The TOPFLOW (Transient TwO Phase FLOW Test Facility) thermal-hydraulic experimental facilities are used to investigate thermal-hydraulic phenomena under realistic operating conditions. Experiments are conducted in industry-relevant geometries representative of chemical process engineering as well as conventional and nuclear energy systems. The research activities include air–water and steam–water flow investigations, flash evaporation of refrigerants in the TERESA facility, and experiments with supercritical CO₂ in the CARBOSOLA loop.

With an area of around 750 m², the experimental hall offers ample space for fluid-dynamic experiments on seven variable test booth with individual media supply terminals and a se­parated X-ray laboratory. The range of experimental facilities ranges from generic experiments on flow structures and phenomena in pipes, to experiments on distillation columns and multiphase reactors with mass transfer studies, and to studies on improving efficiencies in wastewa­ter treatment.

Through the development, construction, and operation of this test facility, componen­ts will be tested, and generic experiments will be conducted to obtain data for the modeling and simulation of flows and heat transport in sCO₂.

In the TERESA experimental facility, fluid dynamic aspects of thermal se­paration columns for critical material systems are reproduced. Featuring a refrigerant cycle process with 3M™Novec™649, flash evaporation and vapor-liquid phase interaction can be studied in se­paration-effective internals at low surface tensions and viscosities and variable vapor-liquid density differences.

Main field of application of the facilities are the non-invasive radiographic, radioscopic and/or ­tomo­graphic investigation of multiphase flow phenomena in non-transparent (opaque) and inaccessible fluids, in particular in the context of reactor safey research and the fundamental research in the field of liquid and solidifying metals and metal alloys.

The chemical engineering research group possesses up-to-date equipped chemical and physical laboratories. Among a wet chemistry lab and measuring equipment for thermo-physical properties, se­veral reaction calori­meters, miniplants and chemical analysers are available.