Dr. Peter J Schihl was selected to the Scientific and Professional (ST) rank as the Senior Research Scientist in Ground Vehicle Propulsion and Mobility at the Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC) Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) in March of 2019. His current research interests are internal combustion engines, powertrain systems, power generation devices, power pack systems, energy storage devices, and power transfer elements. He first joined the Army at the Tank Automotive Command Research and Development Center in 1991 and has worked in the Propulsion Laboratory since 1993.
His research throughout the last twenty plus years has concentrated on developing and experimentally validating simplified combustion and ignition models for military relevant diesel engines and most recently has focused on combustion characteristic differences between diesel fuel and JP-8. To date, many articles have resulted from his work and he has received the ‘Best Paper in Session’ award at the 1996, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 Army Science Conferences and twice has received Department of Army Research and Development Achievement Awards (2005 and 2009). He also received an Arch T Colwell award from the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) for one the best published papers during 2013 through the various SAE venues. Dr. Schihl is a reviewer for SAE, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and the Journal of Engine Research in his subject field of expertise, and since 1998 has been an invited reviewer at various Department of Energy Advanced Compression Ignition Engine Technology National Lab reviews. He additionally serves as a review editor for the Frontiers in Mechanical Engineering Journal with a focus on specialty engine and automotive engineering and has been a member of the original DOE Partnership for a New Generation Vehicle 4SDI engine team and then following FreedcomCAR and US DRIVE Advanced Combustion and Emissions Control team since 1998.
Dr. Schihl earned a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan that was focused on high pressure spray combustion and has M.S. and B.S. degrees in Mechanical and Systems Engineering from Oakland University where he additionally played on the men’s basketball team for four years. He also is a licensed professional engineer in the state of Michigan. Previous to the Army, he worked as a graduate research assistant at Oakland University studying a non-destructive optical technique for assessing thin coating thermal properties and also was a research assistant at the General Motors Research Laboratory studying the use of telemetry for indirectly measuring tappet stress in a 3.1 liter Chevrolet engine. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at Lawrence Technological University where he has taught heat transfer, advanced thermodynamics, and combustion courses and has been a member of various doctoral committees in the area of diesel engine combustion research at Wayne State University, University of Michigan, and Lawrence Technological University. Dr. Schihl is also a special lecturer at Oakland University where he currently teaches Internal Combustion Engine courses and is a part-time faculty member at Wayne State University specializing in Internal Combustion Engines and Combustion processes.
