Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWMOur department »Transport Processes« is managed by a dual leadership: The biennial management is with Dr. Dietmar Hietel.
What Does Your Area Deal With and What Constitutes Its Research Work?
We model complex industrial problems and develop efficient algorithms for numerical simulation and optimization of these problems. The problems are mostly in the context of fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, radiative transfer, optics, etc. From the point of view of our industrial customers, it is about the design of production processes and the optimization of products.
What Potential Does Your Unit’s Research Have for a Better Future?
Techniques for automatic differentiation allow the identification of systems and their optimization with previously unimaginable quality and efficiency – it was this background that made it possible to develop epidemiological models for an extremely dynamic infection event with the start of the Corona pandemic. For industry, we have created MESHFREE, a software that describes processes and products with complex and highly variable flow dynamics very well. Current pressing problems such as energy grids and energy efficiency have also played a relevant role in our research for years.
Where Do You See Your Department in Five Years?
We will increasingly develop, use and license our own software tools. The associated growth requires adapted structures, which will be implemented in the course of the upcoming change in department management.
Which Three Keywords Describe Your Department Best?
- methodologically flexible
- problem-oriented
- customer-oriented