Combustion Research in Mechanical Engineering
Combustion is a process involving strong interactions of fluid flow with chemical reactions and, in most practical applications, combustion is turbulent. Turbulence is known to be one of the most difficult problems in modern science and engineering: in spite of numerous advances in studies of turbulence during last 100 years, the complete solution of this problem is yet to be achieved. Presence of chemical reactions adds additional complexity. Turbulent combustion has been studied at the Mechanichal Engineering Division in The University of Queensland for number of years. These web pages present outline of several new approaches to both premixed and non-premixed combustion and coal combustion and gasification that have been developed by Dr. Klimenko, his Research Associates (M. Cleary, D.Saulov, A. Wandel, K.Weinman) and Ph.D. students.
The combustion group at UQ cooperates with The University of Sydney, Cornell University, Center for Turbulence Research at Stanford University, FZK IKET (Germany), Imperial College , Karlsruhe University and many other institutions and companies around the world. More accurate modelling of turbulent combustion will improve performance of engines and power plants and this would, effectively, increase the energy resources available to our civilization.
Other Combustion Topics
Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) is a practical and inexpensive way of gasifying coal in situ with possibility of obtaining various fuels from the produced syngas.
Research into high-speed combustion has been, for many years, one of the focus topics of the Centre for Hypersonics.
Other new promising areas in combustion research can be found here.