The Advances in Magnetics AIM 2025 conference in Brixen/Bressanone in Italy was a fantastic opportunity to dive into cutting-edge research, exchange ideas with brilliant minds, and connect with experts from around the world.
INDY project officially concluded on 31 January 2025; however, its outcomes continue to serve as a foundation for numerous new projects and tangible solutions enhancing energy resilience in defence in the future.
In December 2024, the MAGCCINE consortium convened for its second meeting, building upon the successful kickoff event held in October.
Researchers of the LAHDE laboratory of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, have developed an open-source tool for 1D modeling of thermal control circuits, TCCbuilder.
On October 25, 2024, the MAGCCINE project was successfully launched with an introductory Kick-Off meeting.
Chillventa 2024, took place in Nuremberg, bringing together leading companies in the cooling industry.
Visit the Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy at the Open Faculty Event!
Our team attended 11th IIR Conference on Compressors and Refrigerants in Bratislava, Slovakia, from the 9th to the 11th of September.
Attending the Calorics 2024 conference was an exceptional experience, offering invaluable opportunities for learning and collaboration.
LAHDE had a presentation on “Heat Pump Modelling in District Heating and Cooling Grid.”
LAHDE published interesting paper in collaboration with University in Sevilla and in Cambridge.
An online workshop on TCCbuilder was held.
Successful attendance at the 40th International Conference on Thermoelectrics in Krakow, Poland.
The Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy (LAHDE) is proud to be a partner in the three-year project titled “Limited-Angle Positron Emission Tomography (PET) System,” funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS). The project, set to begin in July 2024, is led by the Jožef Stefan Institute, specifically […]
The LAHDE team recently had the privilege of attending the 10th IIR Conference on Caloric Cooling and Applications of Caloric Materials (THERMAG 2024) in Baotou, China. This event was particularly memorable as it also provided our team the opportunity to visit Baotou, the world’s largest hub for rare earth production. […]
The Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy (LAHDE) invites all students, researchers and other interested parties to a free online workshop, where you will have the opportunity to learn about the world’s first open source tool for thermal control circuits – TCCbuilder.When? Thursday, September 5, 2024, at 2:00 p.m CEST.More […]
Our laboratory had the pleasure of attending the Eurotherm 2024 conference, held in the picturesque town of Bled, Slovenia from 9th – 13th June The conference was a fascinating experience, showcasing the latest advancement in thermal science and technology. We were thrilled to be part of such an esteemed gathering […]
The Slovenian Energy Association (SZE) successfully hosted the SZE 2024 International Conference from June 2 to June 4, 2024, at the Grand Hotel Bernardin in Portorož, Slovenia. This prestigious event was organized in collaboration with Kronoterm, the main sponsor.Our group presented the latest findings from the 3Diverse project, which focused […]
On Friday, April 19, 2024, we had an exceptional opportunity to expand our professional knowledge with students by visiting two leading companies in the industry. Students had the exclusive opportunity to learn about the internal operations and processes at the Hisense Gorenje corporation, which, among other things, is involved […]
Developed thermoelectric heat pump with high efficiency, compactness, silent operation, no vibrations and environmentally friendly refrigerants.
TU Delft leads HEAT4ENERGY, a European consortium, dedicated to develop thermomagnetic devices and novel materials to harvest heat from data centres, food, pulp and paper industries and convert this waste heat to electricity. This project ticks all the boxes: energy transition, decarbonising, low and high power devices for conversion of […]
LAHDE concluded an enlightening visit to the conference in Dresden, which took place on November 13-14. Our team members demonstrated their expertise with interesting contributions: Prof. Dr. Andrej Kitanovski took to the stage as an invited speaker Title of the lecture: Magnetocalorics and thermomagnetics: the past, the present and the […]
The visibility of our work continues – we celebrate our latest achievement!LAHDE members (Prof. Dr. Andrej Kitanovski, Dr. Katja Klinar, Katja Vozel) have once again received support from the Innovation Fund of University of Ljubljana, this year for the project TEcomfort: the compact unit for low-temperature heating and cooling systems.The […]
Researchers of Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy (LAHDE, process engineering) participated in a research on improving thermal comfort and energy efficiency in buildings using phase-change materials. The research was carried out in Laboratory for Heating, Sanitary, Solar and Air Conditioning Engineering (LOSK, process engineering), also by participation of researchers […]
Yesterday we were delighted to welcome the start of the new academic year and celebrate it with a special event – Open Lab Day! Our lab also opened its doors to give the new students a glimpse into the various exciting projects and experiments we are conducting. Some of the research […]
We are pleased to announce that the LAHDE team has successfully completed its active participation in the 26th International Congress on Refrigeration (ICR 2023) in stunning Paris! This unique and extremely important meeting takes place every 4 years, and perhaps this year was all the more special because it returned […]
Researchers at the Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy (LAHDE, Process Engineering), in collaboration with researcher from the Laboratory for Structure Evaluation (LAVEK), have conducted a comprehensive study of the design, numerical analyses and experimental validation of various electro-permanent magnetic structures that can be used in magnetocaloric refrigeration. The research […]
Researchers at the Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy (LAHDE, Process Engineering), in collaboration with researchers from the Laboratory for Tribology and interface nanotechnology (TINT), have conducted a comprehensive study of the thermal properties of thermal switch capacitors used in magnetocaloric devices. The research results were published in the Journal […]
We’re excited to share with you pleasant news that has us counting down the days with excitement. In August, our team will be flying to Paris to attend the highly anticipated 26th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, organized by IIFIIR – International Institute of Refrigeration. This prestigious event, held every […]
The Slovenian Energy Association (SZE) organized the International Conference SZE 2023 in Portorož between June 4th and June 6th, 2023. The main theme of the conference was Energy efficiency and sustainable, secure, and accessible energy supply. We participated in the conference with the following contribution:Developments on thermoelectric heat pump booster […]
LAHDE members presented the latest research results at the MRS 2023 meeting.
Within the ERC project SUPERCOOL we have investigated buckling stability of elastocaloric tubes and define the buckling phase diagrams, based on which functionally stable tubes to be used in elastocaloric devices can be selected. The results are published in International Journal of Solid and Structures.The paper is available here […]
We are pleased to announce that members of our Laboratory (dr. Luka Lorbek, dr. Luka Porenta, prof. dr. Andrej Kitanovski) were chosen as one of this year’s recipients of the University of Ljubljana Innovation Fund. A grant of 25.000€ was obtained to develop a prototype cooling system (EASE) and demonstrate […]
In the article The numerical study on performance evaluation of a thermal switch capacitor in a magnetocaloric cooling device, published in the journal iScience (IF 6.107), researchers from the Laboratory of Refrigeration and District Energy at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering numerically analyze the performance of a thermal control element […]
Within the ERC project SUPERCOOL we have developed fatigue-resistant elastocaloric regenerator with record cooling and heat-pumping performance. The results are published in prestigious journal Joule.
We were invited to publish a protocol on the use of the numerical model for the simulation of (magneto)caloric devices with thermal switches.The protocol is available here: link.The numerical model is available here: Zenodo in Github This protocol describes the use of a simple 1D numerical model to evaluate a […]
The Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy (LAHDE) won the three-year Cool BatMan project as a part of the M-ERA.NET tender entitled Battery Thermal Management System Based on High Power Density Digital Microfluidic Magnetocaloric Cooling (Cool BatMan). It is a consortium of 4 quality institutions where LAHDE acts as […]
We presented our work at the International Conference of SZE:High-temperature thermal energy storageThermoelectric micro heat pump booster for low temperature district heating systemHigh-temperature heat pumpsPlease contact us for more information!
In the article Towards powerful magnetocaloric devices with static electro-permanent magnets, published in the Journal of Advanced Research (IF 10.479), researchers from the Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering report on a new approach – the concept of an energy-efficient electro-permanent magnetic field […]
A paper on implementation of ferofluidic thermal switch in magnetocaloric device has been published in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Twente. The article was published in the journal iScience.
LAHDE Scientific annual report: Published papers MAIORINO, Angelo, DEL DUCA, Manuel Gesù, TOMC, Urban, TUŠEK, Jaka, KITANOVSKI, Andrej, APREA, Ciro. A numerical modelling of a multi-layer LaFeCoSi active magnetic regenerator by using artificial neural networks. Applied thermal engineering, ISSN 1359-4311. [Print ed.], Oct. 2021, vol. 197, str. 1-13, ilustr. https://www.sciencedirect. […]
We published research on condensation of water vapor from humid air inside vertical channels formed by flat plates in collaboration with researchers from Shanghai University.The research was published in iScience.Link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589004221015352AbstractCondensation of humid air is an important process in thermal and process engineering and a subject of many currently research-intensive […]
May the peace and joy of this holiday season be with you today and throughout the New year. *** We wish you health, happiness and success in 2022!
An investigation into the applicability of R450A as a replacement for R134a in heat pump tumble dryers was made in collaboration with Gorenje, d.o.o.This paper presents the results of an experimental study evaluating R450A as a possible drop-in replacement for R134a in household heat pump tumble dryers. A heat pump […]
The traditional Rector’s Award for the Best Innovation of the University of Ljubljana promotes innovation at the University of Ljubljana and helps innovators on their way to the market. The competition was divided into two categories: 1st category of students and alumni and 2nd category of researchers employed full-time at […]
We are hiring /job advertisementThe Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (University of Ljubljana) is actively seeking qualified researchers with diverse experience and education levels (M.Sc. or PhD) to support its scientific (academic) and industry-related research and development projects. The group develops state-of-the-art and […]
The Public Research Agency of the Republic of Slovenia (ARRS) will finance a basic science project entitled TCCbuilder: An open-source simulation tool for thermal control circuits. The project was selected together with 12 other projects of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering UL.The project concerns the development of World’s first numerical […]
We have published a research paper on preparation of metal-ceramic multi-layered composites using only the aerosol-deposition technique in collaboration with researchers from Josef Stefan Institute. The article was published in the journal Materials.
We have published a research paper on numerical modelling of multi-layered LaFeCoSi active magnetic regenerator by using artificial neural networks in collaboration with researchers from University of Salerno. The article was published in the journal Applied Thermal Engineering.
A paper on increasing thermal rectification using multi-layered materials has been published in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Twente. The article was published in the journal iScience.
Eurotherm CHC (Caloric Heating and Cooling) 2020 is another scientific seminar that was postponed from last year to 2021. It took place virtually between 13 and 15 July. The LAHDE laboratory participated in 4 conference papers and an invited lecture:Cool future: magnetocaloric devices based on static and rare earth free […]
AIM (Advances in magnetics) 2020 is another scientific conference that was postponed from last year to 2021. It took place virtually between 13 and 16 June. The LAHDE laboratory presented two papers and an invited lecture:The future of magnetic refrigeration and heat pumping (Andrej Kitanovski)Design, enhanced thermal and flow efficiency […]
The 10th IIR International Conference on Caloric Cooling and Applications of Caloric Materials is CANCELLED. Dear colleagues, We hope your are healthy and safe. Peace, safety and health of the conference participants is our main concern, including of course the high quality of conference service to participants, which we want […]
After a one-year delay, the 9th International IIR Conference on Caloric Cooling and Use of Caloric Materials was held in June 2021. Although the conference was held in virtual format, many interesting research activities were presented. For more information on the conferences, please visit this website. Members of the LAHDE […]
The condensation of humid air is a crucial step in air conditioning and process engineering. However, the models that describe the condensation of vapour in the presence of a non-condensable gas require time-consuming numerical calculations that go beyond the Nusselt film theory. Only a small number of publications exist, where […]
Existing capillary tube models rely heavily on friction factor correlations, which enable the specification of the relative surface roughness. However, measuring the surface roughnesses of capillary tubes is a time consuming task, which requires specialized equipment. In this research we have developed a friction factor correlation, which does not […]
Due to coronavirus epidemic, MRS ( Material Research Society ) Spring Meeting was again held virtually. Together with the research group from Twente Univeristy we presented thermal rectification with multilayer phase change materials: High Asymmetric Heat Transport in Multilayer Phase Change Materials. Apart from the lack of personal contact, pastries […]
An extensive review of thermal management with fluidic and mechanical thermal control devices has been published in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Twente (Dr. Miguel Muñoz Rojo and Timm Swoboda). A review article published in the journal Advanced electronic materials (published by Wiley) presents the second of two […]
An extensive review of thermal management with thermal control devices based on solid-state physics phenomena has been published in collaboration with colleagues from the Universities of Twente (Dr. Miguel Muñoz Rojo and Timm Swoboda) and Stanford (Dr. Ananth Saran Yalamarthy). A review article published in the journal Advanced electronic materials […]
The new coronavirus epidemic has caused most conferences to be canceled or postponed. The MRS ( Material Research Society ) usually organizes two researcher meetings a year – in the spring and in the fall. This year, both meetings were held in virtual form via a special platform at the […]
Low temperature district heating systems represent an important share of the future heating supply. Such systems utilize waste heat from different systems and the heat from renewable sources. Furthermore, they show a potential to be implemented as a link between various energy sectors. The low temperature level of the district […]
Within the ERC project SUPERCOOL and ARRS project J2-1738 we have developed a new, unique numerical model that serves as a tool for parametric analysis and the development of micro-cooling systems for cooling of electronic components based on electrocaloric and elastocaloric materials. An article entitled: Caloric micro-cooling: Numerical modeling and […]
The article was published in the Journal of Applied Physics and is available here.Thermal control elements, i.e., thermal diodes, switches, and regulators, can control the heat flow in an analogous way in how electronic devices control electrical currents. In particular, a thermal diode allows a larger heat flux in one […]
The latest research results of the ERC SUPERCOOL project were published in the paper Thin-walled Ni-Ti tubes under compression: ideal candidates for efficient and fatigue-resistant elastocaloric cooling in highly ranked journal Applied Matrials Today (IF 8.013). The paper is available here. Elastocaloric cooling is emerging as one of the most promising […]
The latest research results of the ERC SUPERCOOL project were published in the chapter A Shell Finite Element Model for Superelasticity of Shape Memory Alloys of the book entitled Analysis of Shells, Plates, and Beams. The chapter is available here.
Recently published paper in International Journal of Refrigeration reports on flow visualization of the refrigerant R600a through a capillary tube (link). (Open access link (50 days)) Abstract: This paper presents the results of an experimental study of the flow visualization of the refrigerant R600a through a capillary tube with […]
The article: Numerical and experimental investigation of the energy and exergy performance of solar thermal, photovoltaic and photovoltaic-thermal modules based on roll-bond heat exchangers has been published in Energy Conversion and Management journal (IF = 7.181, 2019, top 5%). Link to the article*: https://authors.elsevier.com/c/1akEjin8VZz4e. Abstract: This paper presents […]
Along with environmentally-friendly refrigerants, high energy efficiency of refrigeration systems and heat pumping will represent the foundation of future refrigeration, heating and air-conditioning systems. Recuperation and utilization of waste heat at various temperature levels will enable significantly lower energy consumption not only for heating and refrigeration, but also for generation […]
On the international Conference on caloric cooling, which will be held in June 2020 in Maryland USA, prof. dr. Andrej Kitanovski (magnetoaloric cooling) and assist. prof. dr. Jaka Tušek (elastocaloric cooling – ERC project SUPERCOOL) will present their work in two pelnary lectures: Kitanovski: The Future of the Magnetocaloric […]
In the extensive Encyclopedia of Smart Materials (Reference Module in Materials Science and Materials Engineering) a paper on Applications on magnetocaloric materials was published. The paper is available here. Abstract: The first market applications of magnetocaloric materials were in low-temperature physics and magnetic resonance imaging. These important applications, however, represent […]
Probably the most comprehensive overview of elastocaloric technology to date was just published in a special issue of Strojniški vestnik – Journal of Mechanical Engineering devoted to the 100th anniversary of Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana. The article puts an emphasis on the direction of future development of […]
Demonstration cooling device based on electrocaloric effectThe collaborators of the Laboratory for Refrigeration and District Energy of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of the University of Ljubljana and the departments of Electronic Ceramics and Condensed Matter Physics of the Jozef Stefan Institute were among the first in the world to […]
The review paper Thermal control elements for caloric energy conversion was published in Renewable & Sustainable Energy Reviews. The paper is has open access until January 3rd 2020 (link). Abstract: Caloric energy conversion is an emerging field of cooling, heat-pumping and power-generation technologies. The potentially high energy efficiency and use […]
In the year we are celebrating the centenary of the University of Ljubljana, we are also celebrating the centenary of mechanical engineering, which a special and admirable event. Namely, the University of Ljubljana was founded on 23rd July 1919 by a special bill; while 19th May 1919 saw the beginning […]
The 2019 E-MRS Fall Meeting was held in Warsaw University of Technology, from September 16th to 19th. There were more than 1000 participants from all over the world. The members of LAHDE presented our work in two contributions and invited lecture: Urban Tomc: Digital microfluidics in caloric cooling Using the […]
The paper Electrocaloric refrigeration: Thermodynamics, state of the art and future perspectives (M. Ozbolt, A. Kitanovski, J. Tusek, A Poredos) was awarded by International Journal of Refrigeration for a Very Commended Paper. The paper is available here.
From August 24-30, 2019, Montreal (Canada), the birthplace of the 1987 Montreal Protocol, hosted the 25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration –ICR 2019. Covering all fields of refrigeration, ICR 2019 surpassed the success of previous congresses and was a unique opportunity for researchers and engineers from all over the world […]
In the middle of May international scientific conference on Shape Memory and Superelastic Technology (SMST) 2019 took place at The Bodenseeforum in Konstanz, Germany. This is the leading worldwide conference and exposition for the shape memory and superelastic technologies and is highly focused on the manufacturing and application of shape […]
The paper Exergy analyses of low-temperature district heating systems with different sanitary hot-water boosters was published in Entropy Journal. Abstract: This paper presents an exergy-efficiency analysis of low-temperature district heating systems (DHSs) with different sanitary hot-water (SHW) boosters. The main objective of this study was to compare the exergy efficiencies […]
The research article co-authored by members of LAHDE laboratory entitled Neural network, ARX, and extreme learning machine models for the short-term prediction of temperature in buildings was published in Building Systems and Components journal in April 2019. Abstract In this paper, the possibilities of developing machine learning based data-driven […]
Do you want to leave a footprint in one of today’s most important research area of thermal engineering? You are offered a PhD position in the research group of prof. Andrej Kitanovski. About the topic The latest research activities in the field of the heat transfer regard the phenomena […]
The international Interclima conference is dedicated to research in the field of technical thermodynamics and to the energy efficiency improvements in thermal energy systems, primarily in the buildings and industry, in the context of the regulations subjected to the implementation of EU Directives in national legislation. Prof. Kitanovski held the […]
The International Conference of SZE (Slovenian Energy Association) took place in the beginning of April in Porotož. It hosted more than 200 attendees, who presented 47 contributions in sustainable and clean energy supply for heating and cooling. The LAHDE presented: Comparative techno-economic analysis of using gas engine-driven heat pumps in […]
In december 2018 we attended the Nanoscale and Microscale Heat Transfer conference in Levi, Finland. The Book of Abstracts is available here.
The article was publishe in the International Journal of Refrigeration (link) Abstrakt This paper reports on the research and development of a cooling device with an active electrocaloric regenerator (AER) based on the bulk ceramic material (1-x)Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)O3–xPbTiO3 (PMN-100xPT). For the purposes of the study a 2D transient numerical model of […]
The article was published in Applied Energy Journal (link) Abstract This article reports on the novel resistive electromagnetic field source with the magnetic energy recovery, which enables the use of the static magnetocaloric regenerator. Most of the existing prototype magnetocaloric devices that operate near room temperature, use magnetic field sources […]
In September 2108 we attended the International Conference on Caloric Cooling in Darmstadt. Our contributions were in the field of magnetocalorics and elastocalorics: Rare-earth-free magnetic field source (invited talk), Magnetocaloric wine cooler with rare-earth-free magnet assembly, Challenges in designing elastocaloric regenerators. [metaslider id=573]