Macole Sabat

Assistant Professor and Department Chair

Faculty of Engineering

Mechanical Engineering

macole.m.sabat@balamand.edu.lb

Dr. Macole Sabat is Chairperson of the Mechanical Engineering Department and Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Balamand, Lebanon. Since joining UOB in 2017, she has built an academic profile that integrates teaching, research, and sustained institutional service.

She earned her B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and her M.S. in Mechanical Engineering with an aeronautical specialization from the University of Balamand. She then completed a research masters degree in aeronautical and aerospace engineering at Ecole Centrale Paris, followed by a Ph.D. from Universite Paris-Saclay / CentraleSupelec (EM2C Laboratory), France, where her doctoral research focused on Eulerian modeling and numerical methods for turbulent polydisperse sprays. Her Ph.D. work, supported in part by Safran Aircraft Engines, strengthened her expertise in multiphase flow, turbulence, numerical analysis, and high-performance computing.

Dr. Sabats research lies at the intersection of thermo-fluids, multiphysics modeling, and data-informed engineering analysis. Her work spans several main directions: computational modeling of turbulent multiphase flows; multiphysics modeling and optimization for energy storage and conversion systems; and quantitative assessment of water-energy, environmental, and industrial systems, particularly in Lebanon. More recently, she has been expanding her work toward AI-enabled CFD, thermal imaging-informed modeling, and coupled thermo-mechanical process simulation.

At UOB, Dr. Sabat teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, gas dynamics, steam and gas turbines, computational techniques, and computational fluid dynamics. She is committed to student mentorship and has supervised numerous undergraduate projects, and M.S. theses in CFD, energy systems, aerosol transport, bio-inspired aerodynamics, hydrogen storage, and related fields.

Dr. Sabat also contributes actively to academic leadership and quality assurance. She has served as Program Assessment Coordinator for Mechanical Engineering since 2020, chaired the PACs Committee at the Faculty of Engineering, advised the ASME student branch since 2017, and represented the Faculty of Engineering on the LIBNOR technical committee on air quality standards. Her work reflects a strong commitment to rigorous engineering education, impactful research, and service to both the university and the broader community.

Research

Dr. Sabats research advances computational fluid dynamics and multiphysics simulation, with emphasis on robust modeling, physically grounded numerical methods, and applications of direct engineering relevance.

Her work includes turbulent multiphase flows, aerosol transport, renewable energy systems, adsorbed gas storage, and system-level analysis of water-energy and industrial challenges. Across these areas, she combines CFD, reduced-order and multiphysics approaches, and data-driven tools to improve predictive capability, and simulation efficiency.

Research interests:

• Multiphase flow dynamics and numerical modeling

• Computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

• Energy storage and conversion

• Renewable energy systems

• Aerosol transport and environmental flows

• Fluid-structure interaction and coupled multiphysics

• Machine learning / AI in CFD

• Water-energy and industrial systems analysis

• Biomimicry

Selected Publications

• Saba N., Makhlouf C., Raad A., Abi Frem C., Sabat M. Design and Numerical Analysis of a Novel Vortex-Induced Vibration Bladeless Wind Turbine with Cylindrical Cam Mechanical Conversion. Energies, 2026.

• Sabat M., Alhajj O., Alawa K., Fakhry C., Sabat M., Romanos J. Mapping Lebanons Industrial Landscape: A Data-Driven Assessment of Sectoral Strengths and Regional Disparities. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 2026.

• ElMerehbi H., Sabat M., Romanos J., Sabat M. Water-Energy Status under Economic Collapse: A Statistical Perspective from Lebanon. Air, Soil and Water Research, 2026.

• Sabat M., Hassan H., Roukos R., Dargham S. A., Romanos J. Long-term degradation of adsorbed natural gas storage in the MOF Basolite C300 due to Cn>=2 alkanes accumulation. Scientific Reports, 2025.

• Khoury G., Alomar Z,, Sabat M., Rishmany J., Daaboul M. Improving the Efficiency of Savonius Wind Turbine through Shielding: Numerical and Experimental Study. International Journal of Power and Energy Systems, 2025.

• Sabat M., Terfous A., Ghenaim A., Sabat M., Draybi M., Romanos J. Optimizing Suspended Sediment Models: A Novel Expert System with Spatial Probabilities and Isolated Points. Water, 2024.

• Fayssal, N., Al Tawil, L., Danageuzian, H., Sabat, M., ElMerehbi, H., Darazi, D., Sabat, M., Roukos, R., Abou Dargham, S. and Romanos, J. Navigating the water–energy nexus amidst the Lebanese economic crisis. AQUA—Water Infrastructure, Ecosystems and Society, 2024.

• Fakhreddine, O., Khoury, G., Saber, A., Amer, A.M. and Sabat, M. Design and Analysis of a Domestic Device for Converting Waste Cooking Oil to Biodiesel: A Multidisciplinary Study. ASHRAE Topical Conference Proceedings, suppl. Eighth International Conference on Energy Research and Development; Kuwait 2023.

• Sabat M., Vie A., Larat A., Massot M. Statistical description of turbulent particle-laden flows in the very dilute regime using the anisotropic Gaussian moment method. International Journal of Multiphase Flow, 2019.

• Sabat, M., Larat, A., Vié, A., Massot, M. On the development of high order realizable schemes for the Eulerian simulation of disperse phase flows: a convex-state preserving Discontinuous Galerkin method. Journal of Computational Multiphase Flows, 2014. Selected for a special issue from the 8th International Conference on Multiphase Flow, Jeju, Korea.

• Sabat, M., Larat, A., Vié, A., Massot, M. Comparison of realizable schemes for the Eulerian simulation of disperse phase flows. Springer International Publishing, 2014.

• Sabat, M., Vié, A., Larat, A., Doisneau, F., Chalons, C., Massot, M. Kinetic-Based Moment Methods for DNS and LES of particle-laden flows: Anisotropic Gaussian Closure. American Physical Society, 67th Annual Meeting of the Division of Fluid Dynamics, San Francisco, USA, November 2014.

Dr. Sabat teaches a variety of undergraduate and graduate courses focused on thermo-fluids, modeling, and simulation.

Undergraduate level courses:

1- MECH 232: Thermodynamics

2- MECH 241: Computational Techniques in Mechanical Engineering

3- MECH 243: Fluid mechanics

4- MECH 314: Gas Dynamics

5- MECH 324: Steam and Gas turbines

6- MECH 326: Modeling and Simulation in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (course design)

7- MECH 387: Design Tools in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (course design)

Graduate level courses

1- MECH 428: Special Topics in Thermal Science (course design)

2- MECH 511: Computational Fluid Dynamics

3- MECH 515: Turbulence and Transport Phenomena (course design)

4- MECH 518: Advanced Gas Dynamics (course design)

Dr. Sabat has a strong track record of mentoring and guiding students in their research and design endeavors, as evidenced by her supervision of numerous graduate theses and undergraduate projects in various fields of mechanical engineering. For instance, she has supervised:

MS Theses:

1. “CFD Simulation of Adsorbed Hydrogen Storage Tank.” by Raghid Andraous (in collaboration with Dr. Jimmy Romanos).

2. “Modeling Simulation & Analysis of the Flow in a Bubble Column” by Joseph Wakim (in collaboration with Dr. Sara Abou Dargham).

3. “Study of Bubbly Flow in a flat Bubble Column” by Joelle Farah.

4. “COVID19 Flow: Physics and Fluid Dynamics” by Hanna Chalhoub.

5. “Investigation of Waste to Energy Techniques with Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of Gasification” by Nicole Mansour.

6. “Synthetic Turbulence Generation Using Deep Learning” by Georgio Daloul El Sayegh.

7. “Computational fluid dynamics and experimental investigation of a cascade impactor” by Jennifer Remane (in collaboration with Dr. Adib Kfoury).

8. “CFD Investigation of Bio-mimicry in Aerodynamics” by Charbel Semaan.

Projects:

1. “The Design of an All-Terrain Go-Kart” by Hanna Lakkis, Georgio Bechelany and Mohamad El Jerdi.

2. “Organic Waste Treatment Technology: Mechanical and Chemical Aspects” by Omar Fakhreddine, Gerard Khoury and Maher Madi (in collaboration with Dr. Jihad Rishmany and Dr. Hilal Merhubi)

3. “The Design of an Oil Skimmer” by John El Khoury, Mahmoud Ali Chawki and Elias Ibrahim.

4. “The Singing Flame Instrument: Pyrophone” by Assaf Bassil and Ali Sayed El Hussein Jomaa.

5. “PURIFICO system: Water Distiller using Sand Power” by Hanna Chalhoub, Joe Ghossein, Elie Challita and Yara Ghazi.

6. “Design and Aerodynamic Study of Solid Propellant Rocket” by Theresa Honein, Tony Jabbour, Sharbel Nashar and Ragheb Samrout.

7. “Design and Manufacturing of a Solid Propellant Combustion Chamber” by George Rai, Georgio Daloul El Sayegh and Jawad Koubaytari.

8. “Investigation of the aerosol transport in the human lungs” by Assaf Bassil, Gerard Khoury and Omar Fakhreddine (in collaboration with Dr. Adib Kfoury and Dr. Mira Sabat).

9. “Hybrid Fixed/Rotary Aircraft Wing: Aerodynamic Assessment and Design” by Sara Hawi, Maysa’a Risk and Jose Gharios.

Dr. Sabat has been recognized for her academic achievements and contributions to the field of mechanical engineering, receiving several awards throughout her career, namely:

1. 2nd Place Winner at the 11th Annual Conference for Engineering and Architecture Graduates in North Lebanon ACEAG 2019 for the project “ByOil Organic Waste Treatment” by Omar Fakhreddine, Gerard Khoury and Maher Madi.

2. Certificate of recognition for phenomenal oral presentation on “From waste to energy: a domestic solution of cooking oil treatment” at the 2nd Global Summit on Recycling and Waste Management, 2019, Tokyo, Japan.

3. Student excellence award by the Faculty of Engineering, University of Balamand. July 2009

4. Undergraduate Merit scholarship for three consecutive years, Deans honor list, University of Balamand. Fall 2006 to Spring 2009

5. Emile El Daher award for outstanding high-school students.

FACULTY PROFILES