The Department of Power Machinery and Engineering in School of Energy Science and Engineering is a combination of thermal power and internal combustion engine power, which is a branch of former Thermal Power and Power Engineering of Central South University. It undertakes the courses of undergraduates basic courses including "engineering fluid mechanics", the power plant based power professional courses including "boiler principle", "steam turbine principle", "thermal power plant", and "energy and environment", the internal combustion engine based power professional courses including "internal combustion engine principle", "internal combustion engine design", "internal combustion engine combustion and emission", "internal combustion engine control technology", "automobile structure", and "gas turbine and its application", and postgraduates basic courses including "viscous fluid mechanics", "boiler monograph", "modern internal combustion engine technology", "advanced engineering fluid mechanics" and "advanced combustion". Among them, "energy and environment" has been listed as a national excellent video course, "viscous fluid mechanics" has been listed as a university-level excellent course, and "engineering fluid mechanics" has been listed as one of the first batch of "open excellent demonstration classroom" construction courses in Central South University, in 2020, which was also rated as the first-class offline undergraduate course in Hunan Province.

There are 3 professors, 5 associate professors and 3 lecturers in the department, including one New Century Talent from the Ministry of Education and one Young Backbone Teacher from Hunan Province. The department has presided over more than 50 projects including National Science and Technology Support Program, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Science and Technology Program of the Military Commission, Science and Technology Program of Hunan Province, and school-enterprise cooperation projects. The research achievements include 1 second prize of National Science and Technology Progress and 4 first prize of Provincial and Ministerial Science and Technology Progress. More than 500 papers has been published on high-level academic journals at home and abroad and more than 40 invention patents have been authorized.

At present, the department mainly carries out basic research and high-level talent training in the following areas:

1. Advanced thermal cycle theory and system optimization

2. Advanced combustion and emission control technology of internal combustion engine

3. New power technology

4. New waste heat power generation system and technology

5. Numerical simulation and optimization of non-ferrous metallurgical process and equipment