Evaporative condensers operate at lower temperatures and with a higher efficiency compared to air condensers, as heat rejection is limited by air wet bulb temperature and mainly caused by water vaporization. This reduces the compressor pressure-lift and improves refrigeration cycle performance. Due to complex phenomena of heat and mass transfer on the tube bundles, modeling the evaporative condensers is a hard task and fine grids in numerical simulations are requested to reach acceptable results. A two-dimensional steady state numerical model at the single tube scale has been developed in Ansys-Fluent (release- 14.5), adopting the VOF multiphase model. Moist air has been treated as a mixture of air and water vapor species, while water vaporization and latent heat have been modeled with a C++ User Defined Function. The tube wall temperature has been assumed constant. The aim of this work is to describe the developed numerical model and to validate it by comparing results obtained at different operating conditions with empirical relationships found in the literature in terms of combined and overall heat transfer coefficients. Combined heat transfer coefficient variation along the tube surface has been analyzed, observing that the heat transfer coefficient is higher in the impingement zone, becomes approximately uniform and rises approaching the trailing edge. Moisture content distributions at different sections through the heat exchanger have been examined in detail as well. This study will be the basis to investigate the performance of the whole condenser taking into account the real evolution of the operating conditions of each single tube in the bundle, whatever its arrangement.

In most cases, scratching of the surface of a polymeric glass elicits brittle behavior and industrial solutions like coating have been successfully used to improve the scratch resistance. The origin of the success of the coating technique is still of great research interest since one of the limitations of this technique is the risk of cracking and chipping. In terms of interfacial adhesion characterization, a wide variety of methods have been used to assess this property of material systems. Nevertheless, the adhesion of coatings still remains to be successfully determined in a test which can reproduce the damage undergone by the coated surface during its real lifetime. In this context, scratch test constitutes a good candidate. The present study deals with the scratching technique as an interfacial adhesion measurement in coated systems. Using a single-asperity scratching device allowing in-situ observation of the scratch, the fracture of a thin nano-composite coating deposited on its substrate was investigated under different conditions of temperature and scratching speed. Four types of fracture kinetics were observed depending on these two variables. One of these exhibits a stable blister growth at the same speed as the movement of the indenter over hundreds micrometers. This slow and extensive growth of a blister was obtained at 80 °C at a scratching speed of 10 μm/s. When the blister has reached a certain size, it propagates with the indenter without increasing further in size: it constitutes the steady state blister growth. A variational form of the energy balance of a blistering process is proposed, which permits to assess the adhesion of the system. Actually, the energy spent in the delamination process can be determined by following the delaminated area during the blistering process with regard to the scratching distance. The main difficulty is to estimate the energy dissipated in plastic flow. Different tests were conducted with various indenters: spheres with different radius and roughness. Thanks to this multi-criterion approach, it was possible to fit a unique value of the adhesion in the case of experimental stable blistering growths. The results are discussed with regard to reliability and probe characteristics.

Although it is well known that the flow entering a turbine of a turbocharger engine is highly unsteady, engine manufacturers prefer to use turbine performance predictions that are based on steady-state performance maps, which inherently lead to inaccuracies in the turbine’s behavior and mismatches between turbocharger turbines and engines. The reason for this preference is due to the turbocharger turbine design software that are generally available to engine manufacturers being based on and compatible with steady-state performance maps and this fact led researchers to investigate how the inaccuracies of this steady-state treatment of the turbine can be alleviated. To this effect, this paper investigates how modelling techniques on Ricardo Wave, a 1D gas dynamics engine simulation software, gives rise to more accurate turbine swallowing curve predictions using steady-state maps. In particular, the turbine being investigated is that of Szymko [1], which is a twin nozzleless mixed-flow turbine that is being powered by a 10 litre, 6 cylinder 4 stroke diesel engine with an operating range from 800–2000 RPM for which 800, 1200 and 1600 engine RPM relate to 40, 60 and 80Hz exhaust gas pulse frequencies at the turbine. The main investigation in this paper is to demonstrate the capability of the engine simulation software to deal with unsteady flows and specifically to show the significant effect of accounting for the volute design in the single turbine wheel entry model. The data obtained in this investigation were compared with those of Szymko [1], which offered a validated set of data to compare against.

The environmental concerns officially aroused in 1970s made the control of the engine emissions a major issue for the automotive industry. The corresponding reduction in fuel consumption has become a challenge so as to meet the current and future emission legislations. Given the increasing interest retained by the optimal use of a Variable Valve Actuation (VVA) technology, the present paper investigates into the potentials of combining the VVA solution to CNG fuelling. Experiments and simulations were carried out on a heavy duty 6-cylinders CNG engine equipped with a turbocharger displaying a twin-entry waste-gate-controlled turbine. The analysis aimed at exploring the potentials of the Early Intake Valve Closure (EIVC) mode and to identify advanced solutions for the combustion management as well as for the turbo-matching. The engine model was developed within the GT-Power environment and was finely tuned to reproduce the experimental readings under steady state operations. The 0D-1D model was hence run to reproduce the engine operating conditions at different speeds and loads and to highlight the effect of the VVA on the engine performance as well as on the fuel consumption and engine emissions. Pumping losses proved to reduce to a great extent, thus decreasing the brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) with respect to the throttled engine. The exhaust temperature at the turbine inlet was kept to an almost constant value and minor variations were allowed. This was meant to avoid an excessive worsening in the TWC working conditions, as well as deterioration in the turbocharger performance during load transients. The numerical results also proved that full load torque increases can be achieved by reducing the spark advance so that a higher enthalpy is delivered to the turbocharger. Similar torque levels were also obtained by means of Early Intake Valve Closing strategy. For the latter case, negligible penalties in the fuel consumption were detected. Moreover, for a given combustion phasing, the IVC angle directly controls the mass-flow rate and thus the torque. On the other hand, a slight dependence on the combustion phasing can be detected at part load. Finally, the simulations assessed for almost constant fuel consumption for a wide range of IVC and SA values. Specific attention was also paid to the turbocharger group functioning and to its correct matching to the engine working point. The simulations showed that the working point on the compressor map can be optimized by properly setting the spark advance (SA) as referred to the adopted intake-valve closing angle. It is anyhow worth observing that the engine high loads set a constraint deriving from the need to meet the limits on the peak firing pressure (PFP), thus limiting the possibility to optimize the working point once the turbo-matching is defined.

When the Norwegian government introduced the CO 2 tax for hydrocarbon fuels, the challenge became to improve the performance of off-shore power systems. An oil and gas platform typically operates on an island (stand-alone system) and the power demand is covered by two or more gas turbines. In order to improve the plant performance, a bottoming cycle unit can be added to the gas turbine topping module, thus constituting a combined cycle plant. This paper aims at developing and testing the numerical model simulating the part-load and dynamic behavior of a novel power system, composed of two gas turbines and a combined gas turbine coupled with an air bottoming cycle plant. The case study is the Draugen off-shore oil and gas platform, located in the North Sea, Norway. The normal electricity demand is 19 MW, currently covered by two gas turbines generating each 50% of the power demand, while the third turbine is on stand-by. During oil export operations the power demand increases up to 25 MW. The model of the new power plant proposed in this work is developed in the Modelica language using basic components acquired from ThermoPower, a library for power plant modelling. The dynamic model of the gas turbine and the air bottoming cycle turbogenerator includes dynamic equations for the combustion chamber, the shell-and-tube recuperator and the turbine shafts. Turbines are modelled by the Stodola equation and by a correlation between the isentropic efficiency and the non-dimensional flow coefficient. Compressors are modelled using quasi steady-state conditions by scaling the maps of axial compressors employing a similar design point. The recuperator, which recovers the exhaust heat from the gas turbine, is modelled using correlations relating the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure drop at part-load with the mass flow rate. Thermodynamic variables and dynamic metrics, such as the rise time and the frequency undershooting/ overshooting, are predicted. Considering a load ramp of 0.5 MW/s, an undershooting of 4.9% and an overshooting of 3.0% are estimated. The rise time is approximately 30 s. Moreover, findings suggest that decreasing the core weight of the recuperator leads to limiting the frequency fluctuations, thus minimizing the risk of failure of the power system.

This paper reports experimental measurements of film thickness for continuous fluid flow within a spinning cone. The results are compared to analytical theory for thin film flow and found to be in good agreement. Spinning cones are used in various industrial process machines, including spinning cone distillation columns, centrifugal film evaporators and continuous centrifugal filters. In each case a fluid is fed continuously into the centre of a conical vessel which spins about a vertical axis with the cone apex pointing downwards. The fluid acquires the angular velocity of the cone and migrates up the internal wall of the cone under centrifugal force. Knowledge of the film thickness and flow velocity is often important in order to understand other performance parameters of the process such as evaporation or filtration rates. This paper aims to aid the design of new process machines by providing a mathematical model for film thickness that is validated by experimental results. Experiments have been conducted in which the angle of cone, angular velocity and input flow rate were all varied. Film thickness measurements were obtained via a novel optical method based on photographing the displacement of a projected grid on the surface of the flow within the cone. The method has the advantages of not disturbing the flow in any way and can provide thickness measurements over the whole cone depth. Measurements are also made insensitive to any transients by use of relatively long photographic exposures. Measurements are compared to analytical theory for axisymmetric, steady state, free-surface laminar flow of a Newtonian fluid in a spinning cone. The theory assumes the flow is thin but takes account of gravity. The theoretical model is found to be in good agreement with the experimental results.

Among the solutions to the rotor unbalance problem, the previous art shows the use of passive balancers. The liquid balance ring fall in this category, which basically consists of a hollow ring equipped with a number of anti-sloshing baffle boards inside the cavity. The liquid contained within the ring adopts an antagonist position to the unbalance, thus balancing the rotor. Nowadays, in regard to the shape of the baffles boards employed in liquid balance ring devices, the use of straight baffles is the standard practice. However, as the fluid is subjected to rotation, it makes sense to believe that there should be a better baffle shape to enhance the fluid-solid interaction and improve the balance ring dynamic performance. This research work introduces for the first time a balance ring with curved (forward and backward) blades that remarkably enhance the unbalance response of rotors in the transient and steady-state. A classical dynamics model of this novel bladed concept is introduced and employed in designing a liquid balance ring for high-speed performance. Experimental data showing good correlation between the model and tests is presented.

The Boundary Element Method (BEM) allows efficient solution of partial differential equations whose kernel functions are known. The heat equation is one of these candidates when the thermal parameters are assumed constant (linear model). When the model involves large physical domains and time simulation intervals the amount of information that must be stored increases significantly. This drawback can be circumvented by using advanced strategies, as for example the multi-poles technique. We propose radically different approach that leads to a separated solution of the space and time problems within a non-incremental integration strategy. The technique is based on the use of a space-time separated representation of the unknown field that, introduced in the residual weighting formulation, allows to define a separated solution of the resulting weak form. The spatial step can be then treated by invoking the standard BEM for solving the resulting steady state problem defined in the physical space. Then, the time problem that results in an ordinary first order differential equation is solved using any standard appropriate integration technique (e.g. backward finite differences). When considering the nonlinear heat equation, the BEM cannot be easily applied because its Green’s kernel is generally not known but the use of the PGD presents the advantage of rewriting the problem in such a way that the kernel is now clearly known. Indeed, the system obtained by the PGD is composed of a Poisson equation in space coupled with an ODE in time so that the use of the BEM for solving the spatial part of the problem is efficient. During the solving, we must however separate the nonlinear term into a space-time representation that can limit the method in terms of CPU time and storage, that is why we introduce in the second part of the paper a new approach combining the PGD and the Asymptotic Numerical Method (ANM) in order to efficiently treat the nonlinearity.

Relatively large, alternating in time, operational deformations of distributed piezoelectric actuators used in active vibration control may create a hazard of material degradation and damage of the actuator/host structure coupling. In the presented study a beam-like system with a surface mounted piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair operating in a closed loop with velocity feedback is analysed. The applied actuator is a piezoelectric fiber composite (PFC) with PZT (lead-zirconate-titanate) fibers aligned and polarized longitudinally. The uniform field method based on the rule of mixtures is used to determine the effective properties of the piezocomposite. Two types of the actuator failure are taken into account. The first relates to the edge delamination modelled as a significant reduction of the adhesive interlayer shear stiffness. The second relates to the PFC material degradation, which is regarded as a softening of the matrix material surrounding PZT fibers. It is assumed that the damaged adhesive region of the constant shear stiffness extends uniformly across the actuator from its ends to the centre. In analysis the beam is divided into sections due to its geometry, external loading and the damaged regions supposed. The governing equations of the activated beam sections are coupled equations related to the electrically induced tension/compression of the actuator and bending of the beam, respectively. The obtained steady-state solution satisfies boundary conditions and continuity conditions at the borders of the beam and the actuator sections. Results of calculations show the effects of stiffness degradation of both the bonding interlayer and the piezocomposite matrix material on the beam deflection and transmitted shear stresses. Besides, dynamic responses of the active system regarding changes of the control effectiveness are numerically investigated and discussed.

For a steady state convection problem, assuming given concentration field values in a few measurement points and hydraulic head values in the same piezometers, the source of the concentration, and its intensity are deduced using Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs). ANNs are trained with data extracted from Finite Difference (FD) solution of a classical convection problem for small Peclet number. The numerical analysis is exemplified for vanishing, homogeneous and non-homogeneous field of velocity. It is shown that the diffusivity vector can also be identified. The complexity of the problem is discussed for each studied case.

The design of remotely controlled and autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles ( UAVs ) is an actual direction in modern aircraft development. A promising aircraft of this type is a powered paraglider ( PPG ). In this paper, a new mathematical model is suggested for the paraglider’s longitudinal motion aimed at the study of PPG dynamics and the synthesis of its automatic control. PPG under consideration is composed of a wing (canopy) and a load (gondola) with propelling unit. The PPG mechanical model is constructed as the system of two rigid bodies connected by an elastic joint with four degrees of freedom that executes a 2D motion in a vertical plane. The details of PPG ’s motion characteristics including steady-states regimes and its stability have been studied. A nonlinear control law, based on the partial feedback linearization, has been designed for the thrust of PPG . Simulation results are analyzed. Simulation tests show that the internal dynamics are stable near the steady-state flight regime.

Injection is one of the most used processes to manufacture thermoplastic parts. The design of the cooling channels in this process is of great importance during the mould design. Indeed, an inappropriate cooling will lead to defects in the part and a low production rate. In this paper, a new approach for the design of the cooling channels is assessed. Based on morphological concepts, the idea of regulation by cooling surface is introduced. The thermal behaviour of the mould can be restricted on the spatial domain delimited by the cooling surface on which a spatial temperature distribution is imposed. The first step of the methodology leads to the optimal determination of the fluid temperature distribution along the cooling surface in order to minimize a cost function composed of two terms linked to the quality of the part and the productivity of the process. The conjugate gradient algorithm coupled with a Lagrangian technique is implemented for the determination of fluid temperature parameters. However, the obtained solution is not workable in practice. The second step consists then in building real channels from this optimal distribution. The shape, location and fluid temperature level of these channels are determined a posteriori from the thermal analysis of the temperature field in the mould domain located between the plastic part and the cooling surface. Channels are builded by using the contours of isotherms in the thermal steady-state area of the mould. It becomes then possible to design the cooling channels with no a priori on the numbers, the location of these channels and on the temperature of the coolant fluid. The methodology is first illustrated with a 2D part. Results are compared with literature.

Heat transfer enhancement technology covers a very important role in designing efficient heating and cooling equipments. This goal can be achieved by means of different techniques. Convective heat transfer can be improved actively or passively, for example, by adopting special surfaces or by increasing the thermal conductivity of the working fluids. Thus, the use of suspended solid nanoparticles in the working fluids can be taken into account. In this paper a numerical investigation on laminar mixed convection with Al 2 O 3 /water based nanofluids in a triangular channel is presented. A uniform and constant heat flux on the channel surfaces is assumed and the single-phase model approach has been employed in order to describe the nanofluid behaviour. The analysis has been performed in the steady state regime for particle size in nanofluids equal to 30 nm. The CFD code Fluent has been employed in order to solve the three-dimensional numerical model and different Richardson number values and nanoparticle volume fractions have been considered. Results are presented for the fully developed regime flow. The increase of average convective heat transfer coefficients and Nusselt number values for increasing values of Richardson number and particle concentration is observed by analyzing the obtained results. However, also wall shear stress and required pumping power profiles increase as expected.

Ice formation on airplane wing profile is a very dangerous condition because of the change in the profile aerodynamic, so it’s necessary to avoid ice formation on the wings. The hardest condition ice formation are at altitudes between 10.000 and 15.000 ft and at temperature between 0° C and −15° C, because they are particularly suitable for ice formation. In this paper an anti-icing system based on hot air impinging jets on internal wing surface is analyzed in order to check the efficiency of the system. A numerical model is given in order to evaluate the thermal and fluid dynamic behaviors of the impinging jet inside the wing panel. A wing profile with an angle of attack of 4.50° is taken into account with a free stream temperature of 258 K. A piccolo tube with a diameter of 1.00 inch and air temperature of 523 K and at variable distance from the wall of the wing profile, is considered for anti-icing system. A structured mesh is used in the discretization of the computational domain for the two-dimensional and three-dimensional case. A steady state solution with k-ε RNG turbulent model has been found. Numerical simulations of a two and a three dimensional model of an aircraft wing has been carried out taking into account the external convective exchange by means of an average coefficient on the external surface and thermo-fluid dynamic field inside the wing due to the anti-icing system. The analysis is performed by means of the FLUENT code in order to find the optimal geometrical configuration to avoid the ice formation on the external wing surface. Results are presented in terms of temperature fields and wall temperature and air velocity profiles along the wing surfaces.

In this study obtaining a uniform heat flux over a target surface was investigated by means of using characteristics of jet impingement heat transfer. Conjugate Gradients Method (CGM) was utilized to minimize the objective function defined on the basis of the squared differences between the target heat flux and the calculated ones. Design variables were taken to be jets’ Reynolds numbers, separation distance between the exit plane of the jets and the target plate, as well as inter-jet spacing. Air single phase jets were used in this study. The problem was solved for the cases of 4 and 6 jets. Temperature difference between the jet exit and the target plate is 100°C, and a steady state condition was assumed. The Finite Volume Method and an unstructured mesh were used for direct solution of the jet impingement heat transfer problem for a laminar jets impingement to a flat plate with constant temperature.

Busbar technology is more and more used to realize connections within power supply systems in answer to the need of compactness. The integrated problem on heat conduction and radiation-convective heat exchange describes the temperature regime in current conductors and current carrying busbars of power electrical apparatus such as circuit breakers or high breaking capacity fuses. Beside steady-state conditions, the transient thermal regime of busbar has an important influence upon whole power supply system from thermal behaviour point of view. Hence, a 3D thermal analysis of a power system including fuse, low voltage circuit breaker and busbars connections, using a specific software package based on Finite Element Method, has been done. From 3D thermal modelling and simulations, the thermal transient impedance for the busbar has been computed. This allows a better correlation between protection characteristics of the fuse and circuit breaker and busbar design.

Since the piezoelectric actuators have the disadvantages of small travel and hysteretic behavior, a long range friction actuating mechanism was designed. The piezoelectric material is used to generate high frequency oscillation for actuating a finger tip which contacted with a slide to induce the back and forth motion. The LuGre friction model is chosen to simulate the dynamics of this friction actuating mechanism. However, this piezoelectric actuating system has obvious nonlinear and time-varying dead-zone offset control voltage due to the static friction and preload. It is difficulty to establish an accurate dynamic model for model-based precision control design. Hence, the functional approximation (FA) scheme is employed to compensate the system modeling error. The Laypunov-like design strategy is adopted to derive the adaptive laws and the system stability criterion. Different trajectories tracking control are planned to investigate the motion control performance and the steady state error of this adaptive controller. The dynamic experimental results of the proposed controller are compared with that of a model-based PID controller.

In this article, the mathematical modeling of a high pressure regulator with its safety valve is presented. In the first step, the performance of regulator and safety valve are investigated, separately. After that, the safety valve is connected to the output port of air regulator and the output pressure’s variation is investigated. For analyzing of air regulator and safety valve’s operation, the equation of motion of internal parts, continuity equations for chamber and the equations related to mass flow rate which passing from diverse ducts in regulator are derived, respectively. The motion’s equation consists of inertia, controlling spring force, pressurized air force and coulombs friction terms. Because of nonlinearity and coupling, these equations are solved by using numerical methods and the results are presented. Finally, the results obtained in steady state are validated by testing.

In this paper a Magnetorheological squeeze film damper (MR-SFD) has been modeled using two governing equations. Firstly, considering Bingham model for MR fluid (MRF), a hydrodynamic model has been presented. Secondly, a thermal model for the system has been modeled and used to calculate the temperature rise in the squeeze film and different damper’s components. Time and frequency domain analysis has been performed over a system consists of an unbalanced flexible rotor (FE model) mounted on a pair of MR-SFDs. Results show that the amplitude of rotor’s vibration is not a simple function of electrical current such that, increase in the current cannot guaranty decrease in the value of amplitude. The steady state response of rotor versus rotation velocity is presented for different values of electrical current, which show the effects of temperature and current on the steady state response of rotor.

In this paper, the effects of various geometric parameters of a high pressure swirl Gasoline Direct Injector (GDI) on the injection flow quality are investigated. The two-dimensional axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method were employed for simulation of the formation mechanism of the liquid film inside the swirl chamber and the orifice hole of the pressure swirl atomizer. To validate the model, results for base injector were compared in the steady state operation with those of available experiments in the literature. Good agreements were obtained for discharge coefficient (C d ) and cone angle (θ) with experimental data. The effects of five characteristic geometric parameters of swirl injectors such as orifice ratio (orifice length to orifice diameter), angle of swirl chamber, orifice diameter, needle lift and needle head angle (assumed to be cone) were investigated. The results show that increasing the swirl chamber angle leads to an increase in mass flow rate and a decrease of the cone angle of liquid sheet. Through extensive simulations, geometric parameters of an optimum injector were obtained.