Process Modeling
Process modeling is both a separate research theme and a valuable approach used by almost all researchers in the section.
The basic philosophy of the research follows two pathways:
1. A more basic science oriented pathway with the aim of describing and modeling the basic physics of the considered processes at a sufficient level to understand their nature and predict their influence on the manufactured products.
2. A more application oriented pathway, which aims to improve and optimize manufacturing processes with numerical simulation tools, thereby achieving enhanced products regarding choice of process, materials, geometry, etc. The research is truly interdisciplinary involving areas like process technology, materials science, thermodynamics as well as solid and fluid mechanics. This is directly reflected in the applied modeling disciplines which comprise computational fluid dynamics, numerical heat transfer, computational solid mechanics as well as computational materials science.
Research is done in order to model manufacturing processes such as casting, welding, composites manufacturing as well as 3D printing and heat treatment in materials such as metals, polymers, composites, ceramics and glass. Application areas are numerous and include for example automotive, aerospatial, renewable energy, electronics as well as the medical industry.