Eulogy: Kyriacos D. Papailiou (1939–2021)

Abstract

One of the longest serving members of the Board of Scientific Advisors of the journal Inverse Problems in Science andEngineering (IPSE) passed away recently. Kyriacos D. Papailiou, Professor Emeritus at the National Technical University of Athens (NTUA) and founder of the Lab. of Thermal Turbomachines of NTUA, graduated from the School of Mechanical Engineering of NTUA and continued his education at the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics (VKI Diploma in Experimental Aerodynamics, with Great Distinction). He completed his Doctorate in Applied Sciences at the University of Liege (with Great Distinction), and his Doctorate in Sciences Physiques at the University Claude Bernard, Lyon (Doctorat d’État with ‘mention très honorable’). While pursuing his PhD, he developed his first ‘inverse’ method, an innovative (then) method of designing blade geometry and inverse design of viscous boundary layers by selecting optimum velocity profiles. During the next years, Kyriacos held various research and professor positions at VKI, the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA (with Prof Vavra), and the École Centrale de Lyon, France where he formed a Research Group (10 engineers) and a Turbomachinery Lab within the Fluid Mechanics Lab. of the ECL. He also held engineering positions at SNECMA-Centre d’Essais Villaroche, Ste. Metraflu and served as a consultant to well-known companies. In 1978, Kyriacos joined the faculty at the School of Mechanical Engineering of NTUA and, until his retirement (2006), was Professor and Director of the Laboratory of Thermal Turbomachines of NTUA. In NTUA, he formed a similar Research Group (15 engineers), as well as the Turbomachinery Lab. in the Mechanical Engineering Department of the NTUA. In total, 15 mechanical engineers acquired their Ph.D. degree at NTUA and several others under his supervision in Europe. He also installed (in the end of the 1980s) the first parallel computer in Greece and, sometime later two of the 500 largest worldwide supercomputers foreseeing the need for computational and inverse design engineering problem solving. He designed several important turbomachinery elements (a 10 MW pump which cools the nuclear electricity production unit in southern France), compressors (axial and radial), ventilators (axial and radial) for various applications, turbines (axial and radial), as, for instance an axial turbine, which was used to power a Czech helicopter, as well as the water droplet separator (system patented by EDF) used to remove water from dry steam, in the case of the previously mentioned EDF nuclear power station. The successful two-phase flow design of the droplet separator resulted in a reduction of the nuclear power station volume by 40%. Throughout his career, Kyriacos received international recognition for his contributions to the aerospace and turbomachinery field. He was one of the early initiators of the International Society for Air-Breathing Engines (ISOABE), ERCOFTAC, vice-President (2001-2005) of the European Community on Computational Methods in Applied Sciences (ECCOMAS), European Commission Expert for the Aeronautics Programs, consultant