Failure characteristic and fracture evolution law of overburden of thick coal in fully mechanized sub-level caving mining

In mining process, the height of water flowing fractured zone is important significance to prevent mine of water and gas, in order to further research the failure characteristic of the overlying strata. Taking certain coal mine with 5.82 m mining height as the experimental face, by using the equipment which is sealed two ends by capsules in borehole, affused measurable water between the two capsules and borehole televiewer system, ground penetrating radar, microseismic monitoring system in underground coal mine, the height of water flowing fractured zone of fully-mechanized top caving are monitored, a numerical simulation experiment on the failure process was conducted, a similarity simulation experiment on the cracks evolution was conducted, at the same time, empirical formula of traditional was modified, The results showed that the height of caving and fractured zones were respectively 43.1 and 86.7 m in fully mechanized sub-level caving mining. The data difference of each test method of caving, fractured and water flowing fractured zones were respectively less than 4.5%, 7.1% and 9.0%. The degree of fracture development was low before mining, the number of fissures was obviously increased after mining, the degree of fracture development increased. The fractures cluster region mainly focuses near the coal wall. The fractures density distribution curves of overlying strata like sanke-shapes. The new and adapt to certain coal mine geological conditions empirical formula of water flowing fractured zone height is proposed

Influence of parameters on flame expansion in a high-speed flow : experimental and numerical study

Flameholder-stabilized flames are conventional and also commonly used in propulsion and various power generation fields to maintain combustion process. The characteristics of flame expansion were obtained with various blockage ratios, which were observed to be highly sensitive to inlet conditions such as temperatures and velocities. Experiments and simulations combined methodology was performed; also the approach adopted on image processing was calculated automatically through a program written in MATLAB. It was found that the change of flame expansion angle indicated increasing fuel supply could contribute to the growth of flame expansion angle in lean premixed combustion. Besides, the influence of inlet velocity on flame expansion angle varies with different blockage ratios, i.e. under a small blockage ratio (BR ¼ 0.1), flame expansion angle declined with the increase of velocity; however, under a larger blockage ratio (BR ¼ 0.2 or 0.3), flame expansion angle increased firstly and then decreased with the increasing velocity. Likewise, flame expansion angle increased firstly and then decreased with the increasing temperature under BR ¼ 0.2/0.3. In addition, flame expansion angle was almost the same for BR ¼ 0.2 and BR ¼ 0.3 at a higher temperature (900 K), and both of which were bigger than BR ¼ 0.1. Overall, BR ¼ 0.2 is the best for increasing flame expansion angle and reducing total pressure loss. The influence of velocity and temperature on flame expansion angle found from this research are vital for engineering practice and for developing a further image processing method to measure flame boundary

Selective Catalytic Hydrogenation in a Structured Compact Multifunctional Reactor

Selective hydrogenation is an important class of chemical reactions for the production of speciality chemicals, pharmaceuticals and petrochemicals. The challenges in this type of reactions are to control selectivity in hydrogenation of poly-functional molecules, and avoid the possible risk of reaction runaway due to the high exothermisity. In this project the fundamentals of liquid-phase hydrogenation reactions in a structured compact multifunctional reactor were investigated. This technology represents an advance over the existing hydrogenation technologies because it exploits the effects of reduced characteristic paths of mass and heat transfer, attained in compact reactor architecture with mm-scale reaction channels and integrated static mixers and micro-heat exchangers. Catalysts based on mesoporous synthetic carbons were developed especially for preparing micro-packed beds in the compact reactor. The investigation resulted in fundamental information on reactor performance for selected model reactions, heat transfer efficiency of the integrated micro-heat exchangers, development of continuous tandem reaction, and evaluation of developed catalysts for hydrogenation and hydrodehalogenation reactions under the continuous flow conditions being used. The results demonstrate that the structured compact multifunctional reactor might be a promising technology to transfer conventional heterogeneous catalysis to flow regime.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Uniformity of Supply Air in the Plenum for Under-Floor Air Distribution Ventilation in a Circular Conference Room: A CFD Study

Underfloor air distribution (UFAD) systems are increasingly used for their advantages in improving energy savings, indoor air quality, and thermal comfort. In UFAD systems, an underfloor plenum delivers conditioned air to the air supply diffusers. The distribution of internal air velocity and static pressure in plenums determines the uniformity of the airflow to the occupied zones. As a result, the plenum has a detrimental effect on the characteristics of the supply air and, thus, the resulting indoor air quality and thermal comfort. Nevertheless, most existing studies on underfloor plenums focused on small-scale plenums with a single internal air duct. Large plenums and multiple air ducts in UFAD equipped in large premises are underexplored. In this study, a circular underfloor plenum with a large scale (radius of 15 m, height difference of 0.9−2.9 m) and 503 under-seat diffusers in a conference room was studied using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation (ANSYS Fluent (16.0)). The distributions of airflow velocity and static pressure inside the plenum were analyzed and compared to one concentrated air supply mode and three uniform air supply modes. Based on the air velocity at the center of under-seat diffusers, the outgoing airflow uniformity from the diffusers under four cases was evaluated by the index of air velocity uniformity. The results showed that the multiple supply ducts with bottom air outlets yielded the best uniformity of supply air. The findings of this paper are expected to provide a technical basis for realizing the optimal design of the UFAD system in terms of uniformity of supply airpublishedVersio

Residual Stress Analyses in a Pipe Welding Simulation: 3D Pipe Versus Axi-symmetric Models

AbstractThis paper numerically studied the residual stress in a butt-welded steel pipe. A comparison of 3D pipe and axi-symmetric finite element model under the condition of same welding simulation parameters was carried out. The results showed that axi- symmetric model share similar residual stress distribution with 3D model in the condition of same heat source shape parameters. However, the stress values of the two concerned models were quite different. Meanwhile the scale of welding pool for 3D model was almost twice bigger than that of axi-symmetric model. Both welding experiment and simulation results of 3D model showed that peak temperature of welding pool along the welding path increased during the welding process, and welding pool width and depth also increased with the moving of heat source

Structured ZSM-5/SiC foam catalysts for bio-oils upgrading

ZSM-5 zeolite coating supported on SiC foams was prepared by a precursor dispersion-secondary growth method and the resulting structured ZSM-5/SiC foam catalyst was used for the proof-of-concept study of catalytic bio-oils upgrading (i.e. deoxygenation of the model compounds of methanol and anisole) in reference to ZSM-5 catalyst pellets. A layer of ZSM-5 coating with inter-crystal porosity on SiC foams was produced by curing the zeolite precursor thermally at 80 °C. The use of SiC foam as the zeolite support significantly improved transport phenomena compared to the packed-bed using ZSM-5 pellets, explaining the comparatively good catalytic performance achieved by the structured ZSM-5/SiC foam catalyst. In comparison with the ZSM-5 pellets, the ZSM-5/SiC foam catalyst showed 100.0% methanol conversion (at the weight hourly space velocity, WHSV, of 8 h–1) and 100.0% anisole conversion (at WHSV =5 h−1) at the initial stage of the processes, while only about 3% were obtained for the ZSM-5 pellets, under the same conditions. Based on the comparative analysis of the characterisation data on the fresh and spent catalysts, the deactivation mechanisms of the ZSM-5/SiC and the ZSM-5 pellet catalysts were explained. The process intensification using SiC foam to support ZSM-5 improved the global gas-to-solid mass transfer notably, and hence mitigating the pore blocking due to the carbon deposition on the external surface of supported ZSM-5

Flameless combustion with liquid fuel: A review focusing on fundamentals and gas turbine application

Flameless combustion has been developed to reduce emissions whilst retaining thermal efficiencies in combustion systems. It is characterized with its distinguished features, such as suppressed pollutant emission, homogeneous temperature distribution, reduced noise and thermal stress for burners and less restriction on fuels (since no flame stability is required). Recent research has shown the potential of flameless combustion in the power generation industry such as gas turbines. In spite of its potential, this technology needs further research and development to improve its versatility in using liquid fuels as a source of energy. In this review, progress toward application of the flameless technique is presented with emphasis on gas turbines. A systematic analysis of the state-of-the-art and the major technical and physical challenges in operating gas turbines with liquid fuels in a flameless combustion mode is presented. Combustion characteristics of flameless combustion are explained along with a thorough review of modelling and simulation of the liquid fuel fed flameless combustion. A special focus is given to the relevant research on applications to the inner turbine burners. The paper is concluded by highlighting recent findings and pointing out several further research directions to improve the flameless combustion application in gas turbines, including in-depth flow and combustion mechanisms, advanced modelling, developed experimental technology and comprehensive design methods aiming at gas turbine flameless combustors

Development of novel AMP-based absorbents for efficient CO2 capture with low energy consumption through modifying the electrostatic potential

The global deployment of aqueous amine absorbents for carbon dioxide (CO2) capture is hindered by their high energy consumption. A potential solution to this challenge lies in the utilization of non-aqueous amine systems, which offer energy-efficient alternatives. However, they are prone to form precipitation during CO2 absorption process, which limits their application. Combining experimental and theoretical studies, we found that the electrostatic potential of carbamate, instead of van der Waals force, is a major factor controlling the precipitation, and hydrogen bonds can effectively reduce the electrostatic potential of carbamate and prevent precipitation. Single solvent screening experiments have also demonstrated that the absorption rate is closely related to the viscosity of the organic solvent and the affinity of the functional group for CO2. The polar solvents (Dimethylformamide (DMF), Dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), and N-Methylformamide (NMF)) exhibit higher absorption rates, but suffer from issues of precipitation. Hydroxyl group riched solvents (Ethylene glycol (EG) and Glycerol) exhibit lower absorption rate, but they don’t have the issue of precipitation. Based on these findings, several novel 2-Amino-2-methyl-1-propanol (AMP)-based non-aqueous absorbents have been developed aiming at reducing the energy penalty, and improving CO2 absorption and desorption performance. Among these absorbents, AMP-EG-DMF (4–3) exhibits maximum CO2 absorption rate and absorption capacity of 9.91 g-CO2/(kg-soln.·min.) and 122 g-CO2/(kg-soln.), respectively, which are 64.1% and 28.4% higher than those of 30 wt% AMP aqueous solution, respectively. Additionally, compared to 30 wt% MEA, the energy consumption of AMP-EG-DMF (4–3) shows 46.30% reduction. The addition of EG effectively improves the electrostatic solubility of AMP-carbamate by increasing the number and strength of hydrogen bonds, thus avoiding the generation of precipitation. The final product species and reaction mechanism were analysed by using 13C and 1H NMR, In-situ ATR-FTIR, and quantum chemical calculation. The combination of theoretical and experimental results indicates that bi-solvent AMP-based absorbents can serve as a promising alternative for low-energy CO2 capture

Review of variable speed drive technology in beam pumping units for energy-saving

Beam pumping units have been widely used in oilfields worldwide due to its simple structure, strong field adaptability, and convenient maintenance. Different energy-saving technologies have also been broadly applied in various beam pumping units. Among these energy-saving methods, the variable speed drive is one of the most acceptable techniques in the oil and gas industry. In this paper, the energy-saving technology of variable speed drives is discussed in detail for beam pumping units pointing out existing difficulties and current research status in kinematics. Three application examples of a variable speed drive in Daqing oilfield, the largest oilfield in China, is shown