He was appointed 'docent' at Chalmers in 1987. Fluid flow and heat transfer are important in almost all energy-conversion processes. A high degree of expertise within these areas is particularly important for power utilities in order to ascertain safe and efficient power production. My work on fluid-mechanical problems within the power industry has covered a wide range of topics and both experimental and computational methods have been used. An important class of industrial flow problems is flow-induced materials problems , in which the flow causes damage to the surrounding material.
Examples are flow-induced vibrations, cavitation, erosion and thermal fatigue.
It is therefore important to be able to measure fluctuating parameters in turbulent flow and the development and application of such measurement methods to industrial flow problems has been an important part of my work. An important lesson I have learned from fluid-mechanical troubleshooting is that there is usually a more basic, generic problem hidden behind the industrial flow problem. This generic problem is often suitable as a research subject at universities. The experience I have gained from such work in both industry and at the university fits well into the work planned at Chalmers and especially at the new Turbulence Research Laboratory, of which I am part. The numerical solution of the basic equations for fluid flows for turbulent flows always contains simplifications, often in the basic physics of the problem.