Dr Thomas Confrey

BEng(Hons) PhD

Assistant Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, Member of EngCORE.

C255, Department of AME, Carlow Campus
e: thomas.confrey@setu.ie      t: 059 9175420
ORCID ID: 0000-0001-6532-141X

 
  • Research Interests
  • Publications
  • Research Supervision
  • Engagement and Collaboration

Research Experience

  • R&D engineer in Multiphysics simulation at the European Technovation centre of AGC Mitsubishi based in Charleroi, Belgium.
  • Researcher in computational fluid dynamics (CFD) for Energy and Buildings applications at private research centre Cenaero in Belgium.
  • Postdoctoral researcher in solar energy on FP7 European project EPHOCELL at Dublin Energy Lab, Dublin Institute of Technology.
  • Research assistant at Stokes Institute providing applied R&D thermal fluids solutions to industrial partners in the European aeronautics sector.
  • PhD scholar under Irish Research Council enterprise partnership scheme in collaboration with Airbus investigating heat transfer in aircraft fuel tanks.
Applied R&D Skills
  • Thermal analysis
  • CFD and FEA simulation
  • Instrumentation and Measurement
Research Interests
  • Renewable Energy
  • Smart Efficient Environments
  • Aerospace Technology

Publications

Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Baeten, B., Confrey, T., Pecceu, S., Rogiers, F. and Helsen, L. (2016). A validated model for mixed buoyancy in stratified hot water storage tanks for use in building energy simulations. Applied Energy, 172, pp.201–229.

Confrey, T., Egan, V., Newport, D. and Lacarac, V. (2013). Transient natural convection in a conducting enclosure heated from above. Journal of Visualization, 16(1), pp.1–4.

Ahmed, H., Walsh, J., Kennedy, M., Confrey, T., Doran, J. and McCormack, S.J. (2013). Enhancement in solar cell efficiency by luminescent down-shifting layers. Advances in Building Energy Research, 1(2), pp.117–126.

Conference Proceedings and Papers

Ahmed, H., Kennedy, M., Confrey, T., Doran, J., McCormack, S.J., Norton, B., Della Pirriera, M., Gutierrez Tauste, D., Bosch Jimenez, P. and Aubouy, L. (2013). High transmission luminescent solar concentrators for building applications. In: 28th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition. EU PVSEC. Paris, France.

Ahmed, H., Kennedy, M., Confrey, T., Doran, J., McCormack, S.J., Galindo, S., Voz, C. and Puigdollers, J. (2012). Lumogen violet dye as luminescent down shifting layers for c-Si solar cells. In: 27th European PV Solar Energy Conference and Exhibition. EU PVSEC. Messe Frankfurt, Germany.

Confrey, T., Newport, D., Egan, V. and Lacarac, V. (2009). An investigation into the effect of thermal boundary conditions on transient natural convection. In: 7th World Conference on Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics. ExHFT7. Krakow, Poland.

Newport, D., Confrey, T., Egan, V. and Lacarac, V. (2008). Measurement of transient natural convection in aircraft wing compartments. In: ASME-JSME Summer Heat Transfer Conference. Jacksonville, Florida, USA.

Dissertations

Confrey, T. (2012). An investigation of transient natural convection in aircraft wing box compartments [unpublished]. Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering, Limerick, Ireland: University of Limerick.

Confrey, T. (2006). CFD analysis of a solar thermal collector [unpublished]. BEng (Hons) dissertation, School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Glasnevin, Dublin 9: Dublin City University.

Workshops

Confrey, T., Ahmed, H., Kennedy, M. and Doran, J. (2012). Outdoor characterisation of solar cells on the roof top of Dublin Institute of Technology. In: 3rd Generation PV Cells. European PV Cluster 3 Meeting. Leitat Technological Center, Terrasa, Barcelona, Spain.

Newport, D., Confrey, T., Egan, V., Moore, D. and Lacarac, V. (2008). Experiments and simulations of natural convection in aircraft compartments. In: Natural and Mixed Convection Seminar. Airbus, St. Martin Site, Toulouse, France.

Research Supervision

I am currently developing research projects at both Masters and PhD level across a number of different subjects and sectors. Please do not hesitate to contact me to brainstorm the development of any ideas relevant to the research areas below:

Discipline

Application

Mechanical

Cooling Systems, Heat Exchanger design, Heat recovery and storage

Smart Cities

Study of urban air flows around buildings and pollution concentration using 3D printed prototypes based on GIS system topologies

Electronics

Electric Vehicles Power Thermal Management

Energy

Wind turbine blade design, Internal air flows in buildings, Fire Safety

Aerospace

Winglet analysis, Aircraft wing optimisation

Sports

Analysis of sports equipment e.g. sliothars, golf balls, cycling helmets

Environment

Wind farm location assessment, national or international

Engagement and Collaboration