Virginia Tech

  • Research


    Heat flux sensor development and calibration
    Fundamentals of turbulent heat transfer
    Biomedical thermal instrumentation

    Tom Diller’s current research focuses on the development and use of new instrumentation for measuring heat transfer. Applications include high-temperature unsteady flows, such as found in gas turbine engines, re-entry vehicles, and combustion environments. Biomedical applications include non-invasively measuring blood perfusion in the human body and characterization of burns. He continues to work to transition research results to industrial and laboratory applications.

  • Publications


    Diller, T. E., “Heat Flux Measurement,” Ch. 18, in Handbook of Measurement in Science and Engineering, Ed. M. Kutz, John Wiley & Sons, NY, 2013, pp. 629-659.
    – Thompson, J. L., Diller, T. E., and Kornhauser, A.A., “Preliminary Development of Sensor for In Situ DNB Margin Measurement,” Trans. Am. Nuclear Soc., Vol. 109, 2013, pp. 432-435.
    – Vegas, T., Lattimer, B. and Diller, T. E., “Fire Thermal Boundary Condition Measurement using a Hybrid Heat Flux,” Fire Safety Journal, in press.
    – Al-Khwaji, A., Vick, B., and Diller, T. E., “Modeling and Estimating Simulated Burn Depth Using the Perfusion and Thermal Resistance Probe,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 7, 2013, 031003, 9 pages.
    – Hubble, D. O., Vlachos, P. P., and Diller, T. E., “The Role of Large-Scale Vortical Structures in Transient Convective Heat Transfer Augmentation,” Journal of Fluid Mechanics, Vol. 718, 2013, pp. 89-105.
    – Kandel, M. K., Grisso, R., Diller, T. E., and Wicks, A. L., “Monitor System to Detect Heat Stress and Position of Youth Lawn Care Workers,” Journal of Mechatronics, Vol. 1, 2012, pp. 1-9.
    – Alkhwaji, A., Vick, B., and Diller, T. E., “New Mathematical Model to Estimate Tissue Blood Perfusion, Thermal Contact Resistance and Core Temperature,” ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Vol. 134, 2012, 081004, 8 pages.
    – Pullins, C. A. and Diller, T. E., “Direct Measurement of Hot-Wall Heat Flux” Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Vol. 26, 2012, pp. 430-438.
    – Pullins, C. A. and Diller, T. E., “Adaptation of the In-Cavity Calibration Method for High Temperature Heat Flux Sensors,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 54, 2011, pp. 3369-80.
    – Sarkar, S., Zimmermann, K., Leng, W., Vikesland, P., Zhang, J., Dorn, h., Diller, T., Rylander, C., and Rylander, M. N., “Measurement of Thermal Conductivity of Carbon Nanotube-Tissue Phantom Composites with Hot Wire Probe Method,” Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Vol. 39, 2011, pp. 1745-1758.
    – Hubble, D. O. and Diller, T. E., “Development and Evaluation of the Time-Resolved Heat and Temperature Array,” Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications, Vol. 2, 2010, 031003, 9 pages.
    – Gifford, A. R., Vlachos P. P., and Diller T. E., “The Physical Mechanism of Heat Transfer Augmentation in Stagnating Flows Subject to Freestream Turbulence” ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 133, 2011, 021901, 11 pages.
    – Ewing, J., Gifford, A., Hubble, D., Vlachos, P., Wicks, A., and Diller, T., “A Direct-Measurement Thin-Film Heat Flux Sensor Array, “Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 21, 2010, 105201, 8 pages.
    – Pullins, C. A. and Diller, T. E., “In situ High Temperature Heat Flux Sensor Calibration,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 53, 2010, pp. 3429-3438.
    – Hubble, D. O. and Diller, T. E., “A Hybrid Method for Measuring Heat Flux,” ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 132, 2010, 031602, 8 pages.
    – Gifford, A. R., Hubble, D. O., Pullins, C. A., Huxtable, S. T., and Diller T. E., ”A Durable Heat Flux Sensor for Extreme Temperature and Heat Flux Environments,” AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Vol. 24, 2010, pp. 69-76.
    – Gifford, A., Hoffie, A., Diller, T. and Huxtable, S., “Convection Calibration of Schmidt-Boelter Heat Flux Gages in Stagnation and Shear Air Flow,” ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 132, 2010, 031601, 9 pages.
    – Ricketts, P. L., Mudaliar, A. V., Ellis, B. E., Pullins, C. A., Meyers, L. A., Lanz, O. I., Scott, E. P., and Diller, T. E., “Non-Invasive Blood Perfusion Measurements Using a Combined Temperature and Heat Flux Probe,” International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 51, 2008, pp. 5740-5748.
    – Mudaliar, A. V., Ellis, B. E., Ricketts, P. L., Lanz, O. I., Lee, C. Y., Diller, T. E., and Scott, E. P., “Non-invasive Blood Perfusion Measurements of an Isolated Rat Liver and Anesthetized Rat Kidney,” ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Vol. 130, 2008, 061013.
    – Mudaliar, A. V., Ellis, B. E., Ricketts, P. L., Lanz, O. I., Scott, E. P., and Diller, T. E., “A Phantom Tissue System for the Calibration of Perfusion Measurements,” ASME Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Vol. 130, 2008, 051002.
    – Robinson, P. S., Scott, E. P., and Diller, T. E., “Testing of a Non-Invasive Probe for Measurement of Blood Perfusion,” ASME Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 2, 2008, 011001.
    – Nix, A. C. and Diller, T. E., “Experiments on the Physical Mechanism of Heat Transfer Augmentation by Freestream Turbulence at a Cylinder Stagnation Point,” ASME Journal of Turbomachinery, Vol. 131, 2009, 021015.

  • Professional History


    1990–present, Virginia Tech, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor
    1997–2002, Virginia Tech, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Assistant Department Head, Graduate Program
    2002–2003, Ecole Polytechnic Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland, Professeur Invité of LTT

  • Awards and Honors


    Fellow of ASME
    American Men and Women of Science, 21st Ed., 2002
    Who’s Who in American Education, 7th Ed., 2006, 8th Ed., 2007-2008
    Who’s Who in the World, 24th Ed., 2006
    Who’s Who in Science and Engineering, 2002, 9th Ed., 2006, 10th Ed., 2008-2009
    Who’s Who in Finance and Business, 2006, 36th Ed., 2008-2009
    Strathmore’s Who’s Who, 2004-2005
    Who’s Who in Engineering Education, 2002, 8th Ed. 2007-2008.
    United Who’s Who, Empowering Executives and Professionals, 2002-2003
    America’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals, 2002-2003, 2003-2004
    500 Leaders of Science (ABI)
    The Contemporary Who’s Who 2002/2003, 2003/2004, 2004/2005
    1000 World Leaders of Scientific Influence, 1st Ed. (ABI)
    Metropolitan Who’s Who Among Executives and Professionals, 2007
    Who’s Who in Thermal-Fluids, 2011

Education

Sc.D., Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1977
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1974
B.S., Mechanical Engineering, Carnegie-Mellon University, 1972

(540) 231-7198
313C Goodwin Hall – 0238
635 Prices Fork Road
Blacksburg, VA 24061
tdiller@vt.edu

Thomas Diller

Professor