Tobias Hermann Dr.-Ing

Tobias attended the University of Stuttgart as an undergraduate and finished his Dipl.-Ing. degree in Aerospace Engineering in 2012. He then worked as a post-graduate student within the High Enthalpy Flow Diagnostics Group at the Institute of Space Systems at the University of Stuttgart obtaining his Dr.-Ing. degree in 2017. His thesis was focused on improving the understanding of the phenomena occurring during the re-entry of spacecaft into the Earth’s atmosphere. The main goal of the project was the identification and quantification of the aerothermochemistry leading to an interaction of the radiating gas with the ablating material. Tobias developed various optical diagnostic methods including Vacuum Ultraviolet spectroscopy systems, tomographic emission spectrographs, and radiometric measurement devices.

Since 2017, Tobias was working as a Post-Doc in the Oxford Hypersonics group of the Oxford Thermofluids Institute, where he mainly worked on the topic of transpiration cooling, an active cooling technique for spacecraft heat shields. He developed analytical methods for heat transfer in porous media, system engineering tools, and transpiration cooled wind-tunnel experiments. He also developed various diagnostic techniques such as heat flux measurements to porous media, total temperature measurements, pressure sensitive paint systems, high speed focused and regular optical Schlieren systems. Tobias started working as a Senior Research Associate in 2019 on transpiration cooling where he focused his research on the application of fundamental research to an applied system. Tobias has been teaching undergraduate Engineering Science at St. Catherine’s College from 2018 to 2019 and at St. Hilda’s College from 2019 to 2021.

Since 2021, Tobias is working as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow on high enthalpy experimental research which includes wind tunnel experiments with the multi-mode facility T6, and the development of optical diagnostic techniques. His research interests lie in the field of high enthalpy non-equilibrium flows and in the development of measurement and instrumentation techniques.

• Experimental hypersonics and plasma flows
• Optical diagnostics
• Spacecraft re-entry
• High temperature material-flow interaction
• Wind tunnel Development
• Instrumentation
• Analytical Methods in heat and mass transfer

Development of high enthalpy wind tunnels

The design, build and operation of new ground testing facilities that are capable of replicating conditions encountered by spacecraft and hypersonic vehicles traversing the atmosphere. This includes facilities using high temperature plasma flows as well as short-duration facilities generating hypervelocity flows.

Pre-heating of hypersonic wind tunnel models

This project is utilising plasma flows to pre-heat sub-scaled models of flight vehicles in hypersonic wind tunnels. Development of a combined testing architecture utilising an expansion tube and a thermal arc-jet.

Development of measurement techniques and instrumentation

Optical diagnostics including Vacuum Ultraviolet emission spectroscopy, laser absorption spectroscopy, probe-based measurement instrumentation, and high-speed imaging and Schlieren techniques.

Tobias currently carries out the following teaching activities:

• Fluid Mechanics Course Work Module (2nd year undergraduate laboratory)
• 3rd year undergraduate group project on satellite demise
• Lectures in Thermodynamics for 2nd year undergraduate students
• Tutorials in Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics at St. Hilda's College
• 4th year undergraduate and DPhil projects in Hypersonics