Multiphase thermal energy technologies at the extremes: Underlying transport phenomena to full-system engineering

Of the ~100 Quads of energy use in the USA, 2/3 are applied thermally for heating and fuel. The remaining 1/3 is used for electricity production, from which 2/3 are rejected as waste heat. This heat rejection accounts for 41% of USA fresh water withdrawals. To achieve substantial efficiency and resource utilization gains and enable new energy technologies, heat transfer processes must be understood and intensified, and transport-level advances must be applied at system scale.

This seminar will first present the group's work to characterize and enhance high intensity multiphase transport. Research thrusts include: simulation of droplet growth and coalescence dynamics in high intensity dropwise steam condensation processes and characterization of compact geometries for high interfacial-area-intensity two-phase heat and mass exchangers for absorption refrigeration. The seminar will then present the group's system-level research on developing a three-phase lithium combustion driven micro-Rankine power generation system technologies for powering an extended duration mission to the extreme temperature Venus surface.”

Alexander Rattner is the Dorothy Quiggle Career Development Assistant Professor in Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering at Penn State and the principal investigator of the Multiscale Thermal Fluids and Energy Lab. He received the 2016 Frederick A Howes Scholar award in computational science and an NSF CAREER grant (2017-2022). His research expertise includes waste heat recovery, absorption refrigeration, air-cooled condensers for power plants, and experimental and computational multiphase flow heat and mass transfer.

Date & time:
May 20, 2019, 10:00 hrs
Venue:
L2|06, Room 100