Professor Dr.-Ing. Dieter Gorenflo, in celebration of his 70th birthday

Abstract

This selection of papers from the 6th International Conference on Boiling Heat Transfer is dedicated to Professor Dr.-Ing. Dieter Gorenflo, in celebration of his 70th birthday on 2 February 2007 and in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the science of boiling heat transfer and its application to refrigeration. These contributions throughout a long career have been marked previously by awards from the DKV (German Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning) in 1976 and from the International Institute of Refrigeration in 1991. Dieter Gorenflo was born and educated in Karlsruhe. He obtained the degree of Diplomingenieur from Karlsruhe University in 1962 and the degree of Dr.-Ing. in 1996 for research on boiling heat transfer in the Institute of Thermodynamics and Refrigeration, which was founded by Prof. Rudolf Plank, one of the leaders in the development of refrigeration. In 1971, he was appointed as the Head of the Refrigeration Department in the Institute. He was elected as a member of the International Institute of Refrigeration in 1975. In 1979, he left Karlsruhe to take up the position of Professor in charge of Thermodynamics, Heat Transfer and Refrigeration at the University-GH Paderborn, where he later served as the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanical and Chemical Engineering. Under his leadership, the Institute Warme-und Kaltetechnik developed its reputation as a centre of excellence in boiling research and launched the careers of many talented graduate students. The Institute hosted two very successful Eurotherm Seminars on Pool Boiling in 1989 and1996 and an IIR Conference on Thermophysical Properties and Transfer Processes in 2001. Professor Gorenflo was the Secretary of the Eurotherm Committee 1993–1997. He has been prominent in promoting the professional application of research in heat transfer and refrigeration at a national level, in DKV and VDI/GVC (German Association of Mechanical and Chemical Engineers), and internationally first as a Vice-President and since 1999 as President of Commission B1 of the International Institute of Refrigeration, over a period when refrigeration has figured prominently in international deliberations on environmental impact and energy efficiency. Commission B1 is responsible for a remarkably wide range of activities, including thermophysical properties of refrigerants and mixtures, heat and mass transfer and two-phase flow, lubricants and insulants and cycle performance. Official retirement in 2002 and transfer to an Emeritus Professorship at Paderborn appeared to have little effect on his level of activity. Dieter Gorenflo’s research has had a breadth to match that of Commission B1, including challenging problems such boiling of partially-immiscible mixtures and highly viscous liquids and boiling on enhanced surfaces, but the core activity has been the fundamental study of pool boiling on horizontal cylinders, with rigorous attention to experimental accuracy and reproducibility. The ‘‘standard pool boiling apparatus’’, which provided stable conditions around and within the boiling vessel should be studied by all graduate students as an object lesson in the high standard of engineering that can be achieved in experimental equipment. The same standard was applied to the construction of the test sections and the placing of sensors. Consequently, highly accurate and reproducible boiling data were obtained for a wide range of fluids and conditions, even at the very low wall superheats characteristic of near-critical pressures. This information was developed D. Kenning (&) School of Engineering and Design, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK e-mail: david.kenning@brunel.ac.uk