Director   Michael Z. Podowski
CMR Homepage   http://www.ne.rpi.edu/cmr

Rensselaer’s Interdisciplinary Center for Multiphase Research (CMR) is the premier group in the country for performing multiphase research. The CMR has assembled a large and dynamic group of scientists and engineers dedicated to exploring and exploiting new developments in every conceivable aspect of multiphase flow and heat transfer technology. The CMR coordinates the diverse activities of these researchers and facilitates the cross-disciplinary exchange of information, as well as technology transfer to industry.

Multiphase flow occurs in any physical process or industrial system involving more than one phase, including solids, liquids, and vapors. Multiphase flow and related heat transfer technology are the keys to increasing productivity and efficiency of many American industries. Indeed, this technology underlies our understanding of crystal growth, foundry casting, high-power density electronic cooling, chemical processing and petroleum refining, slurry and pneumatic transport, aircraft wing icing, deep-sea mining, aseptic food processing, pharmaceutical manufacturing, refrigeration and air conditioning, chemical and nuclear reactor safety, foam production, aerosols, particulate erosion, combustion, processing and propulsion in outer space, enhanced petroleum recovery, and bioreactors. Moreover, there are many important defense applications for this technology.

Historically, multiphase flows have been analyzed empirically; as a result, these analyses necessarily included many uncertainties and inaccuracies. Thus, the design and operation of phase change equipment had to include large margins. Recently, however, scientists—aided by developments in supercomputing, symbolic manipulator algorithms, diagnostic instrumentation, and applied mathematics—have begun to produce revolutionary changes in our ability to understand and predict multiphase flow phenomena.

The research activities of the CMR involve faculty, staff, and graduate students of many backgrounds working synergistically on challenging and relevant multiphase research. Examples of some typical research projects are:

• conducting crystal growth experiments in outer space;
• predicting critical heat flux (CHF) using first-principle models;
• assessing the consequences of hypothetical nuclear reactor accidents;
• developing state-of-the-art laser optical diagnostic systems for measuring multidimensional phenomena;
• developing CFD models of multiphase flows;
• understanding instability phenomena in various phase change systems;
• investigating laser materials processing, thin film behavior, and ultra-high boiling
• heat fluxes;
• imaging of interfacial structures in gas/liquid flows.

The members of the center represent a broad spectrum of science and engineering disciplines, and have access to a wide variety of equipment and computational power.

Affiliated Faculty

G. Belfort, A.E. Bergles, D. Drew, J.E. Flaherty, W. Gill, M. Glicksman, A. Hirsa, K. Jansen, M. Jensen, D. Kaminski, R.T. Lahey Jr., H. Littman, R.I. Nigmatulin, A. Ostrogorsky, M.Z. Podowski, M.S. Shephard, R. Smith, D. Sperber, B. Szymanski, B.E. Thompson, P. Wayner