We mourn the loss of our colleague and friend, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Robert Stieglitz, who passed away unexpectedly. The Institute of Thermal Energy Technology and Safety (ITES) can look back on a long journey together with Robert Stieglitz, which began back in January 1991 when he joined the Institute, then still called the "Institute of Applied Thermo- and Fluid Dynamics", where he completed his doctorate in 1994 with a thesis on "Magnetohydrodynamic flows in single- and multi-channel deflections". Robert was a thoroughly creative engineer and passionate scientist. He had pursued his path with diligence, dedication and unwavering determination.

MHD

The article "Numerical and experimental analysis of magneto-convective flows around pipes" was published in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design. 

Detail: Liquid metals play an important role as breeding material and coolant for applications in future fusion power plants. The article examines the influence of thermoelectric effects on measurements of the electrical potential distribution in magneto-convective flows.

In the International Journal of Multiphase Flow the article "Subcooled forced convection boiling flow measured using high-resolution techniques at the COSMOS-L facility and accompanying CFD simulation employing an interface-tracking scheme" by F. Kaiser; Y. Sato and St. Gabriel was published.

At the DVGW event on 12 and 13 March, DVGW Kongress GmbH: Wasser, which will deal intensively with the topic of "Resilience and security of supply in the public water supply", Dr. S. S. Ottenburger (Head of the RESIS department) will give a presentation entitled "More resilience through the use of digital twins". Against the background of emerging challenges and new risks for the water supply in an era of transformation and climate change, the key role of digital twins will be explained: A targeted use of digital twins makes it possible to identify sustainable measures to increase the resilience of water supply systems.

KALLA

The EU project RISEnergy (Research Infrastructure Services for Renewable Energy) starts on 1 March 2024. As part of the project, 84 renewable energy technology infrastructures will be available for use by European and non-European researchers.  These include the Karlsruhe Liquid Metal Laboratory, which is researching on high-temperature heat storage systems.

MHD

The article "Geometric optimization of electrically coupled liquid metal manifolds for WCLL blankets" by Leo Bühler and Chiara Mistrangelo was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science.

Details: Liquid metals play an important role as breeding material and coolant for applications in future fusion power plants. In the article, electrically coupled magnetohydrodynamic flows in the manifolds of a water-cooled test blanket for ITER are investigated and their geometry is optimized so that all breeder units are uniformly flowed through.

MHD

The article "MHD flows in curved pipes under a non-uniform magnetic field" by Chiara Mistrangelo and Leo Bühler was published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science.

Detail: Liquid metals play an important role as breeding material and coolant for applications in future fusion power plants. The article investigates flows of liquid metals in double elbows, such as those planned in the shield block behind the water-cooled test blanket in ITER. Remarkable are high velocities in thin internal shear layers around a slow flow core.

The article "Liquid metal MHD research at KIT: Fundamental phenomena and flows in complex blanket geometries" was published in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design.

Detail: Liquid metals play an important role as breeding material and coolant for applications in future fusion power plants. The article gives an overview of a broad spectrum of magnetohydrodynamic investigations at ITES in the field of fundamental research and for applications in the relevant parameter range in fusion blankets.

KALLA

When storing heat with liquid metals at temperatures above 600 °C, one of the challenges is to develop compatible materials and components. We are therefore currently setting up a new test bench for testing components in high-temperature liquid metal. This work is part of the BMWK-funded LIMELISA project in collaboration with DLR and KSB. The paper summarizes the design of this circuit.

RESIS

The RESIS department held a transfer workshop titled "Resilience & Sustainability - AI-based Early Warning Systems for Dam Safety" at Tbilisi State University in Georgia from September 25-27.

This event focused on the presentation of an early warning system demonstrator based on a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between water levels, meteorological data and seismicity. This system enables robust predictions regarding the deformation of dams. Significant results were achieved within the framework of the DAMAST project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Against the background of the increasing occurrence of extreme precipitation events and the growing importance of dams, this innovative approach provides a solid basis for research and the development of pioneering early warning systems.

KALLA

Klarissa Niedermeier, Franziska Müller-Trefzer and Thomas Wetzel won the „best poster award“ at the Heat Powered Cycles Conference 2023, 3.-6. September 2023, in Edinburgh, on their work on “Liquid Metals as Heat Transfer Fluids for High-Temperature Heat Storage”.

H2

The H2 department will give the following 3 presentations at the "International Conference on Hydrogen Safety" in Québec in September:

- Experimental investigation of hydrogen-air flame propagation in fire extinguishing foam
- Liquid hydogen evaporation above four different substrates
- Modelling the non-adiabatic blowdown of pressurised cryogenic hydrogen storage tank

The head of the H2 department is Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Jordan.

More information can be found on the department page.

At the IHK- Workshop "From research to practice: process heat and sector coupling for companies" (2023) at the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT) in Pfinztal on June 22, 2023, Dr. Dietmar Kuhn /ITES and Dr. Joachim Fuchs /INR gave the presentation "Utilization of waste heat in industry" to an interested audience.

The urban supply of goods and energy in the future

Ralf Caspary talks to Dr. Sadeeb Simon Ottenburger in Science Talk. He heads the "Resilient and Smart Infrastructure Systems" department at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology.

How can critical infrastructures be made sustainable and resilient? Dr. Sadeeb Simon Ottenburger is researching how potential threats can be averted.

Whether for the supply of electricity or food, consumers rely on secure infrastructures to provide them with goods and services. In this context, increasing digitization enables flexible control of supply systems. However, it also increases the vulnerability to disruptions and attacks.

MHD

The article "Magneto-convective flows around two differentially heated cylinders" by Chiara Mistrangelo, Leo Bühler, Cyril Courtessole, Viktor Klüber and Christina Köhly was published In the journal Heat and Mass Transfer.

Detail: Numerical simulations are used to investigate the liquid metal heat transfer around heated and cooled pipes under the influence of strong magnetic fields. The simulations support an experimental campaign carried out at the MEKKA laboratory of KIT.

Thermohydraulische Analyse einer Salzschmelze-Wärmeübertrager-Konfiguration mit FLUENT-ANSYS

Aufgaben:

Entwicklung von Glatt- und Rippenrohrmodulen in FLUENT-ANSYS mit gegebenem Wärmeübertragungsmaterial und Geometrie

Berechnen Sie die Strömungsgeschwindigkeits- und Temperaturfelder auf der Mantel- und Rohrseite des Wärmetauschers

Bereitstellung von Berechnungsergebnissen für verschiedene Geometrieoptionen

Modelling & Simulation of temperature and pressure dependent gas flow behavior in a prechamber of a high temperature liquid metal bubble column reactor. 

Task description: The results must be clearly presented in a final report and presented and discussed in a lecture after submission of the thesis as part of the Thermal Process Engineering seminar.

„Computational fluid dynamics with OpenFOAM“

The format of the course allows a very flexible participation!

The course consists of four parts, each extending over two days. During day1, participants receive videos of the lectures, slides, and do the proposed exercises. During day2, teachers are available at any time for a one-to-one discussion via Zoom meeting to solve issues related to exercises and answer questions. The course will be held in English.
Objective: The purpose of the course is to acquire the knowledge and practical skills necessary to use the software OpenFOAM.

October 2024!