyai, T. and Gibbons, N. N. (2021). Atomic Oxygen in Supersonic Combustion Experiment Inflows. The Australian Combustion Symposium 2021, Toowoomba, QLD Australia, 21-24 November 2021. Brisbane, QLD Australia: Australian Combustion Symposium.
Gibbons, Nicholas, Damm, Kyle and Gollan, Rowan (2021). Flight regime limits of a hypersonic vehicle using electron transpiration cooling. Accelerating Space Commerce, Exploration, and New Discovery conference, ASCEND 2021, Las Vegas, NV, United States, 15 - 17 November 2021. Reston, Virginia: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi: 10.2514/6.2021-4141
Cartmill, I., Gibbons, N., Wheatley, V. and Doolan, C. (2018). Sound generation by a supersonic reacting mixing layer. Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, Adelaide, Australia, 10-13 December 2018. Perth, WA, United States: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
Landsberg, Will O., Gibbons, Nicholas N., Wheatley, Vincent, Smart, Michael K. and Veeraragavan, Ananthanarayanan (2017). Flow field manipulation via fuel injectors in scramjets. 21st AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonics Technologies Conference, Hypersonics 2017, Xiamen, China, 6 - 9 March 2017. Reston, VA, United States: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi: 10.2514/6.2017-2389
Gibbons, N., Wheatley, V. and Doolan, C. (2016). Preliminary Investigation of Sound Generation in Scramjets. 20th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, Perth, Western Australia, 5-8 December 2016. Victoria, Australia: Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society.
Gibbons, Nicholas, Gehre, Rolf, Brieschenk, Stefan and Wheatley, Vincent (2015). Simulation of laser-induced-plasma ignition in a hypersonic crossflow. AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference, Glasgow, Scotland, 6-9 July 2015. Reston, VA, United States: American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. doi: 10.2514/6.2015-3622
Data Collection
Gibbons, Nicholas N. (2024). AVT-352 Hypersonic RANS Dataset - Eilmer. The University of Queensland. (Dataset)
Seminar Paper
Gollan, Rowan J., Damm, Kyle A., Gibbons, Nicholas N., Whyborn, Lachlan S., Watt, Robert G. and Jacobs, Peter A. (2024). A tutorial guide to the simulation of hypersonic flows with Eilmer. Invited Lecture at Advanced Computational Fluid Dynamics Methods for Hypersonic Flows - VKI LS and STO LS AVT-358. Centre for Hypersonics, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics.
Theses
Gibbons, Nicholas (2019). Simulation and dynamics of hypersonic turbulent combustion. PhD Thesis, School of Mechanical and Mining Engineering, The University of Queensland. doi: 10.14264/uql.2019.713
Gibbons, Nicholas (2012). Computational Fluid Dynamics of Free-Piston Motion in Superorbital Expansion Tubes using the Ghost Fluid Method. B.Sc Thesis, School of Engineering, The University of Queensland.