Case study on user knowledge and design knowledge in product form design

2003-2004 > Academic research: refereed > Publication in refereed journalVersion of RecordPublishe

Large eddy simulation of spray and combustion characteristics with realistic chemistry and high-order numerical scheme under diesel engine-like conditions

The accuracy of large eddy simulation (LES) for turbulent combustion depends on suitably implemented numerical schemes and chemical mechanisms. In the original KIVA3V code, finite difference schemes such as QSOU (Quasi-second-order upwind) and PDC (Partial Donor Cell Differencing) cannot achieve good results or even computational stability when using coarse grids due to large numerical diffusion. In this paper, the MUSCL (Monotone Upstream-centered Schemes for Conservation Laws) differencing scheme is implemented into KIVA3V-LES code to calculate the convective term. In the meantime, Lu’s n-heptane reduced 58-species mechanisms (Lu, 2011) is used to calculate chemistry with a parallel algorithm. Finally, improved models for spray injection are also employed. With these improvements, the KIVA3V-LES code is renamed as KIVALES-CP (Chemistry with Parallel algorithm) in this study. The resulting code was used to study the gas–liquid two phase jet and combustion under various diesel engine-like conditions in a constant volume vessel. The results show that using the MUSCL scheme can accurately capture the spray shape and fuel vapor penetration using even a coarse grid, in comparison with the Sandia experimental data. Similarly good results are obtained for three single-component fuels, i-Octane (C8H18), n-Dodecanese (C12H26), and n-Hexadecane (C16H34) with very different physical properties. Meanwhile the improved methodology is able to accurately predict ignition delay and flame lift-off length (LOL) under different oxygen concentrations from 10% to 21% with ambient density increasing from 14.8 kg/m3 to 30.0 kg/m3 and ambient temperatures from 850 K to 1300 K in a constant volume combustion chamber. With increasing oxygen concentration, the ignition delay time and consequently the flame LOL decrease, as the flame moves upstream as expected. On the other hand, reduction in the ambient temperature from 1000 K to 900 K retards the auto-ignition time and moves the burning location downstream under different oxygen concentrations

Peacock Bundles: Bundle Coloring for Graphs with Globality-Locality Trade-off

Bundling of graph edges (node-to-node connections) is a common technique to enhance visibility of overall trends in the edge structure of a large graph layout, and a large variety of bundling algorithms have been proposed. However, with strong bundling, it becomes hard to identify origins and destinations of individual edges. We propose a solution: we optimize edge coloring to differentiate bundled edges. We quantify strength of bundling in a flexible pairwise fashion between edges, and among bundled edges, we quantify how dissimilar their colors should be by dissimilarity of their origins and destinations. We solve the resulting nonlinear optimization, which is also interpretable as a novel dimensionality reduction task. In large graphs the necessary compromise is whether to differentiate colors sharply between locally occurring strongly bundled edges ("local bundles"), or also between the weakly bundled edges occurring globally over the graph ("global bundles"); we allow a user-set global-local tradeoff. We call the technique "peacock bundles". Experiments show the coloring clearly enhances comprehensibility of graph layouts with edge bundling.Comment: Appears in the Proceedings of the 24th International Symposium on Graph Drawing and Network Visualization (GD 2016

An anaerobic membrane bioreactor – membrane distillation hybrid system for energy recovery and water reuse: Removal performance of organic carbon, nutrients, and trace organic contaminants

© 2018 In this study, a direct contact membrane distillation (MD) unit was integrated with an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) to simultaneously recover energy and produce high quality water for reuse from wastewater. Results show that AnMBR could produce 0.3–0.5 L/g CODadded biogas with a stable methane content of approximately 65%. By integrating MD with AnMBR, bulk organic matter and phosphate were almost completely removed. The removal of the 26 selected trace organic contaminants by AnMBR was compound specific, but the MD process could complement AnMBR removal, leading to an overall efficiency from 76% to complete removal by the integrated system. The results also show that, due to complete retention, organic matter (such as humic-like and protein-like substances) and inorganic salts accumulated in the MD feed solution and therefore resulted in significant fouling of the MD unit. As a result, the water flux of the MD process decreased continuously. Nevertheless, membrane pore wetting was not observed throughout the operation

A novel process for preparing PZT thick films

2000-2001 > Academic research: refereed > Refereed conference paperVersion of RecordPublishe

Effects of sulphur on the performance of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor: Biological stability, trace organic contaminant removal, and membrane fouling

© 2017 This study investigated the impact of sulphur content on the performance of an anaerobic membrane bioreactor (AnMBR) with an emphasis on the biological stability, contaminant removal, and membrane fouling. Removal of 38 trace organic contaminants (TrOCs) that are ubiquitously present in municipal wastewater by AnMBR was evaluated. Results show that basic biological performance of AnMBR regarding biomass growth and the removal of chemical oxygen demand (COD) was not affected by sulphur addition when the influent COD/SO42− ratio was maintained higher than 10. Nevertheless, the content of hydrogen sulphate in the produced biogas increased significantly and membrane fouling was exacerbated with sulphur addition. Moreover, the increase in sulphur content considerably affected the removal of some hydrophilic TrOCs and their residuals in the sludge phase during AnMBR operation. By contrast, no significant impact on the removal of hydrophobic TrOCs was noted with sulphur addition to AnMBR

Liquid fuel evaporation under supercritical conditions

Molecular dynamics simulations are performed to study the supercritical mixing process of the n-dodecane/nitrogen binary system. Previous studies have shown the existence of supercritical phenomenon under certain conditions in modern propulsion systems such as diesel engines. However, the physical mechanisms and internal driving forces of this phenomenon are still not well understood. In this paper, we attempt to answer this question through simulating the diffusion and evaporation of gaseous nitrogen and liquid phase n-dodecane. It addresses under what conditions the supercritical transition phenomenon happens and what features the supercritical evaporation process have. A unique configuration is constructed to mimic the evaporation of an n-dodecane thin film in an open nitrogen environment under conditions ranging from subcritical to supercritical. The detailed structure of the liquid-vapor interface during the evaporating process is described and the evaporation rate and the interface thickness are estimated, which show differences between subcritical and supercritical evaporation. Results indicate that under relatively high pressure conditions, the liquid surface transitions into supercritical state, and the liquid-vapor interface expands significantly with vanishing surface tension, leading to a diffusion like mixing process. It is shown that the supercritical evaporation would happen under conditions that correspond to the in-cylinder conditions of a turbo-charged engine

Molecular Dynamics Simulations of the Evaporation Process of a Fuel Droplet Under Supercritical Environment

The evaporation process of an n-dodecane droplet surrounded by nitrogen ambient under supercritical pressures and sub- to super-critical temperatures is studied by molecular dynamics simulation. Results show that the evaporation process under high pressures depart considerably from the theoretical prediction of D2-law. Both environmental pressure and temperature have significant inuence on the evaporation rate, and elevated pressure can greatly increase the nitrogen solubility in the liquid phase and also the liquid-vapor interface thickness. It is found that under supercritical environmental conditions, the expanded interface may enter the continuum regime, leading to a diffusion dominated mixing process, rather than a conventional evaporation