Experimental Thermo-Fluid-Dynamics

The Experimental Thermo-Fluid-Dynamics research group, at the University of Naples Federico II, undertakes its main research in the fields of turbulent flows, two dimensional wakes, convective heat transfer, hypersonic flows, boundary layer transition detection and development of PIV and Tomo-PIV and Infrared thermography metrology. Such researches are carried out at the Laboratory of Gasdynamics.

The Experimental Thermo-Fluid-Dynamics research group has a wide knowledge of laser diagnostic techniques as PIV, Stereo-PIV and Tomo-PIV and of Infrared thermography technique applied to thermo-fluid-dynamics problems. Several high quality experimental equipment are available such as a time resolved Tomographic PIV system, a low speed Tomographic PIV system and state of art IR cameras (High speed MW and LW cameras). A low speed wind tunnel is also available.

Recent projects include studies of synthetic jets, fractal jets, development of the Tomo-PIV measurement technique, aerodynamic heating and thermal visualization in hypersonic flows, boundary layer diagnostics and transition detection and thermal measurements in investment casting.

The Experimental Thermo-Fluid-Dynamics research group has numerous collaborations with both national and international research institutes, industries and universities. A list of the main projects and partners is reported below.

National and International Research Projects (last 3 years)

• Advanced Flow Diagnostics for Aeronautical Research (AFDAR), VII Programma Quadro, FP7-AAT-2010-RTD-1.
• MAteriali e TEcnologie di processo ad alta efficienza per Microfusioni Innovative, MATEMI, PON03PE_00111_1 (2013-).
• Hypersonic Boundary-Layer Transition Prediction, NATO AGARD AVT-RTG (2013-).
• Convective heat Transfer and coherent Structures in Turbulent boundary layers (CONTRAST). Research funded by the Ministerio de
• Economia y Competitividad (Spain) (2016-).
• High Dynamic Range Measurements in Pipe Flows at High Reynolds Numbers (HIDRA). Research funded by the European High-Performance Infrastructures in Turbulence (EuHIT) (2017-).

National and International Partners

• Alenia (IT);
• Arizona State University (USA);
• Centro Italiano di Ricerche Aerospaziali (IT);
• Centro Nazionale delle Ricerche (IT);
• Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands);
• DLR (Germany);
• Europea Microfusioni Aerospaziali (IT);
• General Electric (USA);
• Imperial Collage (UK);
• Lavision GMBH (Germany);
• Meiji University (Japan);
• Monash University (Australia);
• Purdue University (USA);
• Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (SP);
• Universität der Bundeswehr München (Germany);
• University of Cambridge (UK);
• Von Karman Institute for Fluid dynamics (Belgium).

Past People

Research Fellows

• Dr. Gioacchino Cafiero (@ Imperial College London)
• Dr. Giuseppe Ceglia (@ Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali)
• Dr. Francesco Avallone (@ Delft University of Technology)
• Dr. Stefano Discetti (@ Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
• Dr. Andrea Ianiro (@ Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)
• Dr. Michele Imbriale (@ Europea Microfusioni Aerospaziali)
• Dr. Mario Panelli (@ Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali)
• Dr. Rosaria Giordano (@ General Electric-Italy)
• Dr. Gennaro dello Ioio (@ BP Institute, University of Cambridge)
• Dr. Mauro Gallo (@ Delft University of Technology)
• Dr. Bellucci, Matteo (@ General Electric - USA)

Active research projects

Development of PIV and Tomo-PIV metrology

The study of this topic deals with:

• PIV software development and enhancement;
• Tomo-PIV software development and enhancement.

Software:

• PIV (Authors: Tommaso Astarita and Stefano Discetti)
• Stereo-PIV (Authors: Tommaso Astarita and Rosaria Giordano)
• Tomo-PIV (Authors: Tommaso Astarita and Stefano Discetti)

Investment casting

The study of this topic deals with:

• 3D Temperature reconstruction of a ceramic mold by using Infrared Thermography technique;
• Numerical simulation of radiative heat transfer between a vacuum furnace and a ceramic mold.

Fractal Jets

The main interest in this topic concerns:

• Turbulence produced by fractal grids;
• Flow field organization;
• Heat transfer enhancement of impinging jets;
• Best design of fractal grids.

Hypersonic Flows

The investigation on this topic focuses on:

• Roughness-induced transition;
• Application and development of non-intrusive experimental techniques;
• Boundary layer transition detection.

Synthetic Jets