Dr. Zhihui Ye

Co-investigator

Dr Zhihui Ye is a Senior Lecturer and course leader for the HND and HNC Apprenticeship Building Services courses at the School of the Built Environment and Architecture, London South Bank University. Zhihui is a building services engineer and obtained a PhD in Building Science. Zhihui has extensive academic and research experience, complemented by industrial experience on a technical basis. Zhihui’s academic and research interests include: energy applications in buildings; the indoor environment; the operational performance of buildings; renewable energies; heat, air and moisture transfer in buildings. As the main researcher, Zhihui has successfully completed two EPSRC funded research projects. Zhihui began her research work by developing a thermal-dual probe to measure the moisture content of building envelopes. The development of the dual-probe and the indication that it can be successfully applied to the measurement of the moisture content of building materials in-situ is significant as it opens up the possibility of using this technique reliably in the field for an application such as monitoring the drying out of a structure post-flood. Due to the significant contribution to the field of moisture transfer analysis, the research outcome won a Carter Bronze Medal by CIBSE. Afterwards, Zhihui went on to monitor environmental conditions such as ambient temperature and relative humidity across London. These data were then used to analyse the heat island phenomenon across the London urban area. The impact of the heat island on the heating load and cooling load of buildings should be considered when designing the HVAC system to achieve thermal comfort for the occupants. Later on, with the collaboration of the building industry, Zhihui measured and monitored the indoor environmental conditions and energy consumption of high-level sustainable, new build homes. Recently, Zhihui has carried out research on the applications of airborne wind energy in the UK.