The numerical calculation method is used to analyze the wear of the liner of the general structure of a semi-autogenous mill in the axial direction, and the non-uniform wear of each area of the liner is studied to explore the reasons for said wear. The liner is divided into areas along the axial direction, and the discrete element method (DEM) is used to analyze the relationship between the wear volume of each area and the total mass of particles. The composition ratio of the rocks and steel balls in each area, and its relationship with time, are also studied. The results show that the total mass of the particles in the area has a significant effect on the wear of the liner. When the particles are affected by the conical end cover on both sides during the operation of the mill, they will be stratified along the axial direction. The particles with large masses will accumulate on both sides of the mill, and the particles with small masses will be concentrated in the middle of the mill. A... [more]

Slender packed beds are widely used in the chemical and process industry for heterogeneous catalytic reactions in tube-bundle reactors. Under safety and reaction engineering aspects, good radial heat transfer is of outstanding importance. However, because of local wall effects, the radial heat transport in the vicinity of the reactor wall is hindered. Particle-resolved computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to investigate the impact of internal heat fins on the near wall radial heat transport in slender packed beds filled with spherical particles. The simulation results are validated against experimental measurements in terms of particle count and pressure drop. The simulation results show that internal heat fins increase the conductive portion of the radial heat transport close to the reactor wall, leading to an overall increased thermal performance of the system. In a wide flow range (100<Rep<1000), an increase of up to 35% in wall heat transfer coefficient and almost 90% i... [more]

Coat-hanger die design aims for optimization of the die geometry of the body and the flow distribution manifold, such that through the exit at the die lip homogeneous distribution of the polymer melt is achieved. This paper proposes a novel methodology for deriving the design equations of the coat-hanger die geometry for some specific extrusion materials and provides fluid−solid interaction simulations for validations. The basis for the calculations is the Casson rheological model, analytic velocity profiles for the pseudoplastic flow through circular pipe and slit, and the constant shear rate coat-hanger die design methodology developed by Winter and Fritz. The geometry obtained was then evaluated using the fluid-structure interaction numerical simulation approach. The sensitivity of the outlet velocity uniformity and die body deformation due to the material and mass flow rate change were investigated using the finite element software, Ansys. It was found that the homogeneity of the o... [more]

A mathematical model of long-term solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) degradation is proposed, based on a cross-cutting meta-study of SOFC degradation research available in the open literature. This model is able to predict long-term SOFC performance under different operating conditions, and it accounts for the main degradation mechanisms, including: Ni coarsening and oxidation; anode pore size changes; degradation of anode and electrolyte conductivity; and sulfur poisoning. The results of the study indicate that SOFCs initially degrade quickly, but that the degradation rate diminishes significantly after approximately 1200 hours of operation. Consequently, the effects of different factors associated with degradation rate are investigated, including current density, temperature, and partial pressure of H2 in fuel source. Sensitivity analyses show that current density and H2 partial pressure have the highest and the lowest impact, respectively. In addition, the model has been developed to asse... [more]

In this paper, the characteristics of the cyclone separator was analyzed from the Lagrangian perspective for designing the important dependent variables. The neural network network model was developed for predicting the separation performance parameter. Further, the predictive performances were compared between the traditional surrogate model and the developed neural network model. In order to design the important parameters of the cyclone separator based on the particle separation theory, the force acting until the particles are separated was calculated using the Lagrangian-based computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methodology. As a result, it was proved that the centrifugal force and drag acting on the critical diameter having a separation efficiency of 50% were similar, and the particle separation phenomenon in the cyclone occurred from the critical diameter, and it was set as an important dependent variable. For developing a critical diameter prediction model based on machine learni... [more]

This paper presents a numerical analysis of the application of emulsified biofuel (EB) to diesel engines. The study performs a numerical study of three different guide vane designs (GVD) that are incorporated with a shallow depth re-entrance combustion chamber (SCC) piston. The GVD variables were used in three GVD models with different vane heights, that is, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 times the radius of the intake runner (R) and these were named 0.20R, 0.40R and 0.60R. The SCC piston and GVD model were designed using SolidWorks 2017, while ANSYS Fluent version 15 was used to perform cold flow engine 3D analysis. The results of the numerical study showed that 0.60R is the optimum guide vane height, as the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), swirl ratio (Rs), tumble ratio (RT) and cross tumble ratio (RCT) in the fuel injection region improved from the crank angle before the start of injection (SOI) and start of combustion (SOC). This is essential to break up the heavier-fuel molecules of EB so that... [more]

To study the flow characteristics and the wear distribution of pumps at different rotation speeds, a rotating disc with three blades was designed for experiments. Numerical simulations were conducted using a computational fluid dynamics-discrete phase model (CFD−DPM) approach. The experimental and numerical results were compared, and the flow characteristics and wear behaviors were determined. As the speed increased, the particles at the blade working surface aggregated. The particle velocity gradually increased at the outlet of the channel. The severe wear areas were all located in the outlet area of the blade working surface, and the wear area extended toward the inlet area of the blade with increasing speed. The wear rate of the blade surface increased as the speed increased, and an area with a steady wear rate appeared at the outlet area of the blade. When the concentration was more than 8%, the severe wear areas were unchanged at the same speed. When the speed increased, the sever... [more]

Computational fluid dynamics simulations (CFD) were used to evaluate mixing in baffled and unbaffled vessels. The Reynolds-averaged Navier−Stokes k−ε model was implemented in OpenFOAM for obtaining the fluid flow field. The 95% homogenization times were determined by tracer tests. Experimental tests were conducted by injecting sodium chloride into the vessel and measuring the conductivity with two conductivity probes, while the simulations replicated the experimental conditions with the calculation of the transport of species. It was found that the geometry of the system had a great effect on the mixing time, since the irregular flow distribution, which can be obtained with baffles, can lead to local stagnation zones, which will increase the time needed to achieve the homogenization of the solute. It was also found that measuring local, pointwise concentrations can lead to a high underestimation of the global mixing time required for the homogenization of the entire vessel. Dissolution... [more]

A mechanistic model is proposed to describe the emulsion polymerization processes for the production of styrene−butadiene rubber (SBR) and acrylonitrile−butadiene rubber (NBR) elastomers in trains of continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTRs). A single model was used to describe both processes by choosing the proper physicochemical parameters of each system. Most of these parameters were taken from literature sources or estimated a priori; only one parameter (the entry rate coefficient) was used as an adjustable value to reproduce the kinetics (mainly conversion), and another parameter (the transfer to polymer rate coefficient) was used to fit the molecular weight distribution (MWD) experimental values from plant data. A 0-1-2 model for the number of particles and for the moments of the MWD was used to represent with more fidelity the compartmentalization effects. The model was based on approaches used in previous emulsion polymerization models published in the literature, with the premi... [more]

The axial flow pump is a low head, high discharge pump usually applicable in drainage and irrigation facilities. A certain gap should be reserved between the impeller blade root and the impeller hub to ensure the blade adjustability to broaden the high-efficiency area. The pressure difference between its blade surface induces leakage flow in the root clearance region, which decreases hydraulic performance and operational stability. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effect of root clearance on mechanical energy dissipation using numerical simulation and entropy production methods. The numerical model was validated with an external characteristics test, and unsteady flow simulations were conducted on the axial flow pump under four different root clearance radii. The maximum reductions of 15.5% and 6.8% for head and hydraulic efficiency are obtained for the largest root clearance of 8 mm, respectively. The dissipation based on entropy theory consists of indirect dis... [more]

This study evaluated the leakage characteristics of a stepped labyrinth seal. Experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis were conducted for a wide range of pressure ratios and clearance sizes, and the effect of the clearance on the leakage characteristics was analyzed by determining the performance of the seal using a dimensionless parameter. It was observed from the analysis that the performance parameter of the seal decreases as the clearance size increases, but it tends to increase when the clearance size exceeds a certain value. In other words, it was revealed that there exists a specific clearance size (Smin) which minimizes the performance parameter of the seal. To identify the cause of this tendency change, a flow analysis was conducted using CFD. It was confirmed that the leakage characteristics of the stepped seal are affected by the size of the cavity, which is the space between the teeth. Therefore, a parametric study was conducted on the design parameters r... [more]

In petroleum, geological and environmental science, flow through porous media is conventionally studied complementarily with numerical modeling/simulation and experimental corefloods. Despite advances in numerical modeling/simulation, experimental corefloods with actual samples are still desired for higher-specificity testing or more complex mechanistic studies. In these applications, the lack of advances in physical modeling is very apparent with the available options mostly unchanged for decades (e.g., sandpacks of unconsolidated packing materials, industry-accepted substitutes with fixed/mismatching petrophysical properties such as Berea sandstone). Renewable synthetic porous media with adjustable parameters are the most promising but have not advanced adequately. To address this, a methodology of advanced physical modeling of the fundamental parameters of dominant mineralogy, particle size distribution, packing, and cementation of a target natural porous media is introduced. Based... [more]

This paper studies the influence of tip clearance on the flow characteristics related to the performance. Based on full-passage numerical simulation with experimental validation, several clearance models are established and the performance curves are obtained. It is found that there exists an optimum clearance for the stable working range. By analyzing the flow field in tip region, the role of the tip leakage flow is illustrated. In the zero-clearance model, the separation and blockage along the suction side is the main reason for rotating stall. As the tip clearance is increased to the optimum value, the separation is suppressed by the tip leakage flow. However, with the continuing increasing of the tip clearance, the scale and strength of the tip clearance vortex is increased correspondingly. When the tip clearance is larger than the optimum value, the tip clearance vortex gradually dominates the flow field in the tip region, which can increase the unsteadiness in the tip region and... [more]

This study investigated the effect of adding two sister holes placed downstream the main hole on film cooling by employing large eddy simulation. Here, film-cooling flow fields from a triple-hole system inclined by 35° to a flat plate at blowing ratios of M = 0.5 and unity were simulated. Each sister hole supplies a cooling fluid at a flow rate that is a quarter of that for the main hole. The simulations were conducted using the Smagorinsky−Lilly model as the subgrid-scale model, and the results were compared with those for a single-hole system for the same amount of total cooling air and same cross-sectional area of the holes. Relative to the single-hole system, the spanwise-averaged film-cooling effectiveness in the triple-hole configuration at M = 1.0 increased by as much as 345%. The subsequent proper orthogonal decomposition analysis showed that the kinetic energy of a counter-rotating vortex pair in the triple-hole system dropped by 30−40% relative to that of the single-hole syst... [more]

This numerical investigation intends to present the impact of nanoparticles volume fraction, Casson, and magnetic force on natural convection in the boundary layer region of a horizontal cylinder in a Casson nanofluid under constant heat flux boundary conditions. Methanol is considered as a host Casson fluid. Graphite oxide (GO), single and multiple walls carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs and MWCNTs) nanoparticles have been incorporated to support the heat transfer performances of the host fluid. The Keller box technique is employed to solve the transformed governing equations. Our numerical findings were in an excellent agreement with the preceding literature. Graphical results of the effect of the relevant parameters on some physical quantities related to examine the behavior of Casson nanofluid flow were obtained, and they confirmed that an augmentation in Casson parameter results in a decline in local skin friction, velocity, or temperature, as well as leading to an increment in local Nusse... [more]

The geometry of volute tongue is crucial in the design of Sirocco fans. The size of the volute tongue determines its relative position and distance from the impeller which affects the local flow characteristics and thus the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic performances of the fan. In this work, we performed experimental and numerical investigations on the effect of volute tongue radius on the aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of a Sirocco fan. The internal flow characteristics are analyzed and discussed in terms of the spatial distribution and temporal variation of pressure and streamlines, the pulsating behaviors of pressure both in the impeller and on the volute surface with emphasis in the volute tongue region, the variation of passage flow with the rotation of impeller and the aeroacoustic features of the fan. We conducted numerical simulations using both steady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approaches with realiz... [more]

Multiphase flows are present in many natural phenomena, processing technologies, and industries. In the petroleum industry, the multiphase flow is highly relevant, and special attention is paid to the development of predictive tools that determine flow conditions to guarantee safe and economic hydrocarbon extraction and transportation. Hydrodynamic aspects such as pressure drop and holdup are of primary relevance for the field engineer in daily operations like pumping power calculation and equipment selection and control. Multiphase flow associated with oil production is usually a mixture of liquids and gas. The hydrodynamic behavior has been studied in different pipeline configurations (i.e., vertical ascending/descending and horizontal/inclined pipelines). However, the available information about flow patterns as well as the general conditions present in horizontal annuli is incomplete, even if they are of fundamental relevance in today’s horizontal drilling, production, and well int... [more]

This paper takes centrifugal fan as the research object and establishes five impeller models with different blade outlet angles. By means of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), the external characteristics of the centrifugal fan and the internal characteristics, including the velocity, pressure, and turbulent energy distribution, at the middle span plane of the impeller or fan were obtained and compared. In addition, the pressure fluctuations surrounding the impeller outlet were also analyzed. The results showed that the change of the blade outlet angle of the centrifugal fan had a great influence on the performance; the total pressure and efficiency of the fan were the highest when the outlet angle of the blade was increased to 29.5° under the design flow rate; and the influence of the outlet angle on the fan performance was different in off-design conditions. On the other hand, at different flow rates, the change of the internal flow field with the increase of the outlet angle was di... [more]

The enzymatic reactivation process enables the recovery of catalytic activity for inactive biocatalysts. However, its effect on the specific productivity of the processes has not been studied. The main objective of this work was to evaluate the specific productivity of the processes with and without reactivation using the program Spyder Python (3.7). Using fixed values for all of the parameters, the global specific productivity was 8 mM/h·gbiocat for the process without reactivation, and 4 mM/h·gbiocat for the process with reactivation. Random numbers were generated to use as different values for parameters, and the results yielded a global specific productivity of 3.79 mM/h·gbiocat for the process with reactivation and 3.68 mM/h·gbiocat for the process without reactivation. ANOVA tests showed that there were significant differences between the specific global productivities of the two processes. Reactivation has great potential for use when the biocatalyst is of high cost.

A Computation Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study for micro-scale gas−liquid flow was performed by using two different software packages: OpenFOAM® and ANSYS Fluent®. The numerical results were compared to assess the capability of both options to accurately predict the hydrodynamics of this kind of system. The focus was to test different methods to solve the gas−liquid interface, namely the Volume of Fluid (VOF) + Piecewise Linear Interface Calculation (PLIC) (ANSYS Fluent®) and MULES/isoAdvector (OpenFOAM®). For that, a single Taylor bubble flowing in a circular tube was studied for different co-current flow conditions (0.01 < CaB < 2.0 and 0.01 < ReB < 700), creating representative cases that exemplify the different sub-patterns already identified in micro-scale slug flow. The results show that for systems with high Capillary numbers (CaB > 0.8) each software correctly predicts the main characteristics of the flow. However, for small Capillary numbers (CaB < 0.03), spurious curren... [more]

The turbulence intensity (TI) is defined as the ratio of fluctuation from the standard deviation of wind velocity to the mean value. Many studies have been performedon TI for flow dynamics and adapted various field such as aerodynamics, jets, wind turbines, wind tunnel apparatuses, heat transfer, safety estimation of construction, etc.The TI represents an important parameter for determining the intensity of velocity variation and flow quality in industrial fluid mechanics. In this paper, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation of TI alteration with increasing temperature has been performed using the finite volume method. A high-temperature—maximum 300 degrees Celsius (°C)—wind tunnel test rig has been used as theapparatus, and velocity was measured by an I-type hot-wire anemometer. The velocity and TI of the core test section were operated at several degrees of inlet temperatures at anair velocity of 20 m/s. The magnitude of TI has a relationship with boundary layer development. T... [more]

In the nozzle flapper servo valve, the transient flow force on the flapper is the fundamental reason that affects the pressure stability. The pressure pulsation in the pilot stage causes forced vibration of the flapper, and its deviation will directly influence the control pressure difference, which will make the pressure appear unstable. In order to grasp the principle and characteristics of transient flow force and its influence on pressure stability, a mathematical model of flapper displacement and control pressure is derived. For collecting the dynamic changes of the transient flow force and recording the motion behavior of the flapper, a three-dimensional model of the pilot-stage is established. Numerical simulations of turbulence phenomenon analysis are conducted with a variation of flapper displacement ranging from 5 μm to 20 μm. It can be concluded that the change trend of the flapper displacement is similar to the steady-state flow force and the transient flow force pulsation... [more]

The global demand for clean fuels is increasing in order to meet the requirements of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) of 0.5% global Sulphur cap and Tier III emission limits. Natural gas has begun to be popularized on liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships because of its low cost and environment friendly. In large-bore marine engines, ignition with pilot fuel in the prechamber is a good way to reduce combustion variability and extend the lean-burn limit. However, the occurrence of knock limits the increase in power. Therefore, this paper investigates the effect of pilot fuel injection conditions on performance and knocking of a marine 2-stroke low-pressure dual-fuel (LP-DF) engine. The engine simulations were performed under different pilot fuel parameters. The results showed that the average in-cylinder temperature, the average in-cylinder pressure, and the NOx emissions gradually decreased with the delay of the pilot injection timing. Furthermore, the combustion situation gra... [more]

Hydrocarbon feedstock pyrolysis is an important method for obtaining monomers that are then used to produce various polymer materials. During this process, a mixture of hydrocarbons is heated at a high temperature and in the absence of oxygen. Because of the side reactions of polymerization and polycondensation, coke products are formed and settle on the inner walls of the coil. This decreases the technical efficiency of the hydrocarbon pyrolysis furnace during its operation, making the process unsteady. In the present research, we developed an unsteady-state mathematical model of hydrocarbon feedstock pyrolysis in order to improve the monitoring, forecasting, and optimization of this technological process. This model can calculate the rate of coke deposition along the length of the coil, considering the technological parameters and the composition of the supplied raw materials (the calculated value of coke deposition rate equals 0.01 mm/day). It was shown that with an increase in the... [more]

Turbulent flows featuring additional scalar fields, such as chemical species or temperature, are common in environmental and industrial applications. Their physics is complex because of a broad range of scales involved; hence, efficient computational approaches remain a challenge. In this paper, we present an overview of such flows (with no particular emphasis on combustion, however) and we recall the major types of micro-mixing models developed within the statistical approaches to turbulence (the probability density function approach) as well as in the large-eddy simulation context (the filtered density function). We also report on some trends in algorithm development with respect to the recent progress in computing technology.