Institute of Advanced Optical Technologies - Thermophysical Properties (AOT-TP)


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Description

The main focus of the research activities at AOT-TP lies on the development and application of various methods for the accurate determination of thermophysical properties of materials of interest for process and energy engineering. This includes both experimental and theoretical approaches where our strategy is to combine the benefits of the different methods. Experimental research includes the application and development of several optical and conventional with the aim of accessing broad ranges of thermodynamic states and minimizing experimental uncertainties. The obtained measurement results are used as a reference database for the validation of theoretically determined thermophysical property data, where the current focus lies on the application and further development of modecular dynamics (MD) simulations for this purpose. One benefit of the theoretical methods is that they can also be applied for thermodynamic states that are difficult to access in experiments. As MD simulations also provide information on molecular interactions between the involved species, they can be employed for finding or corroborating explanations for specific behaviors of experimentally determined property data. By a systematic selection of systems to be studied, experimental and theoretical results are combined to derive structure-property relationships with the aim of developing predictive models for thermophysical properties of arbitrary systems which should be suitable for their application in engineering practice. Current efforts also aim at opening new research fields related to heat transfer. This area is already closely linked to the competences available at AOT-TP owing to the extensive investigation of thermal transport properties and wetting behavior as well as previous activities of institute members in experimental investigation and modelling of condensation heat transfer.

Address

Paul-Gordan-Straße 6/8/10
91052 Erlangen