A new formulation of oral viscous budesonide in treating of paediatric eosinophilic oesophagitis: a pilot study

OBJECTIVES: Oral viscous budesonide is a recent therapeutic option for eosinophilic oesophagitis (EoE) compared with dietary restriction and inhaled steroids. This single-centre, open-label, not blinded study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of a new, preprepared oral viscous budesonide suspension (PVB) in children and adolescents with EoE. METHODS: We treated 36 children with PVB (29 boys; median age 12 years) with EoE diagnosed according to European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition guidelines. Patients <150 and >150 cm height received 2 and 4 mg PVB daily, respectively, for 12 weeks. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy was performed at baseline, after 12 weeks of therapy and 24 weeks after the end of therapy. Baseline and post-treatment scores were calculated for symptoms, endoscopy, and histology. Serum cortisol was performed at baseline, 12, and 36 weeks. RESULTS: At the end of PVB trial, endoscopy showed macroscopic remission in 32 patients (88.9%), whereas at histology median pre- and post-treatment peak eosinophil count/high power field (HPF) markedly decreased from 42.2 (range: 15-100) to 2.9 (range: 0-30); moreover, mean symptom and histology scores impressively improved compared with baseline (P < 0.01). At 24 weeks after the end of PVB therapy, endoscopy showed oesophageal relapse in 21 patients (58.3%), whereas 15 (41.7%) were still in remission. Seven children (19.4%) with positive multichannel intraluminal impedance-pH were treated also with proton pump inhibitors. No significant difference between pre-/post-treatment morning cortisol levels occurred. CONCLUSIONS: The new PVB suspension presented in the present study is effective and safe for treating children with proven EoE. Larger placebo-controlled clinical trials would provide more information about dosing, efficacy, and long-term safety of this formulation, specifically designed for the oesophagus

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF A VERTICAL HELICAL EARTH-AIR HEAT EXCHANGER

The Earth-Air Heat Exchanger (EAHE) is an equipment that consists of ducts buried in the ground in which the air is forced to pass through. The heat exchange with the surrounding soil turns the air temperature in the outlet section of the EAHE milder. Due to that, the EAHE is capable of assist air conditioning systems and reduce energy consumption, by taking advantage of the temperature gradient established between the soil surface and its layers. In the current study, the operation of Vertical Helical EAHEs was numerically evaluated with different distances between helicoid curves, for the city of Viamão, located in the southern Brazil. The results stated that the Vertical Helical EAHE with dimensions between the curves equivalent to 100 and 200 mm presented the better thermal performances for cooling mode operation in the hottest seasons of the years, when compared to the Conventional Horizontal EAHE adopted as reference. Frim this comparison, the obtained average values of the Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) were, respectively, 0.47 °C and 0.66 °C. At last, it must be highlighted a sevenfold reduction in the soil volume occupied by the installation of the Helical EAHE compared to the Conventional Horizontal EAHE

INVESTIGATION ON THE DISCRETIZATION OF THE REALISTIC IRREGULAR WAVE GENERATION REGION THROUGH THE WAVEMIMO METHODOLOGY

Aiming to contribute to the research related to the sea wave energy conversion, the present paper approaches an investigation of the discretization used in the region of imposition of the prescribed velocity boundary condition, which is necessary for the WaveMIMO methodology. This methodology is employed for the numeric generation of irregular waves based on realistic sea state data. These data (obtained from TOMAWAC software in the present study) are treated to obtain orbital profiles of wave propagation velocity, which are imposed as boundary conditions on the wave channel. In this study, the realistic data considered refers to a point close to the Molhes da Barra, located on the coast of the municipality of Rio Grande, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The numerical simulations were performed in Fluent, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software based on the finite volume method (FVM). The volume of fluid (VOF) multiphase model was used on the treatment of the water-air interface. Free surface elevation data obtained when the region of imposition of the prescribed velocity boundary condition was subdivided into 8, 11 and 14 segments were compared. The results found show that the 14 segments discretization represents more precisely the free surface elevation of irregular waves

GEOMETRIC EVALUATION OF T AND H-SHAPED CAVITIES INSERTED IN A SOLID WITH HEAT GENERATION APPLYING CONSTRUCTAL DESIGN

In this work, the influence of geometry on the behavior of the temperature field in a square plate with T and H-shaped cavities is studied. The ratio between the cavity area and the plate area will be kept constant and its geometry will be varied in order to find the optimum geometry (the one that results in the temperature field with the lowest maximum temperature). The cavity will occupy 10% of the area of the plate and will be varied from the T-shaped configuration to the H-shaped one. According to the Constructal Design principles, the degrees of freedom of the problem and its restrictions will be defined. The height of the initial T was selected as H1, where H1/L1 is one of the degrees of freedom for the problem. The second degree of freedom is the ratio H2/L2, the ratio of height by the width of the first bifurcation, and the other geometric ratio (H3/L3) is the ratio of height by the width of the second bifurcation and is a function of H1. For the simulations, a code based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) was used to solve the energy conservation equation. The results showed that it is possible to minimize the maximum excess temperature by 54.4% when an H-shaped geometry with irregular legs is used compared with the T-shaped cavity. In order to reach the optimum geometry, H1/L1 was reduced by 68.37%, and H2/L2 was increased in 64.71% when compared to the initially proposed T-shaped cavity

COMPUTATIONAL MODELING APPLIED TO THE STUDY OF THERMAL BUCKLING OF COLUMNS

Buckling is an instability phenomenon that can happen in slender structural components when subjected to a compressive axial load. This phenomenon can occur due to an externally applied force, which when exceed a certain limit, called critical load, will promote the mechanical buckling on the structural member. Another buckling possibility happens to statically indeterminate structural elements when submitted to a positive temperature variation. As the axial displacements are restricted, if the temperature gradient is larger than the critical temperature variation, it will be generated a compressive axial load higher than the critical load of the structural component and the thermal buckling will occur. In this context, the present work presents a computational model to solve the thermal buckling problem of columns. A thin shell finite element, called SHELL93, was adopted for the computational domain discretization. It was employed a solution involving homogeneous algebraic equations, where the critical temperature variation is determined by the smallest eigenvalue and the buckled configuration is defined by its associated eigenvector. A case study was performed considering a steel column with three different support conditions at its ends: fixed-fixed, fixed-pinned, and pinned-pinned. The numerical results obtained for the critical temperature variation showed a maximum absolute difference around 2% when compared to the analytical solutions. Moreover, the buckled shape of the column, for each case, was defined in agreement with the configurations found in literature. Therefore, the computational model was verified, i.e., it is able to satisfactorily predict the mechanical behavior of the thermal buckling of columns. So, it is possible to use this numerical model in practical situations that do not have an analytical solution, as is the case of the thermal buckling of columns with cutouts

CONSTRUCTAL DESIGN APPLIED TO INVESTIGATE THE INFLUENCE OF GEOMETRY ON THE MASS FLOW RATE OF AN INCLINED PASSIVE WALL SOLAR CHIMNEY ATTACHED TO A ROOM

The present work aims to analyze the turbulent flow in an inclined passive wall solar chimney attached to a room, evaluating the influence of its geometry on the thermal performance of the building (measured by the mass flow rate in the chimney exit) by means of Constructal Design. The flow is considered turbulent, incompressible, under natural convection heat transfer, transient and in a two-dimensional domain that simulates a solar chimney attached to a room. Time-averaged conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy are numerically solved with the finite volume method using the commercial package FLUENT. For closure modeling of turbulence, it is employed the standard k – ε model. Chimney and room areas are the problem constraints. Moreover, the problem is subjected to three degrees of freedom: the ratio between the inlet opening size and chimney height (Hi/Ha) (which is maintained constant in the present investigations, Hi/Ha = 0.05); ratio between the width of inferior base of the chimney and its height (Wg/Ha); and the ratio between the exit air gap and the inferior base widths of the chimney (We/Wg). The latter two degrees of freedom are varied. Results showed that the degrees of freedom analyzed have a strong influence on the mass flow rate of the air in the building, confirming that the geometrical configuration of solar chimney can be important for the improvement of thermal conditions on the attached building

GEOMETRICAL EVALUATION OF RECTANGULAR FIN MOUNTED IN LATERAL SURFACE OF LID-DRIVEN CAVITY FORCED CONVECTIVE FLOWS

In this work, it is investigated the geometric effect of rectangular fin inserted in a lid-driven square cavity over thermal performance of laminar, incompressible, steady and forced convective flows. This study is performed by applying Constructal Design to maximize the heat transfer between the fin and the cavity flow. For that, the problem is subjected to two constraints: area of the cavity and area of rectangular fin, and two degrees of freedom: height/length ratio of rectangular fin (H1/L1) and its position in upstream surface of the cavity (S/A1/2). It is considered here some fixed parameters, as the ratio between the fin and cavity areas (ϕ = 0.05), the aspect ratio of the cavity dimensions (H/L = 1.0) and Prandtl number (Pr = 0.71). The fin aspect ratio (H1/L1) was varied for three different placements of the fin at the upstream cavity surface (S/A1/2 = 0.1, 0.5 and 0.9) which represents a lower, intermediate and upper positions of the fin. The effects of the fin geometry over the spatial-averaged Nusselt number ( ) is investigated for three different Reynolds numbers (ReH = 10, 102 and 103). The conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy were numerically solved with the Finite Volume Method. Results showed that both degrees of freedom (H1/L1 and S/A1/2) had a strong influence over , mainly for higher magnitudes of Reynolds number. Moreover, the best thermal performance is reached when the fin is placed near the upper surface of the cavity for an intermediate ratio between height and length of rectangular fin, more precisely when (S/A1/2)o = 0.9 and (H1/L1)oo = 2.0

DEVELOPMENT OF A NUMERICAL MODEL FOR THE STUDY OF AN OSCILLATING WATER COLUMN DEVICE CONSIDERING AN IMPULSE TURBINE

The present work brings a numerical study of an energy conversion device which takes energy from the waves through an oscillating water column (OWC), considering an impulse turbine with rotation in the chimney region through the implementation of a movable mesh model. More precisely, a turbulent, transient and incompressible air flow is numerically simulated in a two-dimensional domain, which mimics an OWC device chamber. The objectives are the verification of the numerical model with movable mesh of the impulse turbine in the free domain from the comparison with the literature and, later, the study of the impulse turbine inserted in the geometry of the OWC device. In order to perform the numerical simulation on the generated domains, the Finite Volume Method (FVM) is used to solve the mass and momentum conservation equations. For the closure of the turbulence, the URANS (Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) model k-ω SST is used. To verify the numerical model employed, drag coefficients, lift, torque and power are obtained and compared with studies in the literature. The simulations are performed considering a flow with a Reynolds number of ReD = 867,000, air as the working fluid and a tip speed ratio of λ = 2. For the verification case, coefficients similar to those previously predicted in the literature were obtained. For the case where the OWC device was inserted it was possible to observe an intensification of the field of velocities in the turbine region, which led to an augmentation in the magnitude of all coefficients investigated (drag, lift, torque and power). For the case studied with the tip velocity ratio λ = 2, results indicated that power coefficient was augmented, indicating that the insertion of the turbine in a closed enclosure can benefit the energy conversion in an OWC device

CONSTRUCTAL DESIGN AND SIMULATED ANNEALING EMPLOYED FOR GEOMETRIC OPTIMIZATION OF A Y-SHAPED CAVITY INTRUDED INTO CONDUCTIVE WALL

he problem study here is concerned with the geometrical evaluation of an isothermal Y-shaped cavity intruded into conducting solid wall with internal heat generation. The cavity acts as a sink of the heat generated into the solid. The main purpose here is to minimize the maximal excess of temperature (θmax) in the solid. Constructal Design, which is based on the objective and constraints principle, is employed to evaluate the geometries of Y-shaped cavity. Meanwhile, Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm is employed as optimization method to seek for the best shapes. To validate the SA methodology, the results obtained with SA are compared with those achieved with Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Exaustive Search (ES) in recent studies of literature. The comparison between the optimization methods (SA, GA and ES) showed that Simulated Annealing is highly effective in the search for the optimal shapes of the studied case

CONSTRUCTAL DESIGN APPLIED TO A FINNED CHANNEL UNDER FORCED CONVECTION FLOWS WITH DIFFERENT IMPOSED PRESSURE DROPS

This paper aims to numerically study the heat transfer in a two dimensional finned channel under laminar, incompressible and forced convective flow with adiabatic walls. The main purpose is to maximize the convection heat transfer by changing the fin’s dimensions by means of Constructal Design. Numerical computations are performed for different Bejan numbers ranging from 0.182 up to 18.2. For all simulations the Prandlt number is kept constant, Pr = 0.71. The fluid motion throughout the channel is caused by imposition of pressure difference between inlet/outlet surfaces. Concerning heat transfer, it is caused by the difference of temperature between the inlet stream of fluid and the heated fins placed at the channel surfaces. The first fin is positioned in the lower surface of the channel while the second one is placed in the upper one. The problem is submitted to three constraints, the channel area (H × L), area of two fins and occupancy areas for the fins. It is considered here that both fins have the same fraction area (ratio between the fins and occupancy areas) f = 0.2. The problem is submitted to three degrees of freedom: H/L (ratio between height and length of channel), H3/L3 and H4/L4 which represent the ratio between the height and length of the first and second fin, respectively. Here, the second fin remains unchanged, being its dimensions H4/L4 = 2.0, whereas the first one is free to modify its dimensions, H3/L3. The channel dimensions are also constant. The solutions are sought using the conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy being these ones discretized through the Finite Volume Method (FVM). Results showed the importance of Constructal Design application for thermal improvement of the problem. Thermal efficiency differences of 5 times where achieved when comparing the best and worst cases. Other important observation is concerned with the effect of ratio H3/L3 over heat transfer ratio (q) which varied significantly from a case where a pressure drop is imposed in the channel to other case where the driven force is caused by imposition of velocity field at the channel inlet