Researcher

Jera Van Nieuwenhuyse

Research disciplines
  • Engineering and technology
    • Heat transfer
Expertise
supercritical refrigerants experimental convection
Bio
I am a researcher at the Sustainable Thermo-Fluid Energy Systems research group, in the ATHT team under the supervision of Prof. De Paepe and Prof. Lecompte. My research focusses on the supercritical heat transfer of (low global warming potential) refrigerants. This type of heat transfer is applied in practical systems such as the transcritical organic Rankine cycle and supercritical heat pump, which are thermodynamic cycles suited for the conversion of low-grade heat (coming from e.g. waste heat, geothermal heat or solar heat) to electricity or high-grade heat. For this purpose, I perform experiments on two custom-built test rigs: one to determine the local heat transfer coefficients under various operating conditions (i.e. heat flux, mass flux, pressure,...) and one to measure the isobaric specific heat capacity of selected refrigerants in the supercritical region. In addition to my experimental research, I occasionally work on projects for industry, and teach the exercise classes of the courses 'Warmtetechniek' and 'Technische Thermodynamica' in the third bachelor of Electromechanical Engineering.