Finite Element Analysis of Elastomeric Push Fit Spigot and Socket Steel Pipe Joint

Pipe is the most important medium, which supplied water from one place to another. For places, which are far from the reservoir, the pipes must be joined in order to get water supply. A good pipe joint technique or method can reduce the non -revenue water. Spigot and socket push - fit joint is one of the methods, which can be used for this purpose. This technique were mostly used for small diameter pipe but has not been introduced for steel main pipe. With the co-operation from BOON & CHEAH STEEL PIPES SDN.BHD. company, a project has been developed to analyse the ability of the joint for 600mm steel pipes. Finite element method was used to analyse the ability of this joint. Two types of finite element software were used namely, LS-OYNA30 and LUSAS1 3. Both software have different processing system but they have the ability to analyse rubber material. Elastomer, which was used in this' study, used Mooney-Rivlin strain energy equation. There were another two methods involved, theoretical and experimental methods, to support the finite element analysis of the joint. LS-DYNA3D software was used for the 2 dimensional plane stress and axisymmetry elastomer using compression method to determine the pressure distributions at the top and bottom surface of the elastomer. Changes of the elastomer thickness and width (t and h) values have been made for the plane elastomer to identify the suitable pressure distribution, which can withstand the water pressure in the pipe. As for the analysis using LUSAS1 3, the 2 dimensional axisymmetry elastomer was being pushed to determine the pushing force, which can be used for the pipe connection. From the theoretical, experimental and finite element analysis, it has been identified that the maximum pressure value at the top surface of the elastomer is higher than the water pressure in the pipe. The best pressure distribution developed was at t=3 mm and h=0.51mm. For the pushing force analysis, it is identified that to fit the joint, the pushing force must exceed 10 kN. From the result, it is shown that the joint method can be used for large size steel pipe because the pressure value developed was higher than the internal water pressure. For the ease of joining, it has also been identified that the pushing force must be higher than the shear stress produced by the elastomer. Some recommendations has been proposed to get the most benefit of the analysis

Performance of dual lips elastomeric seal for spigot-socket push fit joint using finite element method

Spigot-socket push fit joint leakage analysis for piping system is presented in this paper. A new design of dual lips elastomeric seal characteristics has been investigated in order to prevent leakage from happening. The seal was part of the spigot-socket joining system for steel pipeline used for water distribution. Finite element method was used to analyse the joint performance by employing finite element software, LS-DYNA3D and LUSAS. Money-Rivlin strain energy equation was used to identify the seal permissible working pressure that occurred at the top and bottom surface of the elastomeric seal using squeezing analysis. The result shows various working pressure by changing the seal thickness and width. The highest pressure value for top surface is at 28.5 MN/m2 and 23.8 MN/m2 for bottom surface occurred at 3 mm thickness and 0.5l mm width. These pressure values were higher than the water pressure which valued at 3.1 MN/m2. This is attributed to higher pushing force that must exceed 10 kN to overcome the elastomer shear stress and for the ease of joining

Effect of fuel injection strategies on performance and emissions in HCCI engines: a review

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) technology in internal combustion engines has improved several performance characteristics of engines. For instance, it has improved thermal efficiency and it has lowered the level of engine emissions, too. The application of this technology requires the usage of various blends of fuels, which are popularly injected into the engine using direct injection method at different timings i.e. early direct, late direct, and Single/Split (multiple) injections. This paper reviews the research that has shown that these three types of injection strategies have different impacts on the performance and on the emissions of engines with a particular interest in power output and thermal efficiency, cylinder pressure, heat release, pressure rise, combustion rate, energy consumption, combustion efficiency and brake mean effective pressure. Different researchers have applied varying methods in studying the impacts of these injection strategies, e.g. a method that involved a variation of the injection angles in investigating the rates of emissions at different injection timings. Furthermore, early direct injection timing strategy has proved to be more advantageous if compared to the other two injection timing strategies as it increases ignition delay (ID) thus resulting in the formation of a well-mixed fuel-oxidizer homogeneous mixture. Consequently, the early direct approach is recommended for usage in engines that adopt the HCCI technology

Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition Combustion: Challenges and Proposed Solutions

Engine and car manufacturers are experiencing the demand concerning fuel efficiency and low emissions from both consumers and governments. Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) is an alternative combustion technology that is cleaner and more efficient than the other types of combustion. Although the thermal efficiency and emission of HCCI engine are greater in comparison with traditional engines, HCCI combustion has several main difficulties such as controlling of ignition timing, limited power output, and weak cold-start capability. In this study a literature review on HCCI engine has been performed and HCCI challenges and proposed solutions have been investigated from the point view of Ignition Timing that is the main problem of this engine. HCCI challenges are investigated by many IC engine researchers during the last decade, but practical solutions have not been presented for a fully HCCI engine. Some of the solutions are slow response time and some of them are technically difficult to implement. So it seems that fully HCCI engine needs more investigation to meet its mass-production and the future research and application should be considered as part of an effort to achieve low-temperature combustion in a wide range of operating conditions in an IC engine

Parametric study of automotive composite bumper beams subjected to frontal impacts

The parametric study of automotive composite bumper beam subjected to frontal impact is presented and discussed in this paper. The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of steel and composite material on energy absorption of automotive front bumper beam. The front bumper beams made of e-glass/epoxy composite and carbon epoxy composite are studied and characterized by impact modeling using LS-DYNA V971, according to United States New Car Assessment Program (US-NCAP) frontal impact velocity and based on European Enhanced Vehicle-safety Committee. The most important variable of this structure are- mass, material, and Specific Energy Absorption (SEA). The results are compared with bumper beam made of mild steel. Three types of materials are used in the present study which consists of mild steel as references material, Aluminum AA5182, E-glass/epoxy composite and carbon fiber/epoxy composite with three different fiber configurations. The beams were subjected to impact loading to determine the internal energy and SEA and to reduce mass of the conventional bumper beam. The in-plane failure behaviors of the composites were evaluated by using Tsai Wu failure criterion. The results for the composite materials are compared to that of the reference material to find the best material with highest SEA. LS-DYNA Finite Element Analysis software was used. The results showed that carbon fiber/epoxy composite bumper can reduce the bumper mass and has highest value of SEA followed by glass fiber/epoxy composite

Vibration and acoustic pre-assessment study for free piston engine structure

This paper presents modelling and simulation study of vibration and acoustic for a new free piston engine. The free piston engine is a new engine concept where its piston motion is not restricted by the crankshaft component. The free movement of the piston influenced by forces developed from the fuel combustion process and air compression in the engine. The piston movement has become an issue or a problem which consequently developed vibration to the engine structure because of the unbalance forces. Vibration analysis has been developed using finite element software which is MSC.PATRAN in order to determine the natural frequency and frequency response of the engine structure. Theoretical development of the engine balance motion and frequency response has also been conducted. From the simulation and finite element analysis, the force response pattern of the engine vibration can be determine and compare with its natural frequency. The vibration analysis will then be used as the input data for acoustic analysis of the engine. The acoustic analysis used boundary element method coupled with finite element method to determine the noise level produce by the engine structure. This integration determined the noise - frequency data that affected the engine structure towards the occurrence of engine noise especially when engine is in operation mode

Simulation and control of spray drying using nozzle atomizer spray dryer

Spray drying is a commonly used method of drying a liquid feed through a hot gas. This study aims to obtain the empirical model of the spray drying process of full cream milk using a nozzle atomizer spray dryer, Lab-Plant SD 05 Laboratory Scale Spray Dryer. Inlet air temperature was chosen as the manipulated variable and outlet air temperature was the controlled variable. No disturbance was considered in this process. The model was obtained from empirical model development and it can be represented using first order plus time delay (FOPTD). The empirical dynamic model of the spray drying of full cream milk was simulated using SIMULINK to evaluate the performance and robustness. The PI and PID controllers were applied to implement the control strategies of the process. The effects of parameter uncertainties were investigated. From the observation, the direct synthesis tuning method has been found as a good controller tuning for both controllers in spray drying control system

The mechanism of mangrove tree in wave energy propagation

The role of mangrove trees in reducing the tsunami waves during the tragedy of Andaman tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004, has been credited and these indirectly raise awareness about the role of mangroves forest as a natural breakwater on the beach. This paper will focus on the mangrove trees from Avicennia and Rhizophora species in order to identify the methods of breaking wave energy that has been carried out by the mangrove roots and stems. Analysis of the mangrove roots coordination pattern had been conducted by gathering data at study site located at Kemaman, Terengganu and the data had been plotted in Gambit software for simulation purpose in Fluent Inc software. Hence, the simulation result showed that the ratio of wave height and velocity reduction may vary depending on factors such as the species of the mangrove trees and density of the roots that grow around the tree. Consequently, the study will be examining the waveform that is mitigated by the both species Avicennia and Rhizophora using turbulent flow and experiment will be conducted to validate the data obtained by the simulation

Effects of intake temperature and equivalence ratio on HCCI ignition timing and emissions of a 2-stroke engine

Homogeneous charge compression ignition (HCCI) combustion, when applied to a gasoline engine, offers the potential for a noticeable improvement in fuel economy and dramatic reductions in NOx emissions. In this study, Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) is used coupled with detailed chemical mechanism (38 species and 69 reactions) for simulation of HCCI combustion of iso-octane and transitional flow inside the combustion chamber of a 2-stroke engine. Results show that increasing the overall gas temperature significantly advances the HCCI combustion timing. Concerning the equivalence ratio, by increasing it the ignition timing has been advanced and the maximum cylinder pressure has been increased. When equivalence ratio increases to more than 0.5 , NOx emissions significantly increases and go beyond 1000 [ppm]