Dr. Aaron P. Wemhoff

Associate Professor & Villanova Site Director, Center for Energy-Smart Electronic Systems

Department of Mechanical Engineering
Villanova University

126E Tolentine Hall
610-519-8045 (phone)
610-519-7312 (fax)
Email: aaron.wemhoff@villanova.edu

Dr. Aaron Wemhoff is an Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Villanova University and Villanova Site Director for the NSF Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) in Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2). After earning his BSME from the University of Virginia, he earned his MSME and Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 2004, worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as a staff engineer for 3.5 years, and then started work at Villanova as an Assistant Professor in 2008. In 2014, Dr. Wemhoff was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure.

Dr. Wemhoff's graduate research, primarily under the supervision of Dr. Van P. Carey, was focused on molecular modeling of liquid-vapor interfaces, which, when coupled with statistical thermodynamics, resulted in several interesting findings:
1. Homogeneous initiation of boiling due to a rapid increase in surface temperature was found to occur away from the wall due to the rise in spinodal temperature near the wall due to the accompanying rise in local pressure.
2. A region on the order of a few nanometers was found near a wall where a liquid film experienced ordering due to wall-fluid interactions, which enables accurate assessments of disjoining pressure.
3. Various methods were devised to predict the variation of surface tension with temperature and fluid model properties, strengthening the connection between surface tension and the interfacial region characteristics.

While in graduate school, Dr. Wemhoff worked part-time with the thermal design group at HP Labs, where he was involved with projects in the following areas:
1. Energy-efficient data center operation through modulated floor tile design.
2. Controlled spray cooling using inkjet printer technology.
3. Advanced cooling system design for high density bladed architectures.

Dr. Wemhoff worked on several projects at LLNL after his graduate research was completed. These projects included:
1. Development of thermal chemical kinetic models for energetic materials, enabling the safe handling of these materials to prevent thermal cookoff incidents.
2. Development, application and maintenance of advanced finite element-based multiphysics simulation tools, particularly in the area of thermal conduction.
3. Analysis and comparison of various Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) software packages for applications ranging from materials processing to aircraft drag calculations.

At Villanova, Dr. Wemhoff leads the Methods for Systems Analysis Laboratory (MSAL).  The group's work has focused on three principal areas:
1. Energy-efficient data center design through the NSF-sponsored Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (I/UCRC) in Energy-Smart Electronic Systems (ES2). This work includes exergy-based design of data center cooling systems that allow for sizing of equipment and comparison of traditionally-cooled to hybrid liquid-air and direct liquid cooled systems. This research could potentially save large quantities of energy and save industry mentors millions of dollars in cooling costs. Recent work has connected this effort to predictions of data center carbon footprint.
2. Improvement of the sustainability of the world’s food system. Specific efforts have focused on (1) the environmental impact of food away from home as compared to food at home, and (2) applying advanced mathematical techniques to accurately model the entire lifecycle of food served in restaurants. Dr. Wemhoff used this work to spawn the Villanova Food Sustainability Group, which focuses on advancing research in food sustainability, promoting on-campus groups in food sustainability, and developing synergies among these groups.
3. Molecular modeling of nanoscale systems, including (1) determining the influence of graphite nanofiber (GNF) structure on its thermal conductivity tensor, (2) predicting the influence of graphite stacking arrangement on its thermal conductivity tensor, and (3) developing a recommended equilibrium molecular dynamics formulation for graphene using a many-body intermolecular potential function. This work has provided great insight into the molecular-based energy transport mechanisms that are important in small device development.
4. Theoretical development of thermodynamic and thermal transport theories, including (1) a modified theory of capillarity for advanced cubic equations of state, and (2) a novel theory for predicting the thermal conductivity of a composite material containing networks of percolated cylindrical inclusions. The latter work has great importance in the development and optimization of nanoenhanced phase change materials for energy storage in electronics cooling and sustainable power production technologies.

Dr. Wemhoff serves as an associate editor of the ASME Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications, is a past chair of the ASME K-20 Heat Transfer Division Committee on Computational Heat Transfer, is a past chair of the ASME Philadelphia Section, and serves on several departmental, college, and university committees.

Dr. Wemhoff has published dozens of journal articles and conference papers. He and his students have presented at dozens of conferences and poster forums.

For more information on Dr. Wemhoff's current work, please see the MSAL group webpage. His CV can be found here, and his LinkedIn profile is here.

Page last updated in September 2019.