Universität
Siegen
The University of Siegen is a relatively young University in German with some 12,000 students. Located in an traditional iron ore and steel area, its three technical departments “Civil Engineering”, “Mechanical Engineering”, “Electrical Engineering and Information science” (out of 12 faculties) are rather strong. The laboratory for fluid flow machinery is part of “mechanical engineering”. For many years its focus is on research and development of fan and fan systems. The laboratory is equipped with state-of-the-art experimental test facilities such as two fan test rigs including a duct with anechoic determination, an anechoic chamber with throughflow, as small low turbulence/low noise wind tunnel. The laboratory is linked to the faculty’s own workshop with 14 skilled workers and latest equipment such as multi-axis milling machines, rapid prototyping etc. Theoretical tools such as an in-house fan design code (aerdoynamic and aeroacoustic), commercial and in-house CFD-codes are available.
Specific skills for ECOQUEST
For the planned work in ECOQUEST a new PhD student will be
recruited. She or he will be integrated into the present group
consisting of several PhD and master students and laboratory
personnel. The main working areas of the group are aerodynamics
and acoustics of rotating machinery. Major projects are
financed by the FLT e.V. (Forschungsgemeinschaft Luft- und
Trocknungstechnik) in the VDMA via the AiF (Arbeitsgemeinschaft
industrieller Forschung), a subsidiary of the the German
Federal Ministry of Economy. The group is also partner in many
industrial projects.
Key personal
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas CAROLUS is head of the laboratory for fluid flow machinery at the faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Siegen. He earned his Dipl.-Ing. degree at the Technical University of Karlsruhe in 1980 and a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA in 1979. He performed his Ph.D. thesis in fluid flow machinery at the Technical University of Karlsruhe. In 1986 he was hired as group leader Heating, Ventilating, Air conditioning by the German automotive supplier Robert Bosch, Stuttgart before he was appointed professor in 1990. He teaches fluid flow machinery, fluid power and technical acoustics. Recently he participated in an EU-Craft project on wind systems for pipe organs, currently he is partner in the FB7 program FLOCON. He is member of the Deutsche Akustische Gesellschaft (DEGA) and the Verein Deutscher Ingenieure (VDI), where he is the head of the regional energy group. Prof. Carolus will supervise the work which will partly be carried out by a new PhD student recruited for the project.
Dipl.-Ing. B. Homrighausen is a graduate from the University of Siegen. For more than 20 years he is employed in the group. His responsibility is the design of prototypes, experiments and the instrumentation. He also supervises the manufacture of parts and assemblies in the faculty’s own workshop with 14 skilled workers and latest equipment such as multi-axis milling machines, rapid prototyping etc.
Expected outcome/exploitable results and ’action plan' to get results in use
The expected outcomes for USI are scientifically based
advanced tools and data bases for low noise turbo machinery
design. Being a university institute not only the tools but
also the methods developed for experimental validation and
assessment of accuracy are important outcomes. After all a
systematic design parameter study including a sensitivity
analysis is an outcome which directly leads to the practical
applications in the ECOQUEST. Beyond the application in
ECOQUEST publications including peer reviewing is a further
action to get the results in use.