Mechanical Engineering Research
Northern Queensland industries work closely with JCU’s School of Engineering.
In the discipline of Mechanical Engineering there is a strong focus on: machine
design and virtual prototyping; refrigeration and air-conditioning; energy and
powered production; fracture mechanics; computational solid and fluid mechanics;
application of finite element procedures to industrial problems, modern material
science.
Teaching staff and researchers within Mechanical Engineering undertake contract
research and have an enviable track record in competitive research funding.
Additionally, strong collaborative relationships have been forged with the
following key international universities:
- University of Wales, Swansea, UK;
- The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden;
- Stanford University, California, USA.
Research facilities for Mechanical Engineering are excellent and include a
$0.75 million advanced experimental sugar cane crushing facility – one
of the most advanced facilities in the world for testing of computational crushing
models; structural testing facilities for calibration of constitutive models;
materials laboratory; dynamics laboratory; thermodynamics and heat and mass
transfer laboratory and an advanced computational mechanics laboratory.
Key areas of research and consultancy
include: |
Researcher/Consultant |
- Sugar extraction and processing including application of computational
porous media mechanics to the crushing of prepared sugar cane; computational
modelling of crystallisation; and CFD modelling of pan boiling.
|
Prof Jeffrey Loughran |
- Computational and experimental mechanics including: calibration of
elasto-plastic constitutive models; finite element analysis of non-linear
material and geometric problems; and discrete element modelling of industrial
processes.
|
Prof Jeffrey Loughran
|
- Solar energy and heat and mass transfer including: characterisation
of solar radiation; solar thermal applications; and experimental and
numerical methods in heat transfer.
|
Dr Harry Suehrcke
Dr Chengwang Lei |
- Wear and tribology including: fundamental research into the mechanisation
of wear; and application of artificial intelligence techniques in fault
diagnosis and machine condition monitoring.
|
Dr Zhongxiao Peng |
- Fluid mechanics including computational fluid dynamics bubbles, drops
and interfaces; boiling heat transfer; microfluidics; laser based methods
(LDA and PIV) for fluid flow experimentation; and physical pyrometallurgy.
|
Prof Jeffrey Loughran
Dr Zhongxiao Peng |
- Vibrations and acoustics including: active vibration control; structure-fluid
coupling; and vibration attenuation in ship structures.
|
|
- Advanced materials and biocomposites; application of advanced laboratory
techniques and computational methods leading to applications such as
biodegradable composites; materials investigation on a nanometer level.
|
Prof Chris Berndt |
Further information:
Dr Zhongxiao Peng
School of Engineering
James Cook University
Telephone: (61 7) 4781 5284
Fax: (61 7) 4781 4660
Email: Zhongxiao.Peng@jcu.edu.au
