Our team

Head of the lab

Abdellah Kharicha

+43 3842 402 - 3115

abdellah.kharicha(at)unileoben.ac.at

Since 2018, A. Kharicha has been the head of Christian-Doppler laboratory for the metallurgical applications of Magnetohydrodynamics in Leoben, Austria. Kharicha is also a group leader of the Chair for “Simulation and Modelling of Metallurgical Processes”. The laboratory specializes in the simulations of MHD phenomena occurring in industrial processes involving liquid metals, electrolytes, and plasma media. Examples are: blankets for Fusion reactors, instabilities in aluminium reduction cells, Electroslag-remelting process, vacuum arcs, electric arcs, and continuous casting. As part of the Metallurgy Department, A. Kharicha is also working on different projects concerning the numerical modeling of flow-crystal growth interactions.

Researchers

Ebrahim Karimi-Sibaki

+43 3842 402 - 3128

ebrahim.karimi-sibaki(at)unileoben.ac.at

Multiphysics modeling of electro-metallurgical processes,
My research interest comprise :
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD),
Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD),
Electrokinetics,
Electrodeposition

Alexander Vakhrushev

+43 3842 402 - 3125

alexander.vakhrushev(at)unileoben.ac.at

Since 2009, A. Vakhrushev develops numerical models of the multi-phase phenomena

during continuous casting (CC) of the steel employing the open-source CFD software.

As a senior researcher, he deals with the magnetohydrodynamics effects on the turbulent

flow, solidification, and free surface behavior during the thin slab CC process.

Mihaela Stefan-Kharicha

+43 3842 402 3111

mihaela.stefan-kharicha@unileoben.ac.at

Since 2019 Mihaela Stefan-Kharicha is post-doc researcher and works on simulation of faceted crystal growth. Previously during his Ph D thesis, she performed solidification experiments of ammonium chloride in a die cast cell, using a PIV system for the characterization of the flow and equiaxed crystals behavior. Her interest topics are: crystal growth, solidification, PIV experiments, computational fluid dynamic.

Hadi Barati

+43 3842 402 - 3119

hadi.barati(at)unileoben.ac.at

Hadi Barati is post-doc researcher and works on numerical modeling of metallurgical processes like continuous casting (focus on nozzle clogging), electric arc furnace (focus on plasma arc), and solidification. His research interests comprise: Numerical modeling, Computational metallurgy, and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).

Haijie Zhang

+43 3842 402 - 3129

haijie.zhang(at)unileoben.ac.at

Haijie Zhang is a post-doc researcher and works on the simulation of flow-solidification interaction phenomena. Subtopics including (1) nucleation and transport of equiaxed grains, (2) dendrite fragmentation, (3) remelting/grain-destruction of equiaxed grains, (4) columnar-to-equiaxed transition and equiaxed-to-columnar transition; (5) the effect of the flow on the mushy zone morphology, and (6) different mechanisms for macrosegregation, are of great interest in his research.

phd students

Mohamad Al Nasser

+43 3842 402 - 3110

mohamad.al-nasser(at)unileoben.ac.at

Mohamad AL Nasser is PhD student at Montanuniversität. His research focus on electric arc furnace modeling and magnetohydrodynamic flows in conducting liquids. The research aims to simulate the behavior of the high current electric arc and predict the thermofluidic and magnetohydrodynamic fields inside the furnace. The arc interaction with melted bath and impingement effect on liquid metal bath is of great interest to the research. Moreover, the research aims to predict the thermal field distribution inside the whole furnace and thermal load on the refractories and erosion rate of the electrode.

Zhao Zhang

+43 3842 402 - 3112

zhao.zhang@unileoben.ac.at

Zhao Zhang is a PhD student of Montanuniversität Leoben and works on numerical modeling of solidification processes (focus on macrosegregation and as-cast structure) during continuous casting and semi-continuous casting. His research interests comprise: Macrosegregation, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Modeling, Solidification, Electromagnetic Stirring (EMS).