Research on magneto caloric materials has made a far step ahead with the discovery of the “giant” magneto caloric effect (GMCE) discovered by Gschneidner and Pecharsky in 1996. Today this method is developed in a sustainable manner.

This led to an improvement of the refrigeration capacities of materials showing the GMCE of approximately a factor two. The development of such alloys is still undergoing substantial improvement, which makes the magnetic heating and cooling technology increasingly interesting. Sustainable applications include practical large-scale applications, such as in home refrigerators, heat pump applications, air conditioning systems, process technical systems, and automobiles, in accordance with the Kyoto protocol.

Scientists and engineers of the Thermodynamics Institute of the University of Applied Sciences of Western Switzerland made valuable contributions to the machine design of magnetic refrigerators and heat pumps. In 2006, the Institute was awarded with the first prize Swiss Tech¬no¬logy Award and two special prizes, donated each by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy and ABB.

Program  
6:30 pm     Doors open
6:45 pm     Presentation by Prof. Peter Egolf & Prof. Osmann Sari
7:30 pm     Demonstration by Mr. Nicolas Erbeau
8:00 pm     Finger food  & networking
9:00 pm     Doors  closes

Prof. Peter William Egolf, PhD, ETHZ
Head of the Numerical Modelling and Simulation of  Thermal Systems (SIT) Laboratory, School of Business and Engineering, Vaud. The offices are situated in Yverdon-les-Bains.

The current work of the SIT team in applied research and development includes the following:
Thermodynamics with heat and mass transfer.
Mathematical modeling of physical phenomena.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).
Fluid dynamics, turbulence, rheology
Multifunctional fluids : ice slurries, microencapsulated phase change slurries, nano-fluids, etc.
Development of software for calculations in the domain of heat and mass transfer.
Process techniques.
Thermal systems in buildings such as refrigeration, HVAC, etc.
Miscellaneous intelligent thermal systems.

Prof. Osmann Sari, PhD, EPFL
Head of the Industrial Thermodynamics and
Systems (TiS) Laboratory. TiS Laboratory forms an integral part of the Thermal Engineering Institute (IGT) of the School of Business and Engineering Vaud and is located since 1994 in the World Business Centre St-Roch in Yverdon-les-Bains.
The TiS is mainly active the field of industrial thermal engineering, especially heat transfer, refrigeration (heat pumps) and Phase Change Slurries (ice slurry and phase change materials). Several projects in the field of combustion are carried out, in the framework of a strong collaboration, with the Swiss Center of Electronics and Micro technology of Neuchâtel (CSEM) and SwissTS – Western Switzerland office.