Domingo Elias

Dr. Elias contributes to investigating and analyzing fires, explosions, and safety incidents. He also performs heat transfer and fluid flow analyses using analytic approaches, CFD software such as COMSOL Multiphysics, and computational tools such as MATLAB. In his team, Dr. Elias also contributes with research and analyses that provide LNG plants with technical information to comply with the requirements of the Federal Regulatory Commission in the areas of engineering controls and mitigation of fire, explosion, or dispersion of fuels.

Dr. Elias is trained in FLACS CFD software and its application to explosion and fire analysis, vapor dispersion, vapor cloud explosion, and the evaluation of mitigation strategies. Dr. Elias has also collaborated on hydrogen projects investigating the effects of hydrogen explosions and detonations on structural components.

Having held a license as an automotive technician, Dr. Elias can apply his knowledge to investigating car accidents, emissions claims, and root cause analysis of vehicle electrical, mechanical, and electromechanical failures.

Dr. Elias came to Exponent after holding a postdoctoral researcher position in the Chemical Engineering Department at LSU Baton Rouge, where he optimized packed bed catalytic reactors and the shapes of catalyst pellets using convex and nonconvex optimization science. Dr. Elias has expertise in modeling reactive, multiphase flow, and flow in porous media.

Before his postdoctoral position, Dr. Elias performed doctoral research for two departments at LSU Baton Rouge: chemical engineering and mechanical engineering. In chemical engineering, Dr. Elias merged optimization algorithms with simulations of packed bed reactors to determine the optimal void fraction distribution to reduce hotspots in packed bed reactors that produce ethylene from alkanes. The same topology optimization techniques were also applied to find the optimum shape of a catalyst to reduce hotspots and increase conversion and yield.

Before pursuing graduate studies, Dr. Elias worked for Halliburton as a Field Engineer in the oil and gas industry in Houma, Louisiana, specializing in oil and gas well completions. As a field engineer, Dr. Elias also received specialized training in geology, formation evaluation, drilling, well completions,production of oil and gas, and sand control. Dr. Elias likewise participated in well-completion jobs on land and offshore in the US and abroad.

Dr. Elias was an intern with the AERG (Advanced Engineering and Research Group) of NovaBus® (Volvo Group), where he assisted in designing and testing natural gas and hybrid transit buses. After working with the AERG at NovaBus®, he deepened his automotive technology knowledge by obtaining an automotive technician license. As part of keeping the license current, he took continued education on automotive technology spanning automotive finishes, transmissions, and hybrid vehicles.