Current Position

Full Professor, Chair of Propulsion and Power   
Director of the Aerospace Engineering Graduate School

Biography

Degrees

• M.Sc. in Aerospace Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 1991.
• M.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, USA, 1995.
• Ph.D. in Energy Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, 1996. 

Work Experience

• 2013-current, Full Professor, Propulsion and Power, TU Delft, The Netherlands.
• 2002-2013, Associate Professor, Renewable Energy Systems, TU Delft, The Netherlands.
• 2005-2006, Interim Head of the Energy Technology Section, TU Delft, The Netherlands.
• 1997-2002, Assistant Professor, Fluid Machinery, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy.
• 1996-2003, Founder and Partner of AustEx - Exergy Management s.r.l., Milano, Italy.
• 1995, Research Assistant, Engineering Thermodynamics, Stanford University, California.
• 1991-1996,  Energy Engineering consultant, Studio Tecnico SPELL, Milano, Italy.

Expertise

Technologies  

• Organic Rankine Cycle Power Systems
• Supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle Power Systems
• Unconventional Turbomachinery

• Automated turbomachinery fluid dynamic design
• (Dynamic) system modeling and simulation
• Integrated process/components design optimization

• Non Ideal Compressible Fluid Dynamics (NICFD)
• Thermodynamic Properties of Pure Fluids and Mixtures

Awards

1995, Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship, Milano, Italy.
The grant funded the Master studies at Stanford University.

1996, Italian Ministry of the University and Scientific research, post-doctoral fellowship, Milano, Italy. 

2004, NWO VIDI grant, personal grant from the Dutch Science Foundation for the project BZT Fluids for energy conversion applications.

2004, TU Delft grant for visiting scholars.
The grant funded a 6 months visit of Prof. dr. ir. A. Guardone of Politecnico di Milano, Italy.

2008, TU Delft grant for visiting scholars.
The grant funded a one-year visit of Prof. dr. ir. S. Rebay of the University of Brescia, Italy.

2008, Best Paper Award of the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Conference and Exhibition (IMECE), 11-15 Nov., Seattle, WA, 2007.

2009-2010, Best lecturer award of the Master programs "Sustainable Processes and Energy technologies" and "Solid and Fluid Mechanics" of the Delft University of Technology.

2011-2012, Best lecturer award of the Master programs "Sustainable Processes and Energy technologies" and "Solid and Fluid Mechanics" of the Delft University of Technology. 

Hobbies

Music, literature, photography, gardening, skiing, trekking and sailing

Projects

Selected projects 

• CC-Powertrain for trucks
• Mini-ORC turbogenerator for 0-energy buildings
• BZT fluids for small power systems
• Non-ideal Compressible Fluid Dynamics for Turbomachinery
• Novel ECS for aircraft
• CC-engine and CC-APU for next-generation aircraft
• sCO2 power cycle for waste heat recovery
• Thermal Energy harvesting on board of aircraft
• Methods for ultra-compact aerospace heat exchangers design
• Mixtures as working fluids for ORC systems

Other Positions and Memberships

• Associate Editor, ASME Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power (July 2013 - July 2015)
• Editor,  Special JEGTP 2013 Issue on ORC Power Systems
• Chairman, ASME International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) board (2016-2017)
• Vice Chairman, ASME International Gas Turbine Institute (IGTI) board (2014-2015)
• Chairman, ORC Power Systems committee of the IGTI (2012-2015)
• Vice Chairman, Board of the Knowledge Center of Organic Rankine Cycle Technology (KCORC) (2017-2019)
• Chairman, Board of the Knowledge Center of Organic Rankine Cycle Technology (KCORC) (2020)
• Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) since 2000
• Chairman, ORC 2011 International Seminar
• Chairman, ASME ORC 2013 Conference
• Honorary Chairman, ASME ORC 2015 Conference, ORC 2017, ORC 2019
• Member of the Advisory Board of the Global Propulsion and Power Society since 2018
• Associate Editor of the Journal of the Global Propulsion and Power Society since 2018. 
• Member of the Board of the SU2 Foundation since 2021

A bit about myself

I was interviewed by our marketing and information department when I was appointed professor: the transcript of the interview is displayed on the TU Delft Aerospace Engineering website  here.

My inaugural lecture can be seen here.

I am a passionate lecturer of Thermodynamics and organized an International Symposium titled  Teaching and Learning Thermodynamics in a Time of Change. A taste of it in these videos

Publications List (Selected or Complete)

Selected articles
 
S. Vitale, M. Pini, and  P. Colonna.  Multi-stage turbomachinery design using the discrete adjoint method within the open-source software SU2.  J. Propul. Power, 36(3):465–478, 2020.  DOI  
 
W. C. Reynolds and  P. Colonna.  Thermodynamics: fundamentals and engineering applications. Cambridge University Press, September 2018.  DOI     
P. Colonna, E. Casati, C. Trapp, T. Mathijssen, J. Larjola, T. Turunen-Saaresti, and A. Uusitalo.  Organic Rankine cycle power systems: From the concept to current technology, applications, and an outlook to the future.  J. Eng. Gas Turb. Power, 137(10):100801–100820, 2015.   DOI       
 
 F. Casella and  P. Colonna.  Dynamic modeling of IGCC power plants.  Appl. Therm. Eng., 35:91–111,  2012.  DOI
 
P. Colonna, J. Harinck, S. Rebay, and A. Guardone.  Real-gas effects in organic Rankine cycle turbine nozzles.  J. Propul. Power, 24(2):282–294, 2008.  DOI

C. Zamfirescu, A. Guardone, and  P. Colonna.  Admissibility region for rarefaction shock waves in dense gases.  J. Fluid Mech., 599:363–381, 2008.  DOI
      
P. Colonna and A. Guardone.  Molecular interpretation of nonclassical gas dynamics of dense vapors under the van der Waals model.  Phys. Fluids, 18(5):056101–1–14, 2006.  DOI 
 
P. Colonna, N. R. Nannan, A. Guardone, and E. W. Lemmon.  Multiparameter equations of state for selected siloxanes.  Fluid Phase Equilib., 244:193–211, 2006.  DOI

 Google Scholar 

Supervision of Doctoral Students

Former Doctoral Students

1. Prof. Dr. Paolo Silva (Associate Professor, Politecnico di Milano)    
2. Dr. Falk Ahnert (Head of Global Development Support, Wintershall)   
3. Dr. Hans van Putten (Software Product Development Manager, Department Head at Deltares)    
4. Dr. Ryan Nannan (Dean of the Mech. Eng. Dept., Anton De Kom University, Board Member at Staatsolie Maatschappij Suriname)     
5. Dr. John Harinck (Program manager, Institute for Sustainable Processes)
6. Dr. Emiliano Casati (PostDoc researcher, ETH Zurich, PREC group, Emiliano is one of the recipient of the European individual fellowship Marie S. Curie-Global)    
7. Dr. Carsten Trapp (Senior Analyst, Structuring & Valuation, Vattenfall)
8. Dr. Enrico Rinaldi (Software Developer, Maxon)
9. Dr. Tiemo Mathijssen (Expert, meteorological instrumentation, Koninklijk Nederlands Meteorologisch Instituut - KNMI)
10. Dr. Sebastian Bahamonde (Simulation Engineer, ASML)
11. Dr. Salvatore Vitale (Software Engineer, ING)
12. Dr. Lucia Azzini (Thermal Engineer, GE Avio Aero)
13. Dr. Antonio Rubino (Data Science Application Engineer, Dutch Analytics)
14. Dr. André Perpignan (R&D Engineer, Siemens Energy)
15. Dr. Nitish Anand (Senior Researcher at VITO)
16. Dr. Adam Head (PostDoc Researcher at TU Delft)

1. Francesco Tosto
2. Nitish Chandrasekar
3. Andrea Giuffre’
4. Federica Ascione
5. Francesco Mazza
6. Leonardo Castellanos
7. Dabo Krempus
8. Fabio Beltrame
9. Matteo Majer
10. Praharsh Pai Raikar
11. Aude Lecardonnel  

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