Jane Davidson

Professor, Mechanical Engineering

Mechanical Engineering
Room 3101E
111 Church Street SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Director, Solar Energy Laboratory

Biographical Info

Research & Teaching

Research Interests

Harvesting and storing the earth’s most abundant energy source for use in our homes, workplaces and automobiles are the core values of my research.
Heat water, to warm and cool buildings, and to provide heat for industry and agriculture focuses on improving the thermal behavior of these systems.
Development of new materials to reduce cost and to provide long-term storage for cold climates.
“Reenergize” CO2 and H2O back into hydrocarbon form using solar energy as the heat source to drive chemical reactions.
Creating clean alternative fuels using concentrated sunshine, waste water and carbon dioxide or biomass.

Publications & Awards

American Solar Energy Society Charles Greeley Abbot Award.
Yellott and Frank Kreith Energy Awards.
University of Minnesota Distinguished Women Scholar Award in Science and Engineering

Hathaway, B.J. and Davidson, J.H., “Demonstration of a Prototype Molten Salt Solar Gasification Reactor,” Solar Energy, 142, 224-230, 2017.
Sedler, Thomas R. Chase, and Jane H. Davidson. Mechanical Properties of Gelcast Cerium Dioxide From 23 to 1500 °C. J. of Engineering Materials and Technology,139(1):011008, 2017.
Su, Y., Ng, T., and Davidson, J.H., “A Parallel Non-Dimensional Lattice Boltzmann Method for Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer with Solid-Liquid Phase Change” International J. of Heat and Mass Transfer, 106, 503–517, 2017.
Sedler, S.J., Chase, T.R., and Davidson, J.H., “Modeling the Elastic Properties of Reticulated Porous Ceramics”, J. of Engineering Materials and Technology, 139(1), 011011 (10 pages), 2017.
Su, Yan, Ng, T., Zhang, Y. and Davidson, J.H., “Three dimensional thermal diffusion in anisotropic heterogeneous structures simulated by a non-dimensional lattice Boltzmann method with a controllable structure generation scheme based on discrete Gaussian quadrature space and velocity”, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 108, 386–401, 2017.