Gary Tiscia, Jr.
Research Engineer
Education
B.S., Mechanical Engineer, Villanova University, May 2008
Minor, Mathematics, Villanova University, May 2008
M.S., Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, May 2011
Thermofluid Systems Certificate, Villanova University, May 2011
Experience
Mr. Tiscia began working as a Research Engineer at Materials Research & Design in 2008. Since then, he has been involved in several government-sponsored (NASA, MDA, Navy, Air Force) as well as independent government contractor-sponsored design and analysis efforts supporting development of various advanced materials and concepts for extreme thermal-structural environments.
Mr. Tiscia was recently involved in two NASA-sponsored SBIR programs focused on the development of advanced combustion chambers. One resulted in successful firings of the largest hafnia-lined iridium/rhenium combustion chamber of its kind (throat inner diameter of 3.5 inches, chamber inner diameter of 5.66 inches). The chamber pressure was approximately 350 psi with a mixture ratio of LOX/CH4 at 5420°F. The second chamber was part of a Phase I design, analysis, and fabrication effort that lead to Phase II funding (slated to begin in 2011). Mr. Tiscia has been involved on a number of other combustion chamber and nozzle projects. Of note is his analysis work on non-eroding ceramic-metallic throat inserts. For over thirty seconds of burn time, the throat inserts experienced operating temperatures in excess of 6000°F and pressure loads in excess of 700 psi. These analyses required the calculation of fabrication stresses prior to motor firing and also developing appropriate failure theories for the insert materials. Finally, Mr. Tiscia has been working under Kent Buesking developing a strategy combining Isight and Matlab to find trends correlating non-destructive evaluation (NDE) signals and material degradation.
For the three summers prior to joining MR&D, Mr. Tiscia worked as an intern at Pratt and Whitney (United Technologies) in East Hartford and Cheshire, CT. At the engine overhaul facility in Cheshire, his duties included authoring Designated Engineering Representative (DER) approved Internal Engineering Notices (IENs) and Engineering Authorizations (EAs) to authorize the repair of commercial and military engine components. He also reviewed customer-owned hardware for which no repairs existed to determine the feasibility of generating new repairs. In East Hartford, Mr. Tiscia was actively involved in ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence) efforts, including leading a Quality Clinic Process Charting (QCPC) sub-team. Additionally, he revised electronic commercial engine maintenance manuals to allow for more efficient procedure and repair searches.
After completing his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and minoring in Mathematics, Mr. Tiscia began pursuing his M.S. at Villanova University. During Mr. Tiscia’s graduate coursework he studied a variety of topics pertaining to his work at Materials Research & Design. His Thermofluid Systems certificate resulted from the successful completion of graduate classes in conduction, convection, transport phenomenon (heat and mass transfer) and advanced calculus. Additionally, he has taken classes in elasticity, finite element analysis, composite structures, and the mechanical and thermal behavior of solids.
Mr. Tiscia has demonstrated proficiency using several software packages. Most of his experience and work pertains to thermal and structural finite element modeling in Abaqus (Standard and Explicit). Additionally, he has been trained to use the computational fluid dynamics component of Abaqus through a multi-day course at Simulia in Rhode Island. Furthermore, Mr. Tiscia has been trained and is proficient with Isight, an optimization code developed by Simulia. Generally, his Isight work involves manipulating input to in-house codes in order match test data. One example included the variation of film coefficients in an Abaqus heat transfer model with the end goal of matching measured thermocouple test data. The model automated and stream-lined the optimization process allowing hundreds of iterations to execute in a relatively short period of time.
Mr. Tiscia also has several years of undergraduate, graduate, and professional experience using Matlab to analyze, manipulate, and understand large data sets. From this work, multiple executables have been compiled and are currently being run both internally and externally. Additionally, Mr. Tiscia has graduate coursework at Villanova University studying C# and is familiar with both Python and PHP.