Heat Transfer, Combustion Commons^™

Development Of A Process For Thermal And Mechanical Modelling Of Screw-Driven Pellets Extrusion, Kaixiang Shi

Master’s Theses

The overall goal of the thesis project is to develop a process for thermal and mechanical modelling of the screw-driven pellets extrusion process, and applying the model results to design extruder temperature and flow rate controllers.

The proposed extruder is designed for metal 3D printing. The device demonstrates great potential in tackling some of the major issues faced by the metal additive manufacturing community. It eliminates the use of metal powder for workplace and workers safety. It is able to produce end-use parts with industrial grade mechanical and microstructural properties. It utilizes low cost metal-loaded polymer pellets as feedstock. However, …

Electrification Of Domestic Hot Water To Aid The Integration Of Renewable Energy In The California Grid, Alejandro Cervantes

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Water heating in residential buildings, also known as domestic hot water (DHW), is the third largest use of energy after appliances and space conditioning. About 90% of the residential buildings in the state use natural gas fueled water heaters, 6% use electricity, and a small percent use liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) or solar water heaters. The current energy use associated with residential water heating is small relative to the total amount of energy consumption in the residential building sector, but it is still a contributor of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Improving hot water systems can be beneficial for bill customer …

Energetic And Exergetic Analysis Of A Heat Pipe Evacuated Tube Solar Collector Using Mwcnt/Water Nanofluid, Mahmoud Eltaweel, Ahmed A. Abdel-Rehim

Mechanical Engineering

Increasing the energy demand and the limited availability of conventional energy sources are the main challenges to secure the human future. Solar energy is an attractive source of energy to ensure the sustainability of energy in this world for now and for the future. Evacuated tube solar collector is a solar thermal collector mostly used for domestic applications. The replacement of the working fluid with nanofluid can enhance the heat transfer even for low temperature applications. The effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and water nanofluid as working fluid in evacuated tube solar collector is used to experimentally investigate the energy …

Design, Build, And Analysis Of A Compressed Natural Gas Direct Injection Compression Ignition Single Cylinder Research Engine, Tyler Miller

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Both experimental and simulation efforts have been employed to further advance the design and build of a single cylinder research engine. The engine will aid in advancing technology and understanding the operation of compression-ignition (CI) engines using natural gas within the heavy-duty engine industry. The basis for the engine is a Cummins 15L ISX engine that has been modified, retrofitted, and instrumented to allow for late-cycle direct-injection of high-pressure compressed natural gas. Along with the engine build, a one-dimensional GT-Power simulation model has been created and used to analyze the engine operation and specify components including the engine compression ratio …

Numerical Investigation Of Spray Characterization Of Heater-Gdi System, Ashwin Karthik Purushothaman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Gasoline engines require fuel enrichment at low temperature cranking (cold start) conditions for efficient engine operation. Since the amount of fuel injected is high at cold start to compensate low fuel evaporation, fuel sprays tend to impinge on the cold surfaces of the piston and cylinder walls leading to the formation of excessive unburned hydrocarbons. One of the ways to ensure reliable cold start performance and to reduce UHC emissions is to have the fuel subjected to preheating. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of fuel preheating on Gasoline Direct Injection sprays to improve the mixture …

Jominy Hardenability Tester With In-Situ Heating, Luke Allen

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project centers on building a Jominy Hardenability tester with In-Situ heating for the manufacturing lab at the University of Akron. A new process and setup will be designed using engineering concepts in order to make the testing more efficient and safer for the teaching and testing of metal hardness. The current Jominy testing setup has efficiency issues within the transfer of specimen from induction heater to testing rig. Our design will simplify the design by creating a test rig that removes the traveling aspect of the specimen which will limit the amount of premature cooling done and will be …

Zips Electric - Cooling System, Guan-Bok Kwok

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

I am working with Zips Electric Racing to design a new cooling system for the ZER-20 car. The new cooling system will be more efficient and effective than the current design. We will investigate lighter materials with better thermal conductivity. Flow rate will also be optimized to meet the system’s needs. Also calculations and testing will be completed to determine if a fan is necessary. To adapt to the new proposed chassis, it is likely that the radiator must be mounted outside of the frame. If this is necessary, we will also design composite side pods to conceal and direct …

Rocket Motor Nozzle, Corey Hillegass

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For this honors research and senior design project, the authors will research, analyze, and manufacture a rocket motor nozzle for the Akronauts rocket design team. This research and design project will improve how the rocket design team will decide and manufacture nozzles going forward. The impact of this improvement allows the rocket design team to take steps toward being self-sustaining by manufacturing student designed parts as opposed to commercially bought parts. This will not only be successful in increasing student impact on future designs, but also provides a technical challenge for the authors and will present as an impressive feat …

Zips Precious Plastics: Plastic Extruder, Patrick Cole

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project's goal was to design and build an affordable desktop filament extruder that can precisely and consistently extrude filament to a certain tolerance acceptable for 3D printers using wasted printing material. The group is partnering with an on campus organization focusing on engineering applications for sustainable futures. Zips Precious Plastics is a student run design group that intends to bring an innovation space on campus to help educate students about the importance of a closed looped system within plastic manufacturing.

Non-Linear Non-Iterative Transient Inverse Conjugate Heat Transfer Method Applied To Microelectronics, David Gonzalez Cuadrado, Amy Marconnet, Guillermo Paniagua

CTRC Research Publications

Solving for temperature profiles given boundary conditions, geometry, and material properties is rela- tively straightforward given the wealth of analytical and computational techniques available. However, experimentally we often measure temperatures and seek to understand unknown boundary conditions or material properties. This problem is generally ill-posed. Thus, to get the value of these input param- eters, we use inverse methods: knowing the output of the system ( i.e. , temperature), we can compute the value of the unknown parameters ( e.g. , thermal conductivity or heat fluxes). In microelectronics, the location and magnitude of the boundary conditions including local heat generation …

Internet Of Things In Sustainable Energy Systems, Abdul Salam

Faculty Publications

Our planet has abundant renewable and conventional energy resources but technological capability and capacity gaps coupled with water-energy needs limit the benefits of these resources to citizens. Through IoT technology solutions and state-of-the-art IoT sensing and communications approaches, the sustainable energy-related research and innovation can bring a revolution in this area. Moreover, by the leveraging current infrastructure, including renewable energy technologies, microgrids, and power-to-gas (P2G) hydrogen systems, the Internet of Things in sustainable energy systems can address challenges in energy security to the community, with a minimal trade-off to environment and culture. In this chapter, the IoT in sustainable energy …

Identification Of Heat Release Shapes And Combustion Control Of An Ltc Engine, Radhika Sitaraman

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Low Temperature Combustion (LTC) regimes have gained attention in internal combustion engines since they deliver low nitrogen oxides (NOx) and soot emissions with higher thermal efficiency and better combustion efficiency, compared to conventional combustion regimes. However, the operating region of these high-efficiency combustion regimes is limited as it is prone to knocking and high in-cylinder pressure rise rate outside the engine safe zone. By allowing multi-regime operation, high-efficiency region of the engine is extended. To control these complex engines, understanding and identification of heat release rate shapes is essential. Experimental data collected from a 2 liter 4 cylinder LTC engine …

Efficient Enhancement Of Micro-Nucleation Rates In Flow-Boiling - By Concurrent Micro-Structuring Of The Boiling-Surface And Its Judicious Energization By Piezoelectric-Transducer Induced Acoustic Vibrations., Atharva Rahane

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The report describes the science and technology backgrounds and uses for the technology breakthrough reported for enhanced flow-boiling based cooling of high-power density electronics (chips, memory etc.). A controlled but explosive growth in micro-scale nucleation rates during flow-boiling of HFE-7100 (electronics and environment friendly liquid from 3M, Inc) is enabled by the uses of inexpensive meshed-copper for micro-structuring of the boiling surface and a pair of Piezoelectric-transducers for active imposition of suitable acoustic vibrations. The pair of piezo transducers mounted just outside the mini-channel impose “in plane” acoustic vibrations of controllable amplitudes and frequencies, and they are used to induce …

Detailed Study Of Flow And Surface Heat Transfer Enhancement Mechanism In The Presence Of Dimples And/Or Protrusions, Gaurav Gupta

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Recent advancements in material technology have led to the development of non-porous negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) materials (also called auxetic structures) by making spherical inline dimples on both sides of an elastic sheet. Manufacturing technologies such as 3-D printing and additive manufacturing paved the way to realize the complex shapes needed to achieve NPR behavior. These materials are desirable in many engineering applications, especially in the gas turbines hot-gas-path, due to their unique properties. In the current study, an effort is made to understand the flow physics and surface heat transfer mechanism for channel flow having one wall with spherical …

Tip Clearance Effect On Convective Heat Transfer In Micro Scale Pin Fins, Hanieh Tabkhivayghan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Fluid flow and local heat transfer in a microchannel with single and array of pin fins have been studied. For the single pin fin case, a microchannel with a 150-µm diameter pin fin with a tip clearance was experimentally and numerically studied for three Reynolds numbers in laminar regime. Tip clearances of 0, 30, 45 and 100 µm in a 200-µm high microchannel. Experimental and numerical local temperatures and the corresponding Nusselt numbers along the centerline of the pin fin were presented and discussed. Local temperatures were measured on top of the heater surface and downstream the pin fin through …

Towards Large Eddy Simulation Of A Staged, Pressurized Oxy-Fuel Combustor, Alain Islas Montero

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Identified by the DoE among the novel and transformational technologies, staged-pressurized oxy-fuel combustion (SPOC) is a promising low-cost, low-emission, and highly efficient tool for carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS), with pulverized coal burning under elevated pressures and low recycled flue gas. A lab-scale SPOC facility, under establishment at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL), causes the critical need to develop accurate and reliable computational models to assist the ongoing WUSTL experiments. This constitutes the driving motivation of the present work. Specifically, comprehensive three-dimensional Large-eddy simulations (LES) of the lab-scale SPOC reactor, with most of important characteristics of a multi-phase …

Experimental, Computational And Analytical Studies Towards A Predictive Scenario For A Burning Accident, Furkan Kodakoglu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Historically, accidental gas and dust explosions constitute one of the major hazards to both personnel and equipment in the process industries. The current knowledgebase on such explosions does not provide an acceptable level of risk. Therefore, novel preventive mining/fire safety strategies, based on a rigorous predictive scenario for burning accidents, are critically needed. The present dissertation is devoted to such a predictive scenario, with a particular focus on the flame and pressure evolutions in explosions encountered in an enclosure with or without obstructions. The experimental component of this dissertation comprises a series of experiments on explosion venting. Specifically, the influence …

Development Of An Activity-Based Windowing Approach To Evaluate Real-World Nox Emissions From Modern Medium And Heavy-Duty Diesel Trucks, Rasik Pondicherry

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The introduction of in-use emissions regulations by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA) requires medium-duty (MD) and heavy-duty (HD) engine manufacturers to demonstrate emissions compliance during in-fleet operation. In the United States (U.S.), the Not-to-Exceed (NTE) method is used to evaluate real-world emissions compliance from on-highway MD and HD trucks. Regulatory agencies, engine manufacturers and research entities have identified that the NTE method incorporates numerous exclusions and evaluates emissions compliance only under selective operating conditions that are favorable for the selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system to reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emissions efficiently. Such operation is typically encountered only …

Characterizing Premixed Syngas Combustion In Micro-Channels, Sunita Pokharel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Increasing demands in the next-generation portable power-generation devices such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), microsatellite thrusters, micro-chemical reactors and sensors calls for fuels with high specific energy and low emissions to meet the current demand of green energy. Fuel-lean synthesis gas (syngas) meets both these requirements exhibiting a promising route to a clean and green environment. Thus, it is of critical importance to characterize syngas combustion and understand its properties in the micro-combustion industry. In addition to complicated flame dynamics in microscale systems, varying the syngas-fuel mixture composition as well as the boundary conditions and geometry of a combustor significantly …

Fully Compressible Hydrodynamic Simulation Of Non-Equidiffusive Premixed Flames Propagation In Channels, Olatunde A. Abidakun

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Premixed combustion remains of fundamental interest in energy generation and propulsion systems as well as in implementation of safety measures for residential and industrial accidental fire explosions. While the fast pace and complex nature of the combustion process has previously necessitated the analytical and computational studies to employ the simplifying assumption of equidiffusivity, when the Lewis number defined as the thermal-to-mass diffusivities ratio is unity , the ongoing advancements in technology and the requirements for efficiently operating combustors over a wide range of conditions make the combustion process more non-equdiffusive ( ) than ever. The impact of non-equidiffusivity on the …