16th Symposium of VKI PhD Research 2025
Don't miss the opportunity to learn about the exciting research activities conducted at VKI! Join us online (for the public) / on-site (for VKI members, supervisors and invited guests) from February 18th to February 21th for the VKI PhD Symposium, where prominent lecturers in three application fields of fluid dynamics will give keynote lectures to open each day of the symposium.
VKI PhDs will review the doctoral research carried out in the three departments of the Institute. The symposium is organized into sessions covering a range of topics, including:
- Compressor Aerodynamics & Heat Transfer
- Instrumentation & Measurement Techniques
- Propellant Management
- Turbine Aerodynamics & Heat Transfer
- Shape Optimization
- Liquid Metals & Industrial Flow
- Machine Learning
- Thermal Management and Process Safety
- Wind Energy & Environmental Flows
- Shape Optimization
- CFD & Numerical Methods
- Hypersonic Propulsion
- Aeronautics & Low Speed Aerodynamics
- Rarefied and Plasma Flows
- Aerothermochemistry
- Aerothermodynamics
This online symposium is open to public. Before register, please check out our eligibility criteria.
Participation is on-site for VKI members, university supervisors, and invited guests. Public attendees must register (free) and can participate online only.
The session on 21 February will not be broadcasted.
Online Programme (updated 03/02/2025)
Tuesday February 18, 2025
Location: von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Sint-Genesius-Rode
09:30 - 10:30 Keynote Lecture: Prof.dr.ir. Axelle Viré, TU Delft
10:30 - 11:00 Coffee Break
Session - Liquid Metals & Industrial Flow
- 11:00 - 11:20: Damien Rigutto: Wetting Defects in Inertial Wetting
- 11:20 - 11:40: Lorenzo Schena: Reinforcement Twinning (RT) of Wind Turbines and Farms
Session - Thermal Management and Process Safety
- 11:40 - 12:00: Carlo Sanapo
Session - Thermal Management and Process Safety
- 13:30 - 13:50: Pierrette Atikpo: Challenges in Modeling Buried Detonation Sources: An Experimental Study
- 13:50 - 14:10: Benoit Foloppe
- 14:10 - 14:30: Alexandros Palatos Plexidas: Investigating Wind Farms Self-Induced Gravity Waves using Mesoscale Modeling
14:30 - 16:00 Poster Session
- Samuel Ahizi: Meshless CFD and Reduced Order Modeling of Cryogenic Sloshing in Conformal Tanks
- Aswath Ashok
- Bruno Barata: Aeroelastic Analysis and Design Strategies to Mitigate Flutter Effects on Probe Measurements
- Benjamin Crevits: Compartment fire prediction using CFD and AI
- Waut Declercq: Advancing additive manufacturing of technical ceramics for aerospace applications
- Valerio Di Domenico: Development of digital twins for the thermal hydraulics of liquid metal nuclear reactors
- Anouk Dierickx: Validation wind speed in CMIP6 climate models
- Andre Dietz: Fundamental Investigation of Transonic Trailing Edge Flow
- Bruno Fontaine
- Antoine Ghyoot
- Diego Hachez: Cross-hatching research plan
- Julien Heine
- Grace Kirk: Modelling hypersonic meteors in the upper atmosphere using Monte Carlo Methods
- Selçuk Kizilcaoglu
- Alessandro Novi: Cryogenic bubble growth at artificial nucleation site: experimental and numerical work
- Silay Önder
- Sunny Raghav: High Fidelity Numerical Solver for Gaseous State Rotating Detonation Engine
- Sebastiano Randino: Reinforcement twinning of floating wind turbines
- Landry Riou: Modelling of vortex-enhanced inductively coupled plasma torches (online - TBC)
- Jan Skácel: Modelling and simulation of plasma-spacecraft interaction and charging in Very Low Earth Orbit
- Balint Soos: Modeling and Optimization of Aeroacoustic Noise in Urban Air Mobility Vehicles
- Nicholas Zingale: Self-noise and unsteady rotor aerodynamics modeling for unmanned air vehicles and horizontal axis wind turbines
Wednesday February 19, 2025
Location: von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Sint-Genesius-Rode
09:00 - 10:00 Prof. dr. Sylvia Wenmackers, KU Leuven & Prof. Vincent Ginis, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Debating game: Ethics of (generative) AI in research (only on-site)
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break
Session - Shape Optimization
- 10:30 - 10:50: Stefano Platini: Development of an Automatic Tool for Complex S-Shaped Duct Optimization
Session - CFD & Numerical Methods
- 10:50 - 11:10: Carlo Brunelli: Implicit Large Eddy Simulation on Low-Reynolds Airfoils
- 11:10 - 11:30: Marco Castaldi: Development and Application of an Implicit Density-Based Solver for Chemically Reacting Flows in OpenFOAM
- 11:30 - 11:50: Patrick Tene Hedje: Turbulence Injection Strategy for Turbomachinery Flows
- 11:50 - 12:10: Julien Klauner: Weak Imposition of an Ablative Boundary Condition in a High-Order Immersed Interface Framework
12:10 - 13:30 Lunch
Session - Hypersonic Propulsion- 13:30 - 13:50: Karel Van den Borre: Control Schedule Optimisation for Variable Cycle Engines
Session - Aeronautics & Low Speed Aerodynamics
Chair: Dr. Alessandro Zarri, Research Engineer
- 13:50 - 14:10: Matija Avirovic: Surface Skin Friction Over an Airfoil with Laminar Separation Bubble
- 14:10 - 14:30: Manuel Ratz: Characterization of an Accelerating Propeller at Low Reynolds Numbers with Phase-Locked PIV
Session - Rarefied and Plasma Flows
- 14:30 - 14:50: Stefano Aliberti: TBD
14:50 - 15:20 Coffee Break
Session - Rarefied and Plasma Flows (continued)- 15:20 - 15:40: Julien Clotuche: Development of a High Order Code for Simulation of Low Temperature Partially Magnetized Plasmas Typical of Hall Effect Thrusters
Thursday February 20, 2025
Location: von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics, Sint-Genesius-Rode
09:00 - 10:00 Keynote Lecture: Dr. Stefano Bianchi, Airbus
Engine Design and Integration – The Role of Research Toward Sustainable Aviation
10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break
Session - Compressor Aerodynamics & Heat Transfer
- 10:30 - 10:50: Jorge Pérez Bárcena: Design of Facility for Compressor Turbulent Boundary Layer Interactions
- 10:50 - 11:10: Thanh-Son Tran: Investigation of Advanced Axial Compressor Optimization Concepts
Session - Instrumentation & Measurement Techniques
Chair: Dr. Alessandro D'Aguanno, Research Engineer
- 11:10 - 11:30: Enrico Zammit: Self-Aligning Focusing Schlieren Applied to Linear Cascade
- 11:30 - 11:50: Francesco Mancini: CWT-1 improvements
- 11:50 - 12:10: Alexandre Halby: Impact of Tailboard Configuration on the Aerodynamics of Linear Transonic Turbine Cascades
12:10 - 13:30 Lunch
Session - Propellant Management
- 13:30 - 13:50: Francisco Monteiro: Digital Twinning and Control for the Thermal Management of Cryogenic Propellants
- 13:50 - 14:10: Federico Bertelli: Measurements of the Freestream Turbulence behind an Active Jet Grid and its Effects on the Aerodynamics of a Turbine Cascade Flow
- 14:10 - 14:30: Peter Cassidy: Transitional Boundary Layers at Off-Design Incidence in Low-Pressure Turbines
- 14:30 - 14:50: Lorenzo Da Valle: Numerical and Experimental Investigation of Purge Flows in a High-Speed Low-Pressure Turbine
14:50 - 15:20 Coffee Break
Session - Turbine Aerodynamics & Heat Transfer
- 15:20 - 15:40: Giovanni Di Lucia: PIV Measurements of a Transonic Cascade
Session - Shape Optimization (continued)
- 15:40 - 16:00: Victor Loir: Adjoint Shape Optimization of a Turbo Heater based on Large Eddy Simulations through an Adaptation of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes Equations
Friday February 21, 2025
Location: Euro Space Center, Libin
09:00 - 10:00 Keynote Lecture: Prof. Matthew McGilvray, University of Oxford (To be confirmed)
Session - Aerothermochemistry
- 10:30 - 10:50: Sander Holum: Development of Off-Stagnation Point Testing Methodology for Atmospheric Reentry Plasma Flows
- 10:50 - 11:10: Diana Martins: Plasma Testing of Woven Flexible Materials
- 11:10 - 11:30:Roemer Spreij: Towards Dynamic Flight-to-Ground Duplication in the VKI Plasmatron
Session - Aerothermodynamics
- 11:30 - 11:50: Vincenzo Romano: Investigation of Multiphysics Effect on Hypersonic Boundary Layer Stability with UQ methods
12:00 - 13:30 Lunch
Session - Aerothermodynamics (continued)- 13:30 - 13:50: Ata Baskaya: Influence of Ablation on Hypersonic Flows
- 13:50 - 14:10: Maxime Borbouse: Stabilisation Strategies for High Order DGM Simulation of Turbulent Hypersonic Flows
14:30 - 16:30 Visit to ESA Education Center or Euro Space Center (only VKI members)
Event Information
Event Date | 18-02-2025 9:00 am |
Event End Date | 21-02-2025 5:00 pm |
Cut off date | 17-02-2025 12:00 pm |