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

In this country, Rensselaer’s interdisciplinary Center for Multiphase Research (CMR) is the premier research center of its kind. 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 (solids, liquids, and vapors). Multiphase flow and related heat transfer technology are the keys to increasing the 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, petroleum refining, and slurry and pneumatic transport. Multiphase technology also has basic applications to 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. Recent developments in supercomputing, symbolic manipulator algorithms, diagnostic instrumentation, and applied mathematics have driven revolutionary changes in scientists’ ability to understand and predict multiphase flow phenomena.

The research activities of the CMR involve faculty, staff, and graduate students of many backgrounds who work synergistically on relevant multiphase research. Some typical research projects are:

• Conducting crystal growth experiments in outer space.
• Developing state-of-the-art laser optical diagnostic system for measuring multidimensional phenomena.
• Developing CFD models of multiphase flows.
• Predicting critical heat flux (CHF) using first principle models.
• Understanding instability phenomena in various phase change systems.
• Investigating laser materials processing, thin film behavior, and ultrahigh boiling heat fluxes.
• Imaging interfacial structures in gas/liquid flows.
• Assessing the consequences of hypothetical nuclear reactor accidents.

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, P. Wayner