The TETPS Department was established on the basis of the Mechanics and Machines Theory Department, headed by Prof. Yan Franko since 1871 until 1892. Since 1892 the duties of the head of the Department was performed by Tadeush Fiedler. In 1985 the Department has divided into two: the Mechanics and Machines Theory. The Thermal Engines Theory Department had been headed by Prof. T. Fiedler for 35 years. So 1898 is considered to be the year of establishment of the current Thermal Engineering and Thermal Power Stations Department.
Professor Tadeush Fiedler was born in 1858 in Sanok, in 1876 was enrolled at the Chemistry Faculty of Lviv Polytechnics where he studied for two years, and later transferred to the Mechanical Faculty, and graduated in two years. After the graduation from Lviv Polytechnic he worked as an assistant. Since 1883 Fiedler was a mechanical engineer of the Austrian Navy. In 1892 he was invited as a professor of Lviv Polytechnics. In 1892 Prof. T. Fiedler created a science and research station of mechanics in Lviv Polytechnics. During these years he was giving most of the Department’s courses, including Thermodynamics and Theory of Gas Engines. In 1909 he created a calorimetric laboratory. In 1913 Professor T. Fiedler has initiated the construction of the Mechanical building (now the 10th academic one). During the World War I these works were stopped and completed only in 1925. In 1929 Professor T. Fiedler retired, and the Department was temporarily headed by Professor Roman Vitkevych until 1934. This was a period of Prof. R.Vitkevych’s active versatile activity. His rich scientific creativity he began with his work Friction and Mechanical Energy of the Crank Mechanism. In 1929 with the help of an extremely talented Department assistant, Dr.-Eng. Adam Vitsynskyi the two concord-less assemblies, which interested all the scientific world of that time, were constructed. Prof. R.Vitkevych was born in 1886 to the family of a mechanical engineer, a Lviv Polytechnics graduate; in 1906 he received an honours diploma of Lviv Polytechnics. Since 1909 till 1911 he had internships at European enterprises. In 1915 he became Science Doctor. In 1934 Prof. Stanislav Okhendushko became the head of the Department and had been holding that post until 1941. Stanislav Okhendushko was born in 1898 to a teacher family. In 1917 he was enrolled at the Law Faculty of Lviv University. Since 1918 till 1921 Okhendushko was serving in the Polish army. Since 1921 till 1928 he was studying at the Mechanical Faculty of Lviv Polytechnics. Since 1928 till 1934 he was a junior scientific assistant at the Department of Thermal Engines Theory. Since 1929 till 1930 Okhendushko was having an internship in Munich at the Department of Thermodynamics under the supervision of Wilhelm Nusselt.
In 1934 he defended his doctoral thesis and was a deputy head of the Theory of Heat Engines Department till 1937. Since 1937 till 1941 he was a head of the Theory of Heat Engines Department. During the occupancy (1941-1944) S. Okhendushko organized technological courses for heating engineers. Since 1944 till 1946 he was working as a professor at Lviv Polytechnics. In 1946 S. Okhendushko moved to Gliwice (Poland), where he organized the Department of Thermal Engines at Silesian University of Technology.
Since 1941 till 1958 Prof. William Moser (born 1889) was a head of the Department. Since 1906 till 1911 W. Moser was studying at the Mechanical Faculty at Lviv Polytechnics majoring in Structure of Thermal Transport Engines. Since 1912 till 1926 he was worked at the Directory of Lviv Railways. Since 1919 he was working as an assistant at the Department of Metals Technology at Lviv Polytechnics. In 1922 he headed the Department of Thermal Transport Engines. Since 1945 till 1958 he was working as a head of the Boilers and Turbines Heat and Power Engineering Department. Prof. Moser made the considerable practical contribution to the steam engines development.
Since 1958 till 1966 Ph.D., Assoc. Prof. Stepan Petrenko, who developed the theory of heat accumulation by metal of thermal power equipment, was a head of the Department. At that time the Department was called Thermal Power Plants Department. S. Petrenko was born in 1895 in the village of Nyzy, Krasnopillia Raion (district), Sumy Oblast (region) to a peasant family. Since 1924 till 1930 he was studying at Kharkiv Institute of Technology (KIT). Since 1930 till 1932 he was a Ph. D. student at KIT. After postgraduate studies S. Petrenko worked at Kharkiv Aviation Institute as a constructor of special purpose vehicles. Since 1939 till 1940 he was a senior engineer at Kharkiv turbogenerator plant and at the same time was delivering courses of General and Special Thermodynamics at KAI. In 1940 he was elected head of the Department at Kharkiv Institute of Agriculture Mechanization. In 1946 S. Petrenko received Ph. D. Since 1946 he was working first as a lecturer and then as a head of the Thermal Electric Power Stations Department at Lviv Polytechnics. He is an author of about 70 research papers. Since 1949 till 1952 he was a dean of the Mechanical Faculty. Since 1958, after the death of W. Moser, S. Petrenko was a deputy head of the Power Station Thermal and Power Units Department.
Since 1966 till 1968 the head of the Thermal Power Plants (TPP) Department was Artem Prokopenko, the chief engineer of the Southern Branch of State Regional Power Stations Rationalization Organization (ORHRES) at that time. Since 1945 till 1950 he was studying at Lviv Polytechnics. After graduation he worked at the Thermal Power Plants Department. Since 1951 he had been working in the Southern Branch of ORHRES as an engineer, brigade engineer, chief engineer, and director. During these years he was dealing with the issues of TPP equipment mobility, namely the development and implementation of the rational modes of setting the equipment in motion in different thermal conditions. Under his leadership ORHRES workers developed the modes of setting power units in motion and their stops on steam sliding parameters and the modes of power units work at variable loads.
These studies were performed for all types and sizes power units of 100, 150, 300 and 800 MW. A. Prokopenko initiated and participated directly in organizing the study of burning low-grade fuels and start-ups, testing and setting up the thermal equipment of the thermal and nuclear power plants. A great amount of work was done on creating computer engineering-based simulators and environment protection. According to the research results more than 200 research papers were published and 16 inventions and numerous rationalization proposals of great economic effect were made.
For those achievements A. Prokopenko was awarded two orders and became a USSR Council of Ministers prize winner. In 1964 he defended his Ph. D. thesis. Since 1956 till 58 he was working on the Prof. Ye. Krushel’s undertaking.
Since 1968 till 1974 the Department was headed be the Ph. D., Assoc. Prof. Orest Chaban. He was born in 1931 in the village of Dolyna near Sanok (the Beskids, today’s Poland). In 1946 he was resettled in Lviv. Since 1948 till 1953 he was studying at Lviv Polytechnics. Having received a heating engineer qualification, since 1953 till 1968 he was working in the Southern Branch of ORHRES, setting up and investigating the power units at different power stations of the Soviet Union.
O. Chaban exercised a technical control of setting the first power-generating unit of 150 MW in motion and putting it into operation in Azerbaijan and did a first set of Burshtyn and Kuchurgan TPPs with units of 200 MW.
In 1968 he defended his Ph. D. thesis, which reflected the results of experimental and calculation studies of intermediate (not nominal) modes of boilers work. Since 1974 till 1990 he was working as an associate professor at the same Department and since 1990 till 1996 as a head of the united Thermal Engineering and Thermal Electric Power Stations Department. In 1991 he received Sc. D. after the defence of Theoretical Basis of Power Units Heat Transfer Systems Calculation thesis. In 1992 he received an academic status of Professor. He is a member of the Academic Board of the Lviv Polytechnics and a member of the Energetics Expert Council of the State Accreditation Committee of Ukraine, a member of the Western Science Centre Agency of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. The research work is focused on mathematical modelling, investigation and elaboration of the territorial energetic complexes development strategies. The public work concentrates in the Scientific and Technical Union of power engineers and electricians of Ukraine.
In 1974 the head of the Department became Ph. D., Assoc. Prof. Yurii Fateiev. Since 1952 till 1957 he was studying at Lviv Polytechnics. Since 1957 till 1969 he was an assistant and a senior lecturer of Thermal Power Units of Power Plants Department. In 1972 he defended his Ph. D. thesis, and since 1973 has been fruitfully engaged in scientific research entitled Study of the Dynamic Processes in Steam Superheater. According to its results, more than 70 research articles and invention descriptions were published. Since 1971 till 1980 Fateiev was a deputy dean of the Thermal Engineering Faculty. Since 1974 till 1988 he was a head of the Thermal Power Stations Department.
Since 1989 till 1990 a head of the Department was Sc. D., Assoc. Prof. Penkov V., who had worked out the theory and practice of jet streams.
Since 1996 a head of the Department has been Sc. D., Prof., Honoured Scientist and Technician of Ukraine Yosyp Mysak.
After graduation from Lviv Polytechnics in 1972, Y. Mysak was assigned as an engineer to the Southern Branch of ORHRES, where he completed all the stages of the engineering career. In the 80th Y. Mysak has conducted a set of experiments aimed at investigation of the thermal power equipment of the 150-800 MW units’ effectiveness. He developed and implemented a range of innovations at the power units of Lukomlsk, Zaporizhia, Trypiliia, Burshtyn, Smolensk, Kuchurgan TPPs Dorogobuzh and Kyiv CHP.
The most important developments are the expanding of the regulating range of power unit of 300-800 MW with gaseous masout boilers on sliding parameters; the power units overload modes research and implementation; the regenerative air heater efficiency improvement. On the basis of science and experimental research in 1981 in the Belarusian Polytechnic Institute Y. Mysak defended his Ph. D. thesis.
Since 1982 till 1985 Y. Mysak was in the abroad commission in Yugoslavia, where he participated in setting in motion and post-completion debugging of power unit of 300 MW with the solid-fuel boiler TP-64. At that time Yosyp Mysak was working fruitfully with power energetic specialists of Yugoslavia. As the result of Yugoslavia TES equipment efficiency improvement research activity he defended his Sc. D. thesis at Belgorod University. In 1987 he received an academic status of Science Doctor. In 1994 he defends one more Sc. D. thesis at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. Since 1989 Y. Mysak worked at the Thermal Engineering and Thermal Power Stations Department of Lviv Polytechnics at first as a senior lecturer, and since 1996 as a head of the Department. A lot of attention Y. Mysak paid to the energetic and environmental problems promotion, and often performed at seminars and conferences. He has published about 440 research papers in national and international journals, published 13 co-authored books, including 5 monographs, 70 science and methodical developments, and has received more than 96 author’s certificates of the USSR and patents for inventions of Ukraine, a considerable part of which was introduced at TES of Ukraine and CIS countries.
The area of the Department’s science and research work is the improvement of thermal power and heat recovery equipment efficiency and reliability. In order to carry out these works the research laboratories are established at the Department.
The laboratory of Theoretical Fundamentals of Heating, Engineering Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer The science research is conducted in the following areas:
- Instrumentation for the purposes of measuring thermal properties; a device for materials’ thermal conductivity measuring is developed;
- Thermal meters development;
- Development of heat networks mathematical modelling methods and its hydraulic calculation in order to create optimal conditions of exploitation and study of different thermal networks combining opportunities;
- Development of methods of measuring the heat used by individual consumers in collective heating systems.
The research laboratory of General Energetics.
Main research areas: energetics theoretical bases development, mathematical modelling, and thermal power and general energy systems study; methodological elaboration of the territorial energetic complexes of cities and regions development strategy bases. The results of the research were used to form new courses: General Energetics, Mathematical Modelling of Heat Objects, Information-analytical systems of Thermal Power Stations and Thermal and Power Engineering.
The research laboratory of Alternative Energetics and Energy-Saving The students of the Department are actively involved in science research on the problems of the effective use of new and alternative energy sources, energy storage, direct conversion of heat into electric power in the laboratory, which is of great importance for the future of Ukraine.
Special attention is paid to the areas of research, long-range particularly for the development of Western Ukraine. Laboratory prospects are significant, since the faculty is provided by the Thermal Engineering and Thermal Power Stations Department, while the Department uses the significant scientific and technical relations with Lviv, region and other districts energy industry.
In the future the contacts with foreign countries are foreseen, since the activity of the laboratory in environmental problems solving corresponds to the general direction of civilization development in energetics.
The scientific research involves students who are engaged in the most advanced areas of research. In order to improve the quality of the academic process and scientific research a new computer class is created at the Department.
The Department offers postgraduate courses majoring in Technical Thermophysics and Industrial Thermal and Power Engineering. Over the past five years four Ph. D. theses and a Sc. D. one were defended.
In recent years the faculty of the Department has printed about 300 science and methodical developments, 5 monographs, 6 textbooks, published more than 800 articles, received over 60 author’s certificates and patents for inventions of Ukraine.