Professor Yang Zhang
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Professor of Combustion and Energy
Director of Postgraduate Studies (PGR)
+44 114 222 7880
Full contact details
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street
Sheffield
S1 3JD
- Profile
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Professor Yang Zhang received BEng from Zhejiang University, China and PhD in the engineering department of Cambridge University.
He then worked as a Research Associate and Research Fellow (Darwin College, Cambridge University) on two projects (Integrated Diesel European Action: IDEA and the follow-on project IDEA EFFECT) supported by six European car manufacturers and EU.
After this, he moved to UMIST and then the University of Manchester before taking the Chair of Combustion and Energy in Sheffield.
His laboratory specialises in combustion and advanced flow diagnostics. The combustion lab has several lab-scale burners for both fundamental research and teaching. An industrial gas turbine combustor (1 MW) is available for testing and research.
A high-pressure test burner up to 20 bar has been built for combustion studies. The burner has two quartz windows and two pure silicon windows, which are transparent to infrared and longer wavelength (e.g. Terahertz wave).
Besides the conventional diagnostic techniques, the group is known for in-house developed diagnostic techniques, which can be applied not only in-flame dynamics studies but also in many fast-moving dynamic systems.
The team has great strength in signal and image processing capabilities, including multi-channel data acquisition, high-speed imaging and stereo imaging.
- Research interests
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- Digital image and signal processing of flame dynamics and structure
- Flame and acoustic wave interactions
- Combustion instability
- Innovative flow diagnostics and data processing
- Clean coal combustion
- Future energy system
Research Projects
- Laminar flame dynamics at high pressure
- Fuel variability effect on combustion instability
- High-speed stereo Schlieren imaging of flame dynamics and structure
- Flame and acoustic wave interactions
- 3D Imaging of re-ignition process in a jet engine combustor at sub-atmospheric conditions
- Turbulent impinging flames
- Grants
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- Clean Energy Utilisation from Biogas and Biomass Gasification (until 2016), EPSRC
- Coupling Membrane with a High Speed Camera and its Analysis (until 2013), John Crane
- Clean Coal Combustion: Burning Issues of Syngas Burning (until 2012), EPSRC
- Fuel Variability Effect on Combustion Stability (until 2013), BP Alternative Energy Intl Ltd.
- GT100 Combustor Test (until 2012), Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Ltd
- Intumescent Paint Under Fire Impingement (until 2013), International Paint Ltd.
- Digital Stereo Imaging and Signal Processing Based Condition Monitoring Technology for Wind Turbine Blades (until 2012), KTA.
- Teaching interests
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- Advanced Aero Propulsion
- Experiments and Modelling
- Fluids Laboratory and Aero Group Design