Dr John  Fleming

BSc, PhD, CEng, FIMechE, MInstR, ASHRAE

Reader

Research Interests

For a list of publications from 2001, please follow this link. Select 'Browse', 'Author or Creator', Fleming, John Smith http://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/view/depts/11048.html


Machinery condition monitoring:

• vibration and noise analysis
• rotational balance
• continuous on-line monitoring - general use and irregular transients
• vibration and impact tests - BSS/ISO codes and special tests

Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps

• mathematical models of positive displacement compressors
• mathematical models of condensors and evaporators
• mathematical models of systems
• environmentally benign refrigerants, eg. carbon dioxide
• optimisation of system efficiency
• minimisation of environmental impact

Explanation of research; predominantly in two areas:
1. Machinery condition monitoring:
Machinery monitoring equipment suitable for use in a wide variety of sites has to be designed to function adequately in the presence of electromagnetic noise conditions which, at the outset, will be unknown in nature and source. Hence a means of assessing the influence of the electromagnetic environment on various meausring devices is needed.

In addition, portable systems such as those envisaged here have to be versatile to be viable. A wide variety of different physical variables have to be measured at a wide range of sampling rates, truly and without ambiguity.

The aim is to develop systems capable of traditional on-site activities such as diagnostic vibration and noise analysis, rotational balance etc, in addition to more specialised applications such as continuous monitoring in real time which, with archiving of data, requires very large memory stores. A special data compression technique is under development which reduces, by several orders of magnitude, the memory size needed. Simultaneously the need for low pass filtering is eliminated, thus high frequency harmonics which may appear in irregularly occurring events are retained.

2. Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pumps: which are benign in their environmental effects. Systems which make use of natural working fluids such as carbon dioxide and ammonia are under development in collaboration with a local industrial designer/contractor to meet current demands and likely future legislation.


Professional Activities

• IMechE: Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers
• Chartered Engineer
• IoR:
• Member of the Institute of Refrigeration
• Institute of Refrigeration Prize Winner of the Kooltech Award in 1998 for "an outstanding contribution to the Scottish refrigeration industry".
• The International Institute of Refrigeration
• Vice-President (Europe) of Commission B2, Refrigeration Machinery, appointed 2003

Consultancies
• Chalmit Lighting 2001, 2002, 2003
• Stewart-Buchanan Gauges Ltd 2001, 2002
• Linn Products Ltd 2002

Collaborations


• Pontifical Catholic University of Rio, Brazil
• Technical University of Dresden joint EU application for work on CO2 Systems

Prizes and Awards


The Kooltech Award in 1998, presented by the Institute of Refrigeration for "an outstanding contribution to the Scottish refrigeration industry"