Centre for Industrial Diagnostics and Fluid Dynamics. CDIF

Team

Alexandre Presas

Director / Associate Professor

 

Alexandre Presas Batllo, born in Barcelona, is Dr. Industrial Engineer and researcher at CDIF. He qualified as Aeronautical Engineer and Master by the Technische Universität München, and Mechanical Engineer by the UPC in 2009. He obtained the PhD in Mechanical Engineering (field of fluid mechanics) in 2014 for a thesis directed by Prof. Eduard Egusquiza and Dr. Carme Valero. Furthermore, he did a post-doc stay in Tsinghua University in Beijing, China for two years (2016-2018). He obtained a Serra Húnter Lecturer position on 2018 and nowadays he is Associate Professor in the Fluid Mechanics department. He teaches Hydraulic turbomachinery. His main research line is the determination of remaining useful life and stress prediction in hydraulic turbines using experimental techniques and AI (artificial intelligence). He has collaborated on European and international research projects in the field of hydraulic machines and he is active directing thesis and publishing JCR papers. He is the CDIF director since 2023.

     

 

 

Mònica Egusquiza

Lecturer

 

Mònica Egusquiza, born in Barcelona, qualified as Mechanical Engineer in 2015, studying in the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) and the Technische Universität Wien (TUWien). In 2020, she obtained her PhD in Mechanical Engineering by the UPC. As a doctoral student, she performed part of her research in different centers, such as the German turbine manufacturer VOITH GmbH and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). Currently, she works as a researcher in the Center for Industrial Diagnostics and Fluid Dynamics (CDIF) and also giving lectures for different Master's degree courses in the department of Fluid Mechanics of the Barcelona School of Industrial Engineering (UPC-ETSEIB). She is currently working within the frame of the European project XFLEX and participating in different industrial projects. Her research interests include the study of the dynamic behavior and damage detection of hydraulic turbines, with special interest in Pelton turbines. She is also involved in different collaborations with international groups and universities.

    

 

Eduard Egusquiza

Founder / Professor Emeritus

 

Eduard Egusquizawas born in Barcelona. He is a Doctor of Industrial Engineering and Professor of Fluid Mechanics at the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB) (UPC). Previously, he was a professor at the University of Oviedo (1983-1988). He was director of the Department of Fluid Mechanics from 1997 to 2003. In addition, he has been secretary of the 'Hydraulic Machinery and Systems' section of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR) since 2002. He has been a visiting professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim (Norway) and at the EPFL in Lausanne (Switzerland). He is a member of the TC-10 Technical Diagnostics Committee (IMEKO) and of the ISO/IEC JWG1 Committee.

For many years, he has worked on topics related to unsteady flow and the dynamic/vibratory behaviour of hydraulic machines with applications for damage diagnosis. He has been in charge of various research projects with companies, and has drawn up procedures for establishing monitoring, diagnosis and maintenance systems in hydroelectric units. He is the author of many articles and papers published in international journals and given at conferences.

     

 

 

Esteve Jou

Lecturer

 

Born in Barcelona. He is member of the Fluid Mechanics department in the UPC. He obtained the Industrial Engineer degree in ETSEIB in 1993. In 1999 he obtained the PhD title under the supervision of Prof. Eduard Egusquiza. He teaches compulsory subjects like Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machines and other optional subjects like Aerodynamics in vehicles. He is responsible of different projects and he develops industrial services related with vibrational analysis and diagnosis in rotating machinery. 

 

David Valentín

Lecturer

 

David Valentin Ruiz, born in Barcelona. He is Dr. Industrial Engineer and Serra Húnter Lecturer at the Fluid Mechanics Department of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He was graduated as Industrial Engineer at the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB) in 2013. He obtained the PhD in Mechanical Engineering (field of fluid mechanics) in 2018 under the supervision of Prof. Eduard Egusquiza and Dr Carme Valero. His PhD thesis was awarded with the special doctoral award by UPC. He works in different projects for CDIF, especially in the field of fluid-structure interactions, vibration and dynamic behavior of hydraulic turbines. He combines experimental techniques with numerical simulations of both structural and fluid parts. He has recently obtained the Lecturer position (September 2020) in the Fluid Mechanics Department under the international program Serra Húnter. He is teaching Fluid Mechanics and Hydraulic Machinery as well as other subjects of the department. He is active in research directing PhD thesis and publishing in JCR journals.

    

 

Alfredo Guardo

Associate Professor

 

Alfredo Guardo Zabaleta was born in Cartagena, Colombia. He graduated as Chemical Engineer at the Industrial University of Santander (Colombia), and in 2007 obtained his PhD in Process Engineering at the School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona (ETSEIB) of the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. Currently he is an Associate Professor of the Fluid Mechanics Department at the Barcelona School of Engineering (EEBE), position where he started in 2008 as a Lecturer Professor. His lecturing includes Fluids Engineering, Thermal Engineering and Systems Modelling for their BSc and MSc programs.  His research interests include the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics to industrial flows and thermal/energy efficiency. Since 2007 he collaborates with UPC’s Chair for Building Sustainability, where he has focused on the study of the thermal performance of buildings in Mediterranean climates, and lately, in the improvement of energy consumption in edification by means of dynamic (experimental and/or numerical) studies of the thermal behaviour and interior comfort of the building and the proposal of tailored innovative solutions for the studied cases. His research has led to the collaboration in several national and international competitive research projects, private technology transfer projects, PhD Thesis directions and publications in JCR journals.

    

 

Weiqiang Zhao

Lecturer

 

Weiqiang Zhao, born in Tianjin, China, is Ph.D. student under the supervision of Prof. Eduard Egusquiza and Assoc. Prof. Alexandre Presas at CDIF. He was graduated as Engineering bachelor and Engineering master at China Agricultural University in 2014 and 2017, respectively. He started his study in UPC since 2017 and he works in the field of condition monitoring and diagnosis of hydraulic turbine units. He applied different types of artificial intelligence technology on the condition monitoring signals or field test data to predict the abnormal behavior, damage and remaining useful life of turbine units. He has published 3 papers as the first author in quartile 1 of JCR indexed journals.

    

 

Carme Valero

Former Director / Associate Professor

 

Carme Valero born in Barcelona. She has been part of the Fluid Mechanics department of the UPC since 1989 and has been an Associate Professor since 1997.

Her research activity has focused on the dynamic behavior of hydraulic machines. Within this line of research, she has been part of the research team in international and national projects.

At the international level, in recent years its participation in the European HYPERBOLE project financed by the EU and in the HYDRODINA Phase II project financed by the main European turbine manufacturers. The result of the research has led to five doctoral theses and publications in quartile 1 journals.

At the national level, she has participated in various competitive projects financed by the Ministry and in various technology transfer projects for Spanish companies. Result of the research, publications have been obtained in indexed journals.

She was the main researcher for the UPC of the European project XFLEX-HYDRO (2019-2023) led by the EPFL. Since September 2019 she was the director of the Center for Industrial Diagnosis and Fluid Dynamic. She passed away on March 2023. She will be always remembered. Rest in peace.

   

 

PhD Students

Talha Ehsan

Talha Ehsan, born in Gujranwala, Pakistan, is a Ph.D. researcher working under the supervision of Prof. David Valentín at the CDIF Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC). He graduated as a Mathematician from the University of Management and Technology (UMT) in 2021 and started his doctoral studies at UPC in 2023. His research specialization lies in the domain of numerical analysis, specifically on vibrating structures and fluid-structure interaction problems, with a focus on hydraulic machines.

Thesis title: To be defined

Directed by: David Valentín

 

Former PhD Students

 

PhD Students

Greco Moraga

Greco Moraga González, born in Concepción, Chile. He is a Ph.D. Student under the direction of Prof. Dr. Carmen Valero and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Alexandre Presas at CDIF. He was graduated as Aeroespace Engineer at the University of Concepción in 2019 and started his doctoral studies at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia in 2020. He works in the experimental analysis of vibrating structures and fluid-structure interaction problems, with a focus on hydraulic machines.

Thesis title: Contribution to the Analysis of the dynamic behavior of hydraulic machinery

Directed by: Alexandre Presas