From June 13 to 14, 2024, our students visited Siemens Energy in Berlin. The visit began with a comprehensive safety briefing, emphasizing the importance of protocols and safety within the facility.On the first day, the students participated in a demonstration at the energy landscape lab, where they interactively explored various energy scenarios. One of the highlights was a guided tour of the production facilities, offering a firsthand look at the manufacturing processes. Discussions with Siemens Energy experts provided valuable insights into the technical and operational challenges faced by the company, as well as a glimpse into career opportunities and personal experiences of employees.

The second day was spent at the service training center, focusing on hands-on learning. Activities included removing blades, installing combustion chamber stones, and hydraulically tightening screws. Observing a rotating rotor (below turning gear) and examining and deconstructing a gas turbine using AR were especially memorable parts of the visit. 

We are grateful to Siemens Energy for their warm welcome and the valuable learning experience provided. Special thanks to the Förderverein der Ingenieurwissenschaften for supporting our students' excursion and offering them a professional work environment.

On May 21, 2024, our chair organized an informative day at Siemens Energy. Under the guidance of Dr. Schuster, students had the opportunity to explore modern manufacturing techniques and the production process of key components of a turbo compressor.

The practical demonstration of the complete testing process of the machines and the deep dive into the experimental work during the development phase were particularly interesting. The day ended with an open discussion round where students also learned about career opportunities at Siemens Energy.

A big thank you to everyone involved and to Siemens Energy for the fantastic support!

Our chair organized an excursion to the wind energy test field in Grevenbroich this Tuesday. Windtest Grevenbroich GmbH provided us with fascinating insights into their services surrounding windturbines, including measurements and technical expertise. Particulary impressive was the company´s active role in research and development, especially in areas such as design, sensor technology, condition monitoring and the network integration of windturbines.

We enjoyed the awesome weather and the fantastic view of the windTurbines. We are also grateful for this beautiful and informative day.

We are excited to share that our Chair of Turbomachinery at the University of Duisburg-Essen is supporting an engaging project this summer semester.

Under the guidance of Dieter Brillert, mechanical engineering students are focusing on propeller optimizations suitable for alpine environments. This initiative includes both theoretical studies and practical measurements conducted in our wind tunnel and directly in the mountains. 

This project aims to blend academic knowledge with hands-on experience, vital for advancing sustainable technology efforts.

Last weekend, the annual alumni celebration of the Chair took place. Once a year, we invite our current and former staff members to join us in Duisburg.
The event was characterised by nice conversations and a productive exchange about turbomachinery – both from the perspective of then and now. Our colleagues Dr. Sebastian Schuster and Dr. Bastian Dolle presented the current research of the chair.

This year we also used the celebration for another occasion: The farewell of our dear colleague Dr. Hans Josef Dohmen. After more than 40 years of work at our chair, Dr. Dohmen will soon be going into his well-deserved retirement as soon as he has completed his last major project, the upgrade of the laboratory.

On this occasion, there were speeches by Prof. Dieter Brillert and his predecessor Prof. Benra, who paid tribute to Mr. Dohmen's work in a humorous and emotional way.

The alumni celebration was a complete success and we are already looking forward to next year.

Our chair is part of the research network Flexible Energy Conversion, a network of the "Forschungsnetzwerke Energie", which is an initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK).

The main purpose of the network is to create exchange between researchers and the possibility for collaboration and networking, as well as to providing expertise to the government.

At our last meeting, for example, we received information about the Federal Government's 8th energy research programme, which is coming soon, and discussed this in an expert paper.

But the exchange on a professional level is not neglected at the network meetings either: the various network partners regularly exchange information about the current state of research in their specific fields.

During the last meeting, Prof. Brillert presented our Chair’s research, focussing on our sCO2 research and our research on radial impellers while giving our networking partners a tour of our laboratory.

It was a pleasure to welcome our network partners to the university. We look forward to further exchange!

On 9^th and 10^th Octobre the Kick-off Metting of the carnot battery priority programme took place in Bad Breisig.

From our Chair Prof. Dieter Brillert, Dr. Sebastian Schuster and Mr. Steffen Volkers participated. Mr. Volkers gave a presentation on the Chair's contribution to this programme as part of his Master's thesis. We are very pleased that he will continue to work on this project after his graduation.

You can learn more about the project here.

In addition to kicking off the programme, the meeting served in particular to provide networking opportunities for doctoral students in energy research.

We are pleased that, in addition to the programme partners and the doctoral students. Four Mercator fellows were also present.

Special thanks to the coordinator Prof. Burak Atakan and his team for the great organisation.

We are already looking forward to our next gathering.

Heavy machines and big cranes: The Chair is getting a new large-scale installation!

To improve and modernise our drives, we are currently installing a new switch with a 10kV distributor, a new transformer and a new sub-distribution system. The next step will be to install an electrical heater to heat up the air at the inlet of our axial compressor, two three-phase motors and a 300kW water heater on top of that. To illustrate the dimensions: The electrical heater has a power of 1.5 MW, about as much as two Formula 1 cars combined, and the two three-phase motors have 600kW each (each the power of two Porsche 911s).

When the project is completed, all our machines will be able to run at full capacity and the control accuracy will be increased immensely.

Currently, several kilometres of cable are being laid for this purpose. To put it in perspective: the heaviest cable drum currently in the lab weighs almost 2 tonnes.

May we introduce Mohit, Lorenzo and Olga?
The three master students come from Italian universities (Università degli Studi di Padova and Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II). Within the framework of the ERASMUS exchange programme, they have the opportunity to write their final theses at our Chair.

By supervising the final theses, we give the students an insight into our way of researching. At the same time, we look forward to the cultural exchange and the international perspective that comes about in this way.

We are also pleased that the students have taken part in study trips organised by the Chair, such as the Berlin excursion. In addition to research, the students were thus also able to gain an insight into the German working world.

The Chair has been working with Italian universities for more than10 years. Special thanks go to Giorgio Pavesi, who is a driving force in ensuring the smooth running of the cooperation.

We look forward to many more years of productive exchange and mutual enrichment!

Best mood in moderate weather.

This year's staff event took the Chair’s team to Margaretensee in Duisburg-Wedau. Duisburg-Wedau as well as the lake are a widely known center of sports activities.

In addition to a nice barbecue with lake view, our employees were able to go water skiing and play volleyball.

The team made the best of the changeable weather conditions and we had a lot of fun again this year.

How can we best store the power generated from the renewable energy sources?
One answer could be provided by the research of the Carnot battery.

The Carnot battery stores electricity with a heat pump system. A medium (e.g. water) is pumped from a cold environment (reservoir) into a warm one, whereby the medium receives an energetically higher level due to the use of electricity.

The electricity is stored as heat in such a battery. Turbomachines are the "driver" of the media cycle in heat storage. A turbo compressor or a pump moves the medium in the system so that charging and discharging can take place. The turbines support the charging process and drives the generator during discharging.

The interdisciplinary project "Carnot Batteries: Inverse Design from Markets to Molecules" was launched in order to design the battery in the best possible way, considering both economic and scientific aspects.

The priority program consists of 17 individual projects. Two of them are located at the UDE: At the Chair of Thermodynamics (Head: Prof. Atakan) and at the Chair of Turbomachinery.

We are very happy to work with our colleagues on the "energy storage of the future".

Click here for the UDE press release.

Greetings from Boston!

Our colleagues Sebastian and Tina were in Boston last week at ASME Turbo Expo 2023.

ASME Turbo Expo is an exhibition specifically designed to promote international exchange and development of information systems for better design, use, manufacture, operation and maintenance of all types of turbomachinery.

Our colleagues presented a total of three papers at the conference:

Tina presented "Acoustoelastic Modes in a Rotor-Cavity System with Superposed Through Flow", written in collaboration with Prof. Brillert.

At the same time Sebastian presented the paper "Investigation of the Applicability of Methods Approved for Steam to the Design of Labyrinth Seals in Turbines Operated with CO2 in Supercritical State", written with Katharina Tegethoff, Prof. Brillert and Stefan Glos and Christian Musch from Siemens Energy and "An Euler-Based Throughflow Approach for Axial Compressors", written by him, Oliver Martens and Prof. Brillert.

There were many interested questions about our presentations, new research ideas were discussed, networks were maintained and expanded.

A special highlight was the networking event "Celebrating Women in Turbomachinery". At this dinner event organised by ASME especially for women, a few very inspiring, yet also very personal careers and women's special achievements were presented. It was a great event for networking and exchanging ideas.

As part of the turbo compressor lecture, our colleagues visited the Duisburg site of Siemens Energy with a group of students.

They were able to visit the Training Centre of Rotating Equipment (CoRE) and get to know the machines hands-on. In the process, Siemens Energy employees guided our students through the centre, gave them a practical explanation of how a turbine is constructed and showed them how to identify machine components on an assembled compressor.

The employees answered the students' many questions, which is why the latter were able to make a connection between practice and theory!

Our former employee Alexander Hacks presented his dissertation which is titled Untersuchung zur Auslegungsmethodik von sCO2-Kreisläufen in Abhängigkeit von Verdichter- und Kreislaufauslegungsparametern.

His research at our chair was concerned with the development of turbomachines for supercritical CO2 heat removal systems (sCO2-HeRo) including experimental analysis of the sCO2 cycle and the turbomachine.

The chair congratulates Alexander Hacks cordially to his successfully passed disputation.

This summer, our students again had the opportunity to visit the production and the service and training centre of Siemens Energy Berlin.

The excursion included a tour of the rotor and housing production as well as the assembly and test field. The focus was on manufacturing and quality assurance, e.g. through documentation. The tour concluded with a visit to the future electrolyser production facility.

A special highlight was the opportunity for our students to build on a real machine for the first time. One of our students was allowed to remove and install a turbomachine’s blade himself.

We would like to thank the Förderverein der Ingenieurwissenschaften and the Förderverein der Universität Duisburg-Essen for supporting this excursion and giving our students an insight into this work environment.

Last month, the 15th European Conference on Turbomachinery Fluid Dynamics and Thermodynamics (ETC 15) took place in Budapest.

Professor Dieter Brillert reported on the latest research results of the chair and presented the paper "Reduction of Mechanical Stresses in Centrifugal Compressor Impellers for Hydrogen Applications", which was published in collaboration with Sebastian Schuster, Ihab Abd-El-Hussein and our colleagues from LUT Finland Mikko Mäki-Iso, Jonna Tiainen and Teemu Turunen-Saaresti.

We also had a workshop on sCO2 together with Lorenzo Toni from Baker Hughes as well as Giacomo Persico and Paolo Gaetani from Politecnico Di Milano. The workshop focused on the use of sCO2 in turbomachinery, including design, operation and outlooks and specifically on sCO2 Compressor Design & Testing.

A special highlight was the keynote by Verena Klapdor on the topic "Energy of tomorrow - solving the energy trilemma". In a great talk, our former graduate spoke openly about the opportunities and also the challenges of tomorrow's energy supply.

Rob Miller from Cambridge University gave another exciting insight. He spoke about "exploring ways to reduce the true climate impact of aviation" and opened up interesting perspectives for the future.

We were very pleased with the diverse and stimulating exchange at this conference and are looking forward to the next one!

There can never be enough practical experience! Our chair organised an excursion with engineering students to the Thyssen Krupp power plant in Duisburg-Ruhrort last week. 

The day began with a lecture as part of the in-depth course on gas turbines. After the plant manager Mr. Wiese welcomed the students, our alumnus Mr. Hoffmann first introduced the plant in a presentation. Afterwards, the students had the opportunity to take a tour of the power plant. The tour ended on the roof of the boiler house, where the photo was taken.

We are grateful for this beautiful and informative day and are pleased to be able to give our students a practical insight into working with gas turbines.

This year, Europe’s largest sCO2 conference took place in Prague – from March 14 to 16.

The conference focusses on the importance of supercritical carbon dioxid operating in #energy systems.

Scientists and researchers – from academia and industry – as well as end users are invited to share and discuss the lates outcomes from their sCO2 related projects. The conference offers the opportunity to establish new initiatives and cooperations.

Here are a few impressions from this year's conference:

Last week, our colleagues Prof. Dieter Brillert, Katharina Tegethoff and Nick Linnemann joined engineering students on a field trip to the Compressor Development and Manufacturing in Duisburg.

There, our students were able to gain insights into various complexes of topics in turbomachinery. The focus was on areas that cannot usually be discussed in detail during our lectures. In this way, we were able to create the opportunity for our students to experience turbo compressors in a practical way

In detail, we were introduced to aspects of modern manufacturing, as well as the processes involved in the production of central components of a turbo compressor, right through to the testing of complete machines. An insight into the experimental work during development completed the picture. 
Finally, our students were informed about possible career opportunities at Siemens Energy and had the opportunity to participate in an open discussion.

We would like to thank Klaus Steff for the nice introduction and the whole Siemens Energy Team for this great tour!

Last week, our colleagues Prof. Brillert, Haikun Ren, Ihab Abd-El-Hussein and Katharina Tegethoff joined engineering students on a field trip to the steam turbine plant in Mülheim.

The excursion included a tour of the plant and an impressive simulation of energytransition scenarios in a simulation room.

At the plant we were able to observe  new technologie such as flywheel accumulators for grid frequency support and the complexity of manufacturing and fabrication of these and other impressive components such as generators and turbines.

In the simulation room, the goal was to understand the impact for phasing out nuclear power and coal power on the system and to provide appropriate solutions for stabilizing and compensating for the missing power plants. The simulation was very clear and successful and is interesting even for people without much technical background.

The excursion was very exciting, and we are happy to show our students different perspectives of energy production and to sensitize them for the overall societal context.

At the end of last year, the sCO2-for-NPP Project was successfully completed.

The aim of the sCO2-4-NPP project, as well as its predecessor sCO2-HeRo, was to develop a novel heat removal system that can increase the safety of nuclear power plants (NPPs) by removing decay heat in the event of a station blackout.

To explain exactly how the #sCO2-based heat removal system is designed to work, the sCO2-for-NPP Project has produced a short animation.
Enjoy it!

We are proud to report that the sCO2-4-NPP project, the successor project to sCO2-HeRo, has been successfully completed. The goal of the sCO2-HeRo and sCO2-4-NPP projects was to develop a novel heat removal system which can increase the safety level of nuclear power plants (NPPs) by keeping removing decay heat in case of station black out (SBO). The system is based on a Joule cycle with CO₂ in the supercritical state (called sCO₂) as the working fluid. Our chair was the coordinator of the first project and involved in second project together with several cooperation partners.

In the sCO2-4-NPP project, our colleagues Haikun Ren and Sebastian Schuster and our former colleague Alexander Hacks worked on work packages (WP) 1 and 4.

In WP1, the team tested the sCO2-HeRo turbomachine, which was developed and manufactured in the previous sCO2-HeRo project, in the HeRo loop at the Gesellschaft für Simulatorschulung MBH (GfS) in Essen, Germany. This provided our project partners with data on the performance of the entire sCO2-HeRo system for validation of the thermodynamic codes (ATHLET, CARTHARE, and Modelica). 

In addition, the team of our chair improved the old sCO2-HeRo turbomachine by applying active magnetic bearing (AMB) technology, taking into account the recommendations of the consulting partners. The improved turbomachine was then manufactured and tested in the HeRo cycle. The test results showed stable operation of the improved turbomachine and higher top speed compared to the old turbomachine, indicating a more robust design and validating the application of AMB in sCO₂ turbomachines. Finally, an extended performance diagram of the compressor has been obtained from the measurements and compared with predictions from 1D and CFD tools. The comparison shows good agreement between the predicted and measured data, validating both tools.

Also, a scaled larger turbomachine, called sCO2-4-NPP turbomachine, was designed for real NPPs in this project. The aerodynamic design was first performed to generate performance maps as turbomachinery models, which were provided to the project simulation teams to support the simulation with the thermodynamic codes. The simulation results in turn verified the design by showing that the simulation results met the project requirements. In addition, the losses within the turbomachinery were analyzed and the required auxiliary power units were defined. Finally, the sCO2-4-NPP turbomachine concept was successfully presented in a public report.

In another task, UDE provided support in identifying turbomachinery standards.

All results in which the chair was involved are included in the following reports:

➡️ D 1.2 Report on the validation status of codes and model for simulation
➡️ D 4.1 Test results of the improved small scale turbomaschine
➡️ D 4.3 Conceptual Design of sCO2-4-NPP Turbomaschine

In summary, the sCO2-4-NPP turbomachine was developed for the sCO₂ heat removal system at the scale of real NPPs. The active magnetic bearing technology is newly used for the sCO₂ turbomachine, for which initial test results are already available. With the help of experiments and simulations, the performance data and the final main dimensions of the new turbomachine can be used for further work and provide a first overview of the sCO2 turbomachine in a real nuclear application. In addition, scientific articles have been published to disseminate the present work.

Last week the Chair’s annual Scientific Weekend took place.

Every year the members of our chair go away together for three days to discuss the projects and goals of the chair. This year we went to Bad Honnef.

We evaluated the targets of the last Scientific Weekend and we are very satisfied, as we were able to implement the majority of them successfully.

The next step was to plan the organizational and thematic tasks for the coming year in small groups. The focus was on the further development of our current research projects. We will focus on gaining further knowledge in the areas of real gas effects, condensation, CO2 research and acoustics.

Team building was also not neglected during our excursion: we climbed the Drachenfelsen together. Although we got very wet on the way down, we were able to end the evening with a nice dinner together.

As part of our WKA lecture (Thermal power and working machines), our students complete the so-called KG practical course. They measure the characteristic curves on our radial compressor and compare their results with the manufacturer's characteristic diagram.

We are very pleased to report that the students were able to do the internship for the first time with the help of our PCS7 control system.

The PCS7 control system is an industrial safety system that is used in our laboratory to monitor all functions of the compressor and thus prevent possible errors. Among other things, the system can monitor speeds, temperatures, pressures and switch positions.

Since a measurement programme communicates with the control system, the students were able to retrieve measurement data via the control system for the first time.

In this way, the control system was integrated into the teaching. As control systems are a standard in industry, we can prepare our students for the working world in this way.

Currently, the control system is already connected to our radial compressor. Our department PCS7 team, led by Dr. Hans Josef Dohmen, is currently working on connecting the rest of our test rigs to the system.

The chair has applied for a patent for extendable vanes in centrifugal compressors!

The concept combines advantages of both, vaned and vaneless diffusers. Vaned Diffusers provide higher efficiency and pressure ratio, while vaneless diffusers provide a larger operating range.

To combine these advantages in one machine, our colleague and Bastian Dolle has designed extendable vanes for diffusers. He developed a very space-saving solution, where space only had to be created for the length of the vane, as the extension works automatically driven by the compressor discharge pressure.

Currently he runs numerical calculations of our centrifugal compressor first with a vaneless diffuser and second with a vaned diffusor designed for off-design conditions.

At the same time, the production of a diffuser segment with one single vane is in progress using rapid prototyping in order to be able to provide a proof of concept soon. Later a fully equipped diffuser will be installed in our radial compressor for machine testing.

Stay tuned!

At the beginning of the year, our chair started a project together with the industrial partner Oerlikon to research the infrastructure of hydrogen.

You can read more about the project here.

Our former colleague Florian Felix Lapp has investigated how hydrogen can be transported - both globally and practically.

After looking at the global infrastructure, he investigated how much hydrogen could be pumped between ships and tanks. The next step was to consider what kind of machine would be best suited for this purpose.

He concluded that a centrifugal pump would be the most suitable and started a concept study to find out how this pump would have to be designed.

From this they were able to construct a model for a centrifugal pump that would be ideal for transporting the hydrogen between the ship and the tank.

 We are pleased to have successfully completed the project.

We are pleased to report that our research on stator components within the ECOFLEX project has been successfully completed.

The aim of the research was to design a geometry with a smaller diffuser ratio, or put more simply: the machine must become more compact. To achieve this, the vane must be optimized accordingly.

To investigate this, our colleagues Bastian Dolle and Ihab Abd-El-Hussein adapted a return channel both numerically and experimentally.

In a first step, a parameter model was built for this purpose. This model was then optimized using numerical simulations and generic algorithms. After each optimization loop, a best member (Pareto optimum) was determined directly from the parameter model and manufacture generatively using selective-laser-sintering. In a further step, the geometry was instrumented, installed and tested in the stator components test rig.

After several optimization circles, through computer tests and some manual manipulation, an improved geometry could be developed in the end.
 

We would like to thank our project partner Viktor Hermes from Siemens Energy for the great cooperation!

Do you already know the paper written by our colleague Tina Unglaube?
It deals with the study of fluid-structure interaction and coupled acoustoelastic modes in rotor-stator cavities to avoid machine failures.

In centrifugal compressors, pressure fluctuations occur in the wheel side chambers, so-called acoustic modes. These can interact with the structural modes of the impeller. The impeller can be damaged as a result.

The paper examines which frequencies are of particular interest and how they shift when different operating parameters vary. The examination of frequencies can indicate which rotational speeds should be avoided or whether the geometrical changes of the impeller or cavity should be considered.

For this purpose, basic concepts for understanding the origin of structural and acoustic modes and their coupling in a rotor-cavity system were compiled. Moreover, existing coupling models were reviewed and then compared with experiments from our test rig. While using air as a fluid, the measurements of the structural modes agreed well with the theoretic results, while the theories of the acoustic modes differed from the results of the experiments. A possible reason is that the relatively simple theoretical models might not very well reproduce the real flow structure inside the cavity.

In a further step, more operating conditions that could result in a coupling effect will be investigated. Coupling means that the frequencies might amplify each other through resonance. In the experiments, some weakly pronounced coupling effects were successfully demonstrated. In a next step these experiments will be performed with other fluids (CO2 instead of air) to obtain further and more concise results.

In further studies, the damping of the acoustic modes will be studied more in detail in order to analyse to which extent attenuation mitigates certain peaks.

You can read the whole article here.

Stay tuned!

Our colleague Katharina Tegethoff has published a paper on numerical simulation of real gas flow.

If one tries to perform a flow calculation with sCO2, discontinuities of thermodynamic quantities occur near the critical point. The procedure for calculating the numerical flux terms then has a significant influence on the convergence and thus the success of the method.

In order to be able to perform calculations for sCO2, the Roe scheme, which  can determine the flux terms in a robust way and is traditionally used for the calculation of calorically perfect gases, must be adapted to real gases.

By adapting the original Roe scheme, a one-dimensional consideration of real gas flows also taking condensation into account is now possible.

Read more about it here.

In a next step, a three-dimensional consideration of real gas flows is aimed at. This can make it possible to calculate the flow variablesof arbitrary fluids in compressors for example near the critical point and thus to better design machines.

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate our colleague on her first publication!

The Digital Twin project is in its final stage and will be officially completed in October.

The digital twin project aims to develop a virtual representation of Dry Gas Seals that identifies potential faults and ultimately predicts the service life of the product through real-time information.

Read more about the digital twin project here.

The advancing digitisation offers more and more possibilities to process the resulting data in large quantities and to obtain insights from them in "real-time". The digital twin is one of the promising technologies that can be used for this purpose. A digital twin is a virtual image of a physical product or a process. This image contains all the properties, information about the behaviour and data about the statuses and status changes. The amount of data is continuously updated so that the virtual image always shows the current status of the product. The use of the digital twin offers potential for optimising machines and their operation in terms of quality, costs and time.

In comparison to the data-based digital twin, which requires very large amounts of data for a reproducible evaluation, the system-based digital twin developed by our colleague Jingjing Luo and Prof. Arun Nagarajah, Dominik Ehring, Pascal Mrzyk, and Johannes Kubacki from the Institut für Produkt Engineering uses existing physics-based simulation models with a smaller amount of measurement data to gain insights. The various models (partial models) and measured performance data are combined in this work. Using a service-oriented architecture (SOA), interfaces between the tools and data sources (sensors) are developed. The models required for the use of a digital twin for predictive maintenance, such as system models, CFD models, CAD models, the machine learning model and additional functionalities for data exchange with sensors are taken into account.

This project contributes significantly to the digitalisation of research. We are proud to announce its success and looking forward to its impact on one of the most contemporary issues of our time.

The project was funded by Siemens Energy and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi).

In the next step, the team could try to implement an AI system in Digital Twin. The proof of concept has already been achieved. Stay tuned!

From Duisburg via Mülheim to Essen-Kettwig and back again.

Last week, our annual staff excursion took place. In perfect cycling weather, we cycled together 40 kilometres through the Ruhr region. As a reward, we had lunch together and an ice cream before returning the same way.

It was a wonderful day!

In April 2020, our Chair launched a project to investigate the effects of water injection in centrifugal compressors on the compressor map. This project is now successfully completed!

As part of the project, we were able to commission our test rig, the single-stage centrifugal compressor, in cooperation with our project partner @Attila Yildiz from @Siemens Energy.

Find out more about our test rig here.

Within the last few years, we have tested the compressor to reduce the required power using water injections. The water mass fraction was varied and the injection was investigated at different upstream positions and compressor inlet temperatures.

We have successfully confirmed that water injection improves the performance of centrifugal compressors by increasing efficiency, resulting in energy and cost savings.

In the future, more exciting experiments are planned for the test rig. For example, we can perform PDA laser measurements of the droplets helping us to implement water injection in tFlow. These investigations could also lead to an examination of interstage injection in multistage centrifugal compressors.

Stay tuned!

Big news! Our Chair of Turbomachinery has been granted a large-scale equipment application!

To further advance our research on water injection in compressors, we have applied for the expansion of our four-stage axial compressor test rig.

Currently, research into water injection at the inlet nozzle and between the four stages is already possible.

By feeding in warm air, it should be possible to simulate the evaporation in later stages of a multi stage compressor once the test rig has been expanded. Therefore, the air at the inlet of the compressor should be heated to 100° C.

To compress warm air, the compressor needs more power. Currently he is fed by two direct-current motors, with the conversion two three-phase alternating current motors with a total power of 1200 kW will be installed. To achieve the higher power requirement of the lab, a new current transformer with over 3000 kW will be connected.

In addition, after the conversion, it will be possible to investigate what happens when the water temperature of the injected water is changed by preheating.  To realize this, a water heater with a maximum temperature of 200 °C and a maximum pressure of 200 bar will also be installed.

The modifications necessary to upgrade the compressor test rig are planned for next year and will entail a reconstruction of our laboratory.

We are really looking forward to the renovation!

On June 22, we opened the new building of the Training Centre CoRe.

With CoRE (Center of Rotating Equipment),  the Chair of Turbomachinery (especially Prof. Brillert) at the University of Duisburg-Essen and Siemens Energy have set up a globally unique research, education and training centre for turbomachinery focussing on cooperation and knowledge exchange between university and industry.

At 9.30 a.m., our colleagues from the University of Duisburg-Essen met at the new training centre together with our rector Prof. Barbara Albert and our partners from Siemens Energy.

After a welcome by Christof Cichon, site manager of Siemens Energy, speeches by our rector and Erhard Eder, CEO Service Industrial Applications at Siemens Energy, and honouring of project initiator Bruno Langela, the CoRe logo was ceremoniously unveiled. After a visit of the training centre, a joint lunch formed a nice conclusion to this successful event. 

From June 9^th to 10^th our colleagues from the Chair Dr. Dohmen and Ms. Tegethoff together with engineering students went on an excursion to the Siemens Field Service Center.

The group left the Duisburg campus on 9 June at 12 a.m. and reached their accommodation in Berlin as planned at 7 p.m. Before going to the service centre the next day, the participants had the rest of the evening at leisure to discover Berlin.

The next morning, the students and our colleagues were then welcomed at 9:30 a.m. at the Siemens Field Service Center by the head of the centre Mr. Ingo Buschmann. Siemens employees Stefan Blohme, Björn Schüler, Michael Stavenhagen and Rene Schuch-Steffen guided the students through the centre in small groups. As these were very experienced Siemens employees who work as trainers, the participants were given a lot of information and all their questions were answered comprehensively. Around noon, Mr. Buschmann and his staff said goodbye to the group and they started their journey home to Duisburg.

All participants were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to experience the practice of turbomachinery live again after a break of more than two years due to the pandemic. Many are already looking forward to possibly visiting the gas turbine production next year.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Förderverein für Ingenieurswissenschaften for making this excursion possible.

An increasing proportion of wet wipes and a low water content in the wastewater cause a significant change in the wastewater composition.

They can lead to massive entanglement (“Verzopfung”) in pumps. As a result, the financial expenses for cleaning, maintenance and repair have increased enormously for the wastewater companies in recent years. In order to solve this problem in the long term, a fluid-mechanical investigation of the entanglement behaviour of single-channel impeller pumps was carried out.

From this research work, an optimised impeller geometry for wastewater pumps was developed. It ensures a significant improvement with regard to the susceptibility to clogging in the inlet area of the impeller and thus a significantly increased operational reliability with significantly lower maintenance costs.

Together with Markus Knop, Thomas Baack and Bernd Hohmeier from Witten and Marcello Di Brino, Guido Petrak and Markus Kamps from Dortmund, our colleague Dr. Dohmen and our former colleague Prof. Benra wrote an article about the development work on the impeller, the installation of a prototype in a pumping station and the first operating experiences.

The basis of this article was a research project with the Pleiger company in 2016.

You can find the article published at the beginning of 2022 in the DWA Association Journal KA Correspondence Wastewater, Waste (“DWA-Verbandszeitschrift KA Korrespondenz Abwasser, Abfall”) here.

In March this year the Chair started a project with the industrial partner Oerlikon that contributes to the research on hydrogen infrastructure.

Hydrogen infrastructure describes a complex system for the production and transport of hydrogen. Among other things, this also includes the conversion of the chemical energy stored in the hydrogen into mechanical or electrical energy.

From a technical point of view, the entire hydrogen infrastructure consists of different parts, in each of which certain aggregates work together in a coordinated manner.

Together with Oerlikon, our colleagues Prof. Dieter Brillert, Sebastian Schuster and Florian Felix Lapp are researching the transport of hydrogen.

To explore this, the chair works in several steps:

1. In the first step, the various pumping tasks of a future hydrogen infrastructure for the transfer of portable tanks (e.g. in ships and trucks) to fixed tanks are compiled.
   For this purpose, available studies on a future hydrogen infrastructure are consulted, pressure, temperature and volume flow are determined for the respective field of application and further requirements (such as the permissible temperature increase) are identified. In consultation with Oerlikon, a pumping task is selected for which a unit is designed in a further step.
2. In the second step, the known working machines (turbo machines, gear pumps, piston and screw machines) are examined for their suitability for implementing the task. With the inclusion and consideration of required effort of development and research, a machine concept is selected then.
3. Based on the selected machine concept, the elaboration takes place. The individual machine components are designed, checked for their suitability for hydrogen transport and then are constructed.

We are pleased to be able to contribute to the current research on hydrogen transport with the project and thus to be able to play our part in new forms of energy generation and distribution.

In recent years, there have been major changes in the field of electricity generation and distribution: All kinds of power plants such as conventional, solar or for energy storage so-called Carnot Batteries are increasingly confronted with load fluctuations and have to switch on and off more frequently to ensure a reliable energy supply. This energy is provided with the help of installed conversion equipment, especially steam turbines. The increased use of these machines ensures that flexibility requirements must be taken into account in the design of modern turbines. Therefore, a deeper insight into the physical processes affecting the machines is essential for the design of steam turbines.

One contribution is made by our colleague Florian Felix Lapp in the paper “Experimental Validation of an Analytical Condensation Model for Application in Steam Turbine Design” which was published in the International Journal of Turbomachinery, Propulsion and Power. Our colleague has experimentally researched, how shear-stress-driven liquid condensation films behave on a fully wetted horizontal surface. The data was gained from the Chair’s test rig EMMA (Experimental Multi-phase Measurement Application).

This study is the first to qualitatively validate the existing analytical 2D condensation model of Cess (1960) and Koh (1962) and therefore make a valuable contribution to the trustworthiness of this model.

You can find the whole article here.

The project in which Florian Felix Lapp is conducting his experiments is of the AG Turbo joint research program. The investigations were supported by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy (BMWi) as well as the Siemens Energy AG.

By the way: Florian Felix Lapp is researching the reason for the quantitative deviation of the model in his doctoral thesis. Stay tuned!

The 15th European Conference on Turbomachinery will take place on 24-28 April 2023 in Budapest, Hungary.

The conference is of particular interest to researchers, designers and users in the field of turbomachinery. By presenting the latest developments and best practices, it is a key event for technology transfer across Europe.

The conference will address, from a scientific and engineering perspective, the fluid dynamics and thermodynamics of all types of turbomachinery with the aim of improving their performance, stability and sustainability. Of primary interest are the design, analysis and operation of axial, mixed flow, radial and unconventional turbomachinery.

If you want to contribute to the conference, save the following deadlines:

• Abstract Submission Deadline: June 22, 2022
• Full Paper Submission Deadline: October 26, 2022

You can find more information in the flyer attached.

The head of our Chair Prof. Brillert is on the executive board and our former colleague Prof. Benra is a member of Euroturbo, which is why we are already looking forward to receiving numerous submissions.

In April last year, the Chair of Turbomachinery presented the project „HEATRED“ (Project number FVV 1438). The project aimed to reduce the high thermal stresses during start-up and load point variations in turbomachines. Due to the changing energy market, these thermal stresses occur more and more frequently.

Therefore, our researchers investigated a metallic mesh to reduce the thermal gradients in the machines. The steam stagnates in the pockets of the metallic mesh, serving as an insulation.

The advantage of this approach lies in the increase in the average durability of turbomachines and its applicability to steam turbines, gas turbines and turbochargers. It is therefore a cost-effective way to reduce heat.

The project work has been realized in 8 months using the test facility EMMA (“Experimental Multi-phase Measurement Application”) provided by the University of Duisburg-Essen and developed at the Chair of Turbomachinery. The specific metallic fabric has been investigated experimentally, considering mechanical resilience and influence on the heat transfer coefficient. In addition, numerical investigations have been conducted to understand the observed effects better.

The project was funded by the  FVV - Forschungsvereinigung Verbrennungskraftmaschinen e.V. (Research Association for Combustion Engines). Project details can be requested from the FVV.

Based on the work of the Chair’s projects sCO₂-4-NPP and sCO₂-HeRo our former colleague Alexander Hacks and our colleagues Haikun Ren and Ihab Abd El Hussein published the paper “Experimental data of supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO₂) compressor at various fluid states” in the Journal of Engineering for Gas Turbines and Power.

The aim of the sCO₂-HeRo and the sCO₂-4-NPP projects is to develop a novel heat removal system for decay heat in nuclear power plants based on a Joule cycle with CO₂ in the supercritical state (called sCO₂) as the working fluid. The technology is intended to be transferred to other applications e.g. to utilize waste heat.

The article presents experimental data from a centrifugal compressor operating with sCO₂. Temperature and pressure at the inlet of the compressor are varied to cover sCO₂ from the liquid-like to the gas-like range and additionally in the two-phase regime. Reliable conclusions can be drawn from the test results, as the reproducibility of the measurements has been demonstrated by conducting tests in two different test rigs. The obtained data show the thermodynamic conditions relevant for future energy conversion with sCO₂-Joule cycles and thus validate the results of the Chair’s projects and especially the computational results.

The experimental data of this work validate the accuracy of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code and a mean-line programme for sCO₂. This contributes significantly to the study of the sCO₂-Joule cycle. The measurements as well as compressor geometry are published in open access and will therefore be usable by the whole scientific community to validate analysis and design tools related to sCO₂ compressors.

Check out the published article in the ASME Journal.

Learn more about the projects here.

In order to make compressors even more efficient and cost-effective in the future, a project has just been started at the Chair to monitor the vibrations and acoustics of the machines.

Acoustic analysis provides a good indication to detect sudden wear, such as a cracked blades, a detached guide vane or the entry of foreign parts into the compressor, and long-term changes such as erosion damage at an early stage. The advantage of this approach is that it can be done without interfering with the compressors' process and is also possible on existing systems. Acoustical measurement is an innovative method and the chair is setting up a model for the successful measurement and evaluation of the data.

At the beginning of the project, a detailed research on the topic of measurement and evaluation of acoustics and structure-borne sound has to be carried out in order to evaluate possible influencing factors such as the optimal position of the microphones/measuring points and the influence of the ambient sound. Our colleague Stefan Wallat has already started with this first step.

The results of the research form the basis for the experiments on the centrifugal compressor (KGV) in the laboratory of the chair, where, as an example, the position of the inlet guide vane is to be iteratively identified on the basis of the acoustic and vibration measurements. A main challenge is the influence of external interference signals (e.g. from electric motor, gearbox, oil pump, etc.), which have to be eliminated by hardware and software measures.

The aim of this project is to build up a knowledge base in the field of "condition monitoring" with the help of sound and vibration measurements and to test methods derived from this on a single-stage centrifugal compressor (DEMAG KG 3.32) in the laboratory of the Chair of Turbomachinery. In the end, there should be a concept for recording the operating state of the compressor using the acoustic and vibration measurements with recommendations for the positioning and setup of the sensors as well as the processing of the signals.

A comparison with existing measurement technology from Siemens Energy is planned.

Due to the current situation, the conference is currently being reorganised.

Save the date!
The 3rd Baumann Wet Steam Conference will take place in St. Petersburg on June 27^th and 28^th this year.

The conference is hosted by a community of engineers working in the study and use of wet steam in turbomachines. Our colleagues Dr. Schuster and Prof. Brillert will participate in the conference as Session Chair and as part of the Programme Committee.

The aim of the conference is to present and discuss the latest advances in the study of wet steam flows in turbomachinery using computational and experimental methods in the design of turbines operating with wet steam. As an experiment reflecting new directions in the development of turbomachinery, Mr. Schuster and Mr. Brillert are leading the topic of investigating alternative working fluids.

Want to learn more? Check out the website:
https://wet-steamer.org

Are you interested in contributing to the conference?
The deadline for the submission of abstracts is at the end of this month (31.01.2022)!

This year, our colleague Katharina Tegethoff (PhD student) has developed a learning tool for students that helps them to establish a link between teaching and application.

The "Geschwindigkeitsdreiecke" tool (velocity triangles) helps students in the 6th semester to understand flow velocities in an application-oriented manner and to learn their calculation in a self-regulated manner.

The tool is based on the WKA lecture (Thermal power and working machines) held by the Chair of Turbomachinery (University of Duisburg-Essen).

Test the tool at the website Tools and Essentials.

The tool is complemented by another aid for students and interested parties: "Visual" - a visualisation tool that helps users to examine the appearance of impellers of axial and radial machines in three dimensions. This tool also helps to bridge the gap between university teaching and industrial application.

The head of the Chair Prof. Dieter Brillert sums up the contribution the tools make:
"In engineering studies, this app provides an important contribution for students to vividly demonstrate the connection between theory and practical application. There is also the possibility to get a personal impression on campus with the app and the model, which perhaps makes things even clearer."

Would you like to learn more about the creation of the tools? 
Click here.

The annual Scientific Weekend of the Chair of Turbomachinery took place this week.

On 18 and 19 November, the Chair's team met in Koblenz for a collaborative discussion.

During their stay, the team visited the castle Ehrenbreitstein, toured the town and got together in the evening for a wine tasting. Attached, you will find a picture of the team in front of the Ehrenbreitstein mountain, which the team reached by a cable car.

In addition to these team-building measures, the team also exchanged scientific information. Among other things, they discussed and planned future projects of the chair.

In the future, the chair will focus on the following topics:

• water injection
• condensation
• polydisperse droplet spectra
• acoustics
• t-flow

As the Scientific Weekend was held during the week this year, it was called "Scientific Days".

This week the Chair had visitors from abroad: The head of our Chair, Prof. Dieter Brillert discussed possible collaborations with Prof. Vitalii Ivanov, DSc. (Head of the Department of Manufacturing Engineering), Prof. Ivan Pavlenko, DSc. (Professor of the Department of Computational Mechanics) and Prof. Oleksandr Liaposhchenko, DSc., (Professor of the Department of Chemical Engineering) from Sumy State University in Ukraine.

We are very pleased about this international exchange and are looking forward to further discussions about Phase Transition of Fluids in Flows.

Follow the Chair of Turbomachinery (University of Duisburg-Essen) on LinkedIn for more exciting news!

One of our former employees Tilman Schröder published in IJTPP. The article is a reflection of his excellent work at our Chair.

The flow in side chambers of radial turbomachines significantly influences the performance of such machines and the load on its rotors. Axial bearings take most of these loads, thus the turbomachinery designer requires detailed knowledge of such loads to build a reliable and efficient machine.

Compressors are one of two types of radial turbomachinery. As modern radial compressors reach ever higher rotational speeds and discharge pressure levels their operational Reynolds number increases to values around 10⁸ to 10⁹. The Reynolds number is an important quantity in fluid mechanics: it measures the turbulence of flows and enables comparison of flows in machines of different sizes. At Reynolds numbers that high and with centrifugal through-flow through side-chambers, no information on the side-chamber flow was available until now. In his paper, diploma engineer Tilman Raphael Schröder investigates side-chamber flow at this Reynolds number range and shows that the side-chamber width and through-flow mass flow rate significantly influence the flow: The average fluid rotation factor and radial pressure distribution, which are responsible for the load on the rotor, change significantly when switching the side-chamber width from G = 0.0125 to G = 0.0250, but do not change when increasing it further to G = 0.0375.

Interested in more information?
Check out the publication here.

Many researchers around the world investigate supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) as a working fluid in powercycles. One particular application is in a new type of emergency heat removal system for nuclear power plants. Our employee Alexander Hacks contributed to this topic by creating a model to understand the correlation between compressor inlet conditions and the volumetric design of the cycle in his article “Impact of volumetric system design on compressor inlet conditions in supercritical CO₂ cycles”.

In his article, he compares the change of compressor inlet conditions in two sCO₂ power cycles SUSEN and HeRo by focusing on the impact of the different volumes of heater and cooler. He bases his findings on results obtained during the sCO2-4-NPP project, the HeRo project, and the sCO2-flex project.

The paper improves the knowledge of the challenges in stable compressor operations close to the critical point. Therefore, it contributes significantly to the development of simpler and more cost-efficient sCO₂ circuit concepts by simplifying sCO₂ cycles and facilitating error analyses.

Due to the growing share of renewable energies, the role of fossil fuel power plants is changing. These power plants are now increasingly expected to provide fluctuating back-up power to foster the integration of intermittent renewable energy sources and to provide stability to the grid. However, conventional fossil power plants are not suitable for high power fluctuations.

The consortium of the sCO2-flex project addressed this challenge by developing and optimizing a design of a 25 MWe Brayton cycle using supercritical CO2 (sCO2). The usage of sCO2 as a working fluid has the potential to increase the flexibility and efficiency of power plants. From a wide variety of sCO2 cycle layouts, the recompression cycle is found to provide the optimum balance between efficiency and component integrity. The main goal is to have a wide operating range of the cycle that can reach 20 % of the base load.

To develop this solution, ten different partners from the fields of research, supply, and operations worked together on the project. The outcomes of the project have brought the sCO2 technology to TRL6, where the technology is demonstrated in an industrially relevant environment. This will pave the way for future demonstration projects (from 2020) and commercialisation of the technology (from 2025).

At the Chair of Turbomachinery, a series of fundamental investigations has been conducted to understand the effect of sCO₂ properties on the losses and the operating range of the compressor. Furthermore, studies were conducted to understand the effect of sCO₂ properties on the compressor design and performance. At this point, our researchers were also able to contribute their expertise in turbomachinery, especially in terms of design, manufacturing and testing.

During the Corona pandemic, we learned that online events have advantages and disadvantages. In order to slowly get back to reality and to face-to-face courses, we cordially invite our students to participate in our hybrid model and re-enter the physical classroom in the upcoming semester.

In the near future, both options will be available simultaneously: online courses as well as face-to-face courses. Face-to-face events have the advantage that students can expand their professional and social network, lecturers and students can interact more easily, and turbomachine components can be viewed up close.

At the same time, the chair is aware of the fact that it is not possible for all students to switch to a face-to-face course in such a short time, which is why the digital offer will remain in place for the time being.

We have good news on that as well: Our professors have used the semester break to get further training in digital teaching products. They hope to make the upcoming online courses even more interactive. To do this, they use the "Mural" application. It is set up like an interactive board with the lecture’s slides where students can move freely, ask questions and comment each slide.

In this year, the faculty of engineering celebrates its 20th birthday.

The faculty was founded on 3 July 2001 when the departments of electrical engineering, computer science, mechanical engineering and materials engineering joined together.

Over the years, other departments were integrated, until finally the Faculty as we know it today was created.

If you would like to find out more about the history of our faculty,
visit  uni-due.de/iw/de/geschichte

On Friday, July 23, the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Duisburg-Essen is hosting a graduation ceremony in order to honour the achievements of the faculty’s former students. All engineering graduates of the university as well as the teaching staff are cordially invited to attend the festivity. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the graduation ceremony will be held online.

To join the event, please access the following link on July 23,2021 at 3 p.m.:  https://www.uni-due.de/iw/de/alumni/alumni2021ss.php

Besides handing the certificates to the graduated students virtually, the innovation award as well as the Soroptimist International will be awarded to the respective students.

Feel free to join our graduates on this important day!

Today, 9 July 2021, the first time after 526 days since the last lecture on 30 January 2020, a teaching event has finally taken place in physical presence. The Head of the Chair of Turbomachinery, Prof. Dieter Brillert, offered his students a tour of the chair's laboratory, where they had the opportunity to make a connection between theory and practice. The students were separated in groups to explore the Chair’s different test rigs. The tours were conducted by Dr. Sebastian Schuster and Katharina Tegethoff. 

Those tours were the completion of today's WKA lecture (Thermal Power Machines).

We were happy and proud to give students the opportunity to learn something in real life again.

Last Tuesday, 22 June 2021, members of the Chair of Turbomachinery went on their first staff excursion since the Corona pandemic began.

Under strict hygienic precautions, the team undertook a one-and-a-half hour hike through Duisburg's city forest led by Prof. Dr. Brillert. Then they returned to a restaurant to eat and drink together in the open air.

The staff trip showed once again how important real-life contacts are for cooperation and togetherness.

In April 2020, the Chair of Turbomachinery launched a new project to investigate the impact of water injection in radial compressors on the characteristic map. With a combination of experimental and numerical examinations, this project aims at increasing the efficiency and performance of radial compressors.

We are now proudly announcing the successful commissioning of the respective test bench, a single-stage radial compressor which was constructed and assembled by Siemens Energy and equipped with a probe traversing device by the chair.

Click here for the test bench’s data and stay tuned!

The Chair of Turbomachinery is currently working on its 4^th European project. CO2OLHEAT, as it is called, investigates the usage of waste heat in and from industrial processes. Excess industrial heat can be converted into electricity, contributing to the energetic optimization of manufactories, such as cement or glass manufacturing plants.

Turbo compressors and expanders as well as the whole system based on the Joule-cycle operating with carbon dioxide in the supercritical state (sCO₂) are necessary for the execution of this idea. In the scope of this project, the Chair refines computational methods and supports the industry with scientific methods. Additionally, the Chair generalizes the findings of the project to transfer them to other scientific fields and projects.

What is special about this project is that the energy conversion system operates with sCO₂ and that it assists in bringing sCO₂ technologies on the market. The project aims at proving TRL7 by implementing the system in the CEMEX cement manufacturing plant in Prachovice, Czech Republic.

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Good news!

A team consisting of members of the UDE, Kraftwerks-Simulator-Gesellschaft mbH & Gesellschaft für Simulatorschulung mbH (KSG/GfS) and MECOS AG solved the problem of the wear of ball bearings that occurs while operating with sCO2 in turbomachines. The team successfully performed an experiment using active magnetic bearings. Magnetic bearings work without oil-based lubrication, which disperses when sCO2 gets in contact with conventionally lubricated bearings of turbomachines. It is one of the first turbomachines with magnetic bearings operating in the sCO2 environment. Therefore, we are extremely proud to announce the success of this project.

On these grounds, the team successfully commissioned the new turbomachine in the sCO2-HeRo-Cycle in February 2021.

The sCO2-HeRo-Cycle is a security system for nuclear power plants (NPPs) using decay heat as a backup plan for emergency scenarios. Thus, it does not rely on external sources of energy. The turbomachine the team is working on is the centrepiece of the sCO2-HeRo-system. Because of the successful commissioning, the team soon aims to transfer their experience to machines in real space environments.

The Chair of Turbomachinery presents the project „HEATRED“ (FVV 1438), which aims to reduce the high thermal stresses during start-up and load point variations in turbomachines. The temperature difference across the inner casing reaches up to 300 K.  Due to the changing energy market, these thermal stresses occur more and more frequently.

Therefore, our researchers investigate a metallic mesh to reduce the thermal gradients in the machines. The steam stagnates in the pockets of the metallic mesh, serving as an insulation.

The advantage of this approach to the optimisation of turbomachinery is distinguished by the increase of the average durability of the machines and its applicability to steam turbines, gas turbines and turbochargers. Therefore, this is a low-cost opportunity for heat reduction.

For this project the already existing test rig EMMA (“Experimental Multi-phase Measurement Application”), which was also developed at this Chair, is used and modified. Because of this advantage, the duration of the project sponsored by FVV is scheduled to be 8 months.

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Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 4th European sCO2 conference was held online and not as originally planned in Prague. Nevertheless, it was a great success and tremendous enrichment for all.

Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dieter Brillert, leader of the Chair of Turbomachinery and conference chair, opened the conference with a short salutatory address. Subsequently, Angelos Kokkinos, director of the Office of Advanced Fossil Technology Systems at the U.S. Department of Energy, held the conference’s keynote speech. He outlined the path to a 100 % carbon-pollution-free electric sector implying the employment of technologies like CCUS - a method to reduce and eliminate emissions from power and heavy industry and infrastructure.

In general, the conference encompassed twelve sessions on five different subject areas:

• Turbomachines and Cycles
• sCO2 Applications and Energy Systems
• sCO2 Experiments and Loops
• Heat Exchanger and Transfer
• Fluid and Material Aspects

Though the conference was held online, all participants were given the opportunity to connect with other researchers. As speakers and participants connected through an event app and management software, they were provided with recommended matches based on their shared fields of interest. Thus, attendees were able to privately interact with one another as well as to share and exchange knowledge.

At the conference’s end on March 24, the best paper award was handed to Markus Hofer et al. for their seminal paper "Simulation and Analysis of a Self-Propelling Heat Removal System Using Supercritical CO2 at Different Ambient Temperatures".

Finally, the 4th European sCO2 conference was rated with 4.4 stars and received a lot of praise for being well organized, for its interesting presentations as well as the pairing and matching of people of similar research interests. The 5th European sCO2 Conference will take place on March 14-16, 2023, in Prague.

The development of future turbomachinery requires tools which are capable of depicting and mapping physical effects in the entire fluid region, including phase transition. In particular, methods of three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (3D-CFD) constitute a promising instrument for this task.

In order to develop an all-encompassing 3D-CFD-method, the Chair of Turbomachinery has developed a numerical scheme. The new project’s aim is to implement this numerical scheme in TRACE, a software system of DLR which is used for the computation of the three-dimensional unsteady flow in multi-stage compressors and turbine components.

Stay tuned!

On 30 March, our former employee Schaham Schoar presented his disputation on the topic of Experimentelle und numerische Untersuchungen des Einsatzes von Materialien mit definierten Durchlässigkeitsbeiwerten und deren Verteilung in aerostatisch wirkenden Gasdichtungen.

Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Schoar’s presentation was not be held publicly. The chair congratulates Schaham Schoar cordially to his successfully passed disputation.

At the Chair of Turbomachinery, the applicability of quantum computers for the development of turbomachinery is currently being evaluated. Apart from the examination of mathematical basics, calculations conducted via the IBM Quantum Experience will be carried out. The figure illustrates a circuit used for determining random numbers. This circuit was executed on the IBM Q Valencia. 

The Centre of Rotating Equipment (CoRE) is a unique research, education, and training centre for turbomachinery in Duisburg that the University of Duisburg-Essen is establishing together with Siemens Energy. CoRE focalises cooperation and an exchange of knowledge between the university and its industry partners.

For this purpose, a new building was built on the Duisburg premises of Siemens Energy. The chair’s laboratory is also being equipped with the latest control system. The on-site research possibilities are intended to advance the flexibility and efficiency of turbomachinery and to pass on the findings to industry. This research will be of particular importance given the background of the energy transition which has to be executed in the following years.

Consequently, the cooperation between the university and Siemens Energy creates numerous synergy effects on both sides. For instance, the test rigs set up by the faculty for research purposes, including the latest control technology from Siemens, can be used for training and educational purposes. The goal is to efficiently train employees and customers on the university campus, strengthening Siemen’s customer relationships. On the other hand, the use of the facilities by Siemens Energy and its customers will also increase the university's visibility worldwide.

In return, students receive practical training in the operation, maintenance, and assembly of turbomachinery. Due to the establishment of the training centre at Siemens, it will be possible to offer them practical and industry-related internships or "hands-on lectures" in the near future. Thus, they are given the opportunity to gain practical experience close to industry and to link their theoretical knowledge with practice.

In addition, an international master's degree program in mechanical engineering with a specialization in turbomachinery will also be offered. For the latter, the industry uses its worldwide network, and together with the UDE, it selects excellent international students to provide them with a scholarship for the course and to link them with other local students. A unique master's course in turbomachinery is thus being established at the University of Duisburg-Essen, and in return, Siemens remains an innovative market leader in her field.

CoRE consequently enhances the extent of transfer and exchange between theory, practice, and industry in the field of turbomachinery, in which Germany already possesses unique selling points worldwide. The construction of the training centre will promote teaching, research, and innovation on the one hand but also the creation and maintenance of jobs and excellences on the other hand. Last but not least, it will also sustainably strengthen and promote the region's economy.

The German version of this article was also published in the faculty's Alumni Newsletter.

Following Botond Barabas, Bastian Dolle was next to present his dissertation which is titled: Experimenteller Beitrag zur verbesserten numerischen Simulation der turbulenten Strömung in Rückführkanälen mehrstufiger Radialverdichter. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the disputation was not be held publicly.

Dolle’s work and research at the Chair of Turbomachinery is concerned with the investigation of flow behaviour in stator components in radial compressors. The chair congratulates Bastian Dolle cordially to his successfully passed disputation.

Currently, the chair of turbomachinery possesses an axial compressor which is used for research on water injection without evaporation. However, the chair has just received the approval for equipment of about 1 Mio. € which will allow for conditioning the ambient air and the injected water to extend the work on wet compression. Thus, future research can be extended to investigations of the flow in axial compressors with evaporation of water, at different inlet conditions with temperatures up to 100°C.

Former employee of the chair Botond Barabas successfully held his disputation on 17 November. At the chair, his research was concerned with the investigation of water droplet behaviour and  evaporation processes, and later it developed into inquisitions of flows in rotor-stator cavities in radial compressors. Also, his presented dissertation was about the Experimentelle Untersuchung von Fluid-Struktur-Interaktionen in vereinfachten Radialverdichterradseitenräumen. The chair congratulates Botond Barabas cordially to his successfully passed disputation.

Dry Gas Seals (DGS), known as the non-contacting hydrodynamic seals, are commonly found in the turbo-compressors as a shaft-end sealing solution. They prevent the process fluid from leaking out of the machine into the atmosphere, which may pose a danger to people and the environment. As a result of a series of hydrodynamic structures on the sealing surface, a gas film in a region of merely a few microns ensures functionality of the seal under any operation conditions. Reliability and durability of DGSs are undoubtedly the primary concerns for turbo-compressors in high pressure and speed applications, and the micron gap can lead to a host of problems if it is not correctly understood. However, current models and measuring methods used in research on DGS can only provide limited information on the time dependent performance and influence of the individual parameters.

In order to close these gaps, within the scope of the chair’s new project a digital twin model of DGS is to be developed for the first time. An existing test bench at the laboratory serves as a basis for the experimental research of this digital twin and already possesses the required apparatus for testing the seals. Subsequently, established measuring methods will be implemented on this test bench and moreover will have to be continuously optimised for research purposes and further development. The methods should be able to test and assess different seal designs as well as different operating scenarios.

The development of the digital twin model will be consequently based upon the results of the experimental investigations. This digital model enables not only the in-advance optimizations of DGS but also the prognosis for the real-time performance. For validation, these changes are in turn studied in the simulation model where actual impacts as well as intensity of these impacts of individual parameters are measured and evaluated. These self-trained data sets will be stored in the digital twin model, which will then be adapted and continuously developed.

By developing a digital twin, it is possible to optimize DGS in their early design phase in varies ways; at the same time, the developed measuring methods can also be used for determining the current state of health of DGS in aftermarket. This in return allows the creation of a pro-active service concept, such as predictive maintenance. In addition, this research project provides in-depth insight into flows in narrow gaps of the hydrodynamic seals, which opens the possibility for the further development and researches.

At this year's Dies Academicus, the former student of the chair Christopher Ecker was awarded for his master thesis "Simulation of turbulence flows in return channels of multistage centrifugal compressors using various RANS and hybrid LES/RANS methods". We would like to congratulate him on this well-deserved award.

On 14 September, the EnergieAgentur.NRW hosted an online workshop on the topic of hydrogen compression which was initiated by Prof. Brillert.

Numerous experts from various research areas, companies and institutions were brought together, enabling a lively exchange treating the need of hydrogen compression, its potential and technology. Prof. Brillert held a presentation on hydrogen compression from an academic perspective.

The workshop closed with a 20-minute discussion which debated and reflected the need of additional support but also the existence of further barriers.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this year’s GPPS did not take place in Chania as originally planned. Instead, the organisers decided to host the conference as a pure online conference. Despite the circumstances, a comprehensive programme was put together: Papers were able to be presented parallelly, and even tutorials were held online. There also were special sessions for open access geometries and data sets.

In total, three papers that were written at the Chair of Turbomachinery were presented at the conference. The paper written by Sebastian Schuster, for example, dealt with the topic on how to transport hydrogen in pipelines at low cost. In terms of technical readiness levels, this paper was able to raise the formulated project to level 2. Level 1 (’Basic principles observed’) was met by observing the thermodynamic difference between CH4 and H2, and level 2 (’Technology concept formulated’) has been reached by showing that variable rotational speed is suitable to extend the operation range from compression of pure CH4 to pure H2.

Seit Anfang April betreut der Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen ein weiteres Forschungsprojekt. Dieses setzt sich mit der Wassereinspritzung in Radialverdichtern auseinander. In Axialverdichtern wird die Wassereinspritzung teilweise schon in der Praxis umgesetzt, um die Leistung der Turbine zu erhöhen, bzw. die Effizienz zu steigern. Dieses Potential soll nun auch für Radialverdichter nutzbar gemacht werden.

Um dieses Ziel zu erreichen, müssen umfassende Untersuchungen auf dem Bereich der Flüssigkeitseinspritzungen in Radialverdichtern durchgeführt werden. Zu diesem Zweck wird der Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen einen Prüfstand errichten, sodass das Verhalten des Radialverdichters mit und ohne Wassereinspritzungen komparativ untersucht werden kann. Zudem sollen unterschiedliche Düsen und Düsenpositionen getestet werden. Die aus diesen experimentellen Untersuchungen gewonnenen Erkenntnisse werden anschließend genutzt, um numerisch ein geeignetes Modell für die Primärtropfenverdunstung in Radialverdichtern zu erarbeiten und dieses in ein existierendes Meridianebenenverfahren (tFlow) zu implementieren. Diese Kombination aus experimentellen und numerischen Untersuchungen gewährleistet letztendlich eine Übertragung dieser Grundlagenuntersuchungen auf industrielle Zwecke und Dimensionen.

Da dieses Projekt zum Ziel hat, den Wirkungsrad sowie die Effizienz von Radialverdichtern zu erhöhen, erhält es besonders vor dem Hintergrund des zu vollziehenden Energiewandels Relevanz.

Das diesjährige Scientific Weekend fand in Aachen statt. Hier konnten sich die Mitarbeiter*innen des Lehrstuhls über den aktuellen Stand ihrer Projekte austauschen. Zudem hat der Lehrstuhl die Zeit in Aachen genutzt, um die Printenbäckerei Klein, welche vor über 100 Jahren gegründet wurde, zu besuchen.

Seit Anfang dieses Jahres organisiert und betreut der Lehrstuhl ein weiteres Projekt. Dieses untersucht strömungsinduzierte Schwingungen in Dampfturbinen-Regelventilen experimentell. Es ist Teil eines großen Verbundprojektes im Rahmen der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Turbomaschinen (AG-Turbo) mit über zwanzig weiteren Projekten.

Zur Untersuchung wird ein Prüfstand konstruiert, für den ein Dampfventil, welches in Kraftwerken für die Regelung von Dampfturbinen zu finden ist, modellhaft nachgebaut wird. Der Werkstoff, aus dem das Modell gefertigt wird, muss daher ein ähnliches Schwingungsverhalten der Struktur für die aerodynamischen und akustischen Anregungen aufweisen wie das Originalventil. In der Untersuchung selber wird dann die Schwingungsanregung bei unterschiedlichen Ventilhüben und Druckverhältnissen an verschiedenen Geometrien analysiert. Zudem werden in dem Projekt aerodynamische und akustische Ursachen der Ventilschwingungen erforscht.

Die Ergebnisse sollen unter anderem die Lücken im Verständnis über Schwingungsanregungen von Dampfventilen schließen und die Modellierung dieses Phänomens erlauben. Letztendlich wird damit einer der Grundsteine für die Entwicklung künftiger Dampfventile gelegt werden.

Bereits vor einem knappen Monat fand das Kick-off Meeting des neuen sCO2-4-NPP-Projektes in Paris statt. Das Meeting diente dem Ziel, sich mit allen Projektteilnehmern auf eine finale und detaillierte Roadmap zu einigen und noch einmal konkrete technische Details, Planungen und Abläufe durchzusprechen. Auch die anzuwendende Methodologie des Projektes sowie zu erwartende Ergebnisse und Fortschritte wurden besprochen und diskutiert.

Dieses Jahr kümmerte sich Herr Dohmen um die Organisation des Betriebsausfluges des Lehrstuhls für Strömungsmaschinen und konnte mit spannendem Programm alle Mitarbeiter begeistern.

Zuerst ging es zu einem Schießstand, an dem jeder Teilnehmer eine kleine professionelle Trainingseinheit im Luftgewehrschießen bekommen hat. Danach wurde ein kleiner Wettkampf mit ausgetragen. Der Gewinner Herr Dörr erhielt die goldene Ananas.

Nach dem aufregenden Start brachen die Mitarbeiter dann gemeinsam zu einer Besichtigung der ältesten funktionierenden Strömungsmaschine in Deutschland auf. Selbst alteingesessene Experten kamen aus dem Staunen gar nicht mehr heraus. Die Windmühle in Walbeck ist voll funktionsfähig und es wird dort wöchentlich gemahlen.

Der Abend klang gemütlich auf dem Hof von Herrn Dohmen bei hausgemachter Pizza und Essen vom Grill aus.

Am 19. Und 20. September dieses Jahres fand die dritte European Conference on Supercritical CO2 statt. Wissenschaftler aus ganz Europa kamen zusammen, um über die sinnvolle und sichere Anwendung von überkritischem CO2 (sCO2) zu sprechen.

Herr Professor Brillert, der Leiter des Lehrstuhls für Strömungsmaschinen an der Universität Duisburg-Essen, ist Vorsitzender der Konferenz, die in diesem Jahr in Paris stattfand. Zusammen mit Albannie Cagnac (Électricité de France) begrüßten Sie die Gäste und gaben dann das Wort an Roberto Passalacqua, Mitglied der EU Kommission, weiter, der die Konferenz mit dem Thema „EU commitment towards CO2 reduction“ einleitete. Mit der Aussage „Future generations will suffer because of our mistakes and delays in facing climate changes’ consequences“ traf er den wunden Punkt unserer Gesellschaft und unterstreicht damit die Wichtigkeit der Zielsetzung der Konferenz und ihrer Projekte, nämlich die Reduzierung der CO2 Emissionen.

In mehreren anschließenden Sitzungen wurden die Forschungsberichte der Konferenzteilnehmer besprochen und diskutiert. Dabei waren folgende Themenschwerpunkte vertreten:

• Heat Exchanger and Transfer
• Turbomachines and Power Systems
• sCO2 Experiments and Loops
• Application of sCO2 Usage
• Materials and sCO2 Mixtures

Am Ende der Konferenz wurde der Best Paper Award vergeben. Dieses Jahr ging er an Ales Vojacek, Tomas Melichar, Frantisek Doubek, Petr Hajek und Timm Hoppe für das Paper „Experimental Investigations and Simulations of the Control System in Supercritical CO2 Loop“.

Die vierte europäische sCO2 Konferenz wird im Zeitraum vom 22. bis 26. März 2021 in Prag stattfinden. Ein genauer Termin folgt.

In einem neuen Projekt des Lehrstuhls wird der Einfluss drallbehafteter Durchströmung von Rotor-Stator Kavitäten auf die Bildung akustischer Druckmuster (Moden) untersucht werden. In einem eigens dafür errichteten Prüfstand wird insbesondere der Einfluss folgender Parameter experimentell untersucht:

• Rotation der Scheibe
• Massenstrom der Durchströmung
• Durchströmungsrichtung
• Umfangsgeschwindigkeitskomponente der Durchströmung

Der vorhandene generische Prüfstand ist notwendig, um die Randbedingungen für die Versuche genauestens kontrollieren und entsprechende Parameter unabhängig voneinander vorgeben zu können. Wegen der Untersuchung grundsätzlicher Fragestellungen ist es ebenfalls wichtig, eine Scheibengeometrie zu verwenden, die nicht den technischen Anforderungen einer industriellen Turbomaschine unterliegt, daher wird eine einfache plangedrehte Scheibe verwendet. Damit trägt das Forschungsvorhaben zur generellen Beschreibung des Schwingungsverhaltens einer durch Druckfluktuationen des Fluids angeregten Scheibe innerhalb eines fluidgefüllten Raumes bei.

Diesmal gab es doppelten Grund zu feiern: Der jährlich stattfindende Stammtisch mit ehemaligen und derzeitigen Mitarbeitern des Lehrstuhls sowie Vertretern aus der Industrie, mit denen schon oft zusammenarbeitet wurde, wurde mit der Einweihung des neuen Prüfstandes zu Turbinenseitenräumen zusammengelegt. Der für das Projekt verantwortliche Mitarbeiter Florian Lapp gab jedem seiner Gäste eine kleine Vorstellung und Vorführung des Prüfstandes. Danach wurde auf die neue Errungenschaft angestoßen, gegrillt und sich ausgetauscht.

Kraftwerke, die mit Kohlendioxid CO2 bei höherem Druck und höherer Temperatur als im kritischen Punkt (pkrit ≈ 73,8 bar; Tkrit ≈ 31 °C), auch überkritisches Kohlendioxid genannt (sCO2), betrieben werden, haben das Potenzial zur Steigerung des Wirkungsgrades gegenüber bisherigen Dampfkraftwerken und tragen zur Erreichung der Klimaziele der EU bis 2030 bei. Das Fachgebiet für Strömungsmaschinen arbeitet jetzt an dem mittlerweile dritten EU-Projekt im Rahmen von überkritischem Kohlendioxid. Der Forschungsschwerpunkt liegt auf den Methoden zur Auslegung von Verdichtern und Turbinen betrieben mit sCO2.

Das Projekt mit dem Namen sCO2-4-NPP forscht an einem innovativen, auf sCO2 basierenden Wärmeabfuhrsystem, welches die Sicherheit nuklearer Kraftwerke erhöhen soll. Bereits das Vorläuferprojekt „sCO2-HeRo“ befasste sich mit der Entwicklung eines solchen Kühlsystems. Ziel hierbei war, die Restwärme aus Kernbrennstoffen sicher und ohne externe Energiequelle entfernen zu können. Bahnbrechend ist dabei, dass das entworfene System aus der Zerfallswärme selbst angetrieben wird, also selbstversorgend ist und somit auch dann einen Reaktorkern kühlen kann, wenn die Systeme ausfallen oder anderweitige Unfallszenarien vorliegen. Die Tests und Demonstrationen, die in dem Projekt durchgeführt worden sind, beweisen die Funktionstüchtigkeit und Ausgereiftheit dieses Systems. Es wurde beispielsweise festgestellt, dass mit der vorübergehenden Kühlung Zeit gewonnen werden kann, um das Kraftwerk wieder an das Netz anschließen zu können.

Das Ziel des sCO2-4-NPP-Projektes ist es nun, ein solches Kraftwerk in Notfallsituationen sogar mehr als einige Tage ohne menschliche Intervention auskommen lassen zu können. Dies wird die Sicherheit von Kernkraftwerken erheblich erhöhen, folglich das Vertrauen in diese stärken und damit die Aufnahme des Systems in den Markt in greifbare Nähe rücken. Zudem soll das Wärmeabfuhrsystem sowohl in Kraftwerke der zukünftigen Generation als auch in bereits vorhandene Kraftwerke eingebaut werden können. Dafür soll mithilfe von internationalen Partnern aus der Industrie und weiteren, hochqualifizierten (akademischen) Institutionen das Sicherheitssystem in einen Trainingssimulator eines Druckwasserreaktors implementiert werden, so dass Echtzeit-Simulationen durchgeführt werden können.

Das sCO2-4-NPP ist damit das zweite aktuell laufende EU-Projekt und das insgesamt dritte EU-Projekt des Fachgebietes zu diesem Thema. Gleichzeitig forscht das Fachgebiet an der Erhöhung der Flexibilität von Kraftwerken die mit Kohlendioxid im überkritischen Zustand betrieben werden sollen (sCO2-flex).

Um unsere Welt zu einem zukunftsträchtigen Ort zu machen, greift die EU tief in die Tasche. Die drei EU-Projekte, an denen sich das Fachgebiet für Strömungsmaschinen bisher beteiligen und verantworten durfte, wurden bisher mit über 10 Millionen Euro finanziert.

Das Format der Exkursion zum Siemens-Werk nach Berlin hat Tradition. Auch diesmal erhielten unsere Studenten die Möglichkeit dorthin zu reisen und an zwei Tagen an verschiedenen Werksbesichtigungen teilzunehmen. Diesmal begleiteten uns auch drei Doktorandinnen der TU Darmstadt.

Am ersten Tag wurde das Gasturbinenwerk mit den Bereichen der Fertigung und Montage besichtigt. Der Abend wurde für Entdeckungstouren durch Berlin genutzt.

Am zweiten Tag wartete ein besonderes Highlight auf die Teilnehmenden. Es ging zum Trainingscenter für Gasturbinen der Siemens AG. Hier konnte mithilfe der Virtual Reality eine Gasturbine gewartet werden. Das Potential dessen als Lehrmethode war sofort spürbar. Deshalb versucht der Lehrstuhl für das kommende Wintersemester einen solchen virtuellen Trainingsraum für den Masterstudiengang einzurichten.

Die Exkursion wurde teilweise durch die Fördergelder vom Förderverein Ingenieurswissenschaften der Universität Duisburg-Essen finanziert, weshalb wir uns im Zuge dessen noch einmal ganz herzlich bei diesem bedanken wollen.

Auch in diesem Jahr wurde die Turboverdichter-Vorlesung wieder durch zahlreiche interessante Gastbeiträge von Mitarbeitern der Siemens AG bereichert. Darunter befanden sich einige bekannte Gesichter, wie zum Beispiel das des Herrn Dipl.-Ing. Klaus Steff, der  seit 2014 den Vortrag zum Thema „Ein kombinierter experimenteller und numerischer Ansatz zur Quantifizierung von strömungsinduzierten dynamischen Kräften in Dichtungen“ hält. Auch Herr Dipl.-Ing. Frank Heidtmann, der seinen ersten Vortrag zum Thema „Einsatz von aktiven Magnetlagern in Turboverdichtern“ bereits 2017 zum ersten Mal an unserer Universität hielt, war wieder mit dabei. Ganz besonders freuen wir uns über Frau Dr.-Ing. Beate Langenhan, die in diesem Jahr zum ersten Mal Gastdozierende im Rahmen unserer Vorlesung war. Sie hielt den spannenden  Vortrag zum Thema „Werkstoffe für Turboverdichter“.
Im Namen aller Beteiligten bedanken wir uns herzlich bei den Mitarbeitern der Siemens AG und bei Siemens selbst. Denn nur durch die gemeinsame Kooperation ist dieses Format möglich, durch welches der wissenschaftliche Austausch praxisorientiert gefördert wird.

Hier finden Sie einen Überblick über alle Gastvortragenden in allen Vorlesungen.

Der Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen feiert die Habilitation von Herrn Dr.-Ing. habil. Hans-Josef Dohmen und gratuliert ihm dazu ganz herzlich. Von nun an kann er im Fach Strömungsmaschinen Forschung und Lehre selbstständig vertreten.

Zur Feier des Tages gab es außerdem bereits einen kleinen Umtrunk, der in persönlicher Runde unter den Mitarbeitern stattgefunden hat. Zur Feier seiner Habilitation plant Herr Dohmen nun einen Betriebsausflug mit Übernachtung im Heu…

In der Juni-Ausgabe des Almuni Newsletters ist diesmal ein einseitiger Text zum neuen EU-Projekt des Lehrstuhls zu finden. Das Projekt wird am Lehrstuhl im September 2019 aufgenommen.

Download Alumni Newsletter Juni 2019

Am 24. April jährte sich zum 26. Mal die Berufung von Herrn Prof. Dr. Benra zum Universitätsprofessor.  All diese Jahre widmete er seine leidenschaftliche und erfolgreiche Arbeit dem Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen an unserer Universität, baute ihn mit auf und trieb ihn voran. Heute gilt der Lehrstuhl europaweit als anerkannte Forschungsstelle und kompetenter Partner auf dem Gebiet der Strömungsmaschinen.

Dieses Jubiläum stellte aber gleichzeitig auch Benras Verabschiedung in den wohlverdienten Ruhestand dar. Zu diesem Anlass versammelten sich zahlreiche enge Partner aus der Industrie sowie ehemalige und aktuelle Doktoranden im Gerhard-Mercator-Haus. Einige von ihnen hielten lebendige Reden, um sich gebührend von Prof. Benra zu verabschieden. Und auch Benra selbst ließ es sich nicht nehmen, seine eigene Biographie mit einer perfekten Mischung aus Ernsthaftigkeit und Humor zu präsentieren. Nach einer anschließenden Laborführung fand der Abend seinen Abschluss in einem reichhaltigen Buffet und einem gemeinsamen, netten Zusammensitzen.

Die Verabschiedung von Herrn Prof. Benra läutet zugleich die vollständige Übergabe der Lehrstuhlleitung an Herrn Prof. Brillert ein.

Ende März war ein großer Teil  des Lehrstuhls in Hannover an der Leibniz Universität, um an den Arbeitskreissitzungen Verdichtung und Expansion im Rahmen der AG Turbo teilzunehmen. Hier wurden alle Projekte der obengenannten Arbeitskreise, die im Umfang der Verbundprojekte bearbeitet wurden und werden, vorgestellt und diskutiert. Die Teilnehmer hatten während der Veranstaltung des zweitägigen Treffens sogar noch die Möglichkeit, die Baustelle des neuen Campus Maschinenbau in Garbsen (CMG) zu besichtigen.

Das diesjährige Scientific Weekend führte die Mitarbeiter des Lehrstuhls nach Osnabrück, wo diese ihre laufenden und geplanten Projekte vorstellen und diskutieren konnten. Neben dem regen Austausch über die Projekte, stand jedoch auch das Personal- und Projektmanagement im Vordergrund.

Herr Prof. Dr. Brillert hat dieses Jahr beim Uni-Colleg einen Vortrag zum Thema „Wie verhindern wir den Black-out: Wege von der fossilen zur regenerativen Stromerzeugung“ gehalten.  In dem Vortrag drehte sich alles darum, welche Bedeutung Strom in unserer Gesellschaft hat, welche Veränderungen die Energiewende für die Stromversorgung mit sich bringt und was wir in der Forschung tun müssen, um ein stabiles Stromnetz gewährleisten zu können. Bei seinem Vortrag stützte er sich öfter auf das fiktionale Blackout-Szenario, wie es von Marc Elsberg in seinem gleichnamigen Roman beschrieben wurde. Die Teilnehmer durften sich auf diese und viele weitere spannende Themen freuen. Alle haben sich an an der anschließenden Diskussionsrunde rege beteiligt.

Hier finden Sie den vollständigen Artikel.

This year’s Technology Forum with Siemens aimed at a joint exchange working out collaborative future topics in research and development. Among others, the UDE Chair enabled its guests to visit the turbomachinery laboratory. Together they inspected current research projects and test rigs. However, not only the departments of the faculty (Civil Engineering (BW), Electrical Engineering and Information Technology (EIT), Computer Science and Applied Science (INKO), Mechanical and Process Engineering (MBVT)) could present their visions of the future, but also the Siemens AG provided valuable insights into its new corporate structure.

The 2nd European sCO2 Conference was held at the Gesellschaft für Simulatorschulung  mbH (GfS) and Kraftwerksschule eV (KWS) in Essen, Germany, on 30th-31st August 2018. The conference was dedicated as the final conference of the sCO2-HeRo project, and supplied a professional forum for sCO2-related presentations from sCO2-HeRo members and external participants. 20 presenters showed their recent work to an international audience of about 55 participants from science and industry mainly from Europe, but also from the USA and China.

Read more

16.7.2018

Am Donnerstag, 12. Juli 2018, bot der Siemens Nachwuchskreis Duisburg/Essen interessierten Studierenden die Gelegenheit, sich am Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen über ein Fachpraktikum bei Siemens zu informieren. Während der dreistündigen Veranstaltung stelle Kristin Reinke den Duisburger Standort von Siemens vor und erläuterte die Rahmenbedingungen für das Praktikum. 

04.06.2018

Vom 11. bis 15. Juni dreht sich in der norwegischen Stadt Lillestrøm, ca. 18 Kilometer von Oslo entfernt, alles um das Thema Turbomaschinen. Bei der internationalen ASME Turbo Expo Konferenz und Ausstellung kommen jährlich Experten aus der ganzen Welt zusammen. Der Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen ist auch in diesem Jahr mit Vorträgen in mehreren Sessions vertreten und stellt aktuelle Forschungsvorhaben und -ergebnisse zur Diskussion.

Das vollständige Programm gibt es hier

08.03.2018

Martin Ahlers von der NRZ traf sich mit Prof. Dieter Brillert, um mehr über das seit 2017 laufende EU-Projekt "sCO2-Flex" zu erfahren. Gemeinsam mit neun Partnern aus ganz Europa arbeitet der UDE-Lehrstuhl für Strömungsmaschinen an einem innovativen Kraftwerk, das mit Kohlendioxid im überkritischen Bereich betrieben werden soll.

Zur Online-Ausgabe des NRZ-Artikels "EU-Projekt fördert Forschung für das Kraftwerk der Zukunft"

01.03.2018

Im aktuellen ALUMNI-Newsletter Ingenieurwissenschaften ist ein Bericht über den Besuch des Kraftwerks "Hermann Wenzel" der Thyssenkrupp Steel Europe in Duisburg erschienen. 20 Studierende des Masterstudiengangs Maschinenbau nahmen an der Exkursion teil.

Download des aktuellen ALUMNI Newsletters

23.10.2017

In diesem Jahr führte das jährlich stattfindende Scientific Weekend des UDE-Lehrstuhls für Strömungsmaschinen die Mitarbeiter und Mitarbeiterinnen nach Paderborn. Neben dem fachlichen Austausch über laufende und geplante Projekte nutzte das Team die gemeinsame Zeit auch für den Besuch des Heinz Nixdorf Museums, welches aktuell das größte Computermuseum der Welt ist.

9.11.2016

Ganz im Zeichen von "Digitalisierung & Industrie 4.0" stand der 7. Siemens-Hochschultag. Nach einem Impulsvortrag entwickelten die knapp 50 teilnehmenden Wissenschaftler und wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiter in verschiedenen Diskussions- und Arbeitsforen neue Kooperationsideen. Die UDE ist eine – von wenigen auserwählten – „Siemens Principal Partner Universities“. 

Ausführliche Pressemitteilung