Transport Processes & Process Equipment Laboratory

The Laboratory of Transport Processes & Process Equipment is able to carry out collaborative or contract research on flow related problems in industry, exploitation of renewable energy sources, geothermal heat pump systems, water reuse, energy saving in industries and buildings and, in general, on topics related to the research interest of the personnel of the Laboratory.

Main research Areas

• Free flows, two-phase liquid/gas flow, analysis and design of transport processes
• Kinetic theory, non-equilibrium flows and transport phenomena, microfluidics, vacuum flows
• Energy and water savings in industry
• Formation and mitigation of fouling in industrial applications

Recent EU- or nationally-funded projects

1. FP7-PEOPLE-2007-1-1-ITN Marie Curie Action: “Networks for Initial Training”. Title” “Gas flows in micro electro mechanical systems (GASMEMS)”, 2008-2011.
2. FP7-PEOPLE-2007-1-1-ITN Marie Curie Action: “Networks for Initial Training”.  Multi-scale complex fluid flows and interfacial phenomena (MULTIFLOW), 2009-2012.
3. FP7-PEOPLE– Marie Curie International Reintegration Grants, Micro-Scale Flows in Fibrous Media, 2007-2009.
4. ERASMUS-Life Long Programme (509971-LLP-1-2010-ES), “Master on Water Reuse and Desalination Engineering (WARDE)”, 2010-2011.
5. PYTHAGORAS, GSRT, “Experimental and numerical understanding of two-phase gas-liquid flow”. 9/2005-8/2006.
6. GSRT, Regional Innovation Poles, Competitiveness Programme. Participation of the Laboratory in the project “Biofuels production in Thessaly”, 1/2007-10/2008.
7. GSRT, Regional Innovation Poles, Competitiveness Programme. Participation of the Laboratory in the project “Production Optimization in the Textile Industry”, 1/2007-10/2008.

Cooperations

The laboratory has developed long-standing cooperation with several Freek and foreign universities, organisations, research centres and industries. Selected research partners include:

• Aristotle University of Thessaloniki: Departments of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Chemistry and Geology
• National Technical University of Athens: Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Institute of Geology and Mineral Exploration: Geothermal Section
• Bulgarian Academy of Science, Institute of Mechanics (Prof. St. Stefanov)
• CNRS, University of Paris 6/11, Laboratory FAST (Dr. Christian Ruyer-Quil)
• Federal University of Parana, Curitiba, Department of Physics, Brazil (Prof. F. Sharipov)
• Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute of Technical Physics (Dr. C. Day)
• Imperial College, UK, Dept. Chem. Eng. (Prod. S. Kalliadasis)
• Institut de Mechanique des Fluides (IMFT), Toulouse, France (Prof. F. Charru)
• Politechniko di Milano, Dept. of Mathematics (Prof. A. Frezzotti)
• Technion-Israel Institute of Technology (Prof. A. Oron)
• Université de Provence, Dept. de Méchanique Enérgetique (Prof. I.Graur)
• Université de Toulouse, INSA, Lab. de Génie Méchanique de Toulouse (Prof. St. Colin)
• University of Bayreuth, Dept. Mechanics & Fluid Dynamics (Prof. N. Axel)

• Horizontal and vertical 25 mm i.d. pipelines for gas-liquid flows (13-m and 6-m long, respectively)
• Inclined film flow channel (3-m long)
• Fluorescence imaging system
• CCD and high-speed video cameras
• Flow-pressure-temperature sensors/controllers,
• Thermo-gravimetric analysis system
• Bomb calorimeter
• UV-VIS spectro-photometer
• TCD/FID gas chromatograph
• Laser particle size analyser (MALVERN)
• Water characterisation instruments (conductivity meter, pH meter, turbidity meter, viscometer, refractometer, systems for wet analysis etc.)
• Cluster consisting of 40 PCs with 64 bit processors and 2 GB RAM each,
• In-house computer codes for analysis of free flow and microfluidics

Ph.D. THESES

1. Argyriadi, E. Inclined film flow: effect of wave characteristics and the morphology of substrate, 2005 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
2. Dininis, N. Bubble growth in supersaturated solution under microgravity conditions, 2006 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
3. Leontidis, V. Tridimensional phenomena in film flow, 2009 (co-supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou and Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos)
4. Naris, S. The Lattice Boltzman method in computational fluid dynamics, 2005 (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).
5. Riga, A. Comparative study of decolorization and degradation of dye solutions, 2008  (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
6. Serifi, E. Modelling of inclined film flow over flat and corrugated wall, 2006 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
7. Tzotzi, Ch. Influence of physical properties on two-phase gas-liquid flow in horizontal and near horizontal pipes, 2009 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
8. Varoutis, S. Flow phenomena in the whole range of Knudsen number with applications in nano- and micro–electro-mechanical systems, 2008 (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).
9. Vlachogiannis, M. Experimental investigation of film flow over flat and wavy walls, 2001 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).

MSc THESES (since 2006)

1. Chletsis, A. Biogas production from wastewater and solid waste, July 2009 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
2. Katsiranis, I. Water management in the cooling water system of the steel industry SOVEL SA, May 2007 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
3. Lihnaropoulos, J. Numerical solution of integro-differential equations in kinetic theory by the discrete velocity method, 2008  (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).
4. Misdanitis, S. Rarefied gas flow between moving plates with heat transfer, 2009  (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).
5. Mpokari, A. Characteristics of Solitary Waves in Film Flow: The effect of channel inclination, 2008 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
6. Papadimitriou, E. Experimental study of instability of inclined film flow, March 2010 (supervised by Dr M. Vlachogiannis).
7. Roukas, L. Effect of surface tension on flow regimes in horizontal gas-liquid flow, Oct. 2010 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
8. Syranidou N. Effect of pipe inclination on the transition to slug flow regime in two-phase gas-liquid flow, March 2009 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
9. Tzotzi, Ch. Modelling interfacial friction factor in horizontal gas-liquid stratified flow, April 2007 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
10. Varoutis, S. The method of integral equations in flow problems without thermodynamic equilibrium, 2006 (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).

DIPLOMA THESES (since 2006)
2006

1. Aggelopoulos, T. Sampling and analysis of particulate matter, Oct. 2006 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
2. Aziz, E. Gas-liquid Flow regimes in horizontal and near horizontal pipe, May 2006 (co-supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos and Dr M. Vlachogiannis).
3. Lazaridis, S. Condensation of R113a in a plate heat exchanger, Oct. 2006 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
4. Psomadakis, P. Modelling magnetohydrodynamic flows, 2006  (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).
5. Xydias, D. Feasibility study of closed vericalgeothermal heat pump system, Oct. 2006 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
6. Ziskatas, Z. Feasibility study of closed horizontal geothermal heat pump system, March 2006 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).

2007

1. Athanasiadis, K. Two-phase flow in small diameter vertical upflow, May 2007 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
2. Chrysafis, N. Dehydration of agricultural products using geothermal energy, July 2007 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
3. Stathas, P. Construction of large film flow setup, 2007 (supervised by Dr M. Vlachogiannis).

2008

1. Kalpakli, A. Visualisation of two-phase gas-liquid flow, 2008 (supervised by Dr M. Vlachogiannis).
2. Lazaridis, Ch. Application of a heat pump of variable refrigerant flow in a closed loop geoexchanger, Oct. 2008 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
3. Roukas, L. Natural convection in a finned heat exchanger, 2008 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
4. Tassis, H. Thermal desalination processes using solar and geothermal energy, Dec. 2008 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
5. Tzanidakis, E. Construction of an experimental setup and investigation of falling film in a vertical wall, 2008 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
6. Zisis, G. Experimental investigation of falling film in a vertical wall with an edge, 2008 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).

2009

1. Zouloumis, G. Influence of pipe inclination on the stratified flow regime, March 2009 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
2. Maniou, A. Gas Flow in mictoducts: comparative study between experimental ans computational results, 2009 (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).
3. Papaioannou, A. Space cooling using solar and geothermal energy, Oct. 2009 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).
4. Ritos, K. Flow in microchannels with different cross-section driven by pressure and temperature gardients,  2009 (supervised by Prof. D. Valougeorgis).

2010

1. Dimitrakopoulos, N. Experimental study of heat tramsfer phenomena using liquid crystal thermography, June 2010 (supervised by Prof. V. Bontozoglou).
2. Hadjiioannou Th., Investigation of instability in slightly downward gas-liquid flow, June 2010 (supervised by Dr M. Vlachogiannis).
3. Poteas, A. Photovoltaic Systems, Oct. 2010 (supervised by Dr M. Vlachogiannis).
4. Zaganis, L. Car recycling, March 2010 (supervised by Assoc. Prof. N. Andritsos).

Professor Vasilis Bontozoglou
Transport Processes & Process Equipment Laboratory
Department of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering
University of Thessaly
Pedion Areos – Volos 38334
Greece
Tel.: +30 24210 74069
Fax: +30 24210 74085
Email: bont@mie.uth.gr