Massimo "Max" Capobianchi, Ph.D., P.E.

Associate Dean & Professor of Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Capobianchi is the associate dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and a professor of mechanical engineering at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He joined the faculty in 1996 after receiving his Ph.D. in Mechanical...

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Contact Information

Education & Curriculum Vitae

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering, State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, 1996

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, SUNY Stony Brook, 1991

Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering, SUNY Stony Brook, 1981

Curriculum Vitae

Courses Taught

MENG 322 Thermodynamics II

Past Semesters

ENSC 352 Fluid Mechanics
MENG 321 Thermodynamics I
MENG 341 Heat Transfer
MENG 411 Instrumentation Systems
MENG 411L Instrumentation Systems Lab
MENG 412 Mechanical Measurements
MENG 412L Mechanical Measurements Lab

Dr. Capobianchi is the associate dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) and a professor of mechanical engineering at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington. He joined the faculty in 1996 after receiving his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Stony Brook, specializing in the thermal sciences. His total experience includes ten years in professional practice in industry and nearly thirty years as faculty in academia. He has published research works in the area of non-Newtonian fluid mechanics and heat transfer, measurement of transport properties, and thermal modeling and management of electronics.

Most of his tenure in industry was working as a mechanical design engineer in the military electronics field. During that time, he earned a New York State Professional Engineering license (August 1988), and completed a Master of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from SUNY Stony Brook (May 1991). He returned the following September as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. His thesis work, which was sponsored by the Department of Advanced Technology at Brookhaven National Laboratory, developed a technique to measure the Fickian diffusion coefficient in binary liquid solutions. Concurrently, in the final two years of his schooling, he worked as a visiting instructor in the Department of Automotive Engineering Technology at the SUNY College of Technology at Farmingdale. A Ph.D. degree was awarded in May 1996, after which he accepted a faculty appointment in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Gonzaga University. Over the years he served multiple terms as department chair and he is currently serving as the associate dean of the SEAS. His research interests include measurement of transport properties, and thermal modeling and management of electronics. The latter focused on the numerical simulation of the electrical behavior of integrated circuit devices in the presence of thermal interactions, and was sponsored by the National Science Foundation Center for the Design of Analog/Digital Integrated Circuits. His most current works over the last ten years have been in the area of non‐Newtonian fluid mechanics and heat transfer, where he numerically solved fundamental problems with purely viscous, shear thinning (i.e., pseudoplastic) and shear thickening (i.e., dilatant) fluids. He has published multiple papers in this area that include hydrodynamic and heat transfer solutions to internal forced convection and to external natural convection problems.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications and Conference Proceedings

M. Capobianchi, R. Cangelosi, and P. McGah, “Heat Transfer in Fully Developed, Laminar Flows of Dissipative Pseudoplastic and Dilatant Fluids in Circular Conduits”, Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 143, March 2021, 031801-1–13.  A summary of this paper was also featured online in Advances in Engineering (https://advanceseng.com/), citation link: https://advanceseng.com/heat-transfer-laminar-flows-dissipative-pseudoplastic-dilatant-fluids-circular-conduits/.

M. Capobianchi and P. McGah, “Developing Region Solution for High Reynolds Number Laminar Flows of Pseudoplastic and Dilatant Fluids in Circular Ducts”, Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Fluids Engineering, Vol. 139, Issue 4, April 2017, pp. 041202-1–11.

P. McGah and M. Capobianchi, “A Modification of Murray’s Law for Shear-Thinning Rheology”, Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Biomechanical Engineering, Vol. 137, May 2015, pp. 054503-1 — 054503-6.

M. Capobianchi and A. Aziz, “Laminar Natural Convection Between a Vertical Surface with Uniform Heat Flux and Pseudoplastic and Dilatant Fluids”, Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 136, September 2014, pp. 092501-1–9.

M. Capobianchi and A. Aziz, “Laminar Natural Convection from an Isothermal Vertical Surface to Pseudoplastic and Dilatant Fluids”, Transactions of the ASME, Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 134, December 2012, pp. 122502-1–-9.

M. Capobianchi and A. Aziz, “A Scale Analysis for Natural Convective Flows over Vertical Surfaces”, International Journal of Thermal Sciences, Vol. 54, 2012, pp. 82-88.

M. Capobianchi and D. Wagner, “Heat Transfer in Laminar Flows of Extended Modified Power Law Fluids in Rectangular Ducts”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 53, January 2010, pp. 558-563.

M. Capobianchi, “Similitude Considerations in Internal Flows of Pseudoplastic and Dilatant Fluids:  Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer in Parallel-plate Conduits”, Proceedings of the 20th International Symposium on Transport Phenomena (ISTP-20), Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), July 7-10, 2009.

M. Capobianchi, “Pressure Drop Predictions for Laminar Flows of Extended Modified Power Law Fluids in Rectangular Ducts”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Vol. 51, March 2008, pp. 1393-1401.

M. Capobianchi, V. Labay, F. Shi, and G. Mizushima, “Simulating the Electrical Behavior of Integrated Circuit Devices in the Presence of Thermal Interactions”, IEEE Transactions on Computer-Aided Design of Integrated Circuits and Systems, Vol. 25, No. 10,  October 2006, pp. 2231-2241.

M. Capobianchi, J. Voight, and S. Surapaneni, "Modeling Electro-Thermal Behavior of Integrated Circuit Devices", Advances in Electronic Packaging - 1999, Volume 1, EEP-Vol. 26-1, D. Agonafer, M. Saka, and Y.-C. Lee, Editors, ASME, New York, 1999, pp. 915-922, presented at the Pacific Rim / ASME International Intersociety Electronic and Photonic Packaging Conference (InterPACK 99), Lahaina, Maui, Hawai’i, June 13-19, 1999.

M. Capobianchi, T.F. Irvine, Jr., N.K. Tutu, and G.A. Greene, “A New Technique for Measuring the Fickian Diffusion Coefficient in Binary Liquid Solutions”, Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science, Vol. 18, 1998, pp. 33-47.

M. Capobianchi, A New Experimental Technique for Measuring the Diffusion Coefficient in Binary Liquid Solutions, Ph.D. Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, May 1996.

L.S. Wang and M. Capobianchi, "Irreducibility of Irreversibility by Unrestrained Quasistatic Changes in a Thermodynamic System", Thermodynamics and the Design, Analysis, and Improvement of Energy Systems, AES Vol. 30 (HTD Vol. 266), H.J. Richter, Editor, ASME, New York, 1993, pp. 115-125, presented at the ASME Winter Annual Meeting, November 28 – December 3, 1993, New Orleans, Louisiana.

S. Park, T.F. Irvine Jr., and M. Capobianchi, "Experimental and Numerical Study of Friction Factor for a Modified Power Law Fluid in a Rectangular Duct", Proceedings of the Third World Conference on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, and Thermodynamics, Honolulu, Hawai’i, October 31 – November 5, 1993, Vol. 1, Elsevier Science Publishers B.V., New York, 1993, pp. 900-908.

M. Capobianchi and T.F. Irvine Jr., "Predictions of Pressure Drop and Heat Transfer in Concentric Annular Ducts with Modified Power Law Fluids", Wärme-und Stoffübertragung (Heat and Mass Transfer), Vol. 27, No. 4, 1992, pp. 209-215.

Chapters in Textbooks and Handbooks:

The CRC Handbook of Thermal Engineering, 2nd Edition, R. P. Chhabra, Editor, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 2018 (the chapters below are complete rewrites and updates of those in the 1st edition listed below):

A. K. Gupta, R. P. Chhabra, T.F. Irvine, Jr., and M. Capobianchi "Non-Newtonian Flows".

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S. W. Patel, R. P. Chhabra, T.F. Irvine, Jr., and M. Capobianchi, “Convection Heat Transfer in Non-Newtonian Fluids”.

The CRC Handbook of Mechanical Engineering, 1st and 2nd Editions, F. Kreith, Editor, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 1998 (1st Edition) and 2005 (2nd Edition):  T.F. Irvine Jr. and M. Capobianchi, "Non-Newtonian Flow" and "Non-Newtonian Fluids-Heat Transfer".

The “Non-Newtonian Flow” chapter also appears in the following handbooks:

  • Fluid Mechanics, Frank Kreith, Editor, CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida, 2000.
  • The Handbook of Fluid Dynamics, Richard W. Johnson, Editor, CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida, 1998.
  • The CRC Handbook of Thermal Engineering, 1st Edition, F. Kreith, Editor, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 1999.

The "Non-Newtonian Fluids-Heat Transfer" chapter also appears in the following handbook:

  • The CRC Handbook of Thermal Engineering, 1st Edition, F. Kreith, Editor, CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 1999.
  • International Encyclopedia of Heat and Mass Transfer, G.F. Hewitt, G.L. Shires, and Y.V. Polezhaev, Editors, CRC Press LLC, Boca Raton, Florida, 1997:  T.F. Irvine Jr. and M. Capobianchi, "Triangular Ducts, Flow and Heat Transfer".

Editorships:

Update Editor (one revision), The Mechanical Engineering Handbook CRCnetBASE, which is the CD ROM version of The CRC Handbook of Mechanical Engineering (F. Kreith, Editor-in-Chief), CRC Press, Inc., Boca Raton, Florida, 2001 (since superseded by 2nd Edition of The CRC Handbook of Mechanical Engineering).

Invited Lectures at Conferences and Workshops

“Simulating the Electrical Behavior of Integrated Circuit Devices in the Presence of Thermal Interactions”, presented at the First ASME-ATI (Associazione Termotecnica Italiana) Joint Workshop on Thermal and Fluid Dynamics, Villa Mondragone, Frascati, Italy, June 30, 2003.

Measuring the Fickian Diffusion Coefficient in Binary Liquid Solutions Using the Decaying Pulse Technique”, presented at the Thomas F. Irvine Jr. Symposium in Thermal and Fluid Sciences, SUNY Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York, November 17, 2001.

Modeling the Electrical Behavior of Integrated Circuit Devices in the Presence of Thermal Interactions Using Saber”, presented at the 2000 Analogy Saber Simulator Users Resource (ASSURE) Conference, Portland, Oregon, May 10-12, 2000.

“Modeling the Electrical Behavior of Integrated Circuit Devices in the Presence of Thermal Interactions”, presented at the Bi-Weekly Seminar Series of the Washington State University (WSU) Center for Advanced Multiphase Materials Processing (CAMMP), WSU College of Engineering and Architecture, Pullman, Washington, March 10, 2000.

“Modeling Electro-thermal Behavior of Integrated Circuit Devices”, presented at the 1999 Analogy Saber Simulator Users Resource (ASSURE) Conference, Fort Worth, Texas, May 19-21, 1999.

“Modeling Thermal and the Electro-Thermal Behavior of Power Integrated Circuits”, presented at the 1998 ASSURE Conference, Mt. Hood, Oregon, March 18-20, 1998.

Invited Lectures to Industry

Research on electro-thermal co-simulation of integrated circuit devices:

  • Synopsys, Inc. (previously Analogy, Inc.), Hillsboro, Oregon, September 12, 2005, and June 3, 2004; Analogy Inc., Beaverton, Oregon, July 29, 1999, and July 23, 1998.
  • The Boeing Company, Phantom Works Group, Kent Washington, October 1, 2001; Electronic Systems and Missile Defense Space and Communications Group, December 6, 1999, October 21, 1998, and April 13, 1998.
  • The Crane/Interpoint Corporation, Redmond, Washington, December 6, 1999; Crane/Eldec Corporation, Lynwood, Washington, April 13, 1998.
  • Texas Instruments Inc., Dallas, Texas, August 2, 1999, May 29, 1998, and November 17, 1997.

Other Presentations

Presented six status reports on my research on electro-thermal co-simulation of integrated circuit devices to the industrial advisory board of the National Science Foundation Center for the Design of Analog-Digital Integrated Circuits (NSF CDADIC), July 1997 through February 2000 (NSF CDADIC is an industry-university research consortium sponsored by the NSF Industry-University Cooperative Research Center program).

Areas of Interest:

  • Non‐Newtonian fluid mechanics and heat transfer, both fundamental problems and applications.
  • Measurement of transport properties.
  • Thermal management of electronics.