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Harri K. Kytomaa, Ph.D., P.E., CFEI, CFI

Corporate Vice President & Practice Director

Thermal Sciences

Professional Profile


Dr. Kytömaa is a Corporate Vice President and Director of the Thermal Sciences practice, specializing in mechanical engineering and the analysis of thermal and flow processes. Dr. Kytömaa applies his expertise to the investigation and prevention of failures in mechanical systems, including combustion equipment. He also investigates fires and explosions, and the determination of their cause and origin. Dr. Kytömaa investigates such failures in aircraft, motor vehicles, marine facilities, industrial and manufacturing complexes, and office and residential occupancies. He has also provided consultation to the power generation, oil and gas, chemical, pulp and paper, and metal smelting industries. Dr. Kytömaa’s project experience includes turbines, compressors, boilers, smelters, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, instrumentation, nuclear waste management, heat transfer systems, flammable vapors, flammable liquids, CO formation and migration and cryogenic liquids including LNG and its associated equipment.

Dr. Kytömaa has decades of experience in the area of dynamics and analysis of piping systems containing both liquids and gases. He has developed modeling tools to describe the response of liquid and gas piping systems to artificially induced sources of flow pulsation, as well as to natural sources such as those associated with reciprocating and rotating equipment, and piping components. He has applied these tools to modeling the dynamics and acoustics of drilling fluid filled piping systems for acoustic telemetry and Measurement-While-Drilling systems (MWD), which was one of the enabling technologies for directional drilling. Dr. Kytömaa has also applied his flow and acoustic expertise to gas piping and rotating equipment including gas turbines and compressors. This experience includes the characterization of rapidly varying pressures and forces caused by the interruption of rotating equipment or the sudden closing of valves and their effects.

Dr. Kytömaa has held several academic, research, and consulting positions, including that of Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he was head of the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory. He has also held positions as Visiting Professor at the Helsinki University of Technology and at the DOE Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Washington, served as Lecturer in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and most recently, at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

  • Ph.D., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 1986
  • M.S., Mechanical Engineering, California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 1981
  • B.Sc., Engineering Science, Durham University, England (with honors), 1979
  • Sigma Xi
  • Lewis F. Moody Award for best paper on a subject useful in engineering practice presented to American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), 1993
  • Henry L. Doherty Professor in Ocean Utilization, 1991–1993
  • Chairman, Organizing Committee, Engineering Foundation Workshop, Davos, Switzerland, 1993
  • National Science Foundation Review Panelist, Washington, DC, 1990
  • National Science Foundation Group Leader, Acoustic Methods Workshop on Visualization of Particulate Two-Phase Flows, Washington, DC, 1990
  • Diver in the Finnish Navy, rank Able Seaman, Distinguished Service, 1980
  • Institute of Mechanical Engineers Prize for Outstanding Project Work (United Kingdom), 1979

    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, California, #34290
    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, Massachusetts, #48202
    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, Louisiana, #PE.0035054
    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, Maine, #12370
    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, Michigan, #6201057546
    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, Washington, #47486
    • Registered Professional Mechanical Engineer, New York, #089361
    • Certified Fire and Explosion Investigator (CFEI) in accordance with the National Association of Fire Investigators (NAFI) National Certification Board per NFPA 921 Section 11.6.4
    • Certified Fire Investigator (CFI) in accordance with the International Association of Arson Investigators
    • National Waste Operations and Emergency Response Training, 29 CFR 1910.120
    • Fire Investigation 1A Certification accredited by the California State Fire Marshal

  • Finnish
  • French