Josiah D. Knight, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Please note: Josiah has left the "Energy & the Environment Certificate" group at Duke University; some info here might not be up to date.

Josiah Knight, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, is Co-Director of the Energy and Environment Certificate, a program that prepares students to confront complex problems in providing safe, clean, reliable and affordable energy. The curriculum brings together students from arts and sciences as well as engineering in a series of courses spanning natural science, social science and technology, culminating in a capstone course in which multidisciplinary teams design, build, test and evaluate energy system prototypes. In the process, students learn to communicate across a spectrum of backgrounds and interests, as they must do to address energy problems in the larger world.

Knight's current research interests are in solar thermal energy and alternate propulsion methods for ground transportation. Solar thermal energy, in addition to direct uses for space, water and industrial heating, has been shown to be an efficient means of electricity generation. Much progress has been made in recent years on fault-tolerant solar thermal collectors, and integration of such systems with distributed power generation is a promising path toward low-carbon electricity.

Alternatives to the gasoline and diesel internal combustion engine have potential to expand the range of fuels that can be efficiently used for transportation and stationary power. A major issue in the development of biofuels for ICEs is that much of the heating value of the biomass is consumed in transforming the solids to liquid fuels. Burning solid biomass directly delivers greater net energy, but must be done in external combustion. Activity in this area is presently focused on optimizing performance of external combustion engines by using adaptive intake and exhaust porting and closed-loop valve control. The area is rich in both applied and basic questions that couple thermodynamics and electro-mechanical dynamics in nonlinear regimes.

Contact Info:

Office Location:	175 Hudson Hall, Box 90300, Durham, NC 27708
Office Phone:	(919) 660-5337
Email Address:

Teaching (Spring 2024):

• ME 331L.001, THERMODYNAMICS Synopsis

  126, WF 11:45 AM-01:00 PM

• ME 331L.01L, THERMODYNAMICS Synopsis

  132, Th 03:05 PM-05:35 PM

• ENERGY 396T.11, BASS CONNECTIONS ENERGY & ENV Synopsis

  Hudson 208, M 04:55 PM-07:25 PM

• EGR 424L.001, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT DESIGN Synopsis

  Hudson 208, M 04:55 PM-07:25 PM

• EGR 424L.01L, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT DESIGN Synopsis

  Hudson 212, F 08:30 AM-09:45 AM

• EGR 424L.02L, ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT DESIGN Synopsis

  TBA, Tu 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

• ME 490.02, SPECIAL TOPICS Synopsis

  Hudson 139, MW 08:30 AM-09:45 AM

• ENERGY 796T.11, BASS CONNECTIONS ENERGY & ENV Synopsis

  Hudson 208, M 04:55 PM-07:25 PM

• ME 461.01, ENERGY ENG AND ENVIRONMENT Synopsis

  Hudson 125, TuTh 10:05 AM-11:20 AM

• ME 555.04, ADVANCED TOPICS Synopsis

  TBA, TuTh 01:25 PM-02:40 PM

Education:

Ph.D.	University of Virginia	1986
M.S.	University of Virginia	1982
B.S.	University of Virginia	1980

Specialties:

Lubrication
Fluid Mechanics
Thermodynamics
Alternative Energy
Controls
Vibration
Nonlinear Systems

Research Interests:

Fluid mechanics, thermodynamics, heat transfer, and dynamics

Keywords:

Conservation of Natural Resources • Ecosystem • Energy-Generating Resources • Europe • Trees • United States • Wood

Recent Publications   (More Publications)

1. Plaut, RH; Virgin, LN; Knight, JD, Predicting critical speeds in various rotordynamics problems, Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part C: Journal of Mechanical Engineering Science, vol. 231 no. 21 (November, 2017), pp. 3913-3922, SAGE Publications [doi]  [abs]
2. Knight, JD; Virgin, LN; Plaut, RH, Predicting Critical Speeds in Rotordynamics: A New Method, Journal of Physics: Conference Series, vol. 744 no. 1 (October, 2016), pp. 012155-012155, IOP Publishing [doi]  [abs]
3. Virgin, LN; Knight, JD; Plaut, RH, A New Method for Predicting Critical Speeds in Rotordynamics, Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power, vol. 138 no. 2 (February, 2016), pp. 022504-022504, ASME International, ISSN 0742-4795 [doi]  [abs]
4. Richter, DD; Jenkins, DH; Karakash, JT; Knight, J; McCreery, LR; Nemestothy, KP, Resource policy. Wood energy in America., Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 323 no. 5920 (March, 2009), pp. 1432-1433, AAAS [19286539], [doi]
5. Richter, DDBJ; Jenkins, DH; Karakash, JT; Knight, J; Mccreery, LR; Nemestothy, KP, Wood Energy: The Dangers of Combustion Response, Science (New York, N.Y.), vol. 324 no. 5933 (2009), pp. 1390-1391, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ISSN 0036-8075 [doi]