Andy Williams | University of Chester

My research focus is on powertrain fluid systems, specifically emission after treatment and turbomachinery. He has worked in the field since 2001 spending time in the research department at Jaguar Cars, as a visiting researcher at Birmingham University and in variety of roles at Loughborough University before joining the University of Chester in 2018. His research has led to awards from the SAE, an innovation award for his Turbo-Discharging fuel saving technology, four patents, six PhD graduations and numerous publications.

Andy graduated from Loughborough University in 2004 with a Master’s in Mechanical Engineering before completing his PhD in 2007 on the multi-disciplinary topic of plasma emission aftertreatment for internal combustion engines. Between 2007 and 2009 he was a post-doctoral research associate at Loughborough responsible for generating new research projects around powertrain technologies. Successes during this time include projects on multi-phase thermal management, plasma cleaning technologies and systems level application of turbomachinery in powertrain systems. In 2010 he became a Lecturer at Loughborough University contributing to thermofluids teaching while deepening his research interest in turbomachinery leading to improvements in one-dimensional modelling fidelity. During this time he acted as Part B (2nd year) Tutor and then Programme Director for the Mechanical Engineering Degrees. In 2017 he gained his senior lectureship at Loughborough University before moving to Chester as Senior Lecturer.

Andy is the co-leader of the UK Fluids Network (UKFN) Special Interest Group (SIG) on ‘Particulate Filter Flows’, co-investigator on the STFC’s Air Quality Network+ project, is an ad-hoc member of DEFRA’s Air Quality Expert Group (AQEG) and external examiner for Oxford Brookes University. He is a member of the SAE and a member of the Association for Project Management (APM).

Dr Williams specialises in Energy and Thermofluids and is Programme Lead for the Mechanical Engineering courses. He is integrally involved with the Energy and Power stream at the University of Chester and teaches on Thermodynamics (L4 and L5), Energy Systems (L6) and Energy and Environment (L7) modules, Advanced Dynamics (L5), Mechatronics (L5), Individual Projects (L6 and L7) and group projects (L7).

Andy has received two student led awards for his teaching, as ‘Best Lecturer’ in 2013 and for his support for students in 2015. He has examined six PhDs and one EngD at institutions such as Loughborough University, Imperial College London, University of Southampton and University of Bath. He has examined MPhil work at Coventry University and University of Birmingham. He acts as an external examiner for Oxford Brookes University. He is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Andy specialises in thermofluids of powertrain systems. He is currently developing control systems to operate compressors in regions of their map which would normally be unstable, developing new interaction models for simulating turbocharging systems, and investigation additive effects on single and two phase heat transfer.

His completed projects have:

Applied turbomachinery to fundamentally improve the efficiency of internal combustion engines: Invention of Turbo-Discharging technology offering >5% fuel consumption improvement alongside torque improvements at low cost and weight which is suitable for retrofitting. The technology is particularly well suited to power generation applications
Identified weaknesses in established 1-D turbomachinery simulation practices and developed new approaches to account for the interaction between heterogeneous inlet flows and turbomachine characteristics
Studied the effect of micro-scale porous structures on filtration and pressure drop performance for nano- and micro-scale particulates. This work has led to now proposals for improving efficiency of nano-scale particulates
Quantified and experimentally manipulated the oxidation characteristics of combustion generated particulates
Quantified and predicted the strength and strength degradation, ageing and thermal durability of high temperature porous ceramics such as Diesel Particulate Filters (DPFs)
Applied atmospheric pressure plasmas to particulate emission control systems taking advantage of their oxidative characteristics and their physical interactions with particulates
Investigated the potential of model predictive control to internal combustion engine performance, efficiency and emissions
Studied and applied two-phase heat transfer in the context of powertrain systems
Investigated cryogenic heat transfer and flow processes in multi-phase cycles
Investigated the potential of on-board reforming to control combustion phasing of Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) internal combustion engines

Andy has experience experimentally and in simulation, primarily on bespoke models and high value fast simulation techniques such as 1-D gas dynamics modelling (GT-Power and Ricardo WAVE).

He is actively working on:

Further improving 1-D turbomachinery simulation tools
An experimental method for quantifying the adhesion characteristics of combustion generated particulates, and the influence of transient environments on their adhesion
An integrated multi-scale method for determining and benchmarking component and system performance of thermofluid systems

Example Journal papers

Evaporation of liquid nitrogen droplets in superheated immiscible liquids. N. Rebelo, H. Zhao, F. Nadal, C. Garner, A. Williams. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, V143, 2019.

Predicting the critical heat flux in pool boiling based on hydrodynamic instability induced irreversible hot spots. H. Zhao, A.M. Williams, International Journal of Multiphase Flow, V104, pp174-187, July 2018.

On the measurement and modelling of high pressure flows in poppet valves under steady-state and transient conditions. S. Mohr, H. Clarke, C.P. Garner, N. Rebelo, A.M. Williams, H. Zhao. Journal of Fluids Engineering, FE-16-1635, ISSN: 1528-901X, 2017.

Turbo-Discharging Turbocharged Internal Combustion Engines. A.M.Williams, A.T. Baker, C.P. Garner and R. Vijayakumar. Invited paper for the IMechE Part D: Journal of Automobile Engineering Special Issue on Vehicle Fuel Economy: High Efficiency Engines and Hybrid Powertrains, Vol 227 No 1, January 2013.

Pulsed Discharge Regeneration of Diesel Particulate Filters. K. Graupner, J. Binner, N. Fox, C.P. Garner, J.E. Harry, D. Hoare, K.S. Ladha, A. Mason, A.M. Williams. Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, Volume 33, Issue 2, pp467-477, 2013.

Conferences (Latest five)

Performance of Slotted Metallic Membranes as Particulate Filters. C. Lin, B. Hillman and A.M.Williams. SAE Technical Paper 2014-01-2807, Presented at the SAE International Powertrains, Fuels and Lubricants Meeting, October 2014.

Inlet Condition Dependency of Centrifugal Compressor Mapped Efficiency. I.S. Park, A.M.Williams. SAE Technical Paper 2014-01-2854, Presented at the SAE International Powertrains, Fuels and Lubricants Meeting, October 2014.

SI Engine Combustion Wall Thermal Management Potential without the Presence of Control Limitation. R. Abdul Jalal, T. Steffen, A. Williams. In the proceedings from 2014 UKACC International Conference on Control (CONTROL), 2014.

Non-Thermal Particulate Filter Regeneration Using Rapid Pulse Electric Discharges. A. Mason, J.G.P. Binner, C.P. Garner, K. Graupner, J.E. Harry, D.W. Hoare, A.M.Williams, N. Fox. SAE Technical Paper 2013-01-0518, 2013.

IC Engine Air System Uni-, Bi- and Tri-Directional Energy Flow Optimisation: Turbocharging, Turbocompounding and Turbo-Discharging. A. Williams, A.T. Baker and R. Vijayakumar. ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division 2013 Fall Technical Conference, Dearborn, MI,USA, 13-16 Oct 2013.

Dr Andy Williams