Dr. Donald P. Visco, Jr.
Professor
Graduate Program Coordinator and ASEE Campus Representative

Contact Info:
Tennessee Tech University
Department of Chemical Engineering
Prescott Hall 306
1020 Stadium Drive
Box 5013
Cookeville, TN 38505-0001
Phone: (931) 372.3606
Fax (931) 372.6352
E-mail:DVisco@tntech.edu

Dr. Visco's CV (pdf)

Education

Honors and Awards

Research Statement

The research performed by Dr. Visco can be generally termed “computational modeling for industrial applications.” In particular, Dr. Visco uses computational modeling across a variety of areas of science from complex equation of state development for the refrigerant and blowing agent industry to biodiversity analysis and drug design.

Projects Relevant to the Refrigerant and Blowing Agent Industry – With the Montreal Protocol, production of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were banned and the search for replacement refrigerants (and foam blowing agents) began. Current wisdom indicates that a variety of substances will be used to replace the CFC’s, depending on application. Our research in this area focuses on a number of issues relevant to replacing these ozone-depleting substances. In one project we are utilizing the SAFT-VR equation of state to predict mixture properties involving hydrofluorocarbons, hydrofluoroethers and hydrocarbons. By exploring composition space in this manner, we can attempt to control and optimize various system properties (i.e., thermal conductivity, normal boiling point, flammability, etc.) resulting in substances tailored to particular industries. In another project we are exploring the issue of blowing agent solubility in the precursors of polyurethane foam, which is important to create the desired foaming action, using molecular models. Owing to its popularity within the refrigerant industry, we have another project that critically examines the predictive power of SAFT-VR via a systematic study as well as exploring new methods to calculate phase coexistence from equations of state. Finally, as hydrogen fluoride (HF) provides the fluorine ion source in the production of fluorine-containing refrigerants and blowing agents, we are extending our previous modeling work on HF to explore heat effects of HF-mixtures as well as the challenging aqueous-HF system.

Projects Relevant to Biodiversity Analysis and Drug Design – The broad field of structure-property relationships allows researchers in many areas to use such dependencies to correlate properties with particular features of the compounds examined. After this information is gleaned, the next step is to use the results on the relative importance of some features to predict information about compounds that have not been examined in this way. The hope is, of course, that better compounds can be developed in this manner that have optimal desired properties. Unfortunately, the limiting step in the procedure is how to best quantify the particular features of the compound’s structure. Recent work in our research group, in collaboration with Sandia National Laboratories, has brought about great strides in this problem through the introduction of a molecular descriptor, called Signature, which quantifies a molecule’s 2D structure. One of our research projects focuses on using Signature to assess the biodiversity of a small database (~ 100 HIV-1 protease inhibitors) and a large database (~ 30,000 AIDS anti-viral drugs). A second project examines the use of the Signature molecular descriptor via an inverse quantitative/structure property (I-QSPR) approach to determine new ICAM-1 inhibitory peptides. Additional projects are looking at the I-QSPR approach using Signature for thermophysical properties of refrigerants as well as in the design of novel COX-2 inhibitors.

Recent Publications

1. B. Baburao and D. P. Visco, Jr., “Association Based Equation of State for Substances Forming Monomers, Dimers and Trimers”, Fluid Phase Equilibria (accepted – in press).

2.      B. Baburao. D. P. Visco, Jr. and T. Albu, “Association Patterns in (HF)m(H2O)n (m + n = 2-8) Clusters”, J. Physical Chemistry A,  111, 7940 – 7956 (2007).

3.      S. Swaminathan, D. P. Visco, Jr. and S. Sen, “Detection of Shallow Inclusions in Closed-Packed Granular Beds using Mechanical Impulses”, Applied Phys. Lett., 90, 154107/1 – 154107/3 (2007)

4.       B. Baburao and D. P. Visco, Jr., “Isothermal Compressibility Maxima of Hydrogen Fluoride in the Super Critical and Super Heated Vapor Region”, J. Physical Chemistry B, 110, 26204 –26210 (2006)

5.   P. Kannan, J. J. Biernacki and D. P. Visco, Jr., “A Review of Physical and Kinetic Models of Thermal Degradation of Expanded Polystyrene Foam and Their Application to the Lost Foam Casting Process”, J. Analytical and Applied Pyrolysis, 78, 162 – 171 (2006)