Our research

Combustion can be viewed as a process of “heat release”; the liberation of chemical energy in the fuel. Propulsion systems such as jet or car engines all rely on burning a fuel to produce power.  Despite its wide application the combustion process is far from being fully understood, and it continues to be a very major field of research. 

Characteristics of the fuel, chemical kinetics, air/fuel mixture preparation and the phasing of combustion within the engine cycle, all affects the shape of heat release and the formation of pollutants, such as oxides of nitrogen (NOx) and particulate matter also known as soot. There is much going on to develop more efficient and low polluting designs and, with state-of-the-art facilities and allied technical and academic expertise, the group offers a diverse range of research and commercial capabilities in the area of combustion engineering.

It is well believed that nowadays in our global society the energy used for cooling is much higher than for heating. Therefore, efficient cooling and heat transfer enhancement have become ever important.

Heat Transfer Enhancement focuses on frontier fundamental and applied researches in heat and mass transfer with combinations of experimental and numerical modelling. 

Also the state-of-the-art technologies such as nanofluids heat transfer, microchannel boiling & condensation, phase change cooling, and high efficient heat pipes, as well as innovative nature inspired solutions of heat transfer enhancement.

The fundamental studies are directly related to industrial applications such as in gas turbine blade and aerofoil cooling, oil/gear box cooling, power electronics cooling, and also in optimal designs of power machines and heat exchangers in the variety of energy systems such as power station, nuclear power reactors, and engines.

FLUTE develops innovative technologies for HVAC systems and components with the aim of saving energy in HVAC and improving thermal comfort for the built environments. The research topics include utilisation of solar energy for building air-conditioning; long term and short term thermal energy storage for building heat and cooling. Joint researches include one with Shanghai Jiaotong University sponsored by China research council and Royal Society.

We carry out fundamental studies on improving the performance of refrigeration systems and the effectiveness of industrial applications.

One of current projects is to study the roles of nanoparticles in the working fluids of refrigeration systems.Other topics are concerned with how to improve evaporative and desiccant cooling. The investigations are based on both experimental and numerical (CFD) modelling. A collaborative research with 3 UK and 3 India universities on absorption refrigeration for waste heat utilisation from cooling concentrated photovoltaic systems in hot climates has been established.

We also develop effective solutions of thermal management for various energy systems such as automotive engines, electric vehicle batters, power electronics, and telecommunication data centres.  

Our multifaceted research approach is underpinned by the extensive experimental and modelling skills embedded in the group together with the unique instrumentation and pilot scale facilities.

Our expertise range from two phase flow experimentation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD), microfluidics, data assimilation and developing empirical and semi empirical models. We collaborate with industry and other national and international research institutions closely.  Our research is funded by the Research Councils and the industry. 

Our research focuses on cutting edge fluid mechanics problems, such as drag reduction, flow oscillations, shape optimization, flow separation control, turbulent boundary layer structures, boundary layer control using electro-magnetic systems (EMS), micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) and surface plasma technology.

Current research strategy includes:

• boundary layer control is studied by direct intervention of large-scale turbulent structures
• flow separation control by surface plasma and fluid jets (pulsed and synthetic jet actuators) with a particular application to aircraft

In terms of the state of the art applications, our current research is concerned with wind turbine structure optimisation, computational fluid mechanics (CFD) software development and wind power system design.

The group also studies gas turbine turbulent flow heat transfer and blade cooling.