Professor (Personal
Chair): Mechanical Engineering
Associate Dean Postgraduate (Research):
Faculty of Engineering
Director: Energy
and Fuels Research Unit (EFRU)
Head:
Thermodynamic
Laboratory
Head:
Thermo-Fluids
Teaching Group
Member: Post Graduate and International Committees of the
Faculty
Member:
Board of Graduate Studies
Dr Bansal started his research
career in the area of Solar Thermal Engineering and obtained his PhD degree
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (India). In this field, he
co-authored three monographs (one on Solar Passive Buildings and two on
Solar Crop Drying) and numerous articles. In 1985, he moved to Australian
National University (ANU) to work on Solar Thermal Power Generation.
In 1988, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the
University of Auckland, where he has served as a lecturer, senior lecturer,
associate professor and now a Professor.
At Auckland, he has focused his
research interests on Energy Efficiency. His current research deals
with innovation through design, modelling, experimentation, development and
optimisation of refrigeration systems including domestic
refrigerator/freezers, heat pumps, liquid chillers and supermarket
refrigeration systems. In the process, he has established strong linkages
with industry in the Asia-Pacific region and active research collaboration
with academic institutions internationally.
Boiling/condensation heat transfer
of CO2 refrigerant at low temperatures
Next generation household white ware appliances
Energy efficiency in large industries e.g. breweries,
hospitals, supermarkets
Innovative refrigeration systems: Cascaded and secondary
loop systems
Modelling and part load performance of in-situ
chillers, and supermarkets
Modelling of heat exchangers
Liquid desiccant systems for drying and thermal
comfort
Neural networks and physical models of refrigeration
systems
Energy efficient refrigerators and clothes tumbler
dryers
Heat recovery systems, including combined cycle and
cogeneration systems
Plenary /Key Note Speaker at
the following conferences-
1.
“Development and Progress of CO2
in Low Temperature Refrigeration Systems”,
2nd
International Conference on Saving Energy in Refrigeration and
Air-Conditioning, Bali, Indonesia (http://qir.eng.ui.ac.id/index.php/qir/submenu/6), July 4-7, 2011.
2.
“Energy
Efficiency and Sustainability: A Vision for the Future”, International Conference on ‘Clean
Energy Technologies and Energy Efficiency for Sustainable Development
(ENERSTATE)’, Dehradun, India,
Dec 27-29, 2010.
3.
“Status of CO2 as a mainstream low
temperature refrigerant: Fundamentals, trends and opportunities”, 13th Brazilian
Congress of Thermal Sciences and Engineering Conference,
Uberlandia, Brazil,
http://www.abcm.org.br/encit2010/,
December 5 - 10, 2010,
4.
“Fundamentals of modelling a two-phase
heat exchanger- an industrial perspective”, 7th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid
Mechanics and Thermodynamics,
Antalya, Turkey, http://hefat.net/info/keynote/, 19-21 July 2010,
5.
“Small heat exchangers for small thermal systems:
A modelling perspective”, International
workshop on advances in small scale heat exchangers & fuel cell thermal
management for process: IT and Energy Industries, IIT Delhi, India, January 11-12, 2010,
6.
“CO2 as
a low temperature refrigerant: Fundamentals and Applications”, 4th International Conference
on Cooling and Heating Technologies, Jinhae
City, Korea,
Oct 28-31, 2008,
7.
"Refrigeration Technology - 100 years from
now!", Annual Conference of Cold
storage Association of New Zealand, Wellington, Oct 14, 2008,
8.
“Emergence of CO2 refrigerant for low
temperature refrigeration systems”, International Conference ACRECONF 2007 (http://www.acreconf.org/)
on “Challenges to
Sustainability” in Air
Conditioning and Refrigeration, Delhi, India, Dec 7-8, 2007,
9.
“Flow boiling heat transfer of CO2 at low
temperatures – Challenges and Opportunities”, 5th
ASME International Conference on Nanochannels, Microchannels and Minichannels,
Puebla, Mexico, June
18-20, 2007, (http://www.asmeconferences.org/ICNMM07/KeynoteSpeakers.cfm),
10.
“Energy efficiency test standards for household
refrigerators”, APEC symposium on “Domestic refrigerators/freezers”,
Wellington, New
Zealand, March 6-8, 2000, and
11.
“Practical resulting from having different energy
performance test standards for domestic refrigerators”, Invited Speaker at United Nations' sponsored
CLASP Conference on “Energy Efficiency Test Standards and Labelling”, Thailand,
May 29-31, 2001.
Editorial Activities: Associate Editor of Heat Transfer Engineering Journal (http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/tf/01457632.html), Editorial
Board Member of (a) “Journal of
Process Mechanical Engineering (of IMechE, UK)” since 2001, (b) International Journal of Low Carbon Technologies (http://www.ijlct.oxfordjournals.org/)
since 2008, and a referee for over twenty five Journals.
Guest Editor of a special issue on (i) “Advances in Heat Transfer Engineering” in Journal of Heat Transfer
Engineering, 31(12), 2010, and (ii) “Refrigeration” of Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering, 219
(E2), May 2005
ASHRAE Activities: Member ASHRAE
Research Administration Committee
during 2011 – 15, Refrigeration
Committee-
2010-12; Handbook Committee- 2007-09, Chairman of ASHRAE Technical Committee TC10.4 on
“'Ultra-low temperature refrigeration and Cryogenics”- 2008-11, Chairman of TC8.9 on “Domestic
refrigerators/freezers”- 2005-08 (Vice Chairman during
2004-06 and past
Chairman of its handbook sub-committee
to revise its Chapter on ‘domestic refrigerators/freezers’ for ASHRAE
Handbook of Refrigeration 2006);
and International Member of Technical Committees TC8.2, TC8.8, TC10.7
and 10.10 on ‘Centrifugal Chillers’, ‘Commercial food, Beverage display and
storage’, ‘Refrigerant system control and accessories’ and ‘Management of
lubricant in circulation’ respectively.
Fellow of ASHRAE,
and IRHACE (Institute of
Refrigerating, Heating and Air-conditioning Engineers NZ).
Distinguished Service Award by ASHRAE in 2006.
Host and Co-Chairman: of two
international conferences (PaRTSEE
2005 and IIR-IRHACE 2006) held at the
University of Auckland during 2005-06.
IIR
Activities: Vice
President, Commission B1 on Thermodynamics and mass transfer processes.
