Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Macro-Scale Modeling of Compact Heat Transfer Devices with Offset Strip Fins" "Tine Baelmans" "Applied Mechanics and Energy conversion (TME)" "In highly compact heat transfer devices, micro- and mini-channels with an array of periodic fins are commonly used to enhance the heat transfer or to increase the compactness. Due to their small dimensions, the flow through these channels mostly remains in the laminar regime. Moreover, after a certain development length, the flow and heat transfer in these devices become periodically developed such that their patterns around each fin become identical. Therefore, the flow and heat transfer are often described through an analysis of a single fin unit or a so-called unit cell. Alternatively, macro-scale models of the flow and heat transfer are employed to characterize the average velocity, pressure, and temperature fields in the channel. Only recently, an exact macro-scale description of the periodically developed flow and heat transfer has been given by Buckinx and Baelmans, unifying both approaches. Nevertheless, this macro-scale description has not been applied to any micro- and mini-channels with a periodic fin array. In this work, the exact macro-scale description of the periodically developed flow and heat transfer will be presented for micro- and mini-channels with an array of one of the most common fin geometry: the offset strip fin geometry. In particular, the macro-scale pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient will be determined for periodically developed flow and heat transfer in arrays of offset strip fins subject to an imposed heat flux and will be modeled through a friction factor and a Nusselt number correlation using a single unit cell simulation. Additionally, it will be assessed when the developed correlations are valid in the presence of channel entrance and side-wall effects, which have not been taken into account up to the present. Finally, an experimental investigation is performed to further support the numerical findings. " "Compact Modeling of Performance and Reliability of Mixed-signal Circuits" "Georges Gielen" "ESAT - MICAS, Microelectronics and Sensors, Electronic Circuits and Systems (ECS)" "Reliability and guaranteeing reliable operation during the entirelifetime of a product is a major factor in determining the success of anelectronics system. Unfortunately, nano-scale technologies bring abouttime-varying degradation mechanisms and increasing variations. On theother hand there is an explosion of wireless applications which isaccompanied by tightening EMC specifications. The research concentrateson the development of the proper modeling and circuit/architecturaldesign techniques to guarantee reliability. The development of areliable and EM-inclusive simulation framework is a major challenge inthis field. Because of the enormous simulation costs for high frequencyEMC simulations, simulation driven design could be compromised. Thesubstitution of systems and subsystems by EMC-aware behavioural modelsbecomes a necessity for accelerating these expensive simulations. One ofthe main challenges of this research topic is the automated generationof these models and their verification." "Coarse Road-Tire Interaction. Inverse Reconstruction of Road-Tire Contact Forces Using Numerical Modeling and Response Measurements" "Wim Desmet" "Mecha(tro)nic System Dynamics (LMSD)" "The PhD has developed a combined numerical-experimental approach to calculate the dynamic excitation forces in the footprint when a tire rolls on a rough road. This parameter is directly related to the structural noise radiated by the tire. For this, a reconstruction method is applied, using measured responses to inversely compute the excitation forces. Subsequently, these excitation forces are expressed using a metric that is suitable to rank different tire designs for the dynamic excitation forces. Absolute accuracy is not required as an accurate ranking of the different tire constructions will provide the necessary design information and will aid designers in controlling spindle forces/moments and structural tire noise radiation and efficiently explore the tire design space. " "Modeling Impact Processes at Multiscale: From asteroid interiors to planetary habitability and evolution" "Philippe Claeys" "Analytical, Environmental & Geo-Chemistry, Chemistry" "This research explores in interconnected steps the impact cratering phenomena across a broad range of energy scales in the inner Solar System. Starting from small-scale impacts on near-Earth rubble pile asteroids, it scales up to first the larger-scale Chicxulub asteroid impact that changed life on Earth 66 million years ago, then to possible large impact(s) that may have modified the habitability of Mars at Late Noachian to Hesperian epoch (~ 3.8-3.0 Ga). Our novel datasets from the Chicxulub scientific drilling project and DART planetary defense mission, combined with state-of-art cratering models developed in this project, would reveal asteroid intrinsic properties and the effects of impact processes that caused the last terrestrial mass extinction and possibly shaped planetary evolution of Mars" "Modeling the impact and cost-effectiveness of next-generation rotavirus vaccine strategies in low- and middle-income countries." "Philippe Beutels" "Centre for Health Economics Research and Modelling of Infectious Diseases (CHERMID)" "The primary aims of this project are (1) to use mathematical models to predict the impact of next-generation rotavirus vaccines in Malawi and Ghana, (2) to conduct a health economic evaluation to determine whether switching to next-generation rotavirus vaccines is a cost-effective strategy in Malawi and Ghana, and (3) to determine the predicted impact and cost-effectiveness of next-generation rotavirus vaccines across all low- and middle-income countries." "Modeling impact hydrologic restoration measures in Black Brook Valley (pilot site Interreg Care-Peat)." "Jan Staes" "Ecosystem Management" "Essentially, the client, Natuurpunt Beheer, wants to be able to estimate the impact of the planned recovery measures in the valley of the Zwarte Beek as part of the Interreg Care-Peat project, based on a simplified hydrological model. In other words, we want to simulate the effect of the measures on the degree of vernalization of the valley. Care-Peat is an Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) project with 12 partners working together to reduce carbon emissions and restore the carbon storage capacity of different types of peatlands in Northwest Europe. The main partnership consists of 7 knowledge institutions and 5 nature organizations from Belgium, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. Together with 7 subpartners and 41 associated partners, we develop and test new techniques and socio-economic strategies for carbon reduction." "Modeling the impact of labels, the dynamics in attribute non-attendance and the dropout in discrete choice experiments." "Martina Vandebroek" "Operations Research and Statistics Research Group (ORSTAT) (main work address Leuven), Operations Research and Statistics Research Group (ORSTAT) (main work address Brussels)" "This research will investigate how the efficiency of online choice experiments can be increased in case people use heuristic rules to simplify the choice task" "Changes in surface properties of the Greenland ice sheetand their impact on climate modeling." "Nicole Van Lipzig" "Geography and Tourism, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences" "The Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) has shown significant mass loss in the last decade due to increased melting and discharge. Since solar radiation is the most important source for melt energy, the ice sheet surface albedo, determined by the surface properties, plays a crucial role in the surface energy budget, as it controls the amount of radiation that is reflected. In this context, albedo reductions due to changes in surface properties are evident in recent years over large parts of the ice sheet, increasing solar energy absorption and promoting melt water production. Despite the importance of these surface albedo processes, climate models still struggle to accurately represent the surface albedo. For the GrIS, for example, the albedo parameterization is the largest source of uncertainty in estimates of the surface mass balance. Understanding the spatio-temporal patterns in surface properties and properly representing them in climate models therefore is paramount to ensure the realism of future climate projections. The proposed project will use a retrieval algorithm for snow/ice properties from satellite imagery to investigate the spatial and temporal patterns of surface properties over the GrIS. This will improve the understanding of the current darkening of the GrIS and its albedo-melt forcing. Finally, it will allow parameterization of the processes that drive this forcing more accurately and will improve estimates of surface mass balance in regional climate models." "3D Navier-Stokes modeling of air entrainment in breaking water waves and its effect on the compressibility of water during violent impact at coastal structures" "Peter Troch" "Department of Civil engineering" "Violent impacts of breaking water waves on coastal structures are investigated by means of numerical simulations. A VOF-model is completed with models to capture the air entrainment in breaking waves. A better quality of the simulation will be obtained by treating the mixture of water and air as compressible." "Remote sensing based assessment and modeling of land use/cover change as impact bij stream dynamics and climate schange in the Northern marginal grabens of the Ethiopian rift vally (PhD research by biadgilgn demissie" "Jan Nyssen" "Department of Geography" "Tis research concerns the quantification of stream cours dynamics, changes in land use/cover and changes in livelihood variables at multiple spatial and temporal scales in an endorheic basin in Ethiopia. It will also provide a framework to study the interaction among climate change, stream dynamics and land use/vocer schanges, to investigate the controlling factors and to design appopriate measures."