The History of Multiphase Science and Computational Fluid Dynamics

Robert W. Lyczkowski received his BChE in from Cleveland State University, Fenn School of Engineering and MS in Gas Engineering and PhD in Gas Technology from Illinois Institute of Technology. He worked for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Idaho National Engineering Laboratory, Energy Incorporated, Goodyear Atomic Corp., Hooker Chemical Corp., and as a faculty member at Illinois Institute of Technology. He has been involved for over forty years in chemical and nuclear engineering applications of his multiphase theory and computational fluid dynamics expertise especially in the areas of heat transfer and energy conversion to develop models that are now used by industry world-wide to design various two-phase flow equipment. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and a recipient of the prestigious Ernst W. Thiele Award.

Most of Dr. Lyczkowski's career was spent as a Chemical Engineer in the Energy Systems Division at Argonne National Laboratory. He was involved with computer modeling of fluidized beds and dense slurries. His expertise is in the areas of multiphase flow and heat transfer, erosion, light water and liquid metal nuclear reactors, in-situ processing of fuels, and concentrated suspensions. He applied multiphase dense slurry modeling to the development of a unique non-Newtonian power-law model for multiphase hemodynamics. This established a completely new paradigm for analyzing the migration of blood-borne particulates. This model was used to develop a mechanistic monolayer population balance cell-adhesion model to aid in determining the threshold conditions of atherosclerosis initiation and progression. He was involved with modeling a novel multiphase concept involving chemical water splitting using high temperature steam bubbling into a bath of molten calcium bromide as the first step in the calcium-bromine (Ca-Br) cycle.

He is the author of over 150 technical publications (over 50 refereed journal articles and book contributions and over 100 conference papers), over 50 reports, and holds 2 U.S. patents. He contributed significantly to the development of the RETRAN and COMMIX computer programs. He has recently completed a book titled "The History of Multiphase Science and Computational Fluid Dynamics a Personal Memoir".