Academic Credentials
  • Ph.D., Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2025
  • M.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2022
  • B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2020
Professional Honors
  • Outstanding M.S. Recipient in Aerospace Engineering, UCLA, 2022
Professional Affiliations
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
  • National Fire Protection Association (NFPA)

Dr. Hayrapetyan specializes in combustion dynamics, fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, compressible gas dynamics, and advanced experimental methods for analyzing complex thermal and flow-driven systems. He has conducted extensive laboratory research on flame instabilities, with direct applications to industrial combustion technologies such as boilers, gas turbines, and rocket engines.

Dr. Hayrapetyan's technical skill set includes signal and image diagnostics, data interpretation, and the application of machine learning algorithms for enhanced signal recovery and experimental analysis. He also has experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) using ANSYS Fluent and COMSOL Multiphysics, including simulation and benchmarking of helicopter rotor blade aerodynamics using meshless methods. He has performed finite element analysis (FEA) using SolidWorks Simulation. At Exponent, Dr. Hayrapetyan leverages this multidisciplinary background to assess performance, failure modes, and safety risks in thermal-fluid systems across a range of industrial and high-performance engineering environments.

Prior to joining Exponent, Dr. Hayrapetyan was a graduate researcher in the Energy and Propulsion Research Laboratory at UCLA, where he performed experimental studies on acoustically coupled combustion dynamics. His research identified transition boundaries in complex flame-acoustic behavior across wide parametric ranges, contributing to improved experimental techniques, custom data acquisition and processing codes, and deeper understanding of instability mechanisms that drive real-world combustion system design.