PhD Researcher · Computational Fluid Dynamics

Dara Rahmat Samii.
I simulate fast, hot and reacting flows.

Incoming Ph.D. researcher at McGill University (ASEC Lab) working on DNS/LES of hydrogen–methane flames. I build OpenFOAM solvers for supersonic particle-laden jets, lead CFD for Space Concordia’s supersonic rockets, accelerate solvers with graph neural networks, and teach fluid mechanics.

Explore my research

L3 Certified

PhD · McGill

100×GNN speed-up over the CFD solver

Mach 1.54CR26 sustainer, 47,991 ft apogee

1,200+TA hours, Teaching Excellence Award

L3High-power rocketry (Canadian Association of Rocketry)

Interactive

Make an airfoil fly

An exact potential-flow solution, not an animation. Pitch the airfoil, thicken it, add camber, and watch the pressure and lift respond. Then switch off the Kutta condition and see what goes wrong.

C_L — α — —

Drag up/down on the airfoil to pitch it

Angle of attack 6°

Thickness —

Camber —

Colour by

Physics

upper lower · −C_p vs x/c

Exact inviscid solution by conformal mapping (z = ζ + 1/ζ). Lift from Kutta–Joukowski, L = ρUΓ. Turn the Kutta condition off to see why real airfoils need it.

About

Research background, engineering habits

I completed my M.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering at Concordia University in June 2026 (thesis graded Outstanding, GPA 4.23/4.3), with a background in Chemical Engineering, focused on integrating machine learning with computational fluid dynamics. In January 2027 I start a Ph.D. at McGill University in the ASEC Lab with Prof. Hendrik Nicolai, on DNS/LES of hydrogen–methane flames.

My research explores how Graph Neural Networks can accelerate CFD simulations, achieving 100× speedup over traditional solvers. I execute RANS, DDES, and aeroacoustic simulations on HPC clusters (400+ CPU cores, Compute Canada) for thermal spray coating analysis.

I lead CFD simulations for Space Concordia’s solid rocketry team (CR25 and CR26 rockets), contribute to OpenRocket and RocketCalculator, and hold L3, L2, and L1 high-power rocketry certifications from the Canadian Association of Rocketry.

I also teach: 1,200+ hours as a TA in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics and CFD, recognised with Concordia’s Teaching Excellence Award. Handbook, slides and notes →

Computational Fluid DynamicsCompressible & Supersonic FlowReacting Flow Simulation (DNS/LES)Multiphase & Particle FlowTurbulence ModellingAeroacousticsMesh-Based Graph Neural NetworksScientific Machine LearningHigh Performance Computing

Simulation

OpenFOAM (custom solvers)ANSYS FluentCOMSOLCanteraParaView

CAD & Meshing

cfMeshSalomeSpaceClaimOnshapeSolidWorksFreeCAD

Programming

PythonC++MATLABBashJava

ML / DL

PyTorchPyTorch Geometricscikit-learnOptuna

HPC & Tools

SlurmCompute CanadaLinuxGitDockerLaTeXManim

Selected work

From solver source code to flight data

All research

CR26 two-stage Mach field at Mach 2, AoA 3°

Temperature field, two-stage stack at Mach 2

Temperature field, sustainer alone at Mach 2

Drag coefficient vs Mach: CFD against RASAero

Centre of pressure vs Mach: CFD against RASAero

Lateral force vs Mach number at several angles of attack

Distributed forces along the airframe at Mach 2

Computational domain and boundary conditions

Mesh study: drag coefficient vs representative cell size

Featured

Space Concordia CR26 — Two-Stage Supersonic Rocket

OpenFOAM + cfMesh CFD of the booster+sustainer stack and the sustainer alone, swept over geometry × Mach × AoA on Slurm, then checked against flight. Launched at Launch Canada on 19 Aug 2026: sustainer apogee 47,991 ft at Mach 1.54.

OpenFOAMcfMeshrhoSimpleFoamSlurmTelemetry

Details

Mesh study with Richardson extrapolation, a stable → accurate fvSchemes progression, aerodynamic coefficients, centre of pressure, nose-tip temperature and distributed forces, validated against RASAero and OpenRocket. After the flight, GPS/LoRa telemetry of both stages was analysed (booster apogee 14,364 ft; sustainer 14,628 m AGL at T+51.6 s).

GitHub

Eulerian–Lagrangian particle field at 45 bar

DDES numerical schlieren (log |∇p|) of the supersonic jet

In-flight particle velocity, temperature and size along the jet at 45 bar

sonicDPMFoam tutorial: Mach 3 flow over a forward-facing step with particles

Featured

Aeroacoustic CFD Simulation of Thermal Spray (Master’s Thesis)

Extended sonicFoam to sonicDPMFoam, an open-source OpenFOAM solver for supersonic flow with two-way coupled Lagrangian particles. Executed RANS → DDES workflows; verified turbulence via Kolmogorov cascade; applied FW-H (libAcoustics) for aeroacoustics.

OpenFOAMDDESAeroacousticsDPM

Details

sonicDPMFoam adds drag, pressure-gradient and virtual-mass forces, wall interaction and optional DEM collisions to sonicFoam; laminar, RANS, LES and DES; serial or MPI. Simulated cold spray process at 35–65 bar and 707–807 K. Developed analytical model for preliminary aeroacoustic analysis. Validated particle–shock interaction and acoustic predictions against literature benchmarks. Processed results with Python/PyVista; managed jobs on Compute Canada HPC (400+ cores).

GitHub arXiv

Temperature: CFD ground truth, GNN prediction and difference

Velocity: CFD ground truth, GNN prediction and difference

Automated CAD → mesh → OpenFOAM dataset pipeline

Validation loss for different GNN layers

Featured

Mesh-Based GNN for CFD Acceleration

Achieved 100× speedup over traditional solvers by converting OpenFOAM polyMesh to graph inputs and training Graph Neural Networks for thermal Homann flow prediction. Published in IEEE Access.

PyTorchPyTorch GeometricOpenFOAMOptuna

Details

Generated large-scale CFD dataset via parameterized CAD, meshing, and OpenFOAM simulation. Converted polyMesh to graph inputs; tuned GNN architectures with Optuna. Achieved 100× speedup over traditional solvers; published in IEEE Access.

GitHub Paper

Publications

Peer-reviewed & preprints

Research & talks

2026

Preprint

Investigation of Aeroacoustics and In-flight Particle Transport in Thermal Spray Supersonic Jets

D. Rahmat Samii, M. Tembely

arXiv preprint

arXiv Code

2025

Journal

Accelerating Thermal Homann Flow Simulation With Mesh-Based Graph Neural Networks

D. Rahmat Samii, M. Tembely

IEEE Access

DOI Code

2023

Journal

CFD Based Design Gas Rotameters: Dynamic Mesh Transient Simulation

D. Rahmat Samii, S. H. HashemAbadi, P. Margan

Flow Measurement and Instrumentation

DOI

Education

Chemical → mechanical → combustion

McGill University

Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering · Montréal, Canada

Advisor: Prof. Hendrik Nicolai · ASEC Lab
Research: DNS/LES of Hydrogen–Methane Flames

Jan 2027 — Dec 2030 (expected)Incoming

Concordia University

M.A.Sc. in Mechanical Engineering · Montréal, Canada

Advisor: Prof. Moussa Tembely
Thesis: Thermofluid Simulation of Thermal Spray Processes

Sep 2023 — Jun 2026GPA: 4.23/4.3Thesis: Outstanding

University of Tehran

M.Sc. in Chemical Engineering · Tehran, Iran

Focus: Process Design and Simulation

2022 — 2023

Iran University of Science and Technology

B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering · Tehran, Iran

Advisor: Prof. S.H. HashemAbadi
Thesis: Design and Manufacturing of a Gas Rotameter Using CFD

2018 — 2022GPA: 3.58/4

Experience

Where I’ve worked

Ph.D. Researcher (incoming)

McGill University · ASEC Lab · Jan 2027 —

DNS/LES of hydrogen–methane flames with Prof. Hendrik Nicolai
Reactive-flow onboarding: Cantera 0D → 1D → 3D (H₂/air and CH₄/air flames)

CFD Team Lead

Space Concordia, Solid Rocketry Team · Dec 2024 — Present

Executed OpenFOAM simulations for CR25 and CR26 (Icarus & Daedalus)
Computed drag, lift, CoP, stability, thermal loads across Mach 0.8–2.5
Performed Richardson extrapolation; validated against experimental data
Contributed to manufacturing and Launch Canada 2025 operations

Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant

Concordia University · Sep 2023 — Jun 2026

Research Assistant at Multiphase Thermofluid Learning Lab
Simulated cold spray at 35–65 bar and 707–807 K with high-fidelity CFD
Executed RANS → DDES workflows on HPC (400+ cores)
Extended sonicFoam to sonicDPMFoam with Lagrangian tracking
Accumulated 1,200+ TA hours: Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, CFD
Teaching Excellence Award for Teaching Assistants (May 2026)

Remote Research Intern

JSPM Imperial College of Engineering · Oct 2021 — Jan 2022

Investigated multiphase solvers in OpenFOAM
Collaborated with international research team on solver benchmarking

Engineering Intern

Partian Battery · Jun 2021 — Oct 2021

Designed mixing system using COMSOL Multiphysics
Developed parametric simulation app with COMSOL Application Builder

Recognition

Honors & Awards

2026

Teaching Excellence Award for Teaching Assistants

Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science, Concordia University — Excellence in Teaching by a Teaching Assistant 2025–2026

Photos

2025

Mitacs Globalink Research Award

CAD $6,000 for international research collaboration (France–Canada)

2024

Concordia Conference Scholarship

CAD $750 travel support for CSME/CSCFD 2024

2023

Concordia Merit Scholarship

CAD $5,000 for academic excellence

2022

8th Place — Chemical Engineering Olympiad

27th National Chemical Engineering Olympiad (Iran)

2022

Direct M.Sc. Admission Qualification

Top 10% of the 2018 cohort; entrance exam waived

2021

2nd Place — Internship Poster Competition

Among 80 participants

2021

1st Place — Rahneshan National Competition

CFD modeling of particle crystallization (Team Lead)

Certifications

Rockets and courses

L3 Rocketry Certificate

Canadian Association of Rocketry · May 2026

Rocket: Lord Cyrus Modified · photos

L2 Rocketry Certificate

Canadian Association of Rocketry · Oct 2025

Rocket: Lord Cyrus · photos

L1 Rocketry Certificate

Canadian Association of Rocketry · May 2025

Rocket: Darius · photos

Machine Learning

Stanford Online

View Credential

Deep Learning Specialization

DeepLearning.AI

View Credential

Fundamentals of Reinforcement Learning

University of Alberta

View Credential

Game Theory

Stanford & UBC

View Credential

From Nand to Tetris

Hebrew University of Jerusalem

View Credential

Dara Rahmat Samii.I simulate fast, hot and reacting flows.

Make an airfoil fly

Research background, engineering habits

Simulation

CAD & Meshing

Programming

ML / DL

HPC & Tools

From solver source code to flight data

Space Concordia CR26 — Two-Stage Supersonic Rocket

Aeroacoustic CFD Simulation of Thermal Spray (Master’s Thesis)

Mesh-Based GNN for CFD Acceleration

Peer-reviewed & preprints

Investigation of Aeroacoustics and In-flight Particle Transport in Thermal Spray Supersonic Jets

Accelerating Thermal Homann Flow Simulation With Mesh-Based Graph Neural Networks

CFD Based Design Gas Rotameters: Dynamic Mesh Transient Simulation

Chemical → mechanical → combustion

McGill University

Concordia University

University of Tehran

Iran University of Science and Technology

Where I’ve worked

Ph.D. Researcher (incoming)

CFD Team Lead

Research Assistant & Teaching Assistant

Remote Research Intern

Engineering Intern

Honors & Awards

Teaching Excellence Award for Teaching Assistants

Mitacs Globalink Research Award

Concordia Conference Scholarship

Concordia Merit Scholarship

8th Place — Chemical Engineering Olympiad

Direct M.Sc. Admission Qualification

2nd Place — Internship Poster Competition

1st Place — Rahneshan National Competition

Rockets and courses

L3 Rocketry Certificate

L2 Rocketry Certificate

L1 Rocketry Certificate

Machine Learning

Deep Learning Specialization

Fundamentals of Reinforcement Learning

Game Theory

From Nand to Tetris

Let’s connect

Dara Rahmat Samii.
I simulate fast, hot and reacting flows.