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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Multicomponent Working Fluids In Organic Rankine Cycle Evaporators, Jennifer Fromm
Multicomponent Working Fluids In Organic Rankine Cycle Evaporators, Jennifer Fromm
Honors Theses
Organic Rankine cycles are a promising technology to convert waste heat energy into usable mechanical or electric power, giving them the potential to reduce fossil fuel emissions generated by traditional energy generation. The heat exchangers of these devices are of particular interest, as maximizing energy extraction from these free heat sources will increase net electrical power output. For this project I created a model to predict the effects of mixture working fluids on the evaporator performance of an organic Rankine cycle generator for a wide range of waste heat source temperatures. This model combines empirically derived heat exchanger performance parameters …
Gasoline Confined In Nano-Porous Media, Matthew Giso
Gasoline Confined In Nano-Porous Media, Matthew Giso
Honors Theses
The heat of combustion was determined for gasoline confined in nano-porous media of differing pore size by bomb calorimetry. The heat of combustion of the confined fuels was comparable to that of bulk within the experimental uncertainty. This suggests that all of the confined fuel burns without any flame quenching and no chemical interactions at the interface between pore walls and fuel mitigate combustion.
Comparison Of Horizontal Ground Source (Geothermal) Heat Pump Layouts For Optimal Performance And Thermal Efficiency, Elizabeth M. Bocchino
Comparison Of Horizontal Ground Source (Geothermal) Heat Pump Layouts For Optimal Performance And Thermal Efficiency, Elizabeth M. Bocchino
Honors Theses
This study investigates the difference in thermal efficiencies of horizontal ground source heat pump layouts through computer simulation and experimental modeling. The main objective of this project was to determine if the shape of the layout affects the total heat exchange in a horizontal geothermal system. Geothermal energy is power extracted from the Earth and studies have been focused on increasing the efficiency of the heat transfer from the Earth to the system. Steady state and transient thermal analyses were conducted on two horizontal layout shapes, a U-loop and a coil, in ANSYS Fluent. This system was not full size, …