Collection 

Thermal Engineering for Sustainability

Submission status
Closed
Submission deadline
Efficient management and exploitation of thermal energy is key for many engineering applications.  Greater understanding and control of thermal processes, such as thermal energy harvesting, storage and transfer will play an important role in achieving the UN SDGs.  We announce a call for papers in the journal Communications Engineering, with a view to the publication of a collection of papers on the topic of thermal engineering with a particular focus on applications related to sustainability.  The collection will explore:
 
Design and optimization
• Passive heat transfer enhancement and optimization e.g. evaporation and condensation
• Computational techniques
• Innovative materials e.g. thermal metamaterials, phase change materials 
 
Technologies and applications
• Thermal energy management for temperature control of buildings, infrastructure etc, for example heat exchangers, heat pumps and other heat transfer equipment, radiative cooling
• Thermal energy harvesting and storage from low carbon sources including waste heat, solar
• Exploitation of low carbon thermal energy for example solar thermal power generation, solar desalination
Apartment building thermal imaging

Editors

  • Tian Li  &

    Tian Li

    Purdue University, USA

  • Zhibin Yu

    Zhibin Yu

    University of Glasgow, UK

Dr. Tian Li is currently an Assistant Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University. She obtained her bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. She carried out her PhD in the Department of Electrical Engineering and her postdoc in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in University of Maryland. Tian was recognized as a Packard Fellow, Violet B. Haas Fellow and is the recipient of many awards including Forbes 30 under 30, ASME Haythornthwaite Foundation Research Award, R&D 100 Finalist, Sony Research Innovation Award, MRS postdoc award, among others. Drawing on our expertise in energy science, heat and mass transfer, and materials innovation, the Li group strives to apply fundamental knowledge to establish a toolbox of natural materials to create sustainable engineering solutions towards energy, water, environment and devices.

 

Dr. Zhibin Yu is currently Professor of Thermal Energy at the James Watt School of Engineering of the University of Glasgow, UK. His research is focused on thermal energy technologies and their fundamental thermodynamic, heat transfer, fluid-dynamic problems. He has extensive experience in developing novel technologies for sustainable heating, cooling, and power generation, including heat pumps, refrigeration, energy storage, district heating/cooling networks, organic Rankine cycle power generation technologies etc.