Thermal Systems and Heat Transfer Lab

The research in the lab covers the full development cycle, from design and prototyping to performance testing and evaluating control systems.

The lab is equipped with facilities capable of supporting both small- and large-scale experimental projects.

Available equipment:

• A segmented gasketed plate heat exchanger test rig designed for high-resolution experimental analysis of local boiling heat transfer with low-global warming potential refrigerants.
• A Booster heat pump test rig designed to evaluate the performance of drop-in zeotropic refrigerant mixtures under ultra-low temperature district heating conditions.
• A custom-built CO₂-based transcritical air-to-air heat pump dryer with integrated heat recovery and IoT-enabled control, designed for energy-efficient food drying applications.
• A custom-built test rig integrated compression-condensation and refrigerant injection for a novel vapor compression heat pump cycle, to evaluate the effect on outlet temperature and system performance.

• An ionic liquid piston compressor integrating custom pneumatic-hydraulic systems for high-pressure gas compression up to 300 bar, designed to investigate heat transfer phenomena within the compression chamber and evaluate system performance and efficiency.

   

 

Solar Thermal Collectors

The physical test facilities for solar thermal collectors and systems are world-leading research and testing facilities for measuring the performance of solar thermal systems under actual weather conditions and heat loads.

The facility offers the possibility of testing up to 8 systems in parallel side-by-side with detailed measurements of thermal energy flows, electricity usage and temperatures. It includes facilities for detailed characterization of solar thermal collectors with possible inlet temperatures between -10°C and 90°C and includes measurements of solar irradiance, long wave radiation and windspeed.