Justin Poland, Ph.D.

Associate Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering

poland@maine.edu

Justin Poland, Ph.D.

Position/Title
Associate Professor Emeritus of Mechanical Engineering

Education

PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Colorado, 1979

External Engagements:

  • Consultant, Maine Department of Transportation – design and construction of a solar preheated ventilation air system, 1981
  • Faculty Research Fellow, USAF Arnold Engineering Development Center, 1985

Teaching Areas:

Mechanical Engineering:

  • MEE 562 Advanced Fluid Mechanics
  • MEE 433 Solar-Thermal Engineering
  • MEE 434 Thermodynamic Design of Engines
  • MEE 442 Mechanical Laboratory II
  • MEE 443 Mechanical Laboratory III
  • MEE 486 Refrigeration and Air Conditioning System Design

Research Areas:

Energy conservation in buildings, Collection and use of solar energy, HVAC and refrigeration systems.

Dr. Poland teaches junior/senior level required courses in mechanical laboratory experimentation, design projects and technical elective courses in thermodynamics and heat transfer applied to heating and cooling of buildings, solar energy systems and combustion engines. He also teaches graduate level courses in viscous fluid mechanics and advanced thermodynamics (applied to combustion). The technical courses he offers includes:

  • Refrigeration and Air-conditioning System Design
  • Solar-Thermal Engineering
  • Thermodynamic Design of Engines

His research interests are in numerically modeling energy saving techniques for buildings, appliances, and machines. Recent work has focused on performance of phase-change-material wallboard and performance of thin ice banks as refrigerant condenser or evaporator.

  • Solar energy systems for thermal heating – building ventilation air, cooking food
  • Thermodynamics of re-vaporization of condensed moisture in two-dimensional, supersonic wind tunnel testing
  • Heat transfer in double-glazed windows with baffles between the glazings
  • Influence of phase-change material (PCM) wallboard on heat load to air conditioned spaces with insulated wood stud-wall and insulated wood joist ceiling construction

Principal Sponsors:

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • McNair Scholars Program of the University of Maine’s College of Education

Select Research / Collaboration Activities:

  • Influence of phase-change material embedded in gypsum wallboard on heat load on air-conditioned space through multilayered building envelopes. Undergraduate McNair Scholars – Maximo Torres summer 1993, and Leonel Arellano, summer 1994

Select Publications / Conference Presentations:

  • “A Microcomputer Enables Highly Automated Performance Testing and Data Processing of New Technology Household Refrigerators,” Proceedings of the Third National Conference on Microcomputer Applications in Energy, Tucson, AZ, November 1-3, 1988.
  • “Interaction between Radiation and Natural Convection Heat Transfer in Horizontally Baffled Enclosures,” Proceedings of the 1986 International Congress on Renewable Energy Sources, Madrid, Spain, May 18-23, 1986, pp. 1484-1497.
  • “The Influence of Condensed Water Re-vaporization on Wind Tunnel Test Results,” Final Report for USAF/UES 1985 Summer Faculty Research Program at Arnold Engineering Development Center, Tullahoma, Tennessee.
  • “Solar Preheated Ventilation Air: A Retrofitted Active Passive System,” Solar Engineering 1983 Proceedings of ASME Solar Energy Division Fifth Annual Conference, Orlando, FL, April 18-21, 1983, pp. 128-136.
  • “Optical and Thermal Analysis for Double-Exposure Concentrating Collector Geometries” (with S. Large) Solar Engineering 1983 Proceedings of ASME Solar Energy Division Fifth Annual Conference, Orlando, FL, April 18-21, 1983, pp. 414-419.

Professional Activities / Memberships:

  • ASHRAE (Member)
  • ASME (Life Member)