Professor Hua Zhao
Pro Vice Chancellor Research

Research area(s)

• Advanced Spark Igniton engines: DI gasoline engine, CAI/HCCI combustion engine, Alcohol fuelled SI/CAI engines, boosted downsized gasoline engine, 2-stroke/4-stroke switchable gasoline engine, 2-stroke SI/CAI combustion engines, high efficiency gasoline engines for hybrid applications, variable valve actuation(VVT, CPS, mechanical VVL, and camless system, Miller cycle/Atkinson Cycle,  water injection.
• Ethanol-diesel high efficiency and low emission dual fuel combustion engines
• Gas-diesel dual fuel combustion engines
• Methanol-diesel dual fuel engines
• H2-diesel, NH3-diesel dual fuel engines
• H2/NH3 light duty and heavy duty engine
• Pre-chamber ignition combustion  engines
• Non-thermal Plasma ignition  and combustion
• uniflow 2-stroke engines 
• Advanced CI engines: combustion chamber design and optimization, fuel injection system and spray characterization, bio-fuel diesel engine combustion and emissions, HCCI diesel combustion, low temperature diluted diesel combustion technologies
• Hybrid powertrain: patented cost-effective air hybrid technologies for light duty and commercial vehicle applications, life-cycle analysis of electric and hybrid vehicles.
• In-cylinder optical diagnostics: in-cylinder flow measurements by LDA and PIV; in-cylinder mixture composition and combustion species detection by LIF; simultaneous fuel vapour and liquid measurements in the DI gasoline engine and CR diesel engine by LIEF; multi-species measurement by SRS; in-cylinder soot and combustion temperature measurements by LII and high speed two-colour method; gas temperature measurements by LIF and LIP
• Engine simulation: development and application of 1-D (GT-Power, WAVE) and 3-D engine simulation(customized KIVA3v, star-CD)

Research Interests

 Research Leadership

Professor Zhao has published over 400 papers and 6 books on IC engines and laser diagnostics in combustion engines. He has successfully supervised over 40 PhD and postdoctoral researchers. His research covers both spark ignition and compression ignition engines and their fuels. Over the last two decades, he has carried out collaborative research and development projects with a number of international companies in Europe and China and chaired many international conferences.  

Project details

Selection of Recent Grants