School of Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering

Thermo-fluids Systems

The Thermo‑fluids Systems Research Group integrates fluid mechanics, heat transfer, microfluidics, and renewable energy to deliver impactful science and engineering. Our work spans high‑fidelity numerical simulations (DNS/LES, FSI), advanced experimentation (water tunnel, PIV, acoustic beamforming), and data‑driven modelling for design and control. Application domains include energy harvesting from flow‑structure interaction, adaptive thermal comfort and HVAC optimization, microfluidic devices for biological and environmental diagnostics, bio‑inspired heat exchangers, and UAV‑based solutions for field sensing. We collaborate with industry and public agencies to translate prototypes into deployable systems.
  • High‑fidelity CFD/FSI for energy‑harvesting and thermal systems.
  • Microfluidics for biological fluids: inertial focusing and lab‑on‑chip diagnostics.
  • Adaptive thermal comfort modelling and building HVAC optimization.
  • Bio‑inspired heat exchangers and advanced thermal management (heat pipes, phase‑change).
  • UAV/Drone platforms for sensing, inspection, and precision agriculture.

Our Team

Meet Our Research Team

    
Dr Emad Ud Din
Group Lead – PhD Fluid Mechanics

 

 


Dr Zaib Ali
PhD Computational Fluid Dynamics
Dr Mohammad Mutee Ur Rehman
PhD ELECTRONIC ENGINEERING

 

 


Dr Ammar Tariq
PhD Power Engineering and Engineering Thermophysics
Dr Waqas Khalid
PhD Mechanical Engineering

 


Dr Muhammad Tauseef Nasir
MSc Mechanical/Maufacturing Engineering

Thermo-fluids Systems

• Regular publications in indexed journals; multiple 2025 articles across Applied Sciences, PLOS ONE, AEJ, and JTICE.
• Built an experimental water‑tunnel facility with 2D/3D PIV and acoustic beamforming capability.
• Secured competitive grants supporting energy harvesting, microfluidics, and thermal comfort research.
• Industry collaboration on UAV/drone‑based field sensing and thermal comfort monitoring solutions.

• Zulfiqar, M., Manshad, D., Uddin, E., Mubashar, A., Ali, Z., Irfan, M., Ullah, S., & Li, J. (2025). Experimental study on multi‑cell counting using an inertial microfluidic device. Applied Sciences, 15(10), 5701. https://doi.org/10.3390/app15105701

• Bucha, M. H., Khan, N. B., Uddin, E., Riaz, H. H., Munir, A., Farooq, U., et al. (2025). Experimental investigation of surface roughness effects on energy harvesting from a piezoelectric eel behind a cylindrical bluff body. PLOS ONE, 20(7), e0327916. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0327916

• Khan, G., Safdar, M., Taj, S., Munir, A., & Nasir, M. T. (2025). Lie‑symmetry analysis of a three‑dimensional flow due to unsteady stretching of a flat surface with non‑uniform temperature distribution. Alexandria Engineering Journal, 112, 424–435. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2024.10.121

• Rehman, M. M., Khan, M., Mutee‑ur‑Rehman, H. M., Saqib, M., Iqbal, S., Lim, S. S., Park, K. H., & Kim, W. Y. (2025). A sustainable and flexible carbon paper‑based multifunctional human–machine interface (HMI) sensor. Polymers, 17(1), 98. https://doi.org/10.3390/polym17010098

• Farooq, U., Riaz, H. H., Munir, A., Tariq, A., Chan, T. C., Zhao, M., & Islam, M. S. (2025). Heliox: An advanced method for targeted drug delivery in respiratory airways. Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, 176, 106323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2025.106323

• Khan, I., Khalid, W., Ali, H. M., Khan, N. Z., Uddin, E., Ali, Z., Ali, M., & Javed, H. (2025). An experimental machine learning evaluation on adaptive thermal comfort in hospitals. Future Cities and Environment, 11, Article e2025‑018. https://doi.org/10.70917/fce-2025-018

AgriDrone (precision agriculture UAV platform).
• Thermal Comfort Monitoring System (hardware platform and predictive model).
• Energy harvesting from flexible structures in shear flows (piezoelectric eel).
• Microfluidics for biological fluids: inertial focusing device for cell counting/diagnostics.
• EV battery thermal management and performance modelling using ML/AI.
• Bio‑inspired heat exchanger design and advanced thermal management (heat pipes, phase‑change).
• Solar chimney and clean‑energy prototypes.

  • Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV): 2D/3D PIV for water‑tunnel and bench‑top flow diagnostics.
  • Acoustic Camera (beamforming): noise source localization and vibro‑