Publications related to Laboratory for Applied Mechanical Design

Design and assessment of an evaporating water-cooled methanation reactor for a SOE-based power-to-methane system

The transition towards clean renewable energy sources, where wind and solar are prone to variation, requires adequate energy storage. Power-to-methane (PtM) systems can be part of the solution. Specifically, solid-oxide-electrolyser (SOE) based PtM systems ...

EPFL2024

Decomposition method to evaluate district heating/cooling network potential at urban scale

François Maréchal, Luc Girardin, Ana Catarina Gouveia Braz, Bingqian Liu, Raphaël Briguet

In this work, a tool to design district heating networks (DHN) is presented and applied to the city of Lausanne as a case study. The evaluation of the buildings’ heat/cooling demand is performed using a Geographic Information System (GIS) database, built f ...

Associazione Italiana Di Ingegneria Chimica2024

Performance of energy piles foundation in hot-dominated climate: A case study in Dubai

Lyesse Laloui, Elena Ravera, Sofie Elaine ten Bosch

Energy piles represent an innovative technology that can help provide sustainable geothermal heating or cooling energy for thermal conditioning purposes. In hot-dominated climates, the interest is to inject heat in the ground and extract energy for space-c ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Parametric Reduced Order Model of a Gas Bearings Supported Rotor

Fabio Nobile, Jürg Alexander Schiffmann, Dimitri Maurice Goutaudier

Gas bearings use pressurized gas as a lubricant to support and guide rotating machinery. These bearings have a number of advantages over traditional lubricated bearings, including higher efficiency in a variety of applications and reduced maintenance requi ...

2023

Computational fluid dynamics simulations of the heat transfer properties of graphene-based nanolubricants and application to hydrodynamic lubrication

Roberto Guarino

In this paper, we consider experimental data available for graphene-based nanolubricants to evaluate their convective heat transfer performance by means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. Single-phase models with temperature-dependent prope ...

Aip Publishing2024

Renewable energy integration and waste heat valorization in aluminum remelting for co-producing kerosene and methanol

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos, Réginald Germanier

The aluminium sector relies on natural gas for the conversion of recycled scrap into new feedstock, which results in substantial atmospheric emissions. Hydric resources are also impacted, as they serve as heat sinks for the waste heat generated during the ...

Associazione Italiana Di Ingegneria Chimica2024

Innovative thermophysical characterization of an ATF composite cladding: the case of silicon carbide

Andrea Cavaliere

Nuclear power is a powerful technology that plays an important role in the fight against climate change, and research is continuously engaged in studies that could further improve its safety. After the Fukushima accident, Accident Tolerant Fuels research h ...

EPFL2024

Models implemented in the methodological approach to design the initial STEP first wall contour

Davide Galassi, Kevin Henricus Annemarie Verhaegh, Filippo Bagnato, Dario Vaccaro

The official Spherical Tokamak for Energy Production mission aims to demonstrate the ability to generate net electricity from fusion with the STEP Prototype Power plant. One of the key technological and engineering challenges in fusion power plants is mana ...

Elsevier Science Sa2024

RE:SLAB — a load bearing system for open-ended component reuse in building structures

Corentin Jean Dominique Fivet, Jan Friedrich Georg Brütting, Dario Redaelli, Edisson Xavier Estrella Arcos, Alex-Manuel Muresan

The construction industry plays a major role in the high levels of greenhouse gas emissions, resource consumption, and waste generation observed nowadays. Key to the circular economy, structural component reuse arises as a promising solution to divert cons ...

2024

Thermal conductivity of Li 3 PS 4 solid electrolytes with ab initio accuracy

Michele Ceriotti, Federico Grasselli

The vast amount of computational studies on electrical conduction in solid-state electrolytes is not mirrored by comparable efforts addressing thermal conduction, which has been scarcely investigated despite its relevance to thermal management and (over)he ...

Amer Physical Soc2024

Self-catalysed frontal polymerisation enables fast and low-energy processing of fibre reinforced polymer composites

Véronique Michaud, Jacobus Gerardus Rudolph Staal, Baris Çaglar

Frontal polymerisation has the potential to bring unprecedented reductions in energy demand and process time to produce fibre reinforced polymer composites. Production of epoxy-based fibre reinforced polymer parts with high fibre volume content, commonly e ...

2024

Unearthing the foundational role of anharmonicity in heat transport in glasses

The time-honored Allen -Feldman theory of heat transport in glasses is generally assumed to predict a finite value for the thermal conductivity, even if it neglects the anharmonic broadening of vibrational normal modes. We demonstrate that the harmonic app ...

Amer Physical Soc2024

Fast-Response Variable-Stiffness Magnetic Catheters for Minimally Invasive Surgery

Dario Floreano, Yegor Piskarev, Yi Sun, Jun Shintake, Matteo Righi

In minimally invasive surgery, such as cardiac ablation, magnetically steered catheters made of variable-stiffness materials can enable higher dexterity and higher force application to human tissue. However, the long transition time between soft and rigid ...

2024

Identification of typical district configurations: A two-step global sensitivity analysis framework

François Maréchal, Jonas Schnidrig, Cédric Terrier

The recent geopolitical conflicts in Europe have underscored the vulnerability of the current energy system to the volatility of energy carrier prices. In the prospect of defining robust energy systems ensuring sustainable energy supply in the future, the ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2024

Flash Melting Amorphous Ice

Marcel Drabbels, Ulrich Lorenz, Constantin Richard Krüger, Gabriele Bongiovanni, Nathan Junior Mowry

Water can be vitrified if it is cooled at high rates, which makes it possible to outrun crystallization in so-called no man’s land, a range of deeply supercooled temperatures where water crystallizes rapidly. Here, we study the reverse process in pure wate ...

2024

Small-scale turbopumps for waste heat recovery applications based on an organic Rankine cycle: a study from pre-design to experimental validation

Sajjad Zakeralhoseini

The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) system is among the technologies applied to exploit waste heat in vehicles. Since common organic fluids have lower latent heat than water, higher mass flow rates are required to convert the same waste heat, considerably incr ...

EPFL2023

High-speed turbocompressors for natural fluid heat-pumps: from integrated design to digital-twin

Luis Eric Olmedo Ocampo

Compressors for commercial and industrial heat-pumps in the 100kW-load range are currently dominated by positive displacementmachines. In the context of refrigerant phaseouts and changing regulations, natural refrigerants are seen as a compelling alternati ...

EPFL2023

Experimental study of the hydrodynamic and thermal performances of ventilated wall structures

Dolaana Khovalyg, Mohammad Rahiminejad

The presence of a ventilated air gap behind the external cladding in a building envelope is known to have a tangible contribution to the overall performance of the wall assembly. In the present study, the hydrodynamic and thermal performances of ventilated ...

2023

Heat transfer of uncoated and nanostructure coated commercially micro-enhanced refrigeration tubes under pool boiling conditions

John Richard Thome

The heat transfer performance of commercially produced micro-enhanced tubes with and without a nanocoating was investigated under pool boiling of saturated refrigerant. These multiscale enhancements were on the outside of 19 mm horizontal copper tubes heat ...

Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd2023

Heat pumping and renewable energy integration for decarbonizing brewery industry and district heating

François Maréchal, Daniel Alexander Florez Orrego, Meire Ellen Gorete Ribeiro Domingos

The energy integration of brewery plants and urban agglomerations has many benefits in terms of rational energy use and reduced environmental impact, especially during scenarios of uncertain supply chain and volatile market prices. In fact, the diversifica ...

Elsevier2023