The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest university in Greece with more than 70000 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 2000 academic personnel. The Department of Mechanical Engineering was established in 1972 and currently has 30 faculty members and approximately 1000 students. The energy sector is the largest division of the Department and specializes on thermodynamics, internal combustion engines, heat transfer, fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, gas turbines, turbomachinery, numerical modelling, physical processes techniques, renewable energy sources, environmental engineering. The Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery (LFMT) has significant expertise and widespread activities in computational and experimental fluid mechanics and turbomachinery. In particular, the academic staff of the laboratory works in aircraft engine technology, experimental and computational aerodynamics, turbulent flow and transition modelling. It has developed computer codes to solve the Navier-Stokes equations in 3 dimensional cases for laminar, turbulent and compressible flows. The activity of the laboratory includes also two-phase flows, acoustics and instrumentation. Furthermore, the laboratory has a strong involvement with the Greek and European Industry as well as exchanges and collaboration with a large number of European Universities. Research work and services rendered to industry range from computational and experimental studies of internal flows, external aerodynamics, turbulence, turbo and hydraulic machinery, computational fluid dynamics and flow measurement, to calibration of flowmeters, design and analysis of pumps, fans and wind turbines, software development for flow studies, and instrumentation development for flow measurements. Finally, the laboratory has participated in numerous research programmes funded by the European Commission as well as carried out research work in association with Rolls-Royce, SNECMA, MTU, FLAKT, VOLVO and other European, Japanese and American industrial partners.
Role in the project
The Aristotle University long-standing experience in scientific projects on turbomachinery for aerospace applications and simulations of steady and unsteady phenomena will be used to support the present project as follows:
- numerical investigation of the different expander configurations (WP2)
- numerical investigation of the storage materials and heat exchanging systems (WP3)
- subsequent analysis of the results to produce an optimized package
- contribution to the design and the material selection of heat exchangers (WP2) of the installation and the use of compressed metal foam to enhance transfer efficiency in compact heat exchangers
- exploration of the affordability and environmental compatibility of next generation heat exchangers for innovative PUMP-HEAT systems as a means of developing suitable design and optimization methods for these heat exchanges
- leader of the project results dissemination thanks to its international networking, taking part to international conferences and involving students in the promotion of the research (WP6)
Members
Mr. Anestis I. Kalfas, PhD - Professor: Anestis Kalfas is a tenured Associate Professor at Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery, Department of Mechanical Engineering at AUTH. He received his PhD in Turbomachinery Aerodynamics from Cranfield University (UK) in 1994 and his Dipl.-Ing. Mech. Eng. Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He worked as a Research Associate at the Whittle Lab., University of Cambridge and as an Aircraft Engineer at the Hellenic Air Force. He has been a Senior Scientist at the Turbomachinery Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (CH), since July 2000 where he lectured in Turbomachinery Design. Prof. Kalfas has led a number of industrially sponsored programmes as a principal investigator. He has participated in the European research program DREAM, on noise modelling produced by open rotor aircraft engines. He is also, active in the areas of axial steam and gas-turbine aerodynamics, gas-turbine and aircraft engine performance, power plant optimization, aero acoustics, boundary layer transition and turbulence and novel instrumentation technology.
Mr. Theofilos Efstathiadis: he is a Ph.D. candidate at the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH). He received his Dipl.-Ing. in Mechanical Engineering from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2012 specializing in fluid mechanics and turbomachinery. Theofilos Efstathiadis worked as a mechanical engineer at “Makedoniki Energeiaki”, focusing on solar thermal power generation for building applications. He also worked as a research associate at the laboratory of Process Systems Design and Implementation (PSDI), which is affiliated to the Chemical Process & Energy Resources Institute (CPERI), in the Centre for Research and Technology Hellas (CERTH), the largest research centre in Northern Greece which was founded in March 2000. Theofilos Efstathiadis is a member of American Society of Mechanical Engineer (ASME).
Mr. Vasilis Gkoutzamanis: Vasilis Gkoutzamanis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Physics and a Master of Science in Energy Systems. He is currently a PhD candidate at the Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics and Turbomachinery of the Department of Mechanical Engineering of AUTH in Greece. His developed skills and scientific expertise are mainly in thermodynamics and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). He has been involved as a CFD analyst on the design and development of an innovative rotary engine since 2014. He has also been involved with CFD and thermodynamic analysis of low speed turbomachines (hydro-turbines, wind-turbines) during his Master’s degree.