Evaporative Cooling: Fundamentals and Optimisation on Shaped and Rough Surface Topographies (PANTERJ2_U26EMP)
Key Details
- Application deadline
- 31 January 2026 for International, 31 March 2026 for Home
- Location
- UEA
- Funding type
- Self-funded
- Start date
- 1 June 2026
- Mode of study
- Full-time
- Programme type
- PhD
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Project description
Primary supervisor - Dr Jack Panter
Evaporative cooling is a familiar process to all, as it is how humans regulate body temperature through sweating. However, it is beginning to be recognised as a promising cooling method across a broad range of applications, from heat exchangers for data centres and batteries, to passive and sustainable coolers for fresh produce or chemical processing, and thermoregulatory textiles for medicine and sports.
In order for evaporative cooling to work effectively, a number of competing interactions must be simultaneously controlled and optimised: liquid must be spread to achieve a maximised liquid-vapour interfacial area, liquid must be sufficiently replenished as evaporation takes place, and the heat transfer rate to/from the liquid-vapour interface must be maximised. This is a complex problem, requiring the synthesis of wetting and capillarity (surface tension forces), fluid flow, heat transfer, and phase change.
Although challenging, this is an exciting problem as there is a broad range of open questions, ranging from the fundamental (e.g. how can the surface area of the liquid-gas interface be maximised by controlling both the macroscale evaporator shape, and microscale surface roughness?) to the applied (e.g. given the specific thermal loads and convection conditions, what is the optimised evaporator design?).
In this project, you will use, and contribute to the development of, state-of-the-art computational fluid dynamics techniques to simulate multi-phase fluid flow, phase change, and heat transfer. You will have the opportunity to develop multi-objective optimisation strategies (such as genetic algorithms or machine learning) to develop optimised designs. There is also scope for experimental work in the thermal fluids laboratory, coupling 3D printing, thermal imaging and sensing, and heat transfer control to examine and test evaporative cooling.
Entry requirements
The standard minimum entry requirement is 2:1 in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Chemistry, Mathematics.
Funding
This project is offered on a self-funding basis. It is open to applicants with funding or those applying to funding sources. Details of tuition fees can be found here.
A bench fee is also payable in addition to the tuition fee to cover specialist equipment or laboratory costs required for the research. Applicants should contact the primary supervisor for further information about the fee associated with the project.
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