Prof. Dr. Christian Franck

Prof. Dr.  Christian Franck

Prof. Dr. Christian Franck

Deputy head of Power Systems and High Voltage Lab.

ETH Zürich

Inst. f. El. Energieübertragung

ETL H 28

Physikstrasse 3

8092 Zürich

Switzerland

Additional information

Research area

The role of electric energy will be central in the future energy system. Electric energy is not only the most superior form of energy to transport over long distances with low losses, it is also often directly produced (wind, PV). Moreover, it is the form of energy that is most flexible for use and easily controllable. Increases in efficiency are often achieved by changing to electric energy (e.g. oil or gas fired heating to heat pumps or petrol driven cars to electric vehicles).

The research and teaching focus of the High Voltage Laboratory is in the area of “technologies for future electric power transmission systems”. Focus areas are: 1.  High Voltage Gaseous Insulation Systems, 2. Future Overhead Power Transmission Lines, 3. High Voltage Solid Insulation, and 4. Current Interruption. Our project topics are the search for insulation gasmixtures alternatives to SF6, HVDC and mixed-frequency solid insulation systems, hybrid AC-DC overhead power lines, corona inception and mitigation, and experimental studies to characterize and optimize switching arcs for HVDC circuit breakers and SF6-free breakers.

By systematically introducing the latest experimental and numerical methods, we advance the research in the classical area of high voltage engineering; an area where some of the research questions have a long history of investigation but are still not answered completely satisfying. The driver for our research is to use conceptually different research approaches in the projects. This differentiates us from others working in similar areas of research and enables us not only to solve the investigated problems but also to gain a basic physical understanding of the involved processes. The research is done mainly experimentally, backed by multiphysics simulations that partially contain newly developed models.

Christian M. Franck was appointed Full Professor of High Voltage Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich by March 2020 (Assistant Professor from Jan 2010 – May 2015, Associate Professor May 2015 - March 2020).

He studied physics at the Universities of Bonn (Germany),  Edinburgh (Scotland), and Kiel (Germany) where he graduated 1999 with a diploma.  Afterwards he worked at the Max-Planck-Institute for Plasma Physics in Greifswald (Germany) in the area of electromagnetic wave propagation in magnetized plasmas, receiving his Ph.D. in experimental physics in 2003. Then he worked at the ABB Research Center in Baden (Switzerland) in the area of current interruption, limitation and high voltage insulation. From 2005 on he headed the group for high voltage systems and gas circuit breakers. In January 2010 he joined ETH Zurich as Assistant Professor. He was promoted to Associate Professor in June 2015 and to Full Professor in March 2020. He is married and has three children.

His current research and teaching is in the area of “technologies for future electric energy transmission systems” with focus in the areas of High-Voltage Gaseous and Solid Insulation Systems as well as Current Interruption.

Publications

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