Fluids and Thermal Engineering

Fluids and thermal engineering (FTE) is one of core branches in modern engineering. It roots from fundamental studies on fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics and combustion. This discipline has triggered a wide spectrum of significant innovations and inventions, which substantially improved our life quality and radically shaped our today’s industrial civilization. FTE is a cornerstone discipline underpinning a large variety of industrial sectors, such as power machinery, power electronics, aerospace exploration and renewable energy. It is also playing a vital role in many other engineering fields, including sustainable manufacturing, green energy and healthcare technologies, to name a few.

The key task of FTE group will boost our core research strengths in FTE areas with national and international recognition, and offer 360-degree support for members’ research activities, such as academic/industrial cooperation, grant/patent application, lab construction, supports for key discipline/lab building, external exchange and network aids, PhD/MRes coordination, et al. We believe these activities will be favorable drive to our faculty’s 2025 research targets, and bring about positive improvement of our university’s reputation and influence in the related engineering communities.

 

Dr Yong Shi, Acting Head, Research Group of Fluids and Thermal Engineering 

 

12

Research Themes


  • Micro/nanoscale flows, mass and heat transfer,
  • Design of microfluidics and lab on a chip,
  • Thermal management for energy systems,
  • Multiscale (micro, meso and macro) modeling,
  • Physicochemical transport processes in energy conversion and storage devices (batteries, fuel cells, internal combustion engines and supercapacitors),
  • Thermal issues in intelligent manufacturing and 3D printing,
  • Kinetic theory of gases,
  • Space micropropulsion,
  • Multiphase flows and heat transfer,
  • Sustainable energy technologies, sustainable building modeling,
  • Machine learning approaches for thermofluids and energy analyses.

 

FTE

Research Groups

Yong Shi    Acting group leader, Associate Professor

Micro/nano Noncontinuum Gas Flows and Heat Transfer, Micro/nano Flows with Electrokinetic Effects, Lattice Boltzmann Method, Kinetic Schemes, Thermal Management for Batteries and Power Devices,  Flows in Porous Media, Multiple Physicochemical Processes in Energy Conversion and Storage Devices, Data-driven Methods for Energy Prediction and Utilization, Thermal Issues in Intelligent Manufacturing 

 

Core Members

Yong Ren (Associate Professor): Microfluidics, Lab on a Chip, Biomicrofluidics, MEMS, Functional Material Synthesis for Environmental Applications

Liang Xia (Associate Professor): Thermofluid processes in Building, Building Physics

Xinyu Zhang (Assistant Professor): Advanced Multiphase Flows; Particulate Flows; Particle Technology; Aerosol Dynamics; Bubble Dynamics; Modeling and CFD in Energy Systems and Renewable/Clean Energy (Nuclear Power Stations, Combustion Devices, PEM Fuel Cells)

Richard Adjei (Assistant Professor): Gas turbine design, and electric propulsion system

Kean How Cheah (Assistant Professor): Micropropulsion, 3D printing

John Zhu (Senior Technician): Thermofluids Experiments, Manufacturing Processes

 

Associate Members

Xiaogang Yang, Binjie Hu, Chengbo Wang, Jing Wang, Fangfang Zhu, He Zhang, Isaac Yu Fat Lun, Di Hu, Xiaoling Liu, Tongyu Zhou

 

PhD Scholarship

The group provides diverse PhD scholarships under various UNNC schemes, including full Faculty Scholarship, DTP scholarships with CNITECH, SARI, SIAT and ZJU, and some scholarships on specific topics led by thermofluids academics. Applicants are suggested to contact potential supervisor first to gain more details. Here are the list of available PhD opportunities and the general application procedure, and basic entry academic and English language requirements