Prof. Wenxian Lin obtained PhD in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sydney in 2000. He is the Head of Discipline of Mechanical Engineering at the College of Science & Engineering of James Cook University.

Prof. Lin’s research interests encompass computational fluid dynamics, buoyancy-driven flows, turbulent flows, stratified flows, heat transfer, natural convection, boundary layers, scaling analysis, environmental fluid dynamics, solar thermal energy, mixing and entrainment, building heating and ventilation, solar collector technologies, solar water heaters, turbulence modelling, DNS and LES, hydrodynamics, etc. He has published more than 130 refereed journal publications and more than 50 refereed conference publications and has the h-index of 24.

Prof. Lin has received numerous awards and fellowships over his career, including the ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship (ARC, 2003), Australian Awards for University Teaching: Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Office for Learning and Teaching, Australian Government, 2015), and Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (JCU, 2015), and Dean’s Research Excellence Award – Research Group (JCU, 2006). Together with his collaborators, he has attracted 8 ARC DPs/APD.

Teaching

• CS3008: Fluid Mechanics (Level 3; TSV)
• ME2521: Dynamics of Machine Elements (Level 2; TSV)
• ME4513: Advanced Fluid Mechanics (Level 4; TSV)

Interests

Research

• Turbulent Flows
• Solar Thermal Engineering
• Computational Fluid Dynamics
• Natural Convection Heat Transfer
• Buoyant Jets
• Entrainment and Mixing
• Boundary Layers
• Building Heating and Ventilation
• Buoyancy-Driven Flows
• Turbulence Modelling

Teaching

• Fluid Mechanics
• Dynamics
• Energy Technologies

Experience

• 2016 to present - Professor, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
• 2010 to present - Head, Mechanical Engineering Discipline, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
• 2010 to 2015 - Associate Professor, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
• 2006 to 2009 - Senior Lecturer, James Cook University (Townsville, Australia)
• 2004 to 2006 - ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellow, The University of Sydney (Sydney, Australia)

Research Disciplines

• Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering (4012)
• Mechanical engineering (4017)

Awards

• 2015 - JCU Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning
• 2015 - Australian Awards for University Teaching: Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning, the Office for Learning and Teaching, Australian Government
• 2006 - Dean’s Research Excellence Award – Research Group, JCU

Fellowships

• 2004 to 2006 - ARC Australian Postdoctoral Fellowship

Memberships

• 2008 - Secretary and Executive Committee Member, Australasian Fluid and Thermal Engineering Society (AFTES)
• 2000 - Member, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
• 2012 to 2018 - Executive Committee Member, Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society (AFMS)

Other

• 1992 to 1998 - Associate Editor, Energy - The International Journal

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

• Timbs K, Khatamifar M, Antunes E and Lin W (2021) Experimental study on the heat dissipation performance of straight and oblique fin heat sinks made of thermal conductive composite polymers. Thermal Science and Engineering Progress, 22, Article: 100848, DOI:10.1016/j.tsep.2021.100848.
• Li Q, Gao W, Lin W, Liu T, Zhang Y, Ding X, Huang X and Liu W (2020) Experiment and simulation study on convective heat transfer of all-glass evacuated tube solar collector. Renewable Energy, 152, pp. 1129-1139, DOI:10.1016/j.renene.2020.01.089.
• Lin W and Armfield S (2020) Prandtl number scalings for unsteady natural convection boundary-layer flow on an evenly heated vertical plate in a homogeneous Pr > 1 fluid. Numerical Heat Transfer, Part A: Applications, 77 (6), pp. 619-631, DOI:10.1080/10407782.2020.1713639.
• Xia Y, Lin W, Gao W, Liu T, Li Q and Li A (2020) Experimental and numerical studies on indoor thermal comfort in fluid flow: a case study on primary school classrooms. Case Studies in Thermal Engineering, 19, Article: 100619, DOI:10.1016/j.csite.2020.100619.
• Zhou L, Armfield S, Williamson N, Kirkpatrick M and Lin W (2020) Natural convection in a cavity with time-varying thermal forcing on a sidewall. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 150, Article: 119234, DOI:10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2019.119234.
• Chen H, Gao W, Liu T, Lin W and Li M (2019) An experimental study on the effect of salt spray testing on the optical properties of solar selective absorber coatings produced with different manufacturing technologies. International Journal of Energy and Environmental Engineering, 10 (2), pp. 231-242, DOI:10.1007/s40095-019-0299-7.
• Inam M, Lin W, Williamson N, Armfield S and He Y (2019) Characteristics of unsteadiness for transitional plane fountains in linearly stratified fluids. International Communications in Heat and Mass Transfer, 100, pp. 83-97, DOI:10.1016/j.icheatmasstransfer.2018.12.013.

Conference Papers

• Abdulwahid A, Situ R, Brown R and Lin W (2020) Thermodynamic analysis of a diesel exhaust wet scrubber. Proceedings of the 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. In: AFCM2020: 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, 7-10 December 2020, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• Abdulwahid A, Situ R, Brown R and Lin W (2020) Bubble dynamics in a diesel exhaust wet scrubber. Proceedings of the 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. In: AFCM2020: 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, 7-10 December 2020, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• Timbs K, Khatamifar M, Lin W and Antunes E (2020) Experimental study on the thermal performance of straight and oblique finned, polymer heat sinks. Proceedings of the 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. In: AFMC2020: 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, 7-10 December 2020, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• Zhou L, Armfield S and Lin W (2020) Natural convection in a cavity with time-dependent flux boundary. Proceedings of the 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference. In: AFCM2020: 22nd Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference, 7-10 December 2020, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
• Awin L, Armfield S, Williamson N, Kirkpatrick M and Lin W (2019) Numerical simulation for entrainment of forced turbulent fountains. ANZIAM Journal: proceedings of the Computational Techniques and Applications Conference. In: CTAC 2018: 19th Biennial Computational Techniques and Applications Conference, 27-30 November 2018, Newcastle, NSW, Australia

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ResearchOnline@JCU stores 140+ research outputs authored by Prof Wenxian Lin from 2000 onwards.

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

• Sph Modeling of the Physics of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage in Heavy Oil Recovery. (Masters , Secondary Advisor)
• Iron Ore Bulk Ore Moisture Integration as Dust Prevention. (Masters , Secondary Advisor/AM)

Completed

• Instability, coherent structures and turbulent mixing in cross sheared flow in stratified environments (2018, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Conjugate natural convection boundary layers (2018, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Behavior of transitional plane fountains in linearly-stratified environments (2016, PhD , Primary Advisor)
• Heat and mass transfer mechanisms in a wet scrubber (2020, PhD , Secondary Advisor/AM)
• Intrusion, wall fountain and stratification of homogeneous fluid in confined space filling with fountains (2019, PhD , Primary Advisor/AM/Adv)

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.