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Okawa Lab
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The lab investigates heat transfer in flows where gas and liquid are mixed.
AboutAbout the lab
Uncovering the mysteries of fields where gas and liquid mix
The Okawa Lab aims to contribute to solving energy and environmental problems, and studies thermal-hydraulics, in particular phase-change heat transfer and gas–liquid two-phase flow.
Unlike a flow of water alone or air alone, a flow in which water and air are mixed is even more complex, because the boundary between gas and liquid keeps changing from moment to moment.
The goals of the research are to improve the safety of large-scale energy systems and to achieve highly efficient cooling of next-generation electronic devices.
The lab belongs to the Energy and Environment field of the Department of Mechanical and Intelligent Systems Engineering at the University of Electro-Communications, and it explores the wonders of heat through experiments and numerical simulation.
Key terms
- Gas–liquid two-phase flow
- A state in which gas and liquid flow mixed together, like water and air. The boundary between them keeps changing from moment to moment
- Void fraction
- The fraction of volume occupied by vapor in a boiling flow
- Leidenfrost effect
- A phenomenon in which water poured onto a heated frying pan cannot make contact with the pan and skitters away, so the pan's temperature does not drop easily
- CHF (critical heat flux)
- The maximum heat load that boiling cooling can remove. Beyond it, the heat transfer surface becomes covered by a vapor film and the wall temperature rises sharply
NewsLab news
A master's student received an Outstanding Presentation Award from the Power and Energy Systems Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
A master's student received the Qian Sanqiang Award at ICONE32
A master's student received an Outstanding Presentation Award from the Atomic Energy Society of Japan
A master's student received an Outstanding Presentation Award from the Power and Energy Systems Division of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers
A doctoral student received the Best Paper-Japan/Asia Award at ICONE31
ResearchResearch themes
The Okawa Lab studies phase-change heat transfer and gas–liquid two-phase flow, within thermal-hydraulics, with the goals of improving the safety of large-scale energy systems and achieving highly efficient cooling of next-generation electronic devices. Using experiments and numerical simulation, it investigates boiling, droplet splashing, cooling of hot surfaces, and related phenomena.
*Illustrative imageForced convection subcooled boiling
This is a heat transfer mechanism used to cool energy plants and electronic devices. In experiments using a transparent heat transfer surface, the lab found that the large bubbles formed after bubble coalescence play an important role in determining the void fraction. It aims to improve cooling performance and to predict the heat removal limit.
*Illustrative imageDroplet splash
When a droplet hits a liquid film, a crown-shaped liquid structure forms, and tiny secondary droplets are ejected from its tip. Through numerical simulation and visualization experiments with a high-speed camera, the lab showed that gravity contributes substantially in addition to surface tension and viscosity. It aims to predict the conditions under which splashing occurs and the amount of secondary droplets generated.
*Illustrative imageRapid cooling of hot solids
The Leidenfrost effect is an important phenomenon for considering the cooling of fuel rods that become very hot during an accident. Using a silicon wafer together with infrared thermography, the lab observes the thermal-hydraulic structure at the moment cooling water starts to contact a hot surface, and is developing a method to predict the cooling rate.
*Illustrative imagePool boiling heat transfer
As the heat generation density of electronic devices rises, boiling cooling has become necessary. Heating a thin metal film with a high-power laser, the lab has developed a method to predict CHF that also works under conditions specific to electronics cooling. It is also studying how to raise CHF with a nanoparticle layer that has excellent capillary force.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Okawa Lab include faculty, research support and promotion staff, doctoral, master's, and undergraduate students, and technical support staff.As of 2026
- ProfessorTomio Okawa
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Diagram of a nuclear power plant with a boiling water reactor” Siarhei Besarab / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Forced convection subcooled boiling: “Bubbles inside boiling water” Snehit Jamere / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Droplet splash: “Splish Splash ( )” LASZLO ILYES from Cleveland, Ohio, USA / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Rapid cooling of hot solids: “Leidenfrost effect of a single drop of water” Dirk8B / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Pool boiling heat transfer: “Crested Pool vigorous boiling (15 August 2015) 4” James St. John / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Saito Lab): “Liquid helium lambda point transition” Alfred Leitner photographed this as part of his movie "Liquid Helium, Superfluid". / Public domain (cropped)
- Related lab (Endo Lab): “Atomic-nucleus-3435” Yasminperry2020 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Mamori-Wang Lab): “Born of turbulence” Giannandrea Inchingolo / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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