Department of Engineering
Trumpington Street
Cambridge CB2 1PZ
Websites:
Biography:
John Young is the Hopkinson and ICI Professor of Applied Thermodynamics and a Professorial Fellow of King's College.
He read Engineering Science at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1966-69 and obtained his Ph.D from Birmingham University in 1973. In 1976 he joined the Cambridge University Engineering Department and worked at the Whittle Turbomachinery Laboratory in West Cambridge until 1999 when he moved to the Hopkinson Laboratory on the main site.
Departments and Institutes
Research Interests
John Young's research expertise is in thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. After his Ph.D. he worked for many years on two-phase flows in steam turbines, a strikingly diverse subject that stimulated his interest in other fields such as turbulent particle transport and deposition, homogeneous nucleation and chemical vapour deposition. He also works on the thermodynamics of power generation cycles (including the cooling of gas turbine blades) and the modelling of solid oxide fuel cell systems. Although most of this work is connected in some way to the power generation industry, he is particularly interested in fundamental problems which have a broader range of application.
His research projects vary from analytical theoretical work to multi-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for specific applications. Although he has also dabbled with complementary experimental work, he could hardly be described as an experimentalist. The following links provide short descriptions of his research work in various areas with research students, research associates and other collaborators, together with details of relevant publications
Key Publications
- Non-equilibrium thermofluid dynamics of two-phase flows with phase change.
- Wet-steam turbines (non-equilibrium CFD methods, wetness losses, etc).
- Jet engine performance degradation due to droplet nucleation and water ingestion.
- Homogeneous nucleation and the microscopic theory of droplet growth.
- Thermodynamic analysis of advanced power generation plant.
- Corrosive salt vapour deposition in coal-fired gas turbines.
- Transport and deposition of small particles in turbulent flows.
- Modelling of solid oxide fuel cells.