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Flow Physics in Energy Conversion Systems

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "I: Energy Fundamentals and Conversion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 April 2026) | Viewed by 575

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
LIFSE, Arts et Metiers Institute of Technology, CNAM, F-75013 Paris, France
Interests: experimental methods; fundamental fluid phenomena; instabilities; turbulence; degassing; cavitation; energy conversion; energy storage
LIFSE, Arts et Metiers Institute of Technology, CNAM, F-75013 Paris, France
Interests: energetics; energy engineering; fluid mechanics; uncertainty quantification; energy storage and conversion; thermal management; lithium-ion batteries; multi-fidelity modeling; multi-physics modeling; numerical methods; computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

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Guest Editor
LIFSE, Arts et Metiers Institute of Technology, CNAM, F-75013 Paris, France
Interests: turbo machines; applied thermodynamics; thermal management; heat transfer; complex fluid flow; real gas; hydrogen; system modelling; numerical methods; finite volume

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Global electricity consumption continues to rise as global energy demand increases and new uses of electricity emerge. These two trends support research into innovative energy conversion technologies and efficient energy systems.

Machines that involve fluid flows to exchange energy—such as turbines, compressors, pumps, and electric motors—lie at the heart of these systems. Understanding and controlling flow behaviour are decisive for increasing performance, improving durability, and reducing environmental impact.

The physics of flows in these devices features complex interactions among turbulence, heat transfer, multiphase phenomena, and fluid–structure coupling. Recent advances in experimental techniques, diagnostics, high-fidelity simulations, and data-driven approaches are opening new avenues for exploring, understanding, and optimizing these complex systems.

The investigation of instabilities, transition to turbulence, cavitation, and degassing in well-controlled configurations - enabling the isolation and analysis of fundamental mechanisms - provides deeper insight into the essential physical processes governing these systems and contributes to their overall energy optimization.

This Special Issue aims to gather original research papers and comprehensive reviews dedicated to experimental, numerical, and theoretical analysis of flow physics in energy conversion systems, by emphasizing both the fundamental understanding of flow phenomena and their engineering applications.

We warmly invite researchers and engineers to submit their original contributions and share their latest findings and insights in this exciting and rapidly evolving field.

Dr. Michaël Pereira
Dr. Elie Solai
Prof. Dr. Michael Deligant
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • flow physics
  • energy conversion machines
  • experimental fluid mechanics
  • turbomachinery
  • high-fidelity models
  • data-driven optimization
  • multiphase flow
  • flow diagnostics
  • renewable energy systems

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

17 pages, 7933 KB  
Article
Integrated Design of High-Solidity Micro-Scale Counter-Rotating Wind Turbines at Extreme Close Spacing
by Shuo Zhang, Michaël Pereira and Florent Ravelet
Energies 2026, 19(8), 1900; https://doi.org/10.3390/en19081900 - 14 Apr 2026
Viewed by 328
Abstract
Micro-scale counter-rotating wind turbines (CRWTs) offer enhanced potential for wake energy recovery. This study proposes an integrated cascade–coupling design framework for high-solidity CRWTs, in which rear rotor geometry and rotor coupling are co-designed based on stereoscopic particle image velocimetry measurements of the front [...] Read more.
Micro-scale counter-rotating wind turbines (CRWTs) offer enhanced potential for wake energy recovery. This study proposes an integrated cascade–coupling design framework for high-solidity CRWTs, in which rear rotor geometry and rotor coupling are co-designed based on stereoscopic particle image velocimetry measurements of the front rotor wake. Experiments are conducted at a tip-speed ratio of λ=1.0, solidity σ=1.25, spacing ratios of d=0.6RT, 1.0RT, and 3.0RT, and a tip radius of RT=70 mm. At the physical limit spacing of d=0.6RT, the integrated design increases the system power coefficient by 24.1% while limiting front rotor power reduction to 17.2%, compared to a 10.3% system gain and 34.5% front rotor suppression for the baseline mirrored configuration. Wake measurements confirm near-complete absorption of rotational kinetic energy from the front rotor wake without exacerbating upstream interference. These results demonstrate that cascade-based energy extraction and coupling-based interference mitigation can operate synergistically, enabling compact, high-performance micro-scale CRWTs suitable for space-constrained and urban energy applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Flow Physics in Energy Conversion Systems)
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