General Research Statement

Concern about energy security, the threat of climate change and the need to meet growing energy demand all pose major challenges to energy decision makers. Buildings are forecast to account for 40 percent (38 Quads) of primary energy consumption in the USA in 2014, followed by the industry (33 percent) and transportation (27 percent).

Building energy consumption represents a cost of approximately $416 billion in 2012 dollars. HVAC is the largest energy end-user for U.S. buildings and increasing energy efficiency has the highest priority for achieving sustainable energy future and for reducing CO₂ emissions in the short term. For example a potential improvement of the efficiency of news and existing air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment by 2 percent would lead to a primary energy savings of approximately 0.3 Quads per year, which is equivalent to the energy the U.S. consumes in oil for three days or to the energy consumed by 10 million average size homes in the U.S. for ten months.

My research contributes to the solutions of complex societal challenges in the energy security and sustainable energy conversion systems. Research is conducted on advanced energy conversion systems and multi-components two-phase flow heat and mass transfer processes with surface interactions at mini-, micro-, and nano-scale levels.

My research is mainly experimental in nature and consists of a balanced mix of fundamental and applied research. New state-of-the-art facilities, which I designed and constructed, are often used in my research projects.

Interest Areas:

• Energy Efficiency and Sustainability
• Scalable Energy Systems
• Heat and Mass Transfer Processes in AC Systems
• Building and Transportation HVAC
• Refrigerants Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer
• Refrigeration and Cryogenics
• Waste Heat Recovery.

Current Research Projects on:

• Low GWP Refrigerants Heat Transfer
• Lubricants and Nanolubricants Heat Transfer
• Frosting, Icing and Defrost Processes in Mini- and Micro-Channels Heat Exchangers.
• LGWP and natural refrigerants (Ammonia) two phase flow pressure drop for refrigeration applications.