Fluid Mechanics – Calculation
This research area develops and applies methods for flow calculations and measurements for the specific conditions prevailing in water turbines and generators. The goal is to better predict and understand the flow in turbines, cavitation in turbines and cooling of generators. This will lead to a better understanding of how water turbines and generators should be designed to provide high efficiency over a wide range of operational states, while avoiding flow phenomena that are detrimental to the machine. The development of flow calculation methods is based on open source code and can thus directly benefit industry. Håkan Nilsson is a senior researcher in fluid mechanics at the SVC and professor of fluid mechanics at the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences at Chalmers.