Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics & Turbomachinery

LFMT has provided wind tunnel measurement services to the Lab of Agricultural Constructions and Environmental Control of the Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment of the School of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Thessaly

Research

Support of Young Researchers Program                                                                                  2019-

“Numerical and theoretical
investigation of the production of microbubbles with a surfactant coating via a
flow focusing microfluidic device” Research project funded by The Greek
Secretariat of Research with a budget of  75000 €. It is targeted towards the
development of the theoretical/numerical tools that are essential for the
design and optimal operation of a microfluidic device dedicated to the
fabrication of such bioparticles.

NIARXOS Foundation Scholarship                                                                                          2018-

“Interaction
between a coated microbubble and a nearby wall- Effect of viscoelastic,
intermolecular and acoustic forces” Research Project funded by the Niarxos
Foundation with a budget of 50000 €. It is targeted towards the
investigation of different numerical tools, to evaluate and distinguish the
acoustic signatures of coated microbubbles in adhesion and free circulation in
narrow capillaries.

ARISTEIA  I
2012-2015

“Characterization of Contrast Agents for Medical
Imaging and Drug Delivery with Ultrasound via Theoretical & Numerical
Analysis of Static & Dynamic Response”. Research project funded by the
Greek Ministry of Education, carried out by the group led by Dr. Pelekasis as
Coordinator. The total funding was 325000 € and covered the salaries of 2 PhD candidates and 3
Post Docs. Details on the activities of the
project are provided in the wiki http://contrast-aristeia.mie.uth.gr/wiki/.

The ARISTEIA I project
provided convincing evidence regarding the mechanical behaviour of coated
microbubbles as well as ways to obtain reliable estimates of their viscoelastic
properties via static and acoustic measurements and the corresponding static
and dynamic response patterns. The NIARXOS and Young Researcher Projects are
essentially continuations of the ARISTEIA project, aiming at establishing the
basis for successful implementation of such bioparticles in novel biomedical
modalities.

EUROFUSION, WPDTT1-LM5                                                                                               2011-

“Modelling activities of liquid metal PFC (Plasma Facing Components)
solutions”. Participation in the EUROPEAN fusion project and the Work Package
WPDTT1 dedicated to the use of liquid metals as plasma facing components in the
divertor region of fusion reactors; funding ~25000 € per year. Dr.
Pelekasis is the coordinator of the activity that focuses on the modelling of a
capillary porous system (CPS) as a means to deliver liquid metal to the
interface with plasma.

Laboratory Equipment

The  Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics & Turbomachinery is equipped with experimental and computational equipment capable of carrying out fundamental and industrial research.

LFMT staff has access to scientific instruments for carrying out high precision measurements applicable to various kinds of flow arrangements. Moreover, it is equipped with  two clusters for parallel computing and relevant accessory equipment. It has developed in house CFD software and has access  to the commercial computational fluid dynamics package ANSYS/FLUENT, used for simulations of many applied fluid flows and heat transfer problems.

Experimental Equipment

• Subsonic wind tunnel with a 50x70x300cm working section and speed up to 30 m/s
• TSI Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA)
  
• TSI Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV)
  
• DANTEC Hot Wire Anemometer
  
• AA Lab Systems Hot Wire Anemometer
• Aerometrics Phase Doppler Particle Anemometer (PDA)
  
• Schlieren for compressible flow visualization

Software Packages

• ANSYS/FLUENT

Doctoral (PhD) Theses

1. Ioannis Ε. Sarris “Simulation of flow and transport henomena in glass melting tanks” (Advisor Ν. Vlachos) [2001]
2. George Ν. Κoutlas “Simulation of flow and transport phenomena during titanium carbide depostion with the LCVD method” (Advisor Ν. Vlachos) [2001]
3. Catherine Α. Baxevanou “Navier-Stokes model of aeroelastic stability of wind turbine windes in stall conditions”(Advisor Ν. Vlachos) [2003]
4. Vasilis P. Kambanis “Interaction of wing wakes with application to the behavior of wind turnbines” (Advisor H. Stapountzis) [2004]
5. Manolis Alygizakis “Study of mixing phenomena via large flow structures and turbulence in liquid-gas interfaces” (Advisor H. Stapountzis) [2005]
6. Dimitris Κ. Fidaros “Mathematical simulation and study of magneto-hydrodynamic flows in curvilinear geometries” (Advisor Ν. Vlachos) [2007]
7. Costas Α. Tsiglifis “Numerical study of bubble dynamics in the environment of acoustic excitation” (Advisor Ν. Pelekasis) [2006]
8. Cristos D. Dritselis “Study of gas-particles turbulent two-phase flow in ducts” (Advisor Ν. Vlachos) [2007]
9. Sotiris C. Kakarantzas “Magneto-hydrodynamic convection with internal heat sources in cylindrical ducts” (Advisor Ν. Vlachos) [2008]
10. M. Vlachomitrou ” Numerical study of boundary layer interaction with a growing liquid film over a solid surface” (Advisor Ν. Pelekasis) [2008]
11. P. Kapsalis, ‘Control of boundary layer transition, delay of separation and optimization of airfoil performance, using active flow control’, 2016 (Advisor N. Vlachos)
12. D. Dimopoulos, ” Computational/theoretical study of 3d MHD stability of free convection flows in ducts”, 2013 (Advisor N. Pelekasis).
13. A. Iatridis, “Study of Magnetohydrodynamic turbulent flow and heat transfer in ducts of Fusion reactors: Flow transition”, 2012 (Advisor N. Vlachos)
14. K. Efthimiu “Boundary element study of the interaction between a coated bubble and a nearby surface due to an acoustic disturbance”, 2015, (Advisor N. Pelekasis).
15. A. Lytra, “Numerical & theoretical study of the static response of coated microbubbles subject to uniform and distributed load-application on the estimation of the shell elastic properties”, 2017, (Advisor N. Pelekasis).
16. E. Benos, ‘First principles study of the static arrangement of a plasma facing component in the form of a capillary porous system (cps)”, 2018 (Advisor N. Pelekasis).

Nikos Pelekasis
Professor of Computational Fluid Dynamics
Director of Laboratory of Fluid Mechanics & Turbomachinery
University of Thessaly
Department of Mechanical Engineering

Pedion Areos, 38334

Volos Tel: 24210-74102

E-mail : pel@uth.gr