College of Science and Engineering CSE Research Engineering Research Mechanical Engineering

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Mechanical Engineering

Dr Rong Situ

Studies on bio-fuel engine technologies, which can be applied in transport and mining industries, environmental fluid mechanics that relates to the protection of the natural water resources, and thermal-hydraulics promote the productivity of energy/processing industries.

Prof Wenxian Lin

Studies on buoyancy-driven flows, turbulent flows, jets and plumes, stratified flows, boundary layers, mixing and entrainment in river and environmental flows, natural convection flow and heat transfer, building heating and ventilation, and solar collector technologies including solar water heaters, solar air collectors, solar drying, solar thermal storage materials, using experiments, scaling and stability analysis, and advanced computational fluid dynamics techniques such as finite volume method, direct numerical simulation, and large-eddy simulation. These studies have a wide range applications in energy and environmental industries.

Dr Rong Situ

This study is aiming to analyse the link between acidity index of clean water as it gets acidified by entrainment of pollutant gases. It is an experimental study within the framework of conducting numerous measurements as a part of experiments. Such an investigation is important in terms of providing better understanding of air and water interaction, to prospectively revise maritime legislations and to generate useful hints for environmental protections.

Dr Greg Wheatley

Focusing on finite element analysis, mechanical design to Australian Standards, metal fatigue, fracture mechanics, bulk materials handling and Lean/advanced manufacturing. Greg has over 20 years of industry experience in the aviation and resources industries in Australia, Canada, USA and Japan. Greg’s research extends into areas including but not limited to Residual Stress Mapping in Solution Heat Treated Al Engine Blocks, Improving heat source solutions to simulate the weld pool and residual stresses of multi-pass welded joints, Fatigue life improvement using low transformation temperature weld material, Fatigue crack growth behaviour subjected to a single tensile overload.

Dr Rong Situ

Wet scrubber is used commonly to remove harmful components that generate as a result of combustion of underground mining diesel equipment. This project aims to experimentally and numerically investigate the heat and mass transfer mechanism in the wet scrubber to obtain its optimum performance.

Chemical and Mechanical Engineering - Dr Elsa Antunes

  • Smart materials: investigation and characterization of new filaments with innovative compositions for a range of applications as smart materials. These innovative filaments are used to 3D printing new smart materials to react primarily with temperature, pH, electrical current and magnetic field.
  • 3D printing of hybrid fuel rockets: developing new filaments with innovative compositions aimed at enhancing performance of 3D printing fuel grains. Chemical composition is a fundamental characteristic of fuel grains, however geometry is also a critical variable. Investigating the impact of composition and geometry of fuel grains on hybrid rockets performance.
  • Production of value-added products from biomass pyrolysis: investigation and optimization of pyrolysis process of different biomass feedstock to enhance yield and application of value-added products. For example, studying and characterizing biochar properties for water pollution mitigation, water purification, and adsorption of contaminants from water and soil. Investigation and characterisation of new catalyst synthesis to enhance yield and composition of bio-oil fraction.
  • Circular economy of nutrients: phosphorus and nitrogen removal using low-cost adsorbents is considered as a potential environmentally friendly solution for nutrient recovery. Investigation and characterization of biochar properties for nutrient removal and studying its potential use in land application as a slow release fertiliser.
  • Biomedical Implants: exploring new biomaterials and manufacturing methods for biomedical implants. Studying materials synthesis, characterization and processing of new material compositions.

Dr Rong Situ

The exhaustion of fossil fuels and the rising concerns with greenhouse gas emissions has motivated to investigation of the use of biofuel as a supplement to diesel fuel. The purpose of this project is to numerically simulate the combustion process of a Diesel engine so that accurate studies of ethanol-diesel blends or ethanol fumigation can be conducted. The proposed numerical model will be able to predict the engine performance and emission with bio-fuel blending or fumigation.

Dr Mehdi Khatamifar, Prof. Wenxian Lin, Dr Rong Situ

Studies on thermal and fluid sciences with specific application to heating and cooling systems, computational heat transfer, computational fluid mechanics, buoyancy drive flows, environmental fluid mechanics and turbulent flows. The emphasis of researches at present is on enhanced heat transfer, convective heat transfer, condensation heat transfer and evaporation heat transfer. Geometry optimization, advanced materials and additive manufacturing to enhance heat transfer are also included in the studies.