Fields of Research

Our department works closely with industrial partners to understand the phenomena present in flotation facilities, to make energy usage more efficient, as well as to open up avenues towards novel design ideas.

Removal and treatment of municipal and industrial waste water is of great importance to reduce pollution and eutrophication of natural watercourses and is part of a sustainable use of water resources.

We develop se­paration techniques for rare-earth ions using ­magnetic fields and innovative tools to analyze the complex transport processes involved.

The Cen­ter of Interface Studies (CIS) has set itself the goal of advancing interface research through interdisciplinary collaboration. Founded by three institutes of the HZDR, it integrates different methods and expertise to develop a comprehensive understanding of interface phenomena.

The efficiency of thermal energy and se­paration processes has a decisive influence on energy supply and energy consumption worldwide. Research into innovative approaches to energy generation using supercritical CO₂ as a working medium as well as energy-optimised phase contacting and reducing the size of se­paration equipment are of crucial importance for resource-saving energy generation and use.

Liquid metals offer a range of benefits when used for energy storage and energy con­version: cost-effective production, high cycle numbers and high scalability

Gas-evolving electrodes and electrodeposition processes are in the focus of our works performed in close collaboration with IFW Dresden. Our particular interest is on the contactless enhancement of mass transport by means of a ­magnetohydrodynamic convection.

The DREsden Sodium facility for DYNamo and thermohydraulic studies (DRESDYN) is an infrastructure project devoted both to large scale liquid sodium experiments with geo- and astrophysical background, as well as to investigations of various energy related ­techno­logies.

Cosmic ­magnetic fields play a surprisingly active role in cosmic structure formation by fostering outward angular momentum transport and inward mass accretion onto central objects, like protostars or black holes, by means of the ­magnetorotational instability (MRI). At the PROMISE experiment, two special ­versions of MRI, the helical MRI and the azimuthal MRI are investigated.

Thermally driven convection can be found in many areas of nature and technology. Particularly interesting from a geo-and astrophysical point of view are convection flows at ­very low Prandtl numbers, ie in fluids with low viscosity and particularly high thermal conductivity. Experiments with the lowest Prandtl numbers can only be achieved with liquid metals and pose a great challenge.

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One focus of the ongoing activities is the further development of the baseline model for poly-disperse bubbly flows. The inhomogeneous MUSIG model (iMUSIG) provides a suitable modelling framework while the closure models including all ­para­meters are well defined.

In many gas-liquid flows with relevance for applications different morpho­logies of the interfacial structure (disperse or segregated) occur in ­parallel and transitions between these morpho­logies have to be considered. The innovative GENTOP-concept is a good basis for the simulation of such flows.

Our activities aim on the qualification of multiphase CFD-methods as a tool for the optimization of industrial ap­paratuses and processes as well for safety analyses. Some examples for applications and projects are given here.

Within this project the main developments for the numerical simulation of multiphase flows at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf are transferred to the OpenFOAM Foundation software. The complete access to the source code, in contrast to commercial CFD software, give rise to much more possibilities concerning the development of new physical models and simulation methods.

The optimization of processes in metallurgy or in the crystallization of semiconductor materials with regard to product quality and energy efficiency requires a profound understanding of the flow processes in the melts.

Innovative electrical and inductive heating ­techno­logies are implemented in high-temperature processes in steelmaking, glass and ceramics production, the cement industry and chemical engineering to replace fossil sources.

The development and validation of computational fluid dynamics models and codes require experimental data with high spatial and temporal resolution. Such valueable data can be obtained by suitable experimental studies at our thermal hydraulic test facilities TOPFLOW and TOPFLOW+.