Field of Work
The activities of the Institute are primarily dedicated to questions related to all kinds of hydro power technology, including ocean energy and other renewable energies. Technical questions related to Hydro Power technology with a focus on Fluid Dynamics are the main activities of the Institute. One focal point looks into large and wide operation ranges of turbomachines such as pumps and turbines. High resolution flow field simulations and experimental investigations are carried out, including cavitation effects. Within the frame of maintenance based condition monitoring, a cavitation diagnosis system is developed to determine cavitation limits during real-time power plant operation. A further focus is the development of a turbomachine design system with automatic geometry optimization. The resulting geometry variants are beyond the conventional horizon of experience. Finally, the simulation of plant dynamics enables safety related considerations for fast power adjustments.
Personal Information
Prof. Dr. Stefan Riedelbauch, born 1960 in Marktredwitz, graduated in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany in 1986. He then worked at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Goettingen on Hypersonic Aerodynamics and obtained his PhD at the Technical University of Munich in 1991. Between 1992 and 2010 he worked with Voith Hydro in Heidenheim, Germany and York, PA, USA and had been involved in different technical activities and positions with a focus on Hydro Power. Among those were numerical flow field simulation, turbine design for new plants and modernization including model testing, head of turbine product development and Chief Engineer of turbine and generator engineering. In 2010, he became full Professor and is currently Director of the Institute of Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machinery at the University of Stuttgart, Germany.