Novel Unsteady Conjugate Cooling Mechanism
Lead Research Organisation:
CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
Department Name: School of Water, Energy and Environment
Abstract
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Publications
Abdulkhaliq H
(2023)
Piezoelectric Energy Harvester for Harnessing Rotational Kinetic Energy through Linear Energy Conversion
in Energies
Ajayi A
(2023)
Energy Forecasting Model for Ground Movement Operation in Green Airport
in Energies
Ding X
(2020)
A Novel Active Equalization Topology for Series-Connected Lithium-ion Battery Packs
in IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications
Ding X
(2021)
A High-Precision and High-Efficiency PMSM Driver Based on Power Amplifiers and RTSPSs
in IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics
Ibrahim K
(2023)
Cooling of Concentrated Photovoltaic Cells-A Review and the Perspective of Pulsating Flow Cooling
in Energies
Kaheel S
(2023)
Advancing Hydrogen: A Closer Look at Implementation Factors, Current Status and Future Potential
in Energies
Lakshminarayanan V
(2024)
A Scalable optical meta-surface glazing design for agricultural greenhouses
in Physica Scripta
Liang W
(2021)
Analytical Study of Stator Tooth Modulation on Electromagnetic Radial Force in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines
in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics
| Description | Conventional active cooling involves steady flow of a coolant to 'snake' through the body of the object to achieve desirable thermal exchange between the coolant and the object. Increasing the flow will result in higher thermal exchange. Our preliminary study shows this steady coolant flow is intrinsically inefficient with the coolant inlet area being overcooled and/or coolant outlet area overheated. We have developed a bio-inspired cooling with pulsating (unsteady) flow of coolant, reminiscent of the human blood circulation system to improve cooling/heating efficiency and thermal distribution. Substantial modelling and comprehensive empirical work have been completed, and we have validated the benefits of pulsatile flow over steady flow, as we can control both the amplitude and frequency of flow to optimise the thermal exchange efficiency. This is in contract to the conventional approach where the only control is the flow rate. The key findings highlight the potentials of a bio-inspired approach over a conventional mechanistic approach. |
| Exploitation Route | The outcomes of the bio-inspired cooling concept will have impacts in several aspects. For the research community, the bio-inspired approach will provide researchers incentives to explore and observe the fundamental mechanisms of the nature and living organisms, and learn how we can create new technological solutions to our problems by applying these mechanisms in an effective manner. For more immediate applications, the technology demonstrator developed in this project has already attracted some battery manufacturers. They want to explore the develop the cooling system into their battery cells. Moreover, there are medical applications too, such as in drug delivery and therapy. |
| Sectors | Aerospace Defence and Marine Construction Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) Electronics Energy Healthcare Manufacturing including Industrial Biotechology Pharmaceuticals and Medical Biotechnology Transport |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ0PGl6h8NY |
| Description | My findings have been impactful in the research community, and UK industry. Some evidence include: 1. The research group based at Sheffield University, led by Professor Guaug-Jin Li, has since started a similar research topic in the cooling of electric machines, employing the use of ferrofluid as the coolant. There are some impactful publications have been 2. Professor Li's research has been funded with a PhD studentship by an UK helicopter manufacturer. I was the external examiner of the PhD student, and it was understood that the student is now employed by the company, working on the development of new electric machines for the company. This demonstrates that my research has impacted beyond the academic community. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2024 |
| Sector | Aerospace, Defence and Marine,Transport |
| Impact Types | Societal Economic |
| Description | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Funding (IAA) |
| Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 12/2023 |
| End | 07/2024 |
| Description | EPSRC Impact Acceleration Funding (IAA) |
| Amount | £37,746 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 11/2023 |
| Title | Machine Learning-Based Restoration Forecast with Predictive Power Outage for Diverse Power Outage Scenarios |
| Description | This study presents an integrated framework that combines machine learning nonlinear autoregressive neural networks neural network (NAR) restoration forecasting with predicting diverse power outages, leveraging solar self-sufficient sustainable energy resources to enhance electricity supply and resilience. The applications of the method are essential in quickly restoring electricity and mitigating the debilitating adverse effects of blackouts on the economy, businesses, welfare, and the climate. Particularly in developing countries experiencing frequent, impactful blackouts, across multiple locations, that persist for extended durations. Applications of the study are demonstrated to forecast spatiotemporal solar weather and diverse power outage data for locations in the developing country of Nigeria. |
| Type Of Material | Data analysis technique |
| Year Produced | 2023 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The method includes forecasting for both extreme and typical events towards the restoration of critical as well as normal loads, from all outage types. Including high-impact low-probability (HILP) events from natural causes, high-impact high-probability (HIHP) events from equipment technical faults, low-impact high-probability (LIHP) outages from typical faults and low-impact low probability (LILP) events. High accuracy neural network training, validation, test results and performance results are produced. Which demonstrates the robustness for forecasting the restoration of all types of power outages towards electricity distribution system operational planning to improve reliability and resilience. |
| URL | https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1109/ETFG55873.2023.10407711 |
| Description | CSA Catapult |
| Organisation | Compound Semiconductor Applications Catapult |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We provide the CSA Catapult our MSc students to undertake research in their group project on a topic of interest to them. |
| Collaborator Contribution | CSA Catapult provide our students an industry dimension to the group project, involving in the supervision of the 3-month project throughout and attending of the monthly meetings. |
| Impact | The group project is multi-disciplinary, in involving the development of a bio-inspired battery cooling prototype. It is still in the literature review stage. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with Qassim University (Saudi Arabia) |
| Organisation | Qassim University |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We contribute with the design and concept of CPV into a proposal collaborated with Qassim University to develop a CPV green hydrogen system. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Qassim University contributes to the proposal for testing and validating the proposed CPV green hydrogen system. |
| Impact | A proposal submitted for UK-Saudi Challenge Fund 2024. |
| Start Year | 2023 |
| Description | ICASE PhD Studentship on Development of Novel Actuation for Aerospace Applications |
| Organisation | BAE Systems |
| Department | BAE Systems Avionics |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | Since this year, I have been involved in the co-supervision of a PhD student funded by the EPSRC CASE Award with BAE Systems on the Development and Design of a Novel Electric Actuator for Aircraft Systems. This co-supervision role enables me to apply the research findings to the thermal management of the electric actuator for BAE systems. This is a 4-year programme that would provide a research platform to help develop new solutions for BAE and UK aerospace and defence industry. |
| Collaborator Contribution | BAE provides significant expertise in aerospace and defence through this collaboration to our research team. The 4-year studentship will provide ample opportunity for Cranfield University to access their data and faculties. For example, we have quarterly meetings at BAE to discuss research progress and methodologies. This provides both the PhD students and supervisors to learn the industry dimension of the research, which is not obtainable within a University laboratory. |
| Impact | Since the ICASE PhD programme only started in January 2025, after a long search for a suitable candidate, the PhD researcher has been doing some literature research and developing some high level research methodologies. The collaboration is multi-disciplinary involving three academic supervisors and one industry supervisor, with expertise ranging from CFD and electric machine design, to system design and industry research strategies. |
| Start Year | 2024 |
| Description | Thermal managment for batteries |
| Organisation | CDO2 Limited |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We collaborate with this partner in an EPSRC IAA project to develop and prototype a thermal management system for their battery pack. We contribute our expertise, staff time, the bio-inspired cooling concept, and facilities to the project. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The contribution from the partner includes: 1. Saff time for project meetings and assessing industrial relevance of commercialisation 2. Battery pack loan for assessment |
| Impact | 1. EPSRC IAA funding for prototyping the systme utilising the cooling mechanism 2. Recruitment of a researcher working on prototyping of the system |
| Start Year | 2022 |
| Description | A Presentation to Faraday Institution |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Third sector organisations |
| Results and Impact | Faraday Institution CEO, Technology transfer officer and other staffs visited Cranfield University. We presented our Novel bio-inspired cooling to them in our lab. We have discussed about the technology mechanisms and potentials. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | A Talk with Manufacturing Technology Center |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Engineers from Manufacturing Technology Center visited us on end of 2024. We have discussed the bio-inspired cooling and its manufacturing. They are very intrested in it and seeking for further collaboration oppotunites. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | A keynote speech at the CoEEPE 2023 in Melbourne, Austrialia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over 50 researchers participated on site, and over 50 people were taking part on line. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022,2023 |
| Description | A seminar introducing the project based on finite element method for Msc students |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Around 50 postgraduate students attended the seminar. The students showed a great interest on the project and the simulation method based on FEM. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | A visit to Ministry of Energy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | We presented our green hydrogen research to the key policy makers of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). They were interested in our research, and agreed to take part in EU Horizon Programme as a Third Country in the upcoming calls in this field. They proposed that they would link us with large organisations in green hydrogen based in KSA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |
| Description | Active engagements with a new company founded at our science park |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | We have actively engaged with a company called Energy Research Lab Ltd newly founded at Cranfield University's Science Park. The company's CEO and CTO visited our research facilities and had talks with us about collaborative work in future. We presented our initial research findings and they were very impressed and offered positions for the PI and CoI to work at the company. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| URL | https://energyresearchlab.com/ |
| Description | Activity engagement with C-DICE Hydrogen summer school |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | More than 40 C-DICE hydrogen summer school students from different countries visited our lab and we presented the novel bio-inspired cooling to them. They are very interested in it and had a very long discussion. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Engagement with potential technology users and industrial collaborators |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | That activity was mainly focused on conversations with potential technology users and industrial collaborators who might be interested to use the outcome of this project later. The intelligent cooling systems, which is going to be developed during this project, can be used in various applications. For example, we had conversations with some battery module manufacturers to see how can we implement the outcomes of this project into their battery cooling systems. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021,2022 |
| Description | Invitation accepted to join a MDPI webinar discussion on the "Advanced application of eddy current sensors, devices and systems" on April, 2023. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Due to the on-going health and economic situation across the globe, and the associated uncertainties regarding health and safety, transportation, catering, and access issues, MDPI offers a webinars which allows scientists from all over the word to present and discuss the latest research about eddy current sensors applications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| Description | Invitation to join a IEEE webinar discussion on the "The Texas Electric Power Crisis - What Happened?" on Friday, February 19, 2021. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The webinar drawn a group of experts and stakeholders, to discuss and shed light on the cold spell that hit the the electric grid system in the United States, in particular Texas in February 2021. It wreaked havoc with the electric power generation and delivery system there, putting large numbers of customers under rolling blackouts and long periods of power outages. The focus has been especially glaring and harsh for electric power grid in Texas. In the webinar, the group of electric utility experts analyze the situation and provide their unique perspectives. I also was invited to join in discussion. The intent was to delve into the realities of the situation as well as discuss how the Smart Grid could have been helpful to mitigate the dire effects. The discussion covered wider implications, such as the use of electric vehicles (EV) and how unprepared current battery systems are under the these extreme temperature. This is closely related to this project's novel heating/cooling methods of EV batteries. I made this known to the esteemed panel. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://resourcecenter.smartgrid.ieee.org/education/webinar-slides/SGSLW0153.html |
| Description | Keynote speech at CoEEPE 2022 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This was an invited keynote speech for the 2022nd International Conference on Energy, Power and Electrical Engineering (CoEEPE 2022) held during December 19- 21, 2022 in Hefei, China. The conference was co-hosted by the Chinese Society of Electrotechnology and the International Association of Electrical, Electronic and Energy (IAEEEE), and co-organized by Anhui University. The conference focused on the new theories and applications of energy, power and electrical engineering, and provided a broad exchange platform for experts and scholars in energy, power and electrical engineering and related research fields to exchange the latest research results and discuss the direction of academic development. There were 4 keynote speeches delivered by international experts. My keynote titled "the electrification of transportation" was scheduled on December 20, and was attended by over 100 attendants. It was very well received, and the host was impressed with the standard of presentations by the experts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| URL | http://www.casqiem.ac.cn/document.action?docid=91278 |
| Description | Visit to Qassim University, Saudi Arabia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | We were hosted by Qassim University's architecture department. We presented our research in green hydrogen and thermal management research to around 15 academics and researchers in the one-day workshop. There were a lot of interests in our work and both parties agree to develop further collaborations in the future. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2025 |