Facilities & Resources

Thermal Fluids Laboratory

The Thermal Fluids Laboratory is housed in the Parsons Building on the main Trinity College Dublin city-centre campus, home to the Department of Mechanical, Manufacturing & Biomedical Engineering. The 150 m2 laboratory comprises an open floor plan main heat transfer research space with a separate interlocked space for laser-based fluid mechanics, thermal and acoustics measurements.

We rely on a dedicated Mechanical Workshop, rapid prototyping and materials testing equipment within our Department, as well as advanced fabrication and characterization facilities on campus, e.g., AMBER CRANN and AR-Lab.

Advanced computational resources are provided by Trinity’s Research IT department and the team’s access to the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) National HPC Service.

Selected Research Tools

Advanced Optical Flow Visualisation

For unobstructed flow visualisation and velocimetry using matched refractive index fluids and transparent (CNC or additively manufactured) models

High Dynamic Range PIV

Extended dynamic range, enhanced velocity resolution and uncertainty estimation methods for particle image velocimetry (PIV). Using laser-and custom LED-based multi-component lighting for low-cost flow diagnostics

Scale Resolved and Cost-Effective CFD

From experimentally validated Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)-based cost-effective CFD to fully scale-resolved detached and large eddy simulations (DES, LES) to model realistic flow conditions in electronics enclosures, turbulent aerodynamics, including computational aeroacoustics (CAA)

Numerical Shape Optimisation

Evolutionary algorithms for single and multi-objective optimisation of enhanced heat transfer or drag reduction structures

Equipment List

Instrumentation

  • 1 high-speed stereoscopic (3-component) particle image velocimetry (PIV) system, based on a Quantronix DarwinDuo high repetition rate double-pulsed Nd:YLF laser and 2 Photron Fastcam SA1.1 CMOS high-speed cameras
  • 1 micro-PIV system based on an inverted epi-fluorescent ZEISS Axio Vert.A1 microscope
  • 1 high-speed PIV system, based on an Oxford Lasers single cavity pulsed diode laser and NAC high-speed cameras
  • 1 low-speed PIV system, based on a New Wave Solo-120 PIV double-pulsed Nd:YAG laser and PCO PixelFly CCD camera
  • 1 low-speed PIV system, based on a New Wave Solo-II PIV double-pulsed Nd:YAG laser and PCO Sensicam CCD camera (shared with another research group)
  • 1 two-component laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) system
  • Multichannel constant temperature and constant current hot-wire/film anemometry systems, for fast response velocity, turbulence, fluid temperature and surface heat flux measurements
  • Several multichannel and modular 16/24-bit data acquisition systems
  • 1 high-speed FLIR infrared thermal imaging camera (SC6000HS) and rapid data storage system
  • 2 FLIR research grade infrared thermal imaging cameras (A40M)
  • Several portable FLIR infrared thermal imaging cameras
  • Several full-colour high-speed video camera systems
  • Optical vibration-isolated benches, wide range of lenses, objectives and beam/sheet forming optics
  • Digital gas mass flow meters and controllers
  • Temperature probe calibrators, IR pyrometers, 2 black-body calibrators
  • Precision mass balances

Test Facilities

  • Medium and small-scale closed-loop water tunnel flow measurement facilities
  • Medium and small-scale open-loop wind tunnel flow measurement facilities (shared with another research group)
  • Heat pipe fabrication and testing facilities
  • Several jet impingement heat transfer test facilities (liquid/air/mist)
  • 3D rapid prototyping systems

Computational Resources

  • Computational fluid dynamics, aeroacoustics: ANSYS (CFX, Fluent, etc.), COMSOL, Mentor Graphics (FloEFD), in-house codes
  • Particle image and tracking velocimetry: LaVision Davis, in-house code
  • Computer-aided design and finite element analysis: SolidWorks, ANSYS, COMSOL, Siemens NX
  • Data analysis and simulation: Matlab, Simulink
  • Data acquisition and control: National Instruments LabView, Arduino
  • Design lab with 25+ Dell Precision workstations
  • General computing lab with 25+ Dell Optiplex computers

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