Heat Transfer 2008

Tenth International Conference on Advanced Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements in Heat Transfer

pcr2.jpg9 - 11 July 2008
Maribor, Slovenia

 Overview

HeatTransfer08.jpgThe 10th International Conference on Advanced Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements in Heat Transfer (Heat Transfer 08) took place at the University of Maribor, Slovenia, organised by the University of Maribor, Lund University of Technology in Sweden and the Wessex Institute of Technology (WIT) in the UK.

The Conference considered recent advances in different mechanisms of heat transfer such as heat conduction, convection, thermal radiation, non-linear phenomena, temperature dependent material properties, phase changes and others, some of which can, in many cases, occur simultaneously.

The conference considers in particular, the most recent developments in numerical methods and the importance of developing them in close interaction with experimental techniques.

Previous meetings were held in Portsmouth (1988); Milan (1992); Southampton (1994); Udine (1996); Krakow (1998); Madrid (2000); Halkidiki (2002); Lisbon (2004); and The New Forest (2006).

 Opening Address

heat1.jpgProfessor Leopold Skerget opened the meeting by welcoming the delegates to Maribor and in particular to this conference.  He referred to the links between his research group and the Wessex Institute of Technology.

The meeting was then addressed by Professor Carlos Brebbia, Director of WIT and Co-Chairman of the Conference, who spoke of the importance of this meeting for the Institute’s activities.  WIT acts as a mechanism for knowledge transfer at international level and the meeting series is an important part of this function.  This conference in particular brings together scientists from a large number of different countries and help to establish links between institutions and research groups.  The promotion of these activities is one of the main objectives of WIT and aims to complement, rather than compete with, other academic institutions.

WIT, Professor Brebbia said, has long term links with the host institution, the University of Maribor, through the work of Professor Skerget and his team working on Computational Fluid Mechanics as well as close collaboration with the other Co-Chairman of the Conference, Professor Bengt Sunden, from the University of Lund.  Professor Sunden has not only organised this Conference for a long time, but is also the Editor in Chief of the WIT Press Series “Developments in Heat Transfer”, which publishes edited books on a variety of new advances in this important field.

Professor Brebbia mentioned further developments at the WIT Campus and concluded by thanking the University of Maribor for hosting this important event.

 Conference Sessions

heat4.jpgThe Conference sessions cover a series of papers grouped in the following sessions:
  • Advances in computational methods
  • Advances in BEM
  • Natural and forced convection
  • Modelling and experiments
  • Heat exchangers
  • Heat recovery
  • Heat transfer

 Invited Presentations

The keynote address was given by the Conference Co-Chairman, Professor Bengt Sunden on the topic of “On condensation of plate heat exchangers”.  

Other invited talks were as follows:
  • “Lattice Boltzmann Method mesoscale modelling of porous media” by ACM Souza, University of New Brunswick, Canada and University of Aveiro, Portugal
  • “Advances in gas turbine blade cooling technology”, by RS Amano, University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, USA
  • “Thermal investigation of light emitting diodes”, by K Domke, Poznan University of Technology, Poland

 Excursions

The conference programme offered the delegates several occasions for further contact and professional exchanges in a series of social functions and special events.  There were a series of complimentary lunches and dinners in addition to the usual refreshment breaks to increase the possibility for developing closer contacts.

A highlight of the social functions during the Conference was the visit to Ptuj which was one of the most important towns of Central Europe during the Middle Ages, and is one of the oldest towns in Slovenia.

The picturesque castle above the town of Ptuj has defended the settlement below its walls for centuries.  The earliest archaeological findings are from the end of the 3rd Millennium B.C.  The oldest buildings still standing are from the Middle Ages.  The delegates were shown around the Castle by a guide provided by the local Town Hall who described in detail the history of the building and the different works of art on display.

At the end of the tour, the delegates were shown around the oldest wine cellar in the town which provides wines of excellent quality.  They were welcomed there by the Mayor of Ptuj who offered a wine testing session and gave each of them a bottle of wine as a parting gift.  The Mayor referred to the efforts made by the city to attract visitors and capitalize on its unique history.  Ptuj was known in Roman times as Poetovia and is mentioned in one of Tacitus’ works in 69AD.  The town now has excellent hotel facilities and a well known spa and will undoubtedly become better known in the future.

Professor Brebbia thanked the Mayor for his friendly welcome and referred to the long existing links between his Institute and the University of Maribor.  He then proceeded to present the Mayor with a copy of the latest edition of the New Forest Book which describes the environment of Ashurst Lodge.

heat2.jpg        heat3.jpg

At the end of the wine tasting session, the delegates proceeded to have a banquet in an excellent riverside restaurant offering local specialities.  The whole evening was most enjoyable and helped to cement the contacts among the participants.

A technical excursion took place during the afternoon of the second day of the meeting.  The participants were taken by bus to Turboinstitut, an organisation with 60 years of tradition in research and development of hydraulic machinery and more than 20 years of experience in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).  It is now one of the worlds recognised leading industrial users of computationally intensive methods for engineering and research applications.  The main activities of Turboinstitut are water turbines and pump research and development, design, manufacturing and engineering of equipment for small hydropower plants, and the organisation has cooperated with Universities at post-graduate level.

Turboinstitut has recently installed a supercomputing centre with some of the most powerful computers in Europe.  It promotes the applications of CFD in research, industrial applications and the use of supercomputer capabilities in Slovenia and its surrounding region.  The supercomputing centre has been established to further CFD analysis in industry and deals with turbine research and development, fluid flow simulation, small hydraulic power plants and pump design.  They carry out testing for many clients in different countries around the world and specialise in the manufacturing of small, one piece runners for Francis, Kaplan and Pelton turbines as well as compressors and pumps.  Their turbines provided up to 10MW power.

More recently, the Turboinstitut decided to set up its own CFD facilities to reduce the amount of experimental testing.  The idea is to be able to carry out many computer tests and optimize the design at the end of which a single experiment on a reduced scale model can be done to confirm the solution.  They have chosen ANSYS packages and the new multiprocess supercomputer has been built by IBM.  The delegates were shown CFD results obtained for a Francis turbine using 3 million elements.

The delegates were impressed by the potentialities of the Turboinstitut which combines a well grounded experience in the manufacturing of small turbines and experiments on small scale models, with a sound knowledge of CFD.  The current emphasis on distributed energy production sources gives them a competitive advantage over larger manufacturing companies.

 Publication of Papers

The proceedings of Advanced Computational Methods and Experiments in Heat Transfer X, 240pp (ISBN: 1-84564-122-1) are available in hard back from WIT Press priced at £79/US$158/€118.50. Orders can be placed by telephone: +44 (0) 238 029 3223, fax: +44 (0) 238 029 2853, e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via the WIT Press web site at: www.witpress.com

Papers from the conference will also be hosted online at the WIT eLibrary as Volume 61 of WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences (ISSN: 1743-3533). For more details visit the WIT eLibrary at: library.witpress.com