Ricardo Torres Cámara

Department of Fluid Dynamics

PhD in Physical Sciences from the University of Barcelona (UB). Teruned Professor at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) in the Department of Fluid Mechanics.

Teaching

His teaching activity as professor of the Fluid Mechanics Department is extensive and covers different engineering degrees. Thus, he regularly participates in teaching basic courses on Fluid Mechanics, Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer. On the other hand, he is also in charge of teaching specific specialty courses, such as Fluid Engineering and Thermal Engineering, Hydraulic and Thermal Power Plants or Computational Simulation, among others.

Research

The current research work of Professor Ricardo Torres Cámara contributes to different topics. In the case of his more applied research, and as a result of collaborations with several companies, he works in the design and analysis of thermal and fluid dynamic equipment, fluid power and turbomachinery.

From the basic research point of view, he develops a remarkable activity in the fields of computational modeling and simulation and renewable energies related to hydrogen technologies. In the latter case, he mainly focuses on hydrogen reforming processes, its storage and its use in fuel cells.

Professor Ricardo Torres Cámara is a collaborating researcher in the Automatic Control section of the Industrial Robotics Institute (IRI). In this institute his activity is focused on fuel cells. On the other hand, he also collaborates in hydrogen reforming with the Multiscale Science and Engineering Research Center of Barcelona (within the CRnE – Center for Research in Nanoengineering).

Numerical Simulation and COMSOL Multiphysics

Professor Ricardo Torres Cámara has taught a large number of specialized courses and has given several seminars in relevant centers related to the use of computational simulation environments in science and engineering, such as COMSOL Multiphysics.

The numerical and computational models he has developed have applications in general transport phenomena (mass, momentum and energy), turbulent flows, biomedicine, flows in porous media, hydrogen storage in metal hydrides, rheology and non-Newtonian flows, etc.

The use of COMSOL Multiphysics is fundamental as a tool to develop computational models, from which better design, modeling and controllability strategies are implemented. Likewise, these models are applied to perform experimental contrast, verification and validation tests. They are very useful in activities of scientific-technical advice to companies, which Professor Ricardo Torres Cámara carries out through specific company-university collaboration agreements.