Back to Home

COMBUSTION LABORATORY at IST

The Combustion Laboratory includes facilities for basic experimental work in thermofluids and combustion research, including:

• small furnace (biomass flame);
• small test rigs (premixed flames);
• swirling premixed flame stabilizer;
• spray models, and single droplet systems;
• heat transfer in micro channels
• ignition flame system.

The available instrumentations inlcudes:

• 3DPIV, LDV, Phase-Doppler,
• high speed digital cinematography,
• microphone sensors,
• gas analysers for UHC, CO, CO2, NOx and O2,
• Laser/digital visualization techniques and thermometry techniques.

The research undertaken has a background on experimental and mathematical/physical modeling of thermal-fluid-dynamics and combustion systems making use of advanced techniques for flow measurements. It is focused in understanding the fundamental relationship between concurrent thermodynamic transports phenomena involved in energy conversion processes.

Within this framework, the research agenda has been oriented towards combining efforts in developing mathematical/physical models to downsize of energy conversion systems. Flow phenomena occurring in microfluidic devices has been studied, with and without chemical reaction, towards the development of new theoretical and empirical models for micro-scale flow phenomena, as well as on the design on new practical systems. It is a multidisciplinary research field, combining branches of physics, mechanics, optics and fluid dynamics with chemistry. The general objective is to develop and use different tools and new approaches to support the development of energy sustainable products towards consumers, ranging from heating/cooling suppliers to medical devices.