Apparatus & Plant Design

Research group

Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Clemens Merten

What is the focus of our research?

Apparatus and plant design is a multidisciplinary field of work: Starting from the concept and design of processes, suitable equipment and plant components are to be selected or designed and plants to be planned, taking into account aspects of manufacturing, construction and operation. Under academic conditions, selected topics of the subject area can be approached. For this purpose, the Institute of Chemical Process Engineering and, in addition, the Faculty of Energy, Process and Biotechnology, with their broad and extensive expertise concerning process engineering, are important partners. In the research group Apparatus and Plant Design headed by Prof. Merten at the Institute for Chemical Process Engineering, the use of computer-aided design methods (FEM, CAD) and the interrelationships between process, material-specific and constructive design are the main focuses in teaching, research and development. A powerful equipment for numerical simulations as well as experimental investigations is required.

CAD drawing of a ball valve

The following problems have so far been at the center of many research and development work:

1. Stress analysis and strength calculation of mechanically and thermally stressed apparatuses and apparatus components by finite element methods, as well as their design (multifunctional reformer, evaporator, heat exchanger, PEM fuel cell stack), (dissertation A. Freund)
2. Construction, fluid mechanics and reaction engineering (bubble column reactor), (dissertation R. Schäfer)
3. Thermomechanical modeling and parameter estimation (lithium ion batteries), (dissertation M. W. Tahir)
4. Heat transfer and mass transfer processes, flow simulations (reformer, evaporator, heat exchangers, evaporative emissions in air intake systems), (dissertation Ch. Spengler)
5. Mass transfer processes and flow simulations (evaporation and particle emissions in technical rooms), (dissertation U. Afzal)

From 2008 to 2017, Prof. Merten was dean of Bachelor and Master degree programs in process engineering.

Current research projects [de]

  • Entwurf und Berechnung von Kompensatoren für die hermetische Abdichtung von Armaturenantrieben
  • QuaLIKiSS-Projekt „Fachübergreifende Lehre“ - Verbesserung der Vernetzung der Lehrveranstaltungen im Bachelor-Studium der Verfahrenstechnik (U. Tuttlies, A. Oleynikov)

Completed research projects [de]

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