Highly accurate toughness in Colorado and moist air in Texas

20th Symposium on Thermophysical Properties in Boulder, Colorado, USA

From the Department of Technical Thermodynamics in the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Hans-Joachim Kretzschmar and Dr.-Ing. Sebastian Herrmann, as well as Dr.-Ing. Matthias Kunick, formerly of the Department of Technical Thermodynamics, now at Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, Idaho, USA, attended the most internationally significant conference in the field of thermophysical properties of gases, liquids, and solids. This conference takes place only once every three years.

Dr. Herrmann presented on a newly developed calculation equation for the dynamic viscosity of isobutane. Dr. Herrmann laid the groundwork for the development of such transport correlations as part of his doctoral research at the University of Rostock. This work was completed during his tenure as a research assistant and instructor at the Zittau/Görlitz University of Applied Sciences.

Dr. Kunick presented, in a poster, the method developed in the Department of Technical Thermodynamics for the rapid calculation of material properties of working fluids in energy technology using spline interpolation. This method, developed as part of his collaborative doctoral program with the Technical University of Dresden and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is particularly well-suited for calculating the material properties of real gases and liquids in numerical flow simulations.

Two posters and a computer presentation showcased material property calculation programs developed in recent years by the Department of Technical Thermodynamics under the direction of Prof. Kretzschmar. Interfaces for these material property calculation programs were presented for many software products used in everyday engineering, such as Excel, MATLAB, and Mathcad.

18th Meeting of the International Association for Transport Properties in Boulder, Colorado, USA

Prof. Kretzschmar and Dr. Herrmann attended the 18th workshop of the International Association for Transport Properties (IATP) in Boulder, Prof. Kretzschmar and Dr. Herrmann participated to initiate potential new research projects at the Department of Technical Thermodynamics in the field of transport properties of gases and liquids.

In a presentation, Dr. Herrmann presented new results on the calculation of the viscosity of ethane, which lead to an improvement in the existing viscosity correlation and will be incorporated into the reference database of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

2018 ASHRAE Conference in Houston, Texas, USA

Dr. Herrmann presented the results of a research project on the transport properties of humid air at the conference of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) in Houston, Texas, USA. Furthermore, Dr. Herrmann and Prof. Kretzschmar presented calculation programs for the thermodynamic properties of moist air that were developed at the University of Applied Sciences Zittau/Görlitz.

Another important aspect of their participation was their involvement in the research project aimed at developing a new ASHRAE standard for calculating the thermodynamic properties of moist air. Based on this work, ASHRAE indicated its intention to commission a further research project on the properties of combustion gas mixtures.