Numerical analysis of a cooling of a hot plate by an array of microjets

In this paper heat transfer during impingement of an array of 8×8 microjets on a hot surface was investigated. The influence of a ratio of a distance between a nozzle and hot plate (H/d) and microjet diameter-based Reynolds number (Red) on the temperature and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) on the hot plate were numerically studied. The numerical model which was based on the steady-state compressible Navier-Stokes equations and SST k-ω turbulence model was developed and applied for the analysis. During simulations the ratio of the distance between the nozzle and hot plate to the microjet diameter was H/d = 3.125, 25 and 50, while the microjet diameter-based Reynolds number was equal to Red = 690, 1100 and 1510. The ratio of the microjet pitch to the microjet diameter was s/d = 31.25. It was found that both the H/d ratio and Red significantly influenced flow patterns in the gap between the nozzle and hot plate as well as the temperature and HTC on the surface of the hot plate. With increase of the H/d ratio a more uniform distributions of the plate temperature and HTC were observed, while the rise in the Red intensified heat transfer on the hot plate

Experimental and CFD study of the selected acoustic helicoidal resonator as a final element of an air installation

The work presents an analysis of the selected helicoidal resonator as the end element of the air installation. Laboratory tests of the acoustic pressure level were performed at the outlet of the air installation in a room for different flow speeds. The measurement methodology in accordance to standards PN-EN ISO 3741 and PN-EN ISO 5135, which describes the acoustic test facilities, instrumentation and procedures to be used for precision grade determination of sound power levels in octave or one-third-octave bands of a noise source in reverberation test rooms. The numerical CFD tests show the shape of the air stream in the function of the distance from the installation outlet for different flow speeds. Due to the helicoidal shape of the analyzed acoustic helicoidal resonator, the air stream also turns, which can be used to effectively mix air in the room

CFD modelling and validation of the rotary lobe compressed air expander

The article covers the CFD analysis of the compressed air rotary lobe expander. Compressed air engines are commonly used in the explosion hazard zones, where the others power sources cannot be applied. The lobe construction seems to be cheaper solution in comparison with the classic turbine expanders at the corresponding power level. In the paper the rotary lobe compressed air expander model was developed in the ANSYS CFX software. During implementation of the proposed numerical model the mesh motion problem was solved, which was challenging due to relatively small gaps between lobes and the housing as well as due to high rotary speed of lobes. What is more, the compressible fluid model was applied. Therefore, these conditions make the undertaken problem more complex and calculation more time consuming. Finally, the model was validated applying the catalogue data of the producer. In the paper description of the developed model was presented. Then the results of simulations with their validation were shown which proved the correctness and accuracy of the model. The developed tool might be very useful for the further analysis of the expander including its optimization in terms of improvement of its efficiency or energy gain

In Situ Monitoring of Drying Process of Masonry Walls

The in situ hygro-thermal behavior of a wet masonry wall during its drying process is presented in this paper. The considered wall is a part of a basement of a historic building that was subjected to renovation works. The building is located in the City of Łowicz (Poland). The drying process was implemented by applying the thermo-injection method and a novel prototype of the drying device used for this method. The dedicated acquisition system was developed to in situ monitor parameters of the drying process. The air temperature and relative humidity in various locations in the basement, temperatures and moisture contents at several points of the wet wall as well as the electrical parameters of the drying device were registered. Based on variations of the monitored parameters, the hygro-thermal behavior of the wall during drying was studied. After 6 days of drying, the wall temperature in the drying zone was increased to approximately 40–55 °C, while the moisture content was reduced to the mean level of 3.76% vol. (2.35% wt.). These wall parameters allowed for effective impregnation of the wall with the hydrophobic silicone micro-emulsion, which created horizontal and vertical waterproofing. Moreover, the specific energy consumption during the drying process defined as energy consumption divided by the mean volumetric moisture content drop (MC) between the initial and final state in the wall and by the length of the dried wall section was estimated to be 11.08 kWh/MC%/m

Testing of a new non-equilibrium heat and moisture transfer model in porous building materials

In this paper the new non-equilibrium model of heat and moisture transfer in heterogenous building materials is presented and tested. The new hygro-thermal model differs from the other approaches which are based on the classical assumption of instantaneous local mechanical, thermal and hygric equilibrium between vapour and water in the pores in building materials. Instead of this assumption the model uses the finite rate of transition of moisture from the liquid to the vapour state and vice versa while still keeping mechanical and thermal equilibrium between components of the medium. The linear kinetics of this transition is applied. The assessment of the model correctness is also performed in the paper. In the first step of the testing the model predictions were successfully verified with the reference data obtained numerically. Then the model was validated using reference data obtained experimentally. Finally, the influence of volumetric mass transfer coefficient between vapour and water as well as water and vapour in pores is investigated, i.e., kinetics of the vapour-water/water-vapour transition is analysed. During the model testing traditional building material were considered (i.e., ceramic brick). However, the model may be used for investigation of hygro-thermal behaviour of bio-based materials

Influence of the temperature difference between the heat source and the evaporation temperature in ORC systems working with natural refrigerants

The use of waste heat in many branches of industry is limited due to temperature in the range of 30 to 100°C. One of the methods of using waste heat are devices that implement the Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC). In currently used ORC systems, the heat source temperature is at least 80oC, while the low temperature heat source (usually atmospheric air) has a temperature of 30oC. The work analyzes the influence of the organic fluids properties on the performance of the proposed installation driven by the waste heat and working based on the ORC. The basic operation parameters in nominal conditions were determined for three selected natural refrigerants R290, R600a, R717 and one synthetic R245fa. The condensing temperature 30oC were defined as a nominal value. The research results compare how the generated electric power will change depending on the temperature difference between the temperature of the heat source and the temperature of evaporation. It turns out that for a device with finite dimensions, the maximum power is obtained for a specific evaporation temperature. And this is not the highest temperature that can be achieved. The highest evaporation temperature allows for the highest efficiency of the system, but not the maximum of capacity

Performance of artificial neural networks in an inverse problem of laser beam diagnostics

The presented results are for the numerical verification of a method devised to identify an unknown spatio-temporal distribution of heat flux that occurs at the surface of a thin aluminum plate, as a result of pulsed laser beam excitation. The presented identification of boundary heat flux function is a part of the newly proposed laser beam profiling method and utilizes artificial neural networks trained on temperature distributions generated with the ANSYS Fluent solver. The paper focuses on the selection of the most effective neural network hyperparameters and compares the results of neural network identification with the Levenberg–Marquardt method used earlier and discussed in previous articles. For the levels of noise measured in physical experiments (0.25–0.5 K), the accuracy of the current parameter estimation method is between 5 and 10%. Design changes that may increase its accuracy are thoroughly discussed