Current teaching
- EMAN 201: Thermoprocesses 1
- EMAN 301: Fluids and Heat Transfer
- EMAN 308: Thermoprocesses 2
- EMAN 401: Measurement, Simulation and Control
Research areas:
- Steam generation, combustion and gasification
- Separation processes: distillation, absorption, abstraction, adsorption
- Drying processes
- Coolers and heat pumps
- Chemical and engineering thermodynamics
- Fluid mechanics, heat and mass transfer, computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
- Process modelling, simulation, and optimization
- Renewable energy, biofuels
- Energy systems of commercial buildings
- Energy end-user technology development, management and deployment
Current student supervisions
PhD Students:
- Will Catton. Modelling the Dehumidifier Drying of Paste Materials.
- Muthasim Fahmy. Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Steady and Transient Rayleigh-Benard-Marangoni Interfacial Convection.
- Ehiaze Ehimen. An Investigation on the Co-production of Biodiesel and Methane from Microalgae.
- Sam Lowrey. Dehumidifiers for Control of Moisture in NZ Dwellings.
- Morteza Barati. Development of Phase Change Cooling Technologies.
MSc Students:
- Kenrick Burke. Investigation of Free Cooling to Reduce Data Center Energy Consumption.
Selected publications
- Ehimen E.A., Sun, Z. F., Carrington C.G. Birch E.J., Eaton-Rye J., Anaerobic digestion of microalgae residues resulting from the biodiesel production process. Applied Energy, 88, 3454-3463, (2011).
- Catton, W., Carrington, G., and Sun, Z., Exergy analysis of an isothermal heat pump dryer. Energy, (2011). DOI:10.1016/j.energy.2011.03.038.
- Catton, W., Carrington, C. G., and Sun, Z. F., Performance assessment of contact heat pump drying. International Journal of Energy Research, (2010), DOI: 10.1002/er.1704.
- Ehimen, E., Connaughton, S., Sun, Z. F. and Carrington, C. G., Energy recovery from lipid extracted, transesterified and glycerol co-digested microalgae biomass. Global Change Biology Bioenergy, 1, 371-381, (2009).
- Ehimen, E., Sun, Z. F. and Carrington, C. G., Variables affecting the in situ transesterification of microalgae lipids. Fuel, 89, 677-684, 2009.
- Sun, Z. F. Influence of nonlinear concentration profiles on flow patterns of solutal Rayleigh-Bénard-Marangoni convection. Journal of Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics, Vol.32, No.3 (2007).
- Sun, Z. F. Onset of Rayleigh-Benard-Marangoni convection in gas-liquid mass transfer with two-phase flow: comparison of measured results with theoretical results. ACS: Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, 45 (18), 6325 -6329, (2006).
- Sun, Z. F. and Yu, K. T. Rayleigh-Benard-Marangoni cellular convection: expressions for heat and mass transfer rates. Trans . IChemE : Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Vol.84 (A3), pp185-191 (2006).
- Sun, Z. F. and Fahmy, M. Onset of Rayleigh-Benard-Marangoni convection in gas-liquid mass transfer with two-phase flow: theory. ACS: Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.45, 3293-3302 (2006).
- Sun, Z. F. , Carrington, C. G., Anderson , J. A., Sun, Q. Air flow patterns in dehumidifier wood drying kilns. Trans . IChemE : Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Vol.82 (A10), pp1344-1352 (2004).
- Sun, Z. F. Correlations for mass transfer coefficients over blunt boards based on modified boundary layer theories. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.57, No.11, 2029-2033 (2002).
- Sun, Z. F. , Yu, K. T., Wang, S. Y., Miao, Y. Z. Absorption and desorption of carbon dioxide into and from organic solvents: effects of Rayleigh and Marangoni instability. ACS: Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Vol.41, 1905-1913 (2002).
- Sun, Z. F. Numerical simulation of flow in an array of in-line blunt boards: mass transfer and flow patterns. Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.56/5, 1883-1896 (2001).
- Sun, Z. F. , Carrington, C. G. and Bannister, P. Dynamic modelling of the wood stack in a wood drying kiln. Trans. IChemE : Chemical Engineering Research and Design, Vol.78, Part A, January, 107-117 (2000).
- Sun, Z. F. and Carrington, C. G. Simulation and second law analysis of a miniature Stirling cycle cryocooler. Advances in Cryogenic Engineering, Vol 41, 1551–1560 (1995).
- Sun, Z. F. and Carrington, C. G. Oscillating flow modelling of a Stirling cycle cryocooler. Advances in Cryogenic Engineering, Vol.41, 1543–1550, (1995).
- Sun Z. F. and Carrington, C. G. Exergy balance for flows in complex configurations. ECOS'92, ASME, New York . [ISBN 0-7918-0631-6] (1992) 529–535.
- Sun Z. F. and Carrington, C. G. Exergy balance in turbulent flows. ECOS'92, ASME, New York. [ISBN 0-7918-0631-6] (1992) 521–528.
- Carrington, C. G. and Sun, Z. F. Second law analysis of combined heat and mass transfer in internal and external flows. International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 13:65–70 (1992).
- Carrington, C. G. and Sun, Z. F. Second law analysis of combined heat and mass transfer phenomena. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer. 34:2767–2773 (1991).
- Sun, Z. F. and Carrington, C. G. Applications of non–equilibrium thermodynamics in second law analysis. ASME: Journal of Energy Resources Technology, 113:33–39 (1991).
Administrative responsibilities
- Assistant Director of Energy Management and Energy Studies Programme
- Member, Physics Department Research Committee
- Member, Physics Department Teaching Committee
Editorship
Member of the Editorial Board of Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers: Chemical Engineering Research and Design