Thermal Analysis of the Fuse with Unequal Fuse Links Using Finite Element Method

In this paper a three dimensional thermal model of high breaking capacity fuse with unequal fuse links is proposed for both steady-state or transient conditions. The influence of ambient temperature and electric current on the temperature distribution inside the fuse, has been investigated. A thermal analysis of the unbalanced distribution of the electric current through the fuse elements and their influence on fuse link temperature rise, has been performed. To validate the three dimensional thermal model, some experimental tests have been done. There is a good correlation between experimental and simulation results.

Performance Improvement of a Supersonic External Compression Inlet by Heat Source Addition

Heat source addition to the axisymmetric supersonic inlet may improve the performance parameters, which will increase the inlet efficiency. In this investigation the heat has been added to the flow field at some distance ahead of an axisymmetric inlet by adding an imaginary thermal source upstream of cowl lip. The effect of heat addition on the drag coefficient, mass flow rate and the overall efficiency of the inlet have been investigated. The results show that heat addition causes flow separation, hence to prevent this phenomena, roughness has been added on the spike surface. However, heat addition reduces the drag coefficient and the inlet mass flow rate considerably. Furthermore, the effects of position, size, and shape on the inlet performance were studied. It is found that the thermal source deflects the flow streamlines. By improper location of the thermal source, the optimum condition has been obtained. For the optimum condition, the drag coefficient is considerably reduced and the inlet mass flow rate and its efficiency have been increased slightly. The optimum shape of the heat source is obtained too.

On the Mechanism Broadening of Optical Spectrum of a Solvated Electron in Ammonia

The solvated electron is self-trapped (polaron) owing to strong interaction with the quantum polarization field. If the electron and quantum field are strongly coupled then the collective localized state of the field and quasi-particle is formed. In such a formation the electron motion is rather intricate. On the one hand the electron oscillated within a rather deep polarization potential well and undergoes the optical transitions, and on the other, it moves together with the center of inertia of the system and participates in the thermal random walk. The problem is to separate these motions correctly, rigorously taking into account the conservation laws. This can be conveniently done using Bogolyubov-Tyablikov method of canonical transformation to the collective coordinates. This transformation removes the translational degeneracy and allows one to develop the successive approximation algorithm for the energy and wave function while simultaneously fulfilling the law of conservation of total momentum of the system. The resulting equations determine the electron transitions and depend explicitly on the translational velocity of the quasi-particle as whole. The frequency of optical transition is calculated for the solvated electron in ammonia, and an estimate is made for the thermal-induced spectral bandwidth.

Application of Computational Intelligence Techniques for Economic Load Dispatch

This paper presents the applications of computational intelligence techniques to economic load dispatch problems. The fuel cost equation of a thermal plant is generally expressed as continuous quadratic equation. In real situations the fuel cost equations can be discontinuous. In view of the above, both continuous and discontinuous fuel cost equations are considered in the present paper. First, genetic algorithm optimization technique is applied to a 6- generator 26-bus test system having continuous fuel cost equations. Results are compared to conventional quadratic programming method to show the superiority of the proposed computational intelligence technique. Further, a 10-generator system each with three fuel options distributed in three areas is considered and particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed to minimize the cost of generation. To show the superiority of the proposed approach, the results are compared with other published methods.

Lightweight Mirrors for Space X-Ray Telescopes

Future astronomical projects on large space x-ray imaging telescopes require novel substrates and technologies for the construction of their reflecting mirrors. The mirrors must be lightweight and precisely shaped to achieve large collecting area with high angular resolution. The new materials and technologies must be cost-effective. Currently, the most promising materials are glass or silicon foils. We focused on precise shaping these foils by thermal forming process. We studied free and forced slumping in the temperature region of hot plastic deformation and compared the shapes obtained by the different slumping processes. We measured the shapes and the surface quality of the foils. In the experiments, we varied both heat-treatment temperature and time following our experiment design. The obtained data and relations we can use for modeling and optimizing the thermal forming procedure.

Krylov Model Order Reduction of a Thermal Subsea Model

A subsea hydrocarbon production system can undergo planned and unplanned shutdowns during the life of the field. The thermal FEA is used to simulate the cool down to verify the insulation design of the subsea equipment, but it is also used to derive an acceptable insulation design for the cold spots. The driving factors of subsea analyses require fast responding and accurate models of the equipment cool down. This paper presents cool down analysis carried out by a Krylov subspace reduction method, and compares this approach to the commonly used FEA solvers. The model considered represents a typical component of a subsea production system, a closed valve on a dead leg. The results from the Krylov reduction method exhibits the least error and requires the shortest computational time to reach the solution. These findings make the Krylov model order reduction method very suitable for the above mentioned subsea applications.

Evaluation of the Magnesium Wastes with Boron Oxide in Magnesium Borate Synthesis

Magnesium wastes and scraps, one of the metal wastes, are produced by many industrial activities, all over the world. Their growing size is becoming a future problem for the world. In this study, the use of magnesium wastes as a raw material in the production of the magnesium borate hydrates are aimed. The method used in the experiments is hydrothermal synthesis. The conditions are set to, waste magnesium to B2O3, 1:3 as a molar ratio. Four different reaction times are studied which are 30, 60, 120 and 240 minutes. For the identification analyses X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR) and Raman spectroscopy techniques are used. As a result at all the reaction times magnesium borate hydrates are synthesized and the most crystalline forms are obtained at a reaction time of 120 minutes. The overall yields of the production are found between the values of 65-80 %.

Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Lubricant Adsorption and Thermal Depletion Instability

In this work, we incorporated a quartic bond potential into a coarse-grained bead-spring model to study lubricant adsorption on a solid surface as well as depletion instability. The surface tension density and the number density profiles were examined to verify the solid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces during heat treatment. It was found that both the liquid-vapor interfacial thickness and the solid-vapor separation increase with the temperatureT* when T*is below the phase transition temperature Tc *. At high temperatures (T*>Tc *), the solid-vapor separation decreases gradually as the temperature increases. In addition, we evaluated the lubricant weight and bond loss profiles at different temperatures. It was observed that the lubricant desorption is favored over decomposition and is the main cause of the lubricant failure at the head disk interface in our simulations.

Optimum Working Fluid Selection for Automotive Cogeneration System

A co-generation system in automobile can improve thermal efficiency of vehicle in some degree. The waste heat from the engine exhaust and coolant is still attractive energy source that reaches around 60% of the total energy converted from fuel. To maximize the effectiveness of heat exchangers for recovering the waste heat, it is vital to select the most suitable working fluid for the system, not to mention that it is important to find the optimum design for the heat exchangers. The design of heat exchanger is out of scoop of this study; rather, the main focus has been on the right selection of working fluid for the co-generation system. Simulation study was carried out to find the most suitable working fluid that can allow the system to achieve the optimum efficiency in terms of the heat recovery rate and thermal efficiency.

Influence of IMV on Space Station

To study the impact of the inter-module ventilation (IMV) on the space station, the Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) model under the influence of IMV, the mathematical model, boundary conditions and calculation method are established and determined to analyze the influence of IMV on cabin air flow characteristics and velocity distribution firstly; and then an integrated overall thermal mathematical model of the space station is used to consider the impact of IMV on thermal management. The results show that: the IMV has a significant influence on the cabin air flow, the flowrate of IMV within a certain range can effectively improve the air velocity distribution in cabin, if too much may lead to its deterioration; IMV can affect the heat deployment of the different modules in space station, thus affecting its thermal management, the use of IMV can effectively maintain the temperature levels of the different modules and help the space station to dissipate the waste heat.

Thermal Load Calculations of Multilayered Walls

Thermal load calculations have been performed for multi-layered walls that are composed of three different parts; a common (sand and cement) plaster, and two types of locally produced soft and hard bricks. The masonry construction of these layered walls was based on concrete-backed stone masonry made of limestone bricks joined by mortar. These multilayered walls are forming the outer walls of the building envelope of a typical Libyan house. Based on the periodic seasonal weather conditions, within the Libyan cost region during summer and winter, measured thermal conductivity values were used to implement such seasonal variation of heat flow and the temperature variations through the walls. The experimental measured thermal conductivity values were obtained using the Hot Disk technique. The estimation of the thermal resistance of the wall layers ( R-values) is based on measurements and calculations. The numerical calculations were done using a simplified analytical model that considers two different wall constructions which are characteristics of such houses. According to the obtained results, the R-values were quite low and therefore, several suggestions have been proposed to improve the thermal loading performance that will lead to a reasonable human comfort and reduce energy consumption.

Hydrogen and Diesel Combustion on a Single Cylinder Four Stroke Diesel Engine in Dual Fuel mode with Varying Injection Strategies

The present energy situation and the concerns about global warming has stimulated active research interest in non-petroleum, carbon free compounds and non-polluting fuels, particularly for transportation, power generation, and agricultural sectors. Environmental concerns and limited amount of petroleum fuels have caused interests in the development of alternative fuels for internal combustion (IC) engines. The petroleum crude reserves however, are declining and consumption of transport fuels particularly in the developing countries is increasing at high rates. Severe shortage of liquid fuels derived from petroleum may be faced in the second half of this century. Recently more and more stringent environmental regulations being enacted in the USA and Europe have led to the research and development activities on clean alternative fuels. Among the gaseous fuels hydrogen is considered to be one of the clean alternative fuel. Hydrogen is an interesting candidate for future internal combustion engine based power trains. In this experimental investigation, the performance and combustion analysis were carried out on a direct injection (DI) diesel engine using hydrogen with diesel following the TMI(Time Manifold Injection) technique at different injection timings of 10 degree,45 degree and 80 degree ATDC using an electronic control unit (ECU) and injection durations were controlled. Further, the tests have been carried out at a constant speed of 1500rpm at different load conditions and it can be observed that brake thermal efficiency increases with increase in load conditions with a maximum gain of 15% at full load conditions during all injection strategies of hydrogen. It was also observed that with the increase in hydrogen energy share BSEC started reducing and it reduced to a maximum of 9% as compared to baseline diesel at 10deg ATDC injection during maximum injection proving the exceptional combustion properties of hydrogen.

Optimum Conditions for Effective Decomposition of Toluene as VOC Gas by Pilot-Scale Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer

Regenerative Thermal Oxidizer (RTO) is one of the best solutions for removal of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) from industrial processes. In the RTO, VOC in a raw gas are usually decomposed at 950-1300 K and the combustion heat of VOC is recovered by regenerative heat exchangers charged with ceramic honeycombs. The optimization of the treatment of VOC leads to the reduction of fuel addition to VOC decomposition, the minimization of CO2 emission and operating cost as well. In the present work, the thermal efficiency of the RTO was investigated experimentally in a pilot-scale RTO unit using toluene as a typical representative of VOC. As a result, it was recognized that the radiative heat transfer was dominant in the preheating process of a raw gas when the gas flow rate was relatively low. Further, it was found that a minimum heat exchanger volume to achieve self combustion of toluene without additional heating of the RTO by fuel combustion was dependent on both the flow rate of a raw gas and the concentration of toluene. The thermal efficiency calculated from fuel consumption and the decomposed toluene ratio, was found to have a maximum value of 0.95 at a raw gas mass flow rate of 1810 kg·h-1 and honeycombs height of 1.5m.

Economical Operation of Hydro-Thermal Power System based on Multi-path Adaptive Tabu Search

An economic operation scheduling problem of a hydro-thermal power generation system has been properly solved by the proposed multipath adaptive tabu search algorithm (MATS). Four reservoirs with their own hydro plants and another one thermal plant are integrated to be a studied system used to formulate the objective function under complicated constraints, eg water managements, power balance and thermal generator limits. MATS with four subsearch units (ATSs) and two stages of discarding mechanism (DM), has been setting and trying to solve the problem through 25 trials under function evaluation criterion. It is shown that MATS can provide superior results with respect to single ATS and other previous methods, genetic algorithms (GA) and differential evolution (DE).

From Experiments to Numerical Modeling: A Tool for Teaching Heat Transfer in Mechanical Engineering

In this work the numerical simulation of transient heat transfer in a cylindrical probe is done. An experiment was conducted introducing a steel cylinder in a heating chamber and registering its surface temperature along the time during one hour. In parallel, a mathematical model was solved for one dimension transient heat transfer in cylindrical coordinates, considering the boundary conditions of the test. The model was solved using finite difference method, because the thermal conductivity in the cylindrical steel bar and the convection heat transfer coefficient used in the model are considered temperature dependant functions, and both conditions prevent the use of the analytical solution. The comparison between theoretical and experimental results showed the average deviation is below 2%. It was concluded that numerical methods are useful in order to solve engineering complex problems. For constant k and h, the experimental methodology used here can be used as a tool for teaching heat transfer in mechanical engineering, using mathematical simplified models with analytical solutions.

Numerical Study of Oxygen Enrichment on NO Pollution Spread in a Combustion Chamber

In this study, a 3D combustion chamber was simulated using FLUENT 6.32. Aim to obtain detailed information on combustion characteristics and _ nitrogen oxides in the furnace and the effect of oxygen enrichment in a combustion process. Oxygenenriched combustion is an effective way to reduce emissions. This paper analyzes NO emission, including thermal NO and prompt NO. Flow rate ratio of air to fuel is varied as 1.3, 3.2 and 5.1 and the oxygen enriched flow rates are 28, 54 and 68 lit/min. The 3D Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations with standard k-ε turbulence model are solved together by Fluent 6.32 software. First order upwind scheme is used to model governing equations and the SIMPLE algorithm is used as pressure velocity coupling. Results show that for AF=1.3, increase the oxygen flow rate of oxygen reduction in NO emissions is Lance. Moreover, in a fixed oxygen enrichment condition, increasing the air to fuel ratio will increase the temperature peak, but not the NO emission rate. As a result, oxygen enrichment can reduce the NO emission at this kind of furnace in low air to fuel rates.

Evaluation of Torsional Efforts on Thermal Machines Shaft with Gas Turbine resulting of Automatic Reclosing

This paper analyses the torsional efforts in gas turbine-generator shafts caused by high speed automatic reclosing of transmission lines. This issue is especially important for cases of three phase short circuit and unsuccessful reclosure of lines in the vicinity of the thermal plant. The analysis was carried out for the thermal plant TERMOPERNAMBUCO located on Northeast region of Brazil. It is shown that stress level caused by lines unsuccessful reclosing can be several times higher than terminal three-phase short circuit. Simulations were carried out with detailed shaft torsional model provided by machine manufacturer and with the “Alternative Transient Program – ATP" program [1]. Unsuccessful three phase reclosing for selected lines in the area closed to the plant indicated most critical cases. Also, reclosing first the terminal next to the gas turbine gererator will lead also to the most critical condition. Considering that the values of transient torques are very sensible to the instant of reclosing, simulation of unsuccessful reclosing with statistics ATP switch were carried out for determination of most critical transient torques for each section of the generator turbine shaft.

Statistical Analysis of Stresses in Rigid Pavement

Complex statistical analysis of stresses in concrete slab of the real type of rigid pavement is performed. The computational model of the pavement is designed as a spatial (3D) model, is based on a nonlinear variant of the finite element method that respects the structural nonlinearity, enables to model different arrangement of joints, and the entire model can be loaded by the thermal load. Interaction of adjacent slabs in joints and contact of the slab and the subsequent layer are modeled with help of special contact elements. Four concrete slabs separated by transverse and longitudinal joints and the additional subgrade layers and soil to the depth of about 3m are modeled. The thickness of individual layers, physical and mechanical properties of materials, characteristics of joints, and the temperature of the upper and lower surface of slabs are supposed to be random variables. The modern simulation technique Updated Latin Hypercube Sampling with 20 simulations is used for statistical analysis. As results, the estimates of basic statistics of the principal stresses s1 and s3 in 53 points on the upper and lower surface of the slabs are obtained.

Influence of Thermal Annealing on The Structural Properties of Vanadyl Phthalocyanine Thin Films: A Comparative Study

This paper presents a comparative study on Vanadyl Phthalocyanine (VOPc) thin films deposited by thermal evaporation and spin coating techniques. The samples were prepared on cleaned glass substrates and annealed at various temperatures ranging form 95oC to 155oC. To obtain the morphological and structural properties of VOPc thin films, X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique and atomic force microscopy (AFM) have been implied. The AFM topographic images show a very slight difference in the thermally grown films, before and after annealing, however best results are achieved for the spin-cast film annealed at 125oC. The XRD spectra show no existence of the sharp peaks, suggesting the material to be amorphous. The humps in the XRD patterns indicate the presence of some crystallites.

Finite Element Analysis and Feasibility of Simple Stochastic Modeling in the Analysis of Fissuring in Grains during Soaking

A finite element analysis was conducted to determine the effect of moisture diffusion and hygroscopic swelling in rice. A parallel simple stochastic modeling was performed to predict the number of grains cracked as a result of moisture absorption and hygroscopic swelling. Rice grains were soaked in thermally (25 oC) controlled water and then tested for compressive stress. The destructive compressive stress tests revealed through compressive stress calculation that the peak force required to cause cracking in grains soaked in water reduced with time as soaking duration was extended. Results of the experiment showed that several grains had their value of the predicted compressive stress below the von Mises stress and were interpreted as grains which become cracked and/or broke during soaking. The technique developed in this experiment will facilitate the approximation of the number of grains which will crack during soaking.