Page 48 - University of Pretoria RESEARCH REVIEW 2018

Clean energy –
transitional flow regime and heat exchangers
Josua Meyer and Marilize Everts, Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering
South Africa aims to generate 42% of the country’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2030. Having some of the highest solar radiation levels in the world,
the Department of Energy has prioritised renewable energy technologies, such as concentrating solar power (CSP). As there are already seven CSP plants in South Africa, it is important that sufficient design information is made available in order to increase the efficiency of these and future CSP plants.
The Clean Energy Research
Group (CERG), established and led by Professor Josua Meyer in
the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, has two research areas: a broad focus on thermal sciences and fluid flow, and a narrower focus on heat exchangers.
The team’s heat exchanger work, at the level of fundamental science, is on flow in the transitional flow regime, nanofluids, boiling, and condensation. At the level of applications, the focus is on thermal, solar, wind and nuclear energy. CERG conducts joint research and publishes with scholars at Ecole
Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Universities
of Ghent, Duke and Edinburgh, and the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées (INSA) of Toulouse.
CERG is at present involved in three
Marilize Everts and Josua Meyer
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