FEM Simulation of Triple Diffusive Magnetohydrodynamics Effect of Nanofluid Flow over a Nonlinear Stretching Sheet

The triple diffusive boundary layer flow of nanofluid under the action of constant magnetic field over a non-linear stretching sheet has been investigated numerically. The model includes the effect of Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and cross-diffusion; slip mechanisms which are primarily responsible for the enhancement of the convective features of nanofluid. The governing partial differential equations are transformed into a system of ordinary differential equations (by using group theory transformations) and solved numerically by using variational finite element method. The effects of various controlling parameters, such as the magnetic influence number, thermophoresis parameter, Brownian motion parameter, modified Dufour parameter, and Dufour solutal Lewis number, on the fluid flow as well as on heat and mass transfer coefficients (both of solute and nanofluid) are presented graphically and discussed quantitatively. The present study has industrial applications in aerodynamic extrusion of plastic sheets, coating and suspensions, melt spinning, hot rolling, wire drawing, glass-fibre production, and manufacture of polymer and rubber sheets, where the quality of the desired product depends on the stretching rate as well as external field including magnetic effects.

Heat Transfer Characteristics on Blade Tip with Unsteady Wake

Present study investigates the effect of unsteady wakes on heat transfer in blade tip. Heat/mass transfer was measured in blade tip region depending on a variety of strouhal number by naphthalene sublimation technique. Naphthalene sublimation technique measures heat transfer using a heat/mass transfer analogy. Experiments are performed in linear cascade which is composed of five turbine blades and rotating rods. Strouhal number of inlet flow are changed ranging from 0 to 0.22. Reynolds number is 100,000 based on 11.4 m/s of outlet flow and axial chord length. Three different squealer tip geometries such as base squealer tip, vertical rib squealer tip, and camber line squealer tip are used to study how unsteady wakes affect heat transfer on a blade tip. Depending on squealer tip geometry, different flow patterns occur on a blade tip. Also, unsteady wakes cause reduced tip leakage flow and turbulent flow. As a result, as strouhal number increases, heat/mass transfer coefficients decrease due to the reduced leakage flow. As strouhal number increases, heat/ mass transfer coefficients on a blade tip increase in vertical rib squealer tip.

Research on the Aeration Systems’ Efficiency of a Lab-Scale Wastewater Treatment Plant

In order to obtain efficient pollutants removal in small-scale wastewater treatment plants, uniform water flow has to be achieved. The experimental setup, designed for treating high-load wastewater (leachate), consists of two aerobic biological reactors and a lamellar settler. Both biological tanks were aerated by using three different types of aeration systems - perforated pipes, membrane air diffusers and tube ceramic diffusers. The possibility of homogenizing the water mass with each of the air diffusion systems was evaluated comparatively. The oxygen concentration was determined by optical sensors with data logging. The experimental data was analyzed comparatively for all three different air dispersion systems aiming to identify the oxygen concentration variation during different operational conditions. The Oxygenation Capacity was calculated for each of the three systems and used as performance and selection parameter. The global mass transfer coefficients were also evaluated as important tools in designing the aeration system. Even though using the tubular porous diffusers leads to higher oxygen concentration compared to the perforated pipe system (which provides medium-sized bubbles in the aqueous solution), it doesn’t achieve the threshold limit of 80% oxygen saturation in less than 30 minutes. The study has shown that the optimal solution for the studied configuration was the radial air diffusers which ensure an oxygen saturation of 80% in 20 minutes. An increment of the values was identified when the air flow was increased.

Multi-Linear Regression Based Prediction of Mass Transfer by Multiple Plunging Jets

The paper aims to compare the performance of vertical and inclined multiple plunging jets and to model and predict their mass transfer capacity by multi-linear regression based approach. The multiple vertical plunging jets have jet impact angle of θ = 90O; whereas, multiple inclined plunging jets have jet impact angle of θ = 60O. The results of the study suggests that mass transfer is higher for multiple jets, and inclined multiple plunging jets have up to 1.6 times higher mass transfer than vertical multiple plunging jets under similar conditions. The derived relationship, based on multi-linear regression approach, has successfully predicted the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (KLa) from operational parameters of multiple plunging jets with a correlation coefficient of 0.973, root mean square error of 0.002 and coefficient of determination of 0.946. The results suggests that predicted overall mass transfer coefficient is in good agreement with actual experimental values; thereby, suggesting the utility of derived relationship based on multi-linear regression based approach and can be successfully employed in modeling mass transfer by multiple plunging jets.

Study of Equilibrium and Mass Transfer of Co- Extraction of Different Mineral Acids with Iron(III) from Aqueous Solution by Tri-n-Butyl Phosphate Using Liquid Membrane

Extraction of Fe(III) from aqueous solution using Trin- butyl Phosphate (TBP) as carrier needs a highly acidic medium (>6N) as it favours formation of chelating complex FeCl3.TBP. Similarly, stripping of Iron(III) from loaded organic solvents requires neutral pH or alkaline medium to dissociate the same complex. It is observed that TBP co-extracts acids along with metal, which causes reversal of driving force of extraction and iron(III) is re-extracted back from the strip phase into the feed phase during Liquid Emulsion Membrane (LEM) pertraction. Therefore, rate of extraction of different mineral acids (HCl, HNO3, H2SO4) using TBP with and without presence of metal Fe(III) was examined. It is revealed that in presence of metal acid extraction is enhanced. Determination of mass transfer coefficient of both acid and metal extraction was performed by using Bulk Liquid Membrane (BLM). The average mass transfer coefficient was obtained by fitting the derived model equation with experimentally obtained data. The mass transfer coefficient of the mineral acid extraction is in the order of kHNO3 = 3.3x10-6m/s > kHCl = 6.05x10-7m/s > kH2SO4 = 1.85x10-7m/s. The distribution equilibria of the above mentioned acids between aqueous feed solution and a solution of tri-n-butyl-phosphate (TBP) in organic solvents have been investigated. The stoichiometry of acid extraction reveals the formation of TBP.2HCl, HNO3.2TBP, and TBP.H2SO4 complexes. Moreover, extraction of Iron(III) by TBP in HCl aqueous solution forms complex FeCl3.TBP.2HCl while in HNO3 medium forms complex 3FeCl3.TBP.2HNO3

Mass Transfer Modeling of Nitrate in an Ion Exchange Selective Resin

The rate of nitrate adsorption by a nitrate selective ion exchange resin was investigated in a well-stirred batch experiments. The kinetic experimental data were simulated with diffusion models including external mass transfer, particle diffusion and chemical adsorption. Particle pore volume diffusion and particle surface diffusion were taken into consideration separately and simultaneously in the modeling. The model equations were solved numerically using the Crank-Nicholson scheme. An optimization technique was employed to optimize the model parameters. All nitrate concentration decay data were well described with the all diffusion models. The results indicated that the kinetic process is initially controlled by external mass transfer and then by particle diffusion. The external mass transfer coefficient and the coefficients of pore volume diffusion and surface diffusion in all experiments were close to each other with the average value of 8.3×10-3 cm/S for external mass transfer coefficient. In addition, the models are more sensitive to the mass transfer coefficient in comparison with particle diffusion. Moreover, it seems that surface diffusion is the dominant particle diffusion in comparison with pore volume diffusion.

Performance Characteristics of a Closed Circuit Cooling Tower with Multi Path

The experimental thermal performance of two heat exchangers in closed-wet cooling tower (CWCT) was investigated in this study. The test sections are heat exchangers which have multi path that is used as the entrance of cooling water and are consisting of bare-type copper tubes between 15.88mm and 19.05mm. The process fluids are the cooling water that flows from top part of heat exchanger to bottom side in the inner side of tube, and spray water that flows gravitational direction in the outer side of it. Air contacts its outer side of that as it counterflows. Heat and mass transfer coefficients and cooling capacity were calculated with variations of process fluids, multi path and different diameter tubes to figure out the performance of characteristics of CWCT. The main results were summarized as follows: The results show this experiment is reliable with values of heat and mass transfer coefficients comparing to values of correlations. Heat and mass transfer coefficients and cooling capacity of two paths are higher than these with one path using 15.88 and 19.05mm tubes. Cooling capacity per unit volume with 15.88mm tube using one and two paths are higher than 19.05mm tube due to increase of surface area per unit volume.

Removal of Pb (II) from Aqueous Solutions using Fuller's Earth

Fuller’s earth is a fine-grained, naturally occurring substance that has a substantial ability to adsorb impurities. In the present study Fuller’s earth has been characterized and used for the removal of Pb(II) from aqueous solution. The effect of various physicochemical parameters such as pH, adsorbent dosage and shaking time on adsorption were studied. The result of the equilibrium studies showed that the solution pH was the key factor affecting the adsorption. The optimum pH for adsorption was 5. Kinetics data for the adsorption of Pb(II) was best described by pseudo-second order model. The effective diffusion co-efficient for Pb(II) adsorption was of the order of 10-8 m2/s. The adsorption data for metal adsorption can be well described by Langmuir adsorption isotherm. The maximum uptake of metal was 103.3 mg/g of adsorbent. Mass transfer analysis was also carried out for the adsorption process. The values of mass transfer coefficients obtained from the study indicate that the velocity of the adsorbate transport from bulk to the solid phase was quite fast. The mean sorption energy calculated from Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm indicated that the metal adsorption process was chemical in nature. 

Mass Transfer of Palm Kernel Oil under Supercritical Conditions

The purpose of the study was to determine the amount of Palm Kernel Oil (PKO) extracted from a packed bed of palm kernels in a supercritical fluid extractor using supercritical carbon dioxide (SC-CO2) as an environmental friendly solvent. Further, the study sought to ascertain the values of the overall mass transfer coefficient (K) of PKO evaluation through a mass transfer model, at constant temperature of 50 °C, 60 °C, and 70 °C and pressures range from 27.6 MPa, 34.5 MPa, 41.4 MPa and 48.3 MPa respectively. Finally, the study also seeks to demonstrate the application of the overall mass transfer coefficient values in relation to temperature and pressure. The overall mass transfer coefficient was found to be dependent pressure at each constant temperature of 50 °C, 60 °C and 70 °C. The overall mass transfer coefficient for PKO in a packed bed of palm kernels was found to be in the range of 1.21X 10-4 m min-1 to 1.72 X 10-4 m min-1 for a constant temperature of 50 °C and in the range of 2.02 X 10-4 m min-1 to 2.43 X 10-4 m min-1 for a constant temperature of 60 °C. Similar increasing trend of the overall mass transfer coefficient from 1.77 X 10-4 m min-1 to 3.64 X 10-4 m min-1 was also observed at constant temperature of 70 °C within the same pressure range from 27.6 MPa to 48.3 MPa.

Removal of Volatile Organic Compounds from Contaminated Surfactant Solution using Co-Curren Vacuum Stripping

There has been a growing interest in utilizing surfactants in remediation processes to separate the hydrophobic volatile organic compounds (HVOCs) from aqueous solution. One attractive process is cloud point extraction (CPE), which utilizes nonionic surfactants as a separating agent. Since the surfactant cost is a key determination of the economic viability of the process, it is important that the surfactants are recycled and reused. This work aims to study the performance of the co-current vacuum stripping using a packed column for HVOCs removal from contaminated surfactant solution. Six types HVOCs are selected as contaminants. The studied surfactant is the branched secondary alcohol ethoxylates (AEs), Tergitol TMN-6 (C14H30O2). The volatility and the solubility of HVOCs in surfactant system are determined in terms of an apparent Henry’s law constant and a solubilization constant, respectively. Moreover, the HVOCs removal efficiency of vacuum stripping column is assessed in terms of percentage of HVOCs removal and the overall liquid phase volumetric mass transfer coefficient. The apparent Henry’s law constant of benzenz , toluene, and ethyl benzene were 7.00×10-5, 5.38×10-5, 3.35× 10-5 respectively. The solubilization constant of benzene, toluene, and ethyl benzene were 1.71, 2.68, 7.54 respectively. The HVOCs removal for all solute were around 90 percent.

Contact Drying Simulation of Particulate Materials: A Comprehensive Approach

In this work, simulation algorithms for contact drying of agitated particulate materials under vacuum and at atmospheric pressure were developed. The implementation of algorithms gives a predictive estimation of drying rate curves and bulk bed temperature during contact drying. The calculations are based on the penetration model to describe the drying process, where all process parameters such as heat and mass transfer coefficients, effective bed properties, gas and liquid phase properties are estimated with proper correlations. Simulation results were compared with experimental data from the literature. In both cases, simulation results were in good agreement with experimental data. Few deviations were identified and the limitations of the predictive capabilities of the models are discussed. The programs give a good insight of the drying behaviour of the analysed powders.

The Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena in Vacuum Membrane Distillation for Desalination

Vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) process can be used for water purification or the desalination of salt water. The process simply consists of a flat sheet hydrophobic micro porous PTFE membrane and diaphragm vacuum pump without a condenser for the water recovery or trap. The feed was used aqueous NaCl solution. The VMD experiments were performed to evaluate the heat and mass transfer coefficient of the boundary layer in a membrane module. The only operating parameters are feed inlet temperature, and feed flow rate were investigated. The permeate flux was strongly affected by the feed inlet temperature, feed flow rate, and boundary layer heat transfer coefficient. Since lowering the temperature polarization coefficient is essential enhance the process performance considerable and maximizing the heat transfer coefficient for maximizes the mass flux of distillate water. In this paper, the results of VMD experiments are used to measure the boundary layer heat transfer coefficient, and the experimental results are used to reevaluate the empirical constants in the Dittus- Boelter equation.

Modeling the Fischer-Tropsch Reaction In a Slurry Bubble Column Reactor

Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is one of the most important catalytic reactions that convert the synthetic gas to light and heavy hydrocarbons. One of the main issues is selecting the type of reactor. The slurry bubble reactor is suitable choice for Fischer- Tropsch synthesis because of its good qualification to transfer heat and mass, high durability of catalyst, low cost maintenance and repair. The more common catalysts for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis are Iron-based and Cobalt-based catalysts, the advantage of these catalysts on each other depends on which type of hydrocarbons we desire to produce. In this study, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis is modeled with Iron and Cobalt catalysts in a slurry bubble reactor considering mass and momentum balance and the hydrodynamic relations effect on the reactor behavior. Profiles of reactant conversion and reactant concentration in gas and liquid phases were determined as the functions of residence time in the reactor. The effects of temperature, pressure, liquid velocity, reactor diameter, catalyst diameter, gasliquid and liquid-solid mass transfer coefficients and kinetic coefficients on the reactant conversion have been studied. With 5% increase of liquid velocity (with Iron catalyst), H2 conversions increase about 6% and CO conversion increase about 4%, With 8% increase of liquid velocity (with Cobalt catalyst), H2 conversions increase about 26% and CO conversion increase about 4%. With 20% increase of gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient (with Iron catalyst), H2 conversions increase about 12% and CO conversion increase about 10% and with Cobalt catalyst H2 conversions increase about 10% and CO conversion increase about 6%. Results show that the process is sensitive to gas-liquid mass transfer coefficient and optimum condition operation occurs in maximum possible liquid velocity. This velocity must be more than minimum fluidization velocity and less than terminal velocity in such a way that avoid catalysts particles from leaving the fluidized bed.

Experiments and Modeling of Ion Exchange Resins for Nuclear Power Plants

Resins are used in nuclear power plants for water ultrapurification. Two approaches are considered in this work: column experiments and simulations. A software called OPTIPUR was developed, tested and used. The approach simulates the onedimensional reactive transport in porous medium with convectivedispersive transport between particles and diffusive transport within the boundary layer around the particles. The transfer limitation in the boundary layer is characterized by the mass transfer coefficient (MTC). The influences on MTC were measured experimentally. The variation of the inlet concentration does not influence the MTC; on the contrary of the Darcy velocity which influences. This is consistent with results obtained using the correlation of Dwivedi&Upadhyay. With the MTC, knowing the number of exchange site and the relative affinity, OPTIPUR can simulate the column outlet concentration versus time. Then, the duration of use of resins can be predicted in conditions of a binary exchange.

A New Correlation for Overall Sherwood Number in Packed Liquid-Liquid Extraction Column

Using plug flow model in conjunction with experimental solute concentration profiles, overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient based on continuous phase (Koca), in a packed liquid-liquid extraction column has been optimized. Number of 12 experiments has been done using standard system of water/acid acetic/toluene in a 6 cm diameter, 120 cm height column. Thorough consideration of influencing parameters we intended to correlate dimensionless parameters in term of overall Sherwood number which has an acceptable average error of about 15.8%.

Equilibrium and Rate Based Simulation of MTBE Reactive Distillation Column

Equilibrium and rate based models have been applied in the simulation of methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) synthesis through reactive distillation. Temperature and composition profiles were compared for both the models and found that both the profiles trends, though qualitatively similar are significantly different quantitatively. In the rate based method (RBM), multicomponent mass transfer coefficients have been incorporated to describe interphase mass transfer. MTBE mole fraction in the bottom stream is found to be 0.9914 in the Equilibrium Model (EQM) and only 0.9904 for RBM when the same column configuration was preserved. The individual tray efficiencies were incorporated in the EQM and simulations were carried out. Dynamic simulation have been also carried out for the two column configurations and compared.

The Effect of Vibration on the Absorption of CO2 with Chemical Reaction in Aqueous Solution of Calcium Hydroxide

An interesting method to produce calcium carbonate is based in a gas-liquid reaction between carbon dioxide and aqueous solutions of calcium hydroxide. The design parameters for gas-liquid phase are flow regime, individual mass transfer, gas-liquid specific interfacial area. Most studies on gas-liquid phase were devoted to the experimental determination of some of these parameters, and more specifically, of the mass transfer coefficient, kLa which depends fundamentally on the superficial gas velocity and on the physical properties of absorption phase. The principle investigation was directed to study the effect of the vibration on the mass transfer coefficient kLa in gas-liquid phase during absorption of CO2 in the in aqueous solution of calcium hydroxide. The vibration with a higher frequency increase the mass transfer coefficient kLa, but vibration with lower frequency didn-t improve it, the mass transfer coefficient kLa increase with increase the superficial gas velocity.