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.

The programme is available on the VKI website.

Participation is on-site for VKI members, university supervisors, and invited guests. Public attendees must register (free) and can participate online only.

 

Online Programme (updated 17/01/2025)

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 6 - Liquid Metals & Industrial Flow

• 11:00 - 11:20: Damien Rigutto: Wetting Defects in Inertial Wetting

Session 7 - Machine Learning

• 11:20 - 11:40: Lorenzo Schena: Reinforcement Twinning (RT) of Wind Turbines and Farms

Session 8- Thermal Management and Process Safety

• 11:40 - 12:00: Carlo Sanapo

12:00 - 13:30 Lunch

Session 8 (continued) - Thermal Management and Process Safety

• 13:30 - 13:50: Pierrette Atikpo: Challenges in Modeling Buried Detonation Sources: An Experimental Study

Session 9 - Wind Energy & Environmental Flows

• 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

• Aswath Ashok    
• Bruno Barata: Aeroelastic Analysis and Design Strategies to Mitigate Flutter Effects on Probe Measurements
• Andrea Beni    
• Benjamin Crevits: Compartment fire prediction using CFD and AI
• 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
• Bruno Fontaine    
• Antoine Ghyoot  
• Diego Hachez: Cross-hatching research plan
• Peter Hartford    
• Julien Heine    
• Grace Kirk    
• 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 10 - Shape Optimization

• 10:30 - 10:50: Stefano Platini: Development of an Automatic Tool for Complex S-Shaped Duct Optimization

Session 11 - 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 12 - Hypersonic Propulsion

• 13:30 - 13:50: Karel Van den Borre: Control Schedule Optimisation for Variable Cycle Engines

Session 13 - Aeronautics & Low Speed Aerodynamics

• 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 14 - Rarefied and Plasma Flows

• 14:30 - 14:50: Stefano Aliberti: TBD

14:50 - 15:20 Coffee Break

Session 14 (continued) - Rarefied and Plasma Flows

• 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

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break

Session 1 - 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 2 - Instrumentation & Measurement Techniques

• 11:10 - 11:30: Enrico Zammit: Self-Aligning Focusing Schlieren Applied to Linear Cascade
• 11:30 - 11:50: Francesco Mancini
• 11:50 - 12:10: Alexandre Halby: Impact of Tailboard Configuration on the Aerodynamics of Linear Transonic Turbine Cascades

12:10 - 13:30 Lunch

Session 3 - 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 4 (continued) - Turbine Aerodynamics & Heat Transfer

• 15:20 - 15:40: Giovanni Di Lucia: PIV Measurements of a Transonic Cascade

Session 5 - Shape Optimization

• 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)

10:00 - 10:30 Coffee Break

Session 15 - 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 16 - Aerothermodynamics

•  11:30 - 11:50: Vincenzo Romano

12:00 - 13:30 Lunch

Session 16 (continued) - Aerothermodynamics

• 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)