Experimental Fluid Dynamic

Prof. Thomas Rösgen

The experimental work at IFD has several main directions - the development of modern imaging techniques for optical flow diagnostics (both hardware and software), the investigation of fundamental flow problems arising in a number of engineering fields (aero- and hydrodynamics, biofluidics, etc.), and the specific study of safety-relevant and environmental flows (e.g. ventilation in tunnels with fires). In order to support these activities, the institute operates two wind tunnels (including the large ETH tunnel originally built by J. Ackeret in 1931) and two water channels, as well as a number of dedicated facilities (e.g. heavy gas channel, boundary layer tunnel). Different state-of-the-art imaging devices (including digital cameras for high speed, infrared and low light level applications, custom-built lasers) are used to perform quantitative flow visualizations for both in-house and industry-sponsored research projects.