Honorary Professorship for Dr. Arne Seitz Honoured for aerospace expertise
Dr. Arne Seitz has been appointed Honorary Professor of the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering with effect from 6 March 2024. The faculty thus honours his outstanding expertise in the field of aerospace, particularly in the aerodynamics of aircraft wings, as a scientist and expert advisor for the Cluster of Excellence Sustainable and Energy-Efficient Aviation SE²A.
Awarded an honorary professorship: Dr. Arne Seitz with President Angela Ittel. Photo credit: Kristina Rottig/TU Braunschweig
His research in both subsonic and transonic flows, and in particular the study of the laminar-turbulent boundary layer and active laminarisation, were decisive for the award of the honorary professorship. Seitz has advanced his investigations using analytical tools and models, as well as in sometimes complex, large-scale experiments.
Professor Jens Friedrichs, spokesperson for the SE²A Cluster of Excellence: “Our colleagues in aerospace engineering are delighted to be able to bring Arne Seitz, a true expert in his field, even closer to TU Braunschweig. Research into active laminar support of boundary layers is still highly topical and just as complex – especially when it comes to the next generation of commercial aircraft and the one after that.”
From 2016 to 2018, Dr. Arne Seitz worked together with TU scientists on the “Energy System Transformation in Aviation” project, which provided important preliminary work for the application for the SE²A Cluster of Excellence. An important joint publication was produced in this context. With the launch of the SE²A cluster, Seitz played an active role in the professional development of a new junior research group and supported the group with expertise and the provision of methods for joint scientific use in cooperation with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR).
Seitz will continue to teach the module “Fundamentals of sailplane design” at the Institute for Fluid Mechanics. The lecture deals with the aerodynamics and flight characteristics of sailplanes, their optimisation and the determination of flight performance and airfoil design. He will also continue to act as an expert in his field within SE²A.
About the person
Seitz studied Mechanical Engineering at TU Braunschweig, specialising in Aerospace Engineering with a focus on aerodynamics / flight mechanics. He completed his doctorate there in 2006 with the topic “Freiflug-Experimente zum Übergang laminar-turbulent in einer Tragflügelgrenzschicht“ (Free-flight experiments on the laminar-turbulent transition in an aerofoil boundary layer). Since 1989 he has been working as a research associate at the Institute of Aerodynamics and Flow Technology (formerly the Institute of Design Aerodynamics) at the DLR in Braunschweig.
His research focuses on the design of airfoils for transonic wings. For example, Dr. Seitz is developing laminar wings that take into account the mutual influence of aircraft components and laminar wings with active flow control by means of boundary layer suction. To this end, he has carried out wind tunnel tests at DLR and participated in wind tunnel tests and flight measurement campaigns in collaboration with Airbus. He has investigated laminar wings and laminar boundary layers in flight tests with DLR research aircraft. Dr. Arne Seitz has been involved in transnational collaborations and EU projects (including GARTEUR, HYLDA, HYLTEC, EUROLIFT I (Task Leader), REMFI (Task Leader), CESAR (Task Leader), CleanSky 1 SFWA (Work Package Leader), CleanSky2 HLFC-Win, NACOR).
