Dr. Tim Persoons

Dr. ir. Tim Persoons is Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing & Biomedical Engineering at TCD since 2019, where he was Assistant Professor since 2013. He has been a visiting Faculty member in the NSF I/UCRC Cooling Technologies Research Center (CTRC) at Purdue University, West Lafayette IN, USA since 2009, and was Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, KU Leuven, Belgium during 2009-2010. Tim received his Doctorate in Engineering at KU Leuven in 2006 and his MSc in Mechanical Engineering at KU Leuven in 1999. He was awarded an Irish Research Council (IRC) Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2008, an IRC/Marie Curie INSPIRE International Mobility Fellowship in 2010, and Senior Research Fellowship in TCD in 2012. Tim was co-recipient of the 2013 Hartnett-Irvine Award from the International Centre for Heat and Mass Transfer. Dr. Persoons' research activities include multi-scale convective heat transfer in electronics thermal management using unsteady flows, active flow control for sustainable energy technologies, and developing experimental thermal fluid measurement techniques. Tim has authored over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, conference publications, keynote and invited lectures. He is a member of the THERMINIC scientific committee, and he has served in editorial roles for IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging and Manufacturing Technology (2016-present), Experimental Thermal Fluid Science (2020-present) and Journal of Electronic Packaging (2009-2010). He is a member of the Scientific Committees of THERMINIC and EuroTherm, IEEE ITherm Ambassador, and has co-organized several technical-scientific workshops (e.g., THERMINIC-2009, PowerMEMS-2010) and the Workshops on Thermal Management in Telecom Systems and Data Centers (2010, 2012, 2015) in collaboration with CTRC.

  Applied thermodynamics and energy   Fluids and vibration   HEAT TRANSFER   Imaging Techniques   JET IMPINGEMENT HEAT TRANSFER   LASER-DOPPLER VELOCIMETRY   LASERS AND LASER APPLICATIONS   PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY   SIMULTANEOUS VELOCITY AND HEAT FLUX MEASUREMENTS   Thermal Engineering   TRANSIENT AND UNSTEADY HEAT TRANSFER   Vehicle technology   VELOCITY-MEASUREMENT

My research since 2013 has centred on multi-scale convective heat transfer for thermal management of electronics systems. This is underpinned by my expertise in experimental fluid dynamics, developed during my Ph.D. work in KU Leuven and my postdoc career in TCD and Purdue University. The focus on electronics cooling is inspired by (i) the rapidly growing energy use of electronics systems and data centres, (ii) the need to better integrate these with our energy system, e.g., through waste heat recuperation, and (iii) the interdisciplinary R&D effort needed to accomplish this - requiring collaboration between thermal fluid science and electronic engineers, as well as more effective knowledge transfer between industry and academia. Since 2013, I have supervised an active team of an average of 5 PhD students and 2-3 postdoc researchers. A lot of early work went into the fundamentals of heat transfer enhancement with flow unsteadiness (pulsating flow, synthetic jets) and its use in confined geometries, like those in electronics systems. Because of the analogies with aerodynamic flow control, we applied similar techniques to active flow control with applications in renewable power generation. My research has a strong experimental focus requiring high spatial and temporal resolution measurements of flow and thermal quantities using advanced techniques (e.g., particle image velocimetry (PIV), infrared thermography, constant temperature anemometry). Along the way, we developed new and improved measurement techniques (e.g., high dynamic range PIV) and gradually expanded our expertise to include advanced computational modelling and numerical optimisation. My team is now internationally recognised for novel research on data centre thermal management and convective flow control, and is firmly embedded in multiple SFI research collaborations (CONNECT, ESIPP, SSPC) and closely engaged with academic and industry leaders in the field, through my links with CTRC in Purdue and editorial roles in top journals.