Dr. Heindel’s research interests are in the areas of convective transport phenomena (i.e., fluid mechanics and convective heat/mass transfer). Past projects include various transport phenomena topics such as: forced convection channel flows; nucleate boiling, incipience, and critical heat flux; jet impingement heat transfer; heat transfer enhancement; natural convection flows; transport in porous media; bubble-particle interactions; fiber suspension flows; flotation separation; multiphase bubble column flows; mixing in stirred-tank reactors; and concentric pipe mixing. His current research interests involve transport phenomena in gas-liquid and gas-liquid-solid systems, with a focus on bubble column and fluidized bed hydrodynamics, gas-liquid mass transfer, and multiphase flow visualization and characterization. These multiphase fluid systems are applicable to many process industries including chemical processing, food processing, agricultural waste management, pulp and paper processing, mineral processing, petrochemical refining, and water treatment.
Bubble Column and Fluidized Bed Hydrodynamics
The long-term goals of this research effort are to characterize and quantify the mechanisms that are involved in the hydrodynamic and transport processes in complex multiphase flows to improve process performance.
X-Ray Flow Visualization
The long-term goal of this research effort is to perform noninvasive three-dimensional X-ray imaging of large-scale multiphase flows to study and characterize industrial-scale multiphase flow processes.
Gas-Liquid Mass Transfer
The long-term goals of this research effort are to develop the engineering and biological process technology to convert biomass to useful products through syngas fermentation, with a focus on replacing non-renewable petroleum-based products with renewable biobased products.