Faculty Faculty of Science, Technology and Medicine (FSTM)

Thermal Laboratory

The Thermal Laboratory was established to support research and teaching activities at the 8xav¸£Àûµ¼º½ of Luxembourg in the fields of thermal processes, thermal management, heat and mass transfer, fluid dynamics, and energy systems. The laboratory is organized into two main sections: a teaching area and a research area. The teaching area supports Bachelor’s and Master’s programmes, including courses such as Thermodynamics I and II, Heat and Mass Transfer, and the dedicated hands-on Thermal Lab course. The research area provides experimental support for scientific projects and applied collaborations with industrial partners.

List of equipment

Teaching area

  • Heat conduction in solids 
  • Free and forced convection heat transfer 
  • Heat transfer by thermal radiation 
  • Visualisation of laminar, turbulent, and secondary pipe flows
  • Measurement of velocity profiles 
  • Visualisation of streamlines
  • Demonstration of the continuity equation 
  • Demonstration of Bernoulli’s principle
  • Air-to-water heat pump trainer 
  • Heat pipe: boiling and condensation 
  • Heat exchangers: shell-and-tube, plate, finned, and tubular heat exchangers 
  • Thermal imaging using an infrared camera 

  • Heat conduction in solids

  • Free and forced convection heat transfer

  • Heat transfer by thermal radiation

  • Digital Platform for fundamentals of fluid mechanics: visualisation of pipe flows, streamlines, demonstration of the continuity equation and Bernoulli’s principle

  • Air-to-water heat pump trainer

Research facilities

  1. INTRAVIT — experimental facility for studying flow dynamics and instabilities in natural-circulation systems.
  2. IGNITION — facility for investigating enriched high-pressure oxygen flows and associated thermo-fluid dynamics in pressure regulators installed in industrial piping.
  3. Cavitation test rig — facility for studying cavitation and thermal-hydraulic phenomena in Venturi tubes and orifice channels.
  4. MEDUSA — facility for membrane desalination simulations and related thermal-fluid investigations.
  5. SNAIL – smart natural circulation loop for calibrating wire mesh sensors and studying natural circulation
  6. Bubble Dynamics Optical Validation Rig – high-speed imaging system designed to validate LBM simulations and analyze phase-change heat transfer for advanced cooling technologies
  7. Alternative working fluid facility — setup for studying boiling and heat transfer of alternative coolants and working fluids.

  • INTRAVIT facility

  • IGNITION facility

  • Cavitation test rig

  • MEDUSA test facility

  • SNAIL test facility

Research equipment

  1. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) setup — a non-intrusive optical measurement system for determining velocity fields in fluid flows, supporting experimental studies of flow dynamics, heat transfer, and thermal-fluid processes.
  2. Wire mesh sensor setup and Ra-Pi-based data acquisition system
  3. Capacitance sampling system and control software
  4. Radiation Measurement Station – a computer-controlled dual-channel radiation measurement station equipped with scintillation detectors for the detection and analysis of gamma and beta radiation.

  • Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) setup

Users of the lab

Head of laboratory

  • Prof Stephan LEYER

    Full professor in Mechanical engineering – Heat and mass transfer and thermodynamics

    Learn more

  • Dr. Iurii DOLGANOV

    Postdoctoral researcher

    Learn more

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