Dr Zhengbiao Peng

Dr Peng was awarded his PhD from Southeast University in China. Upon completing PhD, Dr Peng commenced his research career as a full-time researcher in the School of Engineering at The University of Newcastle.

Dr Peng’s main research strength and expertise lies in flow hydrodynamics and process thermodynamics of multiphase systems that involve solid, liquid and gas phases, which have been central to many Australian key industries, particularly the minerals, energy, water, food, and pharmaceutical industries. His research ranges from fundamental studies of physics, through applied investigations, to the development of new technologies using advanced experimental, numerical, and theoretical approaches.

Dr Peng's most significant contributions to the field have been a series of fundamental studies that have significantly deepened the understanding of the physics underlying processes involving solid particles, liquid droplets and gas bubbles, especially complex physical/chemical interactions between particles and fluid phases. Dr Peng has programmed the in-house codes of most popular / powerful numerical models (CFD/LBM/VOF/DNS/DEM) for modelling a wide range of chemical engineering processes. He has published new theories, critical experimental evidence and novel models/algorithms, which have addressed scientific challenging problems in the field of multiphase flow and processes. Peng's work had also delivered direct solutions to challenging problems in industry, such as effective mitigation strategies for various explosion scenarios in underground mines, detonation and flame arresting properties of reverse thermal oxidizer devices, optimisation of large-scale oil/water separators (with capacities up to 100L/s), identification of lower explosive limit in molybdenum plants, etc.

His recent research performance / achievements were recognised by the prestigious Excellence Award for Outstanding Research at UoN (2020). Dr Peng's high international standing and reputation may also be attested by his contributions to the profession: regular referee of world-top discipline journals, editorial board member of discipline SCI journals, invited assessor for highly competitive research grants (ARC and NISDRG), and invited seminar speaker in top universities.

Currently, Dr Peng is the chief investigator along with A/Prof Elham Doroodchi and Prof Behdad Moghtaderi on an ARC Discovery project (DP200102605), "Bubble dynamics in fine droplets: behaviour and control", and with Prof Moghtaderi on several industry funded research projects mostly relating to mine safety and greenhouse gases abatement. Dr Peng strives to achieve excellence in research and make contributions to the engineering profession and to the community at large.