On 15.11.2023, more than 20 doctoral students came together in Freiberg to take part in the “Knorzel-Treffen”. The Institute for Industrial Furnace Construction and Heat Engineering and the Chair of Gas and Thermal Engineering at TU Bergakademie Freiberg (GWA) joined forces back in 1993 to promote the exchange of knowledge and networking between young academics in what was then still a newly united Germany. This tradition is still maintained today and has been expanded to include the knowledge of the Chair of Thermodynamics and Combustion at Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and OWI Sciene4Fuels.
The “KnorzelTreffen” is named after a sculpture forged in the Freibergsdorf hammer at the first meeting, the so-called “Knorzel”, which rotates annually between the institutes as a challenge cup and is passed on at each meeting. For the tenth anniversary, the “Knorzel” was supplemented by a so-called lasting impression, an old wedding tradition in Freiberg. At this year’s meeting, the “Knorzel” was passed on from the OWI to the GWA.
After a long break since the last meeting in Aachen in 2019, this year’s “Knorzel-Treffen” was the 26th “Knorzel-Treffen” in total. The doctoral students spent a day discussing current topics in the field of energy and high temperatures and gained insights into the research issues at the various institutes. In addition to the exchange of ideas, they were also able to expand their own networks. Dominik Büschgens, Eileen Trampe, Moritz Diewald and Nico Rademacher from the IOB took part in the meeting in Freiberg. Eileen Trampe presented her current research project “Impingement jet CFD” in a lecture entitled: “Development and experimental validation of numerical heat transfer models for impingement jets”. Moritz Diewald gave an insight into the recently launched EU project “Butterfly — Utilization of renewable dimethyl ether in the steel industry”.
The meeting was rounded off by a guided tour of Freiberg Cathedral with an organ concert and a convivial evening in the GWA’s technical center with pizza from the specially built pizza oven and sausages from the “green” gas grill. The next day, the IOB tour group also visited the “Reiche Zeche” silver mine at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and got a great insight into the world 150 meters underground.
We would like to thank the GWA for the organization and hospitality and look forward to the next meeting in autumn 2024.
