Nagi Mansour

Nagi Mansour is an Adjunct Research Professor at the University of Illinois, specializing in advanced aerospace materials and thermal protection systems. His research focuses on understanding material behavior under extreme aerothermal conditions, including high-enthalpy plasma environments, hypersonic flow, and space entry scenarios. He leads computational and experimental studies on ablation mechanisms, material pyrolysis, and the development of predictive models for thermal protection systems (TPS).

Key areas of expertise include: (1) Material Response Modeling of carbon-based and silicone-coated composites, (2) Plasma Environment Simulation using tools like PuMA and PATO, and (3) High-Fidelity Numerical Analysis of arc-jet and plasmatron test facilities. His work integrates multi-scale analysis from microstructure characterization (via X-ray tomography) to macroscopic aerothermal performance prediction.

Recent contributions include advancements in porous microstructure analysis software (PuMA), unified flow-material approaches for ablation modeling, and experimental validation of hypersonic TPS materials like PICA-NuSil. His research supports NASA missions and future planetary entry probe designs, addressing challenges such as Mars atmospheric entry and Titan exploration.

Collaborative projects involve institutions like the VKI Plasmatron facility and NASA's Hypersonic Materials Environmental Test System (HyMETS). Current efforts emphasize improving material durability, optimizing thermal protection designs, and quantifying uncertainties in ablation modeling through Bayesian inference techniques.