Clean Powertrain Research Lab

Research Areas

Clean Powertrain: Fuel cell and hybrid powertrain technologies.
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV): Fuel cell power system for UAV applications; Design of UAV; Flight dynamics and control.
Nano-Materials: Membrane fabrication techniques; Catalyst and catalyst support; Advanced Membrane-Electrode-Assembly.
Fuel Cell Design and Modeling: 3D Printing; Fuel cell testing techniques; System control and monitoring technologies.
Clean Combustion Technologies: Internal combustion engine modeling for different fuels (gasoline, bio-diesel, diesel) with detailed chemistry; Two-phase flow and combustion modeling (gas turbine, burner design, diesel/gasoline engine, pulverized-coal combustor).
Turbulence-Spray-Combustion Interaction: Large Eddy Simulation (LES); Dynamics and combustion of droplets and sprays; Dynamics of flame and vortex.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD): Grid generation; Solver and visualization techniques; Development of GUI (Graphical User Interface) for CFD code.

Research Infrastructure

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, current, voltage, power, etc.
Nano-Materials Lab: Electrospinning/electrospray setup, furnaces, coating equipment, mixer, etc.
Fuel Cell - Battery Hybrid Vehicle Test Bench & Battery Management System Test Bench: Automatic data acquisition system for current, voltage, power, speed, motor and battery monitoring, 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).

Contact: Dr. Biao Zhou
Department of Mechanical, Automotive and Materials Engineering
519-253-3000, Ext. 2630
bzhou@uwindsor.ca

Visit the Clean Powertrain Lab website for more information.