Review: DECHEMA specialist group conference in Lucerne (CH), March 09-11, 2026

The joint conference of the DECHEMA/VDI specialist groups Fluid Process Engineering and Heat and Mass Transfer took place from March 9 to 11, 2026. This year, the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts (HSLU) hosted the event and welcomed the participants to the Horw Campus, Department of Engineering & Architecture.

The Chair of Energy Process Engineering at TU Dresden was of course represented with a contribution: Dipl.-Ing. Valentin Scheffel presented his research entitled "Experimental validation of numerical simulations of non-uniform flow in shell-and-tube heat exchangers".

His presentation focused on the challenge of non-uniform flow distributions in shell-and-tube heat exchangers, which often lead to fouling and reduced efficiency in practice. This phenomenon is being investigated in a targeted manner in the OPTIFLOW project: Numerical simulations are combined with experimental investigations on a transparent glass shell-and-tube heat exchanger. With the help of a tracer fluid, the flow patterns can be made visible and compared directly with the simulation results. The aim of the research is to systematically analyse power losses and, based on this, to develop measures to optimize flow distribution and heat transfer.

The DECHEMA conference provided an excellent opportunity to present research results, exchange experiences and jointly discuss new approaches for efficient and reliable heat transfer. It once again underlined the importance of close cooperation between science and practice.