Gerd-Ulrich Grün (born 1958) received his diploma in geophysics in 1982 from Technical University of Clausthal. He then worked in various public funded research activities regarding deep drilling projects before he joined the research department of the German aluminium company VAW in 1990. Here, in the beginning his work concentrated on the development and application of mathematical modeling tools on the DC casting and shape casting of aluminium, while later on this extended to related areas like filter development and furnace optimization. As a part of this responsibility he was and still is also involved in participating in and managing of several international research projects in the field of modeling of casting and solidification. Presently, he is Program Manager Sheet Ingot within the Research and Development Competence Center Casting, Alloys & Recycling of Hydro Aluminium, located at the Research Center Bonn, Germany.
As a consequence of his long time international collaboration he is also active in organizing and reviewing activities with regard to international conferences, for example he was last and this years TMS Annual Meeting Cast Shop Symposium Chair and Co-Chair. Grün has authored and co-authored a number of international publications and is giving lectures on DC casting at related engineering schools in Germany.

Selected publications:

G-U. Gruen and W. Schneider. Influence of fluid flow field and pouring temperature on thermal gradients in the mushy zone during Level pour casting of billets Light Metals 1997, 1059-1064 1997.

G-U. Gruen and W. Schneider. Numerical modeling of fluid flow phenomena in the launder – Integrated tool within casting unit development Light Metals 1998, 1175-1182 1998

G-U. Gruen, W. Schneider, S. Ray and J.-O. Marthinusen. Recent Improvements in ceramic foam filter bowl design by coupled heat and fluid flow modeling Light Metals 1999, 1041-1047 1999

A Joly, G.U. Grün, D.Daloz, H. Combeau and G. Lesoult. Effect of grain refinement on macrosegregation in direct chill semi-continuous casting of aluminium sheet ingot Solidification and Gravity III, 111-120 2000

J.-M. Drezet, M. Rappaz, G-U. Gruen, and M. Gremaud. Determination of thermophysical properties and boundary conditions of DC cast aluminum alloys using inverse methods Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 31A 1627-1634 2000.

G-U. Gruen, Andreas Buchholz and Dag Mortensen 3-D modeling of fluid flow and heat transfer during the DC casting process – Influence of flow modeling approach - Light Metals 2000, 573-578 2000

W. Droste, G-U. Gruen, W. Schneider and J.M. Drezet. Thermo-mechanical modeling to predict shrinkage, shape and mold openings for DC-cast rolling ingots Light Metals 2002, 703-708 2002.

S. Henry, G-U. Gruen, and M. Rappaz. Influence of convection on feathery grain formation in aluminium alloys Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A, 35A 2495-2501 2004.