Young Scientists – Juniorprofessor Gregor D. Wehinger stellt sich vor

This article introduces assistant professor Gregor D. Wehinger of the Institute of Chemical and Electrochemical Process Engineering at Clausthal University of Technology. Besides recent research projects and teaching activities, he gives an overview about his commitment to the community. He reports on current research results in the field of CFD modeling of packed-bed reactors, redox-flow batteries, and multiphase systems. Furthermore, the use of virtual reality in teaching is presented.     

Experimentelle und numerische Untersuchungen von Brandszenarien vor Fassaden unter Berücksichtigung verschiedener Abstände

Experimental and numerical investigations of fire scenarios in front of façades considering various distances Constructional boundary conditions, e. g. walls or façades, close to ignition sources affect the fire formation and the plume. It is already known, that boundaries (e. g. walls) constrain the entrainment of air and oxygen into the plume and the combustion of gas or flammable products is completed at larger heights. How far the location of the fire sources, the building geometry and the heat release rate affect the characteristics of a flame is investigated at the Institut für Baustoffe, Massivbau und Brandschutz (iBMB) of TU Braunschweig in line with a series of experiments with a square gas burner. For the implementation of the fire tests the test rig in Braunschweig is provided with extensive measurement techniques to determine heat flux, wall‐bounded temperatures, temperatures for plume measurements and upward velocity. In this paper the data of the fire tests are discussed and compared with the results of a CFD‐Model and selected empirical calculation approaches.     

Kleine Ursache – großer Schaden – Fortsetzung einer komplexen Baumaßnahme im Anschluss an eine Havarie

Simple cause – extensive damage. Continuation of a complex project in connection with an accident. In September 2008 at the Müritz‐Elde‐channel the new weir Lewitz could be started‐up. The originally planned construction period amounted to 15 months; however, about three years were actually needed. During the production of a temporary bypass in March 2006 an accident occurred. The consequences of the damage had to be eliminated first, before the planned project could be continued. Subsequently, the construction sequences and procedures had to be adapted to the changed boundary conditions. The accident, the removal of the damages and the effects to the building contract are represented in the following.     

Design of the new guide vane for the turbo air classifier

The guide vane is a common guide part in a turbo air classifier. However, there is a lack of a theoretical design basis and an analogy method is often used to design the guide vanes. The guide vanes’ effects of improving the flow field distribution are obtained by means of comparison of the flow field of the classifiers with and without guide vanes. However, the guide vane of a 15° setting angle should be optimized due to the non-uniform airflow circumferential distribution in the annular region. To obtain a well-distributed flow field of a turbo air classifier, a design method for the guide vane is provided based on the airflow trajectory in the volute and a new guide vane of a 10° setting angle is designed under the operating condition of 12–1200. The numerical simulation results show that the standard deviation of circumferential radial and tangential velocity is decreased. Besides, the trajectories of the particles with the same size in different circumferential positions show their classification results are consistent. This guide vane design method is feasible and provides the design references for the turbo air classifiers.     

Modellierung von Tunnelbränden

Modeling tunnel fires – Coupling of fluid and structure The current technology allows the coupling of the temperature‐dependent heat transfer mechanisms in case of fire within the structural components and at their surface by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this paper the thermal coupling of a fluid and a solid region in case of a 100 MW tunnel fire caused by a truck was carried out with CFD. The transient fire simulations were performed with the CFD program ANSYS Fluent. The fire was modeled by the combustion of n‐heptane (C₇H₁₆) using the eddy dissipation model. The fluid and the solid region were coupled by an interface. The unsteady heat conduction for the 0.4 m thick concrete structure is modeled by using the Fourier heat transfer equation. The transient thermal behavior of quartz containing concrete component was analyzed. Temperature‐dependent material properties were considered.