People

The Turbo Group
The Turbo Group's Christmas Party

Academic Staff

Professor Ricardo F. Martinez-Botas

Professor in Turbomachinery

Ricardo leads the Turbo Group. He has an MEng (Hons) in Aeronautical Engineering from Imperial College London and obtained a DPhil from St John's College, Oxford University in 1993 with his thesis on “Annular Cascade Aerodynamics and Heat Transfer”.

Research

Ricardo's main area of research is in aerodynamics and heat transfer of turbomachines. The applications relate to aircraft engines, power generation gas turbines, turbochargers and hybrid vehicles. In heat transfer engineering, a significant contribution has been made to the understanding of cooling components, primarily using experimental novel measuring techniques.

He has developed the area of unsteady flow aerodynamics of small turbines, with particular application to the turbocharger industry. The contributions to this area centre on the application of unsteady fluid mechanics, instrumentation development and computational methods. The work has attracted support not only from Government agencies but also from industry. His group has become a recognised centre of turbocharger turbine aerodynamics, and more particularly in the application of experimental methods and one-dimensional calculation procedures.

Teaching
  • Sustainable Transport - SEF09
  • Thermodynamics 1 - MECH40003
  • Aircraft Engine Technology - MECH70021
Links
Contact

Dr Teng Cao

Lecturer in Turbomachinery

 

Teng is Lecturer in the Thermofluids Division, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2015 at Whittle Laboratory, University of Cambridge. He continued as Research Associate at the Whittle Lab. In 2016, he became MHI Senior Research Fellow and College lecturer at Girton College. He was appointed as Lecturer by Imperial College in September 2021.

Research: Teng’s research has been in the field of turbomachinery which is a crucial component for the current and foreseeable future energy systems in the world. He is passionate about improving the energy system's performance through understanding its aerothermal mechanics using both numerical and experimental methods. Over the years, his work has been devoted to various research areas: (1) Developing high-performance centrifugal compressors, (2) Low-order modelling of Turbomachinery, (3) Fan-intake interactions, and (4) Pulsating flow effects on turbocharger turbine performance. His research outcomes have been largely recognized by peers and published in the world’s premier journals and peer-reviewed conferences. His recent work on centrifugal compressor tip leakage flow instability has been awarded the ‘Turbomachinery Committee Best Paper’ by the American Society of Mechanical Engineering.

Teaching
  • Heat Transfer - MECH50001
  • Mechanical Engineering Individual Project
  • Thermodynamics 1 - MECH40003
  • Thermodynamics 3
Links
Contact

Research Staff

Mr Harminder Flora

Research Officer

Harminder joined the Thermal Power research group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College in 1986 under the leadership of the late Professor Neil Watson, who at the time was performing world-leading research into turbochargers. Since then, as Research Officer he has supported numerous turbocharger and automotive powertrain related research projects, including the development of:

  • The Turbo Group's high-speed eddy-current dynamometer, used for turbocharger turbine aerodynamic research and testing
  • Active Control Turbocharger (ACT) technology
  • TASR, the Transient Air System Rig
  • Cavitation in diesel injector nozzles
  • Validation of simulation models for diesel fuel injection systems
  • Apparatus for the measurement of piston ring lubricant films

Harminder’s departmental duties include leading the teaching of CAD on our MEng Mechanical Engineering undergraduate course, co-supervising numeorus undergraduate Design-Make-Test and Final Year Projects, and providing close technical support to PhD research students and Psotdocs in the Thermofluids Division.

Mr Chris Noon

Experimental Test Engineer

 

Dr Maria Esperanza Barrera-Medrano

Turbomachinery Research Development Manager

Esperanza joined Imperial College London in 2013, as a researcher involved and sponsored by Marie Curie Fellowship program, as part of a project called Energy SmartOps. Afterwards, she did her PhD in Unsteady Flow in Turbocharger Centrifugal Compressors for Automotive applications under the supervision of Prof. Ricardo Martinez-Botas. After completing her PhD, she continued her research on turbocharger compressor performance and efficiency improvement under unsteady conditions within SETTL led by Prof. Ricardo Martinez-Botas and in close collaboration with her industrial sponsor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. She holds two patents related to turbocharger compressor design, as a results of her research.

Research/Role

Esperanza manages international collaborations, design and support the development and completion of technical programs through developing high-quality research proposals and establishing new external collaborations, especially with industry.​She manages the Group’s project’s technical activities, concentrating on the delivery of scientific and application-focused goals, and acts as a regular liaison with the academic and industrial partners.

Contact
  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 1618
  • Email: m.barrera-medrano@imperial.ac.uk

Dr Bijie Yang

Honorary Lecturer 

 

Bijie is Honorary Lecturer in Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London. He is also Lecturer in Department of Aeronautical and Automobile, Loughborough University. 

 

Research

Bijie received his PhD degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London in 2020 sponsored by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry (MHI) Scholarship. Prior to his appointment as a Lecturer in Sustainable Power and Propulsion at Loughborough University, he had been a Research Associate at Imperial College working on a number of Projects sponsored by Industrial Partners, such as, MHI, Caterpillar and Daimler.  His research interests include:

  • High fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (DNS)

  •  Turbomachinery Aerodynamics

  • Fluid Mechanics Reduced Order Model

  •  

    Electric propulsion for eVOTLs

  •  Multiphase non-ideal compressible flows

  • Plasma propulsion  and semiconductor manufacturing

Contact

Dr Pablo Ale Martos

Research Associate

 

Pablo holds a PhD degree from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. After completing his PhD, he continued his research on turbocharger performance and efficiency optimisation within SETTL led by Prof. Ricardo Martinez-Botas and in close collaboration with his main industrial sponsor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.

Research 

After several successful industrial-funded collaborations with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and some consultancy jobs with other companies during his PhD, Pablo was promoted to a Research Associate position, leading projects on turbomachinery (optimization and system-level assessment) and implementing the knowledge acquired by his group in the last decades into a new Future Boosting Technologies such a Hydrogen Power Systems.

Contact 

Andrew Law

Research Associate

Andrew holds a MEng degree with First Class Honours (2019) from Imperial College London, where he was a Dean’s List student from 2015 to 2019. Hejoined SETTL in 2019 and completed his PhD studies in 2024. He is now working as a postdoctoral research associate.

 

Research

During his PhD, Andrew’s main research focused on assessing system-levelling modelling for hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), control strategy optimizations, and e-boosting applications in HEVs. He also worked on real-world vehicle emissions data modelling. His postdoctoral work now focuses on multiphase non-ideal compressible flow modelling for carbon capture and storage (CCS) applications and expanding his HEV research into hydrogen fuel cells for light-duty vehicles.

Contact

Research Students

Vincent Wei Sheng Cheong

Research Postgraduate

Vincent holds an MEng degree (2015) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. His research lies in the experimental measurement of the transient response of air systems for off-road heavy-duty diesel engines, and is sponsored by Caterpillar Inc.

Academic Visitors

Dr Srithar Rajoo

Dr Srithar Rajoo with the LoCARtic test rig at UTM
Dr Srithar Rajoo with the LoCARtic test rig at UTM

Srithar Rajoo is Director of the UTM Centre for Low Carbon Transport in cooperation with Imperial College London (LoCARtic), a joint research initiative. He is also Associate Professor in the School of Mechanical Engineering at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). He obtained his PhD from Imperial College London in 2007 on the subject of unsteady performance of variable geometry mixed flow turbines.

Dr Nitin Garg

Dr Nitin Garg holds a PhD in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering and Scienti c Computing from the University of Michigan. His PhD thesis is entitled High- delity Hydrostructural Optimization of a 3-D Hydrofoil.

Nitin was Research Associate at Imperial College London from 2017-18, working on the Advanced Propulsion Centre project ASCENT. Nitin is currently part of INEOS Team UK, the UK's America's Cup team.

  • Email: gargn@umich.edu

Group Alumni

Dr Peter J. Newton

Research Associate

Peter graduated from Imperial College with a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2007. He spent two years working as a structural analyst in the power sector before returning to Imperial College London to undertake a PhD in the Turbocharger Group in 2009. His PhD research was sponsored by ABB Turbosystems and focussed on the effect of unsteady flows on the aerodynamics of a double entry turbine.

Having completed his PhD in 2013 he is now the UTM Research Fellow in the Centre for Low Carbon Transport, based at Imperial College London. His research interests lie in turbine fluid dynamics, waste heat recovery from automotive engines and high speed and hot gas flow measurement.

Dr Aaron W. Costall

Lecturer in ThermofluidsDr Aaron Costall

Aaron holds both MEng and PhD degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London, and is a chartered mechanical engineer.  After completing his PhD, from 2007 Aaron spent five years as a Research Engineer and Senior Research Engineer with Caterpillar Inc., working in the Engine Research division based at Perkins Engines in Peterborough, UK. In 2012 Aaron moved to Mitsubishi Turbocharger and Engine Europe B.V. in the Netherlands, where he was responsible for engine-turbocharger matching process improvement. He returned to Imperial College London as a Research Fellow in 2014, and became Lecturer in Thermofluids in 2017.

Research

Aaron's main research interests lie in advanced turbocharger models to enable optimized IC engine performance and fuel consumption over real-life duty cycles, electrically-assisted turbocharging and thermal energy recovery in IC engines.

Teaching
  • ME4-MFCTT Future Clean Transport Technology (Course Leader)
  • ME1-HTHD Thermodynamics (Tutor)
  • ME2-HDMF Design and Manufacture (Tutor)
  • ME3-HLTR Literature Research Project (Supervisor)
  • ME4-MPRJ Individual Project (Supervisor)
Links
Contact

Dr Torsten Palenschat

Research Postgraduate (completed)

Dr Muhammad Izzal Ismail

Research AssociateDr Muhammad Izzal Ismail

After graduating in 2007 from Tokai University, Kanagawa-shi, Japan with a Bachelor of Engineering, Izzal was employed by PROTON, the national car company of Malaysia. With 6 years’ experience in the automotive industry, he joined Imperial College London as a PhD student in November 2013, funded by the Malaysian government and sponsorship agency, MARA.

His primary research focused on developing a turbocharger matching method for one-dimensional engine simulation software that enables better engine efficiency and transient response, by incorporating more representative models for waste-gated turbines and electric turbocharger systems. During his PhD, he also worked on industrial research projects with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI), including a collaboration with Groupe Renault, the major passenger car manufacturer, and the turbocharger supplier Mitsubishi Turbocharger & Engine Europe B.V.

After completing his PhD in 2017, Izzal worked as a Research Associate on collaborative industrial research projects with MHI (2018-19). He is currently working at UMW Manufacturing and Engineering Sdn Bhd, as Head of Innovation and Engineering.

Mr Asanka Munasinghe

Controls & Instrumentation Engineer

  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 7043
  • Email: a.munasinghe@imperial.ac.uk

Radoslav Ivanov

Radi worked on the ETI EAS Engine Air Systems project and is responsible for the underlying design of the TASR. Radi now consults on powertrain simulation, through his company R-Flow Ltd.

Dr Eleni Ioannou

Research Associate

  • Tel: +44 (0)20 7594 9216
  • Email: e.ioannou@imperial.ac.uk

Dr Miles Robertson

Research Associate

Dr Miles Robertson is a Research Associate in the Turbo Group at Imperial College London. 

Miles's current research is in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), focusing on reduced-order simulation and experimental validation of turbocharger heat transfer and novel cooling strategies. 

He completed his PhD in 2018 at Imperial College London, with a thesis titled Thermofluid Optimisation of Turboexpanders for Mobile Organic Rankine Cycle Systems, under the supervision of Professor Ricardo Martinez-Botas. His thesis focused on the real-world design and optimisation of radial-inflow turbomachinery for ORC applications, developing novel duty-cycle optimisation methods for heavy-duty, off-road vehicle waste heat recovery. In addition, his PhD project (Innovate UK project MORCEA) fostered the construction of the Imperial College Dense Gas Blowdown Facility, capable of detailed cascade flow measurement for non-ideal fluids close to the critical point. His doctoral work won the Katapodis Prize for best thesis within the Thermofluids Division (2017-18).

Miles graduated with a 1st class MEng degree in Mechanical Engineering from Imperial College London in 2014. As part of a Year in Industry, he worked as an engineer at McLaren Automotive, focusing on hybrid systems development for the P1 hypercar.

Dr Alexander Mason

Research Postgraduate  (completed)

 

Alex holds an MEng degree (2015) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. His research lies in transient response prediction of turbocharger turbines for off-road heavy-duty diesel engines, and is sponsored by Caterpillar Inc.

Dr Eva Alvarez-Regueiro

Research Postgraduate (completed)

Dr Hao Liu

Research Postgraduate  (completed)

Dr Karim Gharaibeh

Research Postgraduate  (completed)

Karim holds an MEng degree (2015) from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Imperial College London. His research lies in surge prediction in turbocharger compressors for off-road heavy-duty diesel engines, and is sponsored by Caterpillar Inc.

Dr Karl Hohenberg

Research Associate

Dr Matthias Abel

Research Postgraduate (completed)

Dr Prakhar Kapoor

Research Postgraduate (completed)

Prakhar holds an MSc degree from TU Delft. His research lies in the optimization of turbocharger turbine design for real-world drive cycles, and is sponsored by Mitsubishi Turbocharger and Engine Europe BV.

Dr Tao Chen

Research Postgraduate (completed)

Dr Xiaofeng Lu

Research Postgraduate (completed)