FLUG Week: 27th Sept – 1st Oct

Chris Coffey

FLACS-CFD Product Manager,  Gexcon

Chris is the FLACS-CFD Product Manager at Gexcon. He is responsible for technical and commercial product management of Gexcon’s flagship software product.

Chris holds a Ph.D. in Fluid Dynamics from Imperial College London and an honors degree in Mathematics with Theoretical Physics from University College London. He is a Chartered Mathematician and also holds an MBA from the Open University. He has over ten years’ experience in fluid mechanics and technical safety, working in the academic, defence and industrial sectors. He works across the industry using mathematical and computational modelling to analyse ventilation, dispersion, gas and dust explosions.

Djurre Siccama

Senior Manager, Gexcon

Djurre holds a BSc and MSc in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University Delft and a BSc in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Leiden. He has been working in the oil and has energy sector for more than 15 years  in various roles, including structural engineering, technical safety consultancy and FLACS-CFD product management. During the last two years he has been managing the Gexcon research and software development department.

Shona Mackie

Senior Research Engineer, Gexcon

Shona holds a PhD in Geosciences, awarded by the University of Edinburgh. She has 12 years of experience in research in various fields in academia and industry, which have included developing and analysing large models to predict renewable energy production, to model radiative transfer for Earth observation, to predict and monitor volcanic ash hazards, and to project future climate.

Deiveegan Muthusamy

Principal Research Engineer, Gexcon

Dr. Deiveegan Muthusamy has over 17 years of experience in computational fluid dynamics (CFD), heat transfer and software product development.  He is currently working as a General Manager Gexcon Pune / Principal Research Engineer, Gexcon India. He published research articles in numerous international journals like the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, AIAA Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.  His research covers Fire modelling, Radiative heat transfer, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Parameter Estimation and Optimization.

Francesco Chillè

Independent Consultant, FCSolutionS

Francesco graduated in Structural Engineering at the Technical University of Milan (Politecnico) in 1989. Since the late 1990s, he has been involved in advanced engineering services for the oil and gas, energy, processes sectors related to gas dispersion and explosion, and structural response against dynamic and impulsive loads.

From 1991 to 2006 he worked within various departments and companies of the ENEL group, dealing with electrical components explosion-related problems and impact on structures, both in research and development projects and consulting studies.

From 2008 to 2015 he has worked closely with Gexcon, leading the Milan office from 2012 to 2015. Since 2015 he has operated as an independent consultant within FCSolutionS.

Sai Mahith Thummaluru

Research Engineer, BASF

Mahith is a graduate engineer with a Master’s degree in Simulation and System Design (M.Eng) from the School of Mechanical Engineering, Hochschule Stralsund, Germany. He is currently working as a research engineer at BASF and has been working with FLACS-CFD since 2019 investigating the influence of parameters in dispersion and pool evaporation as well as delivering industrial projects in the chemicals sector using FLACS-CFD.

Olav Roald Hansen

CEO and founder, HYEX Safety AS

LinkedIn

Olav has a physics degree from NTNU and has worked with explosion modelling and FLACS since 1993. In 1990s he was FLACS developer with particular focus on validation against experiments, and made a FLACS training course. In 2000s he was Gexcon R&D Director in charge of FLACS development team and global sale until he started Gexcon US in 2008-2010. From 2012 Olav has worked as consultant for GL (2012-2013) and LR (2014-2020). After starting HYEX Safety June 2020 he has been working full-time with consulting work within hydrogen safety. Model validation and accuracy in CFD predictions have been key focus in his work, and he is author of numerous articles related to FLACS.

Pablo Giacopinelli

Senior Engineer, Gexcon

LinkedIn

Pablo is a Senior Engineer and FLACS-CFD technical lead at Gexcon UK, where he has worked for the last 7 years. He has more than 10 years of experience in conducting CFD studies in various industries, including O&G, nuclear, biomass, and civil and aerospace engineering, with a primary focus on modelling the consequences of explosion and fire phenomena, and dispersion hazards such as flammable vapours and toxic exposures. He is an Aeronautical Engineer graduated from the National University of La Plata (Argentina) with postgraduate studies at the University of Manchester (UK).

FENG Yuxiang

Process Engineer, China Classification Society (CCS)

FENG Yuxiang, engineer, graduated from Southwest Petroleum University in 2019 with a major in oil and gas storage and transportation engineering, and then joined the Wuhan Rules and research institute of China Classification Society, and engaged in the research of risk assessment by using FLACS software for two years.

Lorenzo Mauri

Principal Research Engineer, Gexcon

Lorenzo has a background in Environmental Engineering and 15 years’ experience with the development and application of simulation engines in the fields of gas dispersion and consequence analysis. His main research interests include atmospheric flows, multiphase flows, and gas explosions. Lorenzo ​​has extensive experience in software development and scientific programming. He has made substantial contributions to the recent development of FLACS-CFD and associated utilities, including the Ewan and Moodie release model, entraining leaks functionality, modelling of aerodynamic roughness, and others. He has developed FLACS-CFD’s Multiphase Drift Flux solver to simulate droplet vaporization and deposition. In the last 3 years, Lorenzo has authored 4 publications in peer-reviewed journals. He is part of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Hydrogen Safety – 2021. Lorenzo has been working in Gexcon for 7 years developing and using FLACS-CFD for consequence analysis and dispersion modelling.

Jihui Geng

Senior Principal Scientist, BakerRisk

Dr. Geng has over 30 years of experience in testing and simulating reacting flows related to risk assessment for industries where potential or accidental jet leak, dispersion and consequent explosion occur.

Dr. Geng works at BakerRisk’s San Antonio office in the Blast Effects Group, focusing on R&D of 3-D CFD (computational fluid dynamics) code and visualization systems capable of simulating generation and propagation of blast and shock waves and their interaction with structures or buildings. He has also been employing FLACS software to model dispersion and explosion since 2005.

Dr. Geng is the principal author of over 50 conference/symposium papers and 19 journal papers, primarily in the areas of blast wave phenomena originated from VCEs, PVBs, and HEs, and their interaction with structures.  

Jake Connor

Graduate Engineer, Gexcon

Jake is a Graduate Engineer with a background in Mechanical Engineering having gained a master’s degree from the University of Liverpool.  Jake has been at Gexcon for 18 months and has been involved in a wide range of process safety and risk management projects for facilities ranging from offshore oil and gas installations to airports. Jake has also been using FLACS-CFD extensively since joining the company and has experience in conducting ventilation, dispersion and explosion modelling studies across a variety of industries in order to address client concerns.

Gokul Mahajan

Technical Team Lead – Projects, Gexcon

Gokul has a Master’s degree (M.Tech.) in Chemical Engineering, securing First Rank in the National institute and was awarded Gold Medal. His expertise includes Consequence Modeling using 2D empirical & 3D CFD tools, Process Hazard Analysis (HAZOP, QRA), Air Quality Impact Assessment, and Technical Training. Gokul has a total of 6.5 years of work experience in the field of Process Safety & Operations. He has delivered guest lectures at Indian institutions/universities to share my knowledge in the Safety domain. He has also delivered training on FLACS-EFFECTS and FLACS-CFD modules at UPL Ltd. and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) respectively. Gokul has been working with FLACS-CFD for the last 3.5 years and has delivered 35+ projects using the software.