Dr. Biao Zhou, PhD PEng Professor, Director of Clean Powertrain Lab

Research Areas: Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, Battery Management System, Motor Control, 3D Printing, Fuel Cell, Nano-Material, Clean Combustion (Diesel Engine, Jet Engine, Coal), Computational Fluid Dynamics and Combustion.

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Research at The Clean Powertrain Lab

Research Interests

Computational and experimental fluid dynamics, heat and mass transfer, multi-phase flow, combustion, and electrochemistry; nano-materials; system control and monitoring technology; 3D printing technology; fuel cell hybrid powertrain; fuel cell science and technologies; clean combustion technologies; unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).

Current Research Topics

· Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)

· Fuel cell power systems for UAV applications

· 3D Printing

· Flight dynamics and control

· Fuel cell design and modeling

· Fuel cell testing techniques (system control and monitoring technology)

· Fuel cell and hybrid powertrain technologies

· Advanced Membrane-Electrode-Assembly

· Nano-materials for fuel cell applications

· Clean combustion technologies (Internal combustion engine modeling for different fuels (gasoline, bio-diesel, diesel) with detailed chemistry; gas turbine, burner design, CFD modeling, diesel combustion, coal combustion)

· Grid generation, CFD solver and visualization techniques

· Development of GUI (Graphical User Interface) for CFD code

· Turbulence-spray interaction

· Large Eddy Simulation (LES)

· Dynamics and combustion of droplets and sprays

· Dynamics of flame and vortex

Research Facilities

· Computational Fluid Dynamics Code Development Platforms: KIVA, ANSYS FLUENT, OPENFOAM, in-house codes for two-phase flow and combustion.

· Advanced Fuel Cell Test Stand: automatic data acquisition system for temperature, pressure, pressure drop, humidity, flowrate, etc.

· Nano-Materials Lab: electro-spinning setup, furnaces, coating equipment, mixer, etc.

· Fuel Cell - Battery Hybrid Vehicle Test Bench: automatic data acquisition system for current, voltage, power, speed, motor and battery monitoring, etc.

· Battery Management System Test Bench: automatic data acquisition system for current, voltage, power, charging/discharging battery, etc.

· Access to Industry and Government Labs: automotive industry (diesel engine research), fuel cell industry (PEM fuel cell research), and National Research Council Canada (fuel cell, gas turbine research).