Engineering Portfolio
Claudio Lettieri
Welcome to my Engineering Portfolio. I’m thrilled to invite you to peruse my work, skills and professional experience, and get to know a bit more about me.
Short Bio
I am passionate about rocket propulsion and multi-phase flows in turbomachinery. I am an Aerospace Engineer and I hold a doctoral degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London. I worked as a Research Engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and I specialized in the field of fluid dynamics and thermodynamics of turbomachinery. I am currently an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering of Delft University of Technology. In the course of my career I have acquired a multidisciplinary background and I have been fortunate to work on important problems of interest to industry and government agencies.
Design Projects
"Hard work is condition necessary, but not sufficient for success"
E. M. Greitzer
Assistant Professor
Delft University of Technology
Research Engineer
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2016 - Present
I have established a research group in the field of Aerospace Propulsion. My research goal is to enable advanced rocket propulsion systems with improved performance levels and increased stability margins.
2012 - 2015
I have been working on several research projects, spanning from instabilities in rocket turbopumps to the design of efficient compressors operating with supercritical fluids. My works had a direct impact on product line and I have devised design guidelines for turbomachinery design, which have been used by industry and government agencies.
Post-Doctoral Associate
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2011 - 2012
I have devised a novel design configuration for supercritical carbon dioxide compressors. The design has been incorporated into the production line and has led to an improvement in efficiency of ten percentage points compared to traditional designs. This has enabled a competitive advantage for the industrial partner and is contributing to make large-scale CCS technology economically viable.
Research Associate
2007 - 2010
I developed an accurate numerical methodology for the study of fuel atomization and burning in aeronautical combustors. My work was used to identify the main physical mechanism responsible for liquid fuel fragmentation and define technology changes to improve the combustion efficiency and likelihood of re-ignition in air-breathing engines.
Imperial College London
Master Thesis Intern
2005 - 2006
I have conducted the thermal analysis of the plume of the nozzle of a rocket engine and identified design changes to to reduce risks during launch.
ESA/ESTEC
Current Research Projects
This section describes the ongoing research effort. You can explore each research project and related publications.
A New Modeling Capability for Cavitation Instabilities in Rocket Engine Turbopumps
Modeling Secondary Flow Paths in Rocket Turbopumps
Optimization of Splitter Blades in Rocket Engine Turbopumps
Transforming Aerospace Propulsion Systems by Exploiting Machine Learning for Modelling Supercritical Fluids
Small Scale Turbopump for DARE Rocket
Optimization of Endwall Contouring in Gas Turbines
Personal Activities:
Over 2000 skydives, 3 world records and medals in National and World competitions
CONTACT
Thank you for reviewing my Engineering Portfolio. Please get in touch to find out more.
Faculty of Aerospace Engineering
Flight Performance & Propulsion Section
Building 62, Office 7.11
Kluyverweg 1
2629 HS Delft
The Netherlands
+31638703828
I am a skydiver with more than 1000 jumps and I participated in world records and international competitions