Charlie Westpfel presenting at NICFD2024

Last week members of the Energy and Materials Engineering Research Centre attended the 5^th International Seminar on Non-Ideal Compressible Fluid Dynamics for Propulsion and Power (NICFD). This conference brings together researchers studying the fluid dynamics of compressible reactive and non-reactive flows of fluids that do not obey the ideal gas law.

The NICFD2024 conference was held at Ecole Centrale de Lyon on the 30^th and 31^st October 2024, and members of the research centre presented their latest work related to two-phase expanding flows within organic Rankine cycle (ORC) power systems. The topic of two-phase NICFD flows is also relevant to a range of other energy technologies including supercritical carbon dioxide power cycles, heat pumps and refrigeration systems.

Charlie Westpfel, a second year PhD student within the research centre, presented details on a new test rig that is being developed within his PhD to study the expansion of two-phase mixtures of organic fluids within converging-diverging nozzles.

Later, Dr Martin White, Senior Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, joined a panel discussion on the future of non-ideal compressible fluid dynamics flows, where he shared his views on the challenges and opportunities surrounding the study of two-phase NICFD flows.