Francesco Panerai

Research Interests

• Aerothermodynamics
• High temperature materials
• Hypersonics

Chapters in Books

• Panerai F, Sobhani S. Thermal Protection for Exploration Vehicles. Chapter 13. In: Poliskie M, editor. Planning and Execution of Human Missions to the Moon and Mars . American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, February 2023.
• Panerai F. Temperature and heat flux measurements. Chapter 6. In: Discetti S, Ianiro A, editors. Experimental Aerodynamics. Taylor & Francis Group, LLC, March 2017.
• Chazot O, Panerai F. High-Enthalpy Facilities and Plasma Wind Tunnels for Aerothermodynamics Ground Testing. Chapter 7. In: Josyula E, editor. Hypersonic Nonequilibrium Flows: Fundamentals and Recent Advances, American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, April 2015.

Selected Articles in Journals

• Arias V, Chen S, Haskins JB, Panerai F, Johnson HT, Stephani KA. Modeling the Effect of Pitting on the Tensile Behavior of Amorphous Carbon and Carbon Fiber. Carbon Trends 20 (2025) 100549
• Ghasimi SD, Rabinovitch J, Chacon L, Poovathingal S, Philippe CA, Foster CW, Villafane Roca L, Panerai F, As'ad F, Avery P, Farhat C, Lobbia M, Ataei N. Permeability Modeling of Mars Parachute Broadcloth Materials. AIAA Journal (2025). In press.
• Ringel BM, Semeraro F, Ferguson J, Barnard HS, Dias B, Schlepuetz C, Barnard ES, Schickler S, Levy K, Shacterman S, Benioff-White T, Davis J, McDowell AA, Parkinson DY, Panerai F. Carbon Fiber Oxidation in 4D. Advanced Materials (2025) 2502007.
• Konnik MT, Capponi L, Oldham T, Panerai F, Stephani K. Environmental response characteristics of substoichiometric ZrC_x under inductively coupled air plasma. Journal of the European Ceramic Society 45 (2025) 117491.
• Foster CW, Oruganti V, Panerai F. Super-Resolved Microstructure of Pyrolyzing Superlight Ablators. npj Materials Degradation 9:9 (2025).
• Lahouze F, Jomaa W, Metayer C, Meyer M, Panerai F, Lachaud J. Pyromechanics: A solid mechanics approach to deformation during pyrolysis. Fuel 390 (2025) 134557.
• Anderson NA, Zolfaghari P, Bhattacharya S, Capponi L, Oldham T, Sankaran RM, Elliott GS, Panerai F. Flow reactor experiments of graphite oxidation and nitridation. High Temperature Corrosion of Materials 101 (2024) 185-201.
• Phillippe C, Panerai F, Villafane Roca L. In Situ Imaging of Parachute Textile Micro-Mechanics Under Tensile Load. AIAA Journal 62 (2024) 4691-4700.
• Konnik MT, Oldham T, Panerai F, Stephani KA. The effect of nitrogen on the isothermal oxidation of substoichiometric zirconium carbide: microstructural and spectroscopic investigations. Ceramics International 50 (2024) 26596-26606.
• Capponi L, Padovan A, Elliott GS, Panesi M, Bodony DJ, Panerai F. Multi-domain analysis and prediction of inductively coupled plasma jet dynamics via high-speed imaging of visible light emission. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Sciences 157 (2024) 111232.
• Konnik MT, Oldham T, Le Maout V, Rzepka A, Hecht DH, Stephani KA, Panerai F. High-temperature oxidation and nitridation of substoichiometric zirconium carbide in isothermal air. Journal of the European Ceramic Society 44 (2024) 6771-6776.
• Mansour NN, Panerai F, Lachaud J. Flow Mechanics in Ablative Thermal Protection Systems. Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics 56 (2024) 549-575.
• Padovan A, Vollmer B, Panerai F, Panesi M, Stephani KA, Bodony DJ. A Modified B′ Formulation for Ablating-Surface Boundary Conditions. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 218 (2024) 124770.
• Foster CW, Collins LN, Panerai F, Roberts SA. Assessing thermophysical properties of parameterized woven composite models using image-based simulations. Composites Science and Technology (2023) 110136.
• Foster CW, Oruganti S, and Panerai F. Real-time quantitative imaging of RTV silicone pyrolysis. Polymer Degradation and Stability 214 (2023) 1104403.
• Oruganti S, Mansour NN, Panesi M, and Panerai F. Microstructure of Pyrolyzing RTV Silicone. Polymer Degradation and Stability 207 (2023) 110237.
• Meurisse JBE, Bellas Chatzigeorgis G, Ventura Diaz P, Bessire BK, Panerai F, and Mansour NN. Equilibrium model for the ablation response of silicone-coated PICA. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 201 (2023) 123523.
• Price KJ, Panerai F, Borchetta CG, Hardy JM, Martin A, and Bailey SCC. Arc-jet measurements of low-density ablator spallation. Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 133 (2022) 110544.
• Swaminathan Gopalan K, Borner A, Ferguson J, Panerai F, Mansour NN, and Stephani K. Gas-surface interactions in lightweight fibrous carbon materials. Computational Materials Science 205 (2022) 111190.
• Konnik MT, Panerai F, and Stephani K. The role of impurities and degradation on the thermal conductivity of carbon fiber and amorphous carbon. Carbon Trends 7 (2022) 100151.
• Ferguson JC, Borner A, Panerai F, Close S, and Mansour NN. Continuum to rarefied diffusive tortuosity factors in porous media from X-ray microtomography. Computational Materials Science 203 (2022) 111030.
• Panerai F, Bessire BK, Haskins JB, Foster CW, Stern EC, Barnard HS, and Feldman JD. Morphological Evolution of Ordinary Chondrite Microstructure During Heating: Implications for Atmospheric Entry. Planetary Science Journal 2(5) (2021) 179.
• Ferguson JC, Semeraro F, Thornton JM, Panerai F, and Mansour NN. Update 3.0 to "PuMA: The Porous Microstructure Analysis software", (PII: S2352711018300281). SoftwareX 15 (2021) 100775.
• Semeraro F, Ferguson JC, Acin M, Panerai F, and Mansour NN. Anisotropic analysis of fibrous and woven materials part 2: Computation of effective conductivity. Computational Materials Science 186 (2021) 109956.
• Semeraro F, Ferguson JC, Panerai F, and Mansour NN. Anisotropic analysis of fibrous and woven materials part 1: Estimation of local orientation. Computational Materials Science 178 (2020) 109631.
• Torres-Herrador F, Coheur J, Panerai F, Blondeau J, Magin TE, and Mansour NN. Competitive kinetic model for the pyrolysis of the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator. Aerospace Science and Technology 100 (2020) 105784.

Teaching Honors

• List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, UIUC (Spring 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023)
• Everitt Award for Teaching Excellence (2022)

Research Honors

• NASA Software of the Year Award (2022)
• AFOSR Young Investigator Award (2019)
• AMA Group Achievement Award - The Asteroid Threat Assessment Project Arc Jet Team (2017)
• NASA Group Achievement Award - Micro-Scale TPS Modeling Team (2017)
• VKI Excellence in Experimental Research Award (2008)

Other Honors

• AIAA Associate Fellow (2023)