Fluids and Thermal Engineering Research Group

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Mirco Magnini

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering

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Biography

I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Nottingham. I received a Master Degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Bologna, Italy, and a PhD in Energy Engineering from the same institution in 2012. From 2013 to 2017 I was a post-doc research assistant at the Laboratory of Heat and Mass Transfer, EPFL, Switzerland, where our research into numerical and theoretical modelling of microchannel flow boiling was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. Prior to joining the UoN, I was a post-doc research associate in the Chemical Engineering Dept of Imperial College London where I worked on the numerical modelling of wax deposition in crude oil flows.

I am a member of the Virtual International Research Institute of Two-Phase Flow and Heat Transfer (VIR2AL), a portal where many international labs share their experimental and numerical data for two-phase flows and heat transfer, and where I curate an open-access tutorial on OpenFOAM.

I am Subject Editor (Heat and Mass Transfer) for Elsevier's journal Chemical Engineering Research and Design (ChERD), and Guest Editor in MDPI-Fluids for the Special Issue "Recent Advances in Single and Multiphase Flows in Microchannels" (link).

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sojqhgUAAAAJ&hl=en

Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Mirco_Magnini

Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/mirco-magnini-5504886a

Expertise Summary

My research activity focuses on the investigation of the many fundamental mechanisms and phenomena governing multiphase flows, heat transfer, phase change and phase separation in confined geometries. My field of expertise spans across:

  • Multiphase flows (both macro and microscale)
  • Phase change/separation
  • Thermo-fluid dynamics
  • Multiphase computational fluid dynamics
  • Use/development of CFD tools (ANSYS Fluent, Openfoam, Basilisk, in-house codes in Matlab/Python)
  • Theoretical modelling of thin film flows and solution of the resulting ODEs

Teaching Summary

Modules that I am currently teaching:

  • MMME3086 Computer Modelling Techniques (convenor: Dr Mirco Magnini)

  • MMME2047 Thermodynamics & Fluid Mechanics 2 (convenor: Dr Don Giddings)

Research Summary

Boiling flows in capillary channels

Heat and mass transport in microchannels is key to diverse applications that span many disciplines in science and engineering, from mechanical, chemical, energy, and environmental engineering, to biological and medical science. My research in this field aims to characterise the fluid mechanics and heat transfer associated with long gas bubbles propagating in noncircular channels in both adiabatic and diabatic (boiling) conditions, using a combination of theoretical and computational methods; check out our most recent publications:

  • M. Magnini, O.K. Matar, Int J Multiphase Flow 129 (2020) 103353. Link
  • M. Magnini, O. K. Matar, Int J Heat Mass Transfer 150 (2020) 119322. Link

This research is now funded by a £1.6M EPSRC grant (GoW) with Imperial College and Brunel University.

Molecular Dynamics analysis of nucleate boiling

With colleagues at Imperial College (Prof. Matar) and Brunel University London (Dr. E. Smith), we are working on the fundamental analysis of nucleate boiling over textured surface in order to inform the engineering design of heat transfer components. Check out our latest publication here:

  • A. Lavino et al., Langmuir 37 (2021) 5731. Link

Evaporation in porous media for thermal management of fuel cells

With colleagues at EPFL (Prof. Sophia Haussener), we are developing advanced computational tools for the pore-scale numerical simulation of water evaporation within gas diffusion layers of PEM fuel cells, which provides simultaneous cooling and humidification of the fuel cell. Check out our most recent publication:

  • S. van Rooij, Appl Thermal Eng (2021) 116460. Link

Two-phase flows in millimetric channels

With colleagues at Imperial College London (Prof. Matar) and Princeton University (Prof. Stone), we are studying the dynamics of thin films and long bubbles transported in channels of mm-size, in a regime where viscous, capillary and buoyancy effects all play a role. Within horizontal channels, buoyancy effects elevate the bubble above the channel centreline and tend to ovalize the bubble cross-section. In vertical channels, interesting different dynamics are observed depending on the direction of the bulk liquid flow. Our most recent publications are available here:

  • Y. E. Yu et al., J Fluid Mech 911 (2021) A34. Link
  • H. Moran et al., Int J Multiph Flow 135 (2021) 103468. Link

Recent Publications

Future Research

I welcome enquiries from potential PhD candidates and post-doctoral researchers from Home, EU and international countries who are interested in the following research areas: multiphase flows, microscale flows, computational methods for two-phase flows, thermal management of electronics, oil & gas.

The following funding opportunities are available for talented prospective PhD students and post-docs:

  • Nottingham Research Fellowships link
  • UoN's International research scholarships link

  • Marie-Curie individual fellowships link

  • Royal Society's fellowships: link

Other useful info and links available here: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/engineering/funding/postgraduate/index.aspx

Fluids and Thermal Engineering Research Group

Faculty of Engineering
The University of Nottingham
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

email:flute@nottingham.ac.uk