prof. Ing. František Kavička, CSc.
E-mail:   kavicka@fme.vutbr.cz 
Dept.:   Energy Institute
Dept. of Thermodynamics and Environmental Engineering
Position:   Emeritus Professor

Education and academic qualification

  • 1963, MSc., Faculty of Mechanical Engineering (FME), Brno University of
  • Technology (BUT), branch Machine Design and Operation
  • 1972, PhD, FME-BUT, branch Thermomechanics and Liquid Mechanics
  • 1980, PhD, Qualification Degree in Science IIa
  • 1992, PhD, Qualification Degree in Science I
  • April, 5, 1993, Associate Prof., FME-BUT, branch Mechanics
  • May, 1, 1995, Prof., FME-BUT, branch Mechanics

Career overview

  • 1963-1964, Assistant to Professor, Department of Thermomechanics, FME-BUT
  • 1965-1967, Assistant to Professor, Department of Chemical Machines, FME-BUT
  • 1967-1990, various positions in scientific research (research worker, scientific researcher, independent scientific researcher, scientific research group leader), State Research Institute of Materials, Brno, Branch for Foundry Research
  • 1990-1993, Associate Professor, Department of Thermomechanics and Nuclear Energy, FME-BUT
  • 1993-1996, Head of the Department of Thermomechanics and Nuclear Energy, FME-BUT
  • 1996-1998, Head of the Department of Thermomechanics and Environmental Engineering of the Energy Institute, FME-BUT
  • 1995-96 deputy director of the Energy Institute 
  • 1998-today, Professor at the Department of Thermomechanics and Environmental Engineering of the Energy Institute, FME-BUT

Pedagogic activities

  • 1963-69 lecturing of subjects Thermomechanics and Heat transfer
  • 1970-1989 work in the field of education forbidden due to political status
  • 1990 by now lecturing of subject Thermomechanics
  • 1991 Proposal, institutionalisation and lecturing of a new course: Thermokinetics of solidification, cooling and heating
  • 1995-06 Proposal, institutionalisation and lecturing of a new course: Applied Thermomechanics, later Selected writings/chapters from Thermomechanics
  • 1991 by now supervisor of PhD study at FME-BUT Brno
  • 2000 by now supervisor of PhD study at FMME-TU Ostrava
  • 1997 by now member ob the state examination board for MA studies, FME-BUT Brno

Scientific activities

  • Continuous and systematic work in the application of analog, today numerical, methods for investigation into transient temperature and tensile-strength fields in technological processes, including the simulation of latent heats of phase and structural changes, mainly in metallurgy and the founding of metal and ceramic materials, during solidification and cooling and heating, i.e. heat treatment. Application of these methods, the result of which is a set of original (even on an international scale) numerical models on the optimization of the technology of classical gravitational casting, pressure casting and, in recent years, concasting. (These models have been successfully presented at many international or world conferences,mostly abroad, and have been the focus of interest of many industrial companies.) Long-term management and coordination of scientific-research initiatives/teams also on an international basis (supported by CZ, EU and USA).
  • author or co-author of 3 tried technologies
  • Dynamic model of technology operation for concasting of billets
  • Dynamic model of technology operation for concasting of slabs
  • Numerical optpimization of cooling of heavy cast iron casting

 

University activities

  • 1997-today,member of the Scientific Board of the Faculty of Metallurgy and Material Engineering (FMME), VŠB, Technical University (TU) Ostrava

  • 1996-today,member of the Environmental Engineering Branch Board, FME-BUT Brno

  • 1997-today member of scientific Board of the FMME- VŠB - TU Ostrava

  • 1997-today,member of the Board for Doctoral Studies, branch Thermal Engineering in Industry, FMME, VŠB-TU Ostrava
  • 1997-today,member of the Thermomechanics and Liquid Mechanics Branch Board, FME, University of West Bohemia in Pilsen
  • 1997-2002, member of the Applied Mechanics Branch Board, FME, TU in Liberec
  • 11 times opponent of doctoral dissertations
  • 7 times opponent of habilitation dissertations
  • 14 times member of the Board for Habilitation and Nomination of Professors, FME, TU in Liberec, FME-TU Ostrava, FMME-TU Ostrava, FME-ČVUT Praha, FME-TU in Košice (Slovak Republic)

Non-University activities

 

  • 2 times co-investigator of EUREKA projects, 2 times principal investigator of COST projects, 8 times principal or co-invetigator of the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), 1 times co-investigator of MPO project (Czech Ministry of Industry and trade), 3 times of KONTAKT projects (Czech-Slovenia cooperation)
  • Principle investigator in 15 projects for various ministries and the Academy of Sciences and in 22 projects focusing on technical development in large industrial companies
  • Author of 125 research reports
  • Author and co-author of 810 articles for journals and conference proceedings (101 of which were published abroad)
  • 133 lectures at conferences, symposia and congresses (85 of which were in 23 countries).
  • Co-author of 1 patent.
    • from 2006 5 papers in impact Journals,26 papers in non-impact journals, 10 papers in czech reviewed journals, 6 capters in scientific books, 78 papers in conference proceedings.
  • Reviewer of 2 books, 35 reviews of specialist articles in Czech and foreign journals, 25  reviews of research projects for the Czech GACR and Slovak Science Foundations VEGA, 5 reviews of projects organised by the Czech Ministry of Industry and Trade,
  • Member of the Czech Foundry Society, member of ASME and TMS
  • member of the Editorial board for Hutnicke listy 

Prizing by scientific community

  • 20 articles requested for translation by the British Industrial and Scientific International (BISI) translation service
  • 82 abstracts for the American Metals Abstracts journal
  • 19 abstracts for the British Steel Castings Abstracts journal
  • 56 randomly discovered citations in local and international journals, conference proceedings, bulletins, scientific doctoral dissertations
  • Entry in the Czech Kdo je kdo (Who Is Who) in the Czech Republic (1st Edition 1991/92, 2nd Edition 1994/95, 3rd Edition 1998, 4th Edition 2002, 5th Edition 2005)
  • Entry in the American Who Is Who (6th Edition, 2002/03), Who Is Who in the World 2003 (20th Edition), Who Is Who in the World 2004 (21st Edition)
  • Golden medal of FMMI-VSB-TU Ostrava (cooperation in pedagogical and scientific-research branch 

Projects

 

  • GA106/93/0440 Thermokinetics of technological processes, principal investigator, 1993 - 1995
  • Thermokinetics of Technology programu U.S.- Czechoslovak Science and Technology Program No. 93006, principal investigator, 1995-1998
  • GA106/98/0296 Optimization of slab continuous casting with use of numerical model, co-investigator, 1998 - 2000
  • EUREKA No. 1867 CONMOD Optimization of Quality of Continiuously Cast Billets Required for Subsequent Technological Processing, principal investigator, 1998 - 2001
  • GA106/99/0728 The optimization of utility properties of corundo-baddeleyit materials (EUCOR) and the technology of its casting, principal investigator, 1999 - 2001
  • KONTAKT ME 253/1998 Metallurgical aspects and mathematical modelling in the continuous casting of steel, principal investigator, 1998-1999
  • COST OC P3.20 Numerical simulation of physical phenomena of concasting, principal investigator, 1998-2001
  • GA 106/01/1164 Optimization of properties and production technology of heavy ductile-cast iron castings, principal investigator, 2001-03
  • COST OC 526.10 APOMAT Optimization of Casting of Corundobaddeleyit Material EUCOR. principal investigator, 2000-05
  • GA 106/01/1464 Complete optimization of technology for concasting of steels, including special steels, principal investigator, 2001-03
  • KONTAKT 015/2001 Optimization of technology for concasting of steels, including special steels, principal investigator, 2001-02
  • EUREKA 2716 COOP Creation of Set of Models For Prediction of Technological Parameters And Thermal Processes For Enhancement of TQM System, co- investigator, 2002 - 2005
  • KONTAKT No. 23/2003 Optimization of technology of material EUCOR,principal investigator, 2003-04
  • GA106/04/1334, Optimization of technological parameters of the gravity-cast rolls for rolling rails, principal ivestigator, 2004 - 2006
  • MPO - FI-IM/021, Research, development and field application of a dynamic model for the control of technology of continuous billet caster, co-investigator, 2004 - 2006
  • KONTAKT No. 14/2005 Optimization of technological parameters of the gravity-cast rolls for rolling rails, principal ivestigator, 2005-06 
  • GA 106/08/0606 Modelling of heat and mass transfer in large systems of massive metal materials during solidification, principal ivestigator, 2008-11 
  • GA 106/09/0940 Mathematical & stochastic modelling of the concasting of rectangular profile steels blanks, member of a team, 2009-11
    • GAP107/11/1566 Analysis of influence of metallurgical-material and technology parameters of concast steel blanks on their quality and process stability, 2011-13

 

 

Sum of citations (without self-citations) indexed within ISI Web of Knowledge

49

Sum of other citations (without self-citations)

65

Supervised courses:

Publications:

  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; DOBROVSKÁ, V.; FRANCOVÁ, H.; SMETANA, B.:
    Experimental Analysis on the Causes of the Breakout of Continuous Cast Steel Slab
    journal article in Web of Science
  • KAVIČKA, F.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.:
    Temperature Field and Solidification Structure of a Ductile-Cast-Iron Roller, Trans Tech Publications
    journal article in Web of Science
  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.; MASARIK, M.; MAUDER, T.:
    Comparison of the temperature field continuously cast steel slabs with different chemical composition.,
    Materiali in tehnologije, Vol.47 (2013), (2013), No.4, pp.497-501, ISSN 1580-2949
    journal article - other
  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.; MASARIK, M.:
    Analysis of breakout of concast steel slab via criteria of similarity,
    METAL 2013 Conference Proceedings, pp.32-33, ISBN 978-80-87294-39-0, (2013), Tanger
    conference paper
    akce: METAL 2013: 22nd International Conference on Metallurgy and Materials, Brno, 15.05.2013-17.05.2013
  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.:
    3. Numerical Models of Crystallization and Its Direction for Metal and Ceramic Materials in Technical Application,
    Crystallization. Science and Technology, pp.65-90, ISBN 978-953-51-0757-6, (2012), InTech Europe
    book chapter
  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; ŠTĚTINA, J.:
    Numerical and experimental investigation of temperature field of solidifying massive ductile-cast-iron roller,
    Materiali in tehnologije, Vol.46 (2012), (2012), No.4, pp.321-324, ISSN 1580-2949, IMT Ljubljana
    journal article - other
  • KAVIČKA, F.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.:
    Numerical modelling of the surface cracking tendency in solidifying ceramic materials,
    Surface effects and contact mechanics X, pp.99-108, ISBN 978-1-84564-530-4, (2011), WITPress
    book chapter
  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.:
    The effect of electromagnetic stirring on the crystallization of concast billets
    journal article in Web of Science
  • KAVIČKA, F.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.:
    Numerical optimization of the method of cooling of a massive casting of ductile cast-iron, IMT
    journal article in Web of Science

List of publications at Portal BUT

Abstracts of most important papers:

  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; DOBROVSKÁ, V.; FRANCOVÁ, H.; SMETANA, B.:
    Experimental Analysis on the Causes of the Breakout of Continuous Cast Steel Slab
    journal article in Web of Science
    The paper deals with investigation into segregation behavior of selected elements in longitudinal cut of continuous steel slab, in the breakout area. The breakout occurred after a flying change of tundish in order to begin casting of another steel grade. Altogether 11 samples were taken from the part of a solidified slab. Concentrations of selected elements (Al, Si, P, S, Cr, Mn, Ni and Mo) were measured in these samples using scanning electron microscope and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Using the original mathematical models the basic micro segregation characteristics and the parameter of macro-heterogeneity were further determined for each analyzed element. Then a quantitative measurement of inclusions ("micro purity") in the samples was performed using a metallographic microscope. Then method of differential thermal analysis was used for the measurements of temperatures of phase transformations. The following main results were found: Magnitude of micro segregation of the analyzed elements in the measured sections of 1000 mikrom is approximately the same in all the analyzed samples.Chemical macro heterogeneity is very high across the analyzed slab section.Very uneven mixing of melts of both steels was probably one of the main causes of formation of the breakout.
  • KAVIČKA, F.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.:
    Temperature Field and Solidification Structure of a Ductile-Cast-Iron Roller, Trans Tech Publications
    journal article in Web of Science
    The quality of the working rollers from ductile-cast-iron used for rolling rails is determined by the chemical and structural composition of the material of the rollers and the production technology. The requirements of the quality cannot be ensured without perfect knowledge of the course of solidification, cooling and heat treatment of the cast rollers as well as the kinetics of the temperature field of the casting and mould. Tying on to the results of the model of the temperature field of the cast rollers, an original methodology was developed for the measurement of chemical microheterogeneity. The chemical and structural heterogeneity of the cast roller is therefore a significant function of the method of melting, modification and inoculation and the successive procedures of risering, casting and crystallization after cooling.
  • KAVIČKA, F.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.:
    3. Numerical Models of Crystallization and Its Direction for Metal and Ceramic Materials in Technical Application,
    Crystallization. Science and Technology, pp.65-90, ISBN 978-953-51-0757-6, (2012), InTech Europe
    book chapter
    Structure of metallic and also majority of ceramic alloys is one of the factors, which significantly influence their physical and mechanical properties. Formation of structure is strongly affected by production technology, casting and solidification of these alloys. Solidification is a critical factor in the materials industry. Solute segregation either on the macro- or micro-scale is sometimes the cause of unacceptable products due to poor mechanical properties of the resulting non-equilibrium phases. Heterogeneity of distribution of components is a function of solubility in solid and liquid phases. Solidification models and simulations have been carried out for both macroscopic and microscopic scales. This chapter presents numerical models of crystallisation of steel, ductile cast iron and ceramics EUCOR aimed at optimisation of their production and properties after casting.
  • KAVIČKA, F.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; SEKANINA, B.; ŠTĚTINA, J.:
    Numerical optimization of the casting of ceramic material EUCOR,
    Proceedings of the ASME/JSME 2011 AJTEC2011, pp.T44058-T44058, ISBN 978-0-7918-3892-1, (2011), ASME
    conference paper
    akce: ASME/JSME 2011 8th Thermal Engineering Joint Conference (AJTEC2011) , Honolulu, Hawaii, 13.03.2011-17.03.2011
    Corundo-baddeleyit material (CBM) EUCOR is a heat and wear-resistant material even at extreme temperatures. This article introduces a numerical model of solidification and cooling of this material in a non-metallic mold. The model is capable of determining the total solidification time of the casting and also the place of the casting which solidifies last. Furthermore, it is possible to calculate the temperature gradient at any point and time, and also determine the local solidification time and the solidification interval of any point. The local solidification time is one of the input parameters for the cooperating model of chemical heterogeneity. This second model and its application on EUCOR samples prove that the applied method of measuring the chemical heterogeneity provides the detailed quantitative information on the material structure and makes it possible to analyze the solidification process. The analysis of this process entails statistical processing of the measurement results of the heterogeneity of the EUCOR components and performs the correlation of individual components during solidification. The verification of both numerical models was conducted on a real cast 350 x 200 x 400 mm block.
  • KAVIČKA, F.; ŠTĚTINA, J.; SEKANINA, B.; STRÁNSKÝ, K.; HEGER, J.; DOBROVSKÁ, J.:
    A numerical model of the crystallization of pure aluminium,
    Fluid Structure Interaction and Moving Boundary Problems, pp.619-629, ISBN 1-84564-027-6, (2005), WIT Press
    conference paper
    akce: The Eight International Conference on Computational Modelling and Experimental Measurement of Free and Moving Boundaries, La Coruna, 01.10.2005-06.10.2005
    The character of primary crystallization was investigated on a simple cylindrical sample, crystalliying in a cast-iron mould pre-heated to various temperatures. The experimental research comprised the measurement of temperatures using the termocouples, the evaluation of the experimentally acquired temperature gradients and the shift rate of the phase transition interface. The authors have discovered a new criterion, which predict the macro-structure.