Rate My Professor Kenneth Williams

Professor Kenneth Williams is a Professor and Research Director in the Centre for Bulk Solids and Particulate Technologies, School of Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He holds a PhD in Mechanical Engineering, a Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) with Honours, and a Diploma in Aviation Science, all awarded by the University of Newcastle. His career progression at the University includes serving as Research Associate from 2005 to 2009, Senior Research Associate from 2010 to 2014, Associate Professor from 2015 to 2020, and Professor in his current role. Williams lectures the Mech3130 – Bulk Materials Handling course, achieving consistently high student feedback scores typically 4.5 or greater out of 5. He has been honoured with the 2016 Excellence in Innovation Award from Newcastle Innovation, the Best Paper award at the Iron Ore 2016 conference in 2015, and international appointments as Visiting Professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, and Tsinghua University, China, recognizing his expertise in bulk material handling and transfer chute research and design.

His research focuses on dynamics of aerated flows within pneumatic conveying systems, dynamic moisture migration retention, handleability of wet and sticky material, materials handling challenges associated with biomass feedstock, bulk materials handling, pneumatic conveying, transportable moisture limits, moisture migration in bulk materials, grain handling, bulk material stress and wall loads, dynamic motion analysis of bulk cargoes, biomass, agriculture, mineral processing/beneficiation, maritime transportation and freight services, numerical modelling and mechanical characterisation. Select key publications include the book Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Discrete Element Methods (2017); book chapters Conveying and Construction Machinery (2021), Applications of Numerical Modeling in Pneumatic Conveying (2016), and Investigation of energy consumption and wear in bypass pneumatic conveying of alumina (2014); and journal articles such as Experimental Determination of the Thermal Diffusivity of Granular Materials Allowing for Convective Heat Transfer (2026), Experimental analysis on flow characteristics of particulate materials conveyed by airslides (2024), Predictive modelling approach for cottonseed plug velocity applying a circuit theory analogy (2023), Investigating the Relationship between the Time Constant Ratio and Plug-Flow Behaviour in the Pneumatic Conveyance of Biomass Material (2023), and An experimental investigation on plug formation using fuzzy cottonseeds (2022).