Experimental validation of a quasi-transient coupling approach for the modeling of heat transfer in autoclave processing

Structural aerospace composite parts are commonly cured through autoclave processing. To optimize the autoclave process, manufacturing process simulations have been increasingly used to investigate the thermal behavior of the cure assembly. Performing such a simulation, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with finite element method (FEM) model can be used to deal with the conjugate heat transfer problem between the airflow and solid regions inside the autoclave. A transient CFD simulation requires intensive computing resources. To avoid a long computing time, a quasi-transient coupling approach is adopted to allow a significant acceleration of the simulation process. This approach has been validated for a simple geometry in a previous study. This paper provides an experimental and numerical study on heat transfer in a medium-sized autoclave for a more complicated loading condition and a composite structure, a curved shell with three stringers, that mocks the fuselage structure of an aircraft. Two lumped mass calorimeters are used for the measurement of the heat transfer coefficients (HTCs) during the predefined curing cycle. Owing to some uncertainty in the inlet flow velocity, a correction parameter and calibration method are proposed to reduce the numerical error. The simulation results are compared to the experimental results, which consist of thermal measurements and temperature distributions of the composite shell, to validate the simulation model. This study shows the capability and potential of the quasi-transient coupling approach for the modeling of heat transfer in autoclave processing with reduced computational cost and high correlation between the experimental and numerical results.

Mass Transfer Characteristics of Haemofiltration Modules—Experiments and Modeling

Reliable mathematical models are important tools for design/optimization of haemo-filtration modules. For a specific module, such a model requires knowledge of fluid- mechanical and mass transfer parameters, which have to be determined through experimental data representative of the usual countercurrent operation. Attempting to determine all these parameters, through measured/external flow-rates and pressures, combined with the inherent inaccuracies of pressure measurements, creates an ill-posed problem (as recently shown). The novel systematic methodology followed herein, demonstrated for Newtonian fluids, involves specially designed experiments, allowing first the independent reliable determination of fluid-mechanical parameters. In this paper, the method is further developed, to determine the complete mass transfer module-characteristics; i.e., the mass transfer problem is modelled/solved, employing the already fully-described flow field. Furthermore, the model is validated using new/detailed experimental data on concentration profiles of a typical solute (urea) in counter-current flow. A single intrinsic-parameter value (i.e., the unknown effective solute-diffusivity in the membrane) satisfactorily fits all data. Significant insights are also obtained regarding the relative contributions of convective and diffusive mass-transfer. This study completes the method for reliable module simulation in Newtonian-liquid flow and provides the basis for extension to plasma/blood haemofiltration, where account should be also taken of oncotic-pressure and membrane-fouling effects.

Optimal Estimation of Thermal Diffusivity in a Thermal Energy Transfer Problem with Heat Generation, Convection Dissipation and Lateral Heat Flow

This work focuses on determining the coefficient of thermal diffusivity in a one-dimensional heat transfer process along a homogeneous and isotropic bar, embedded in a moving fluid with heat generation. A first type (Dirichlet) condition is imposed on one boundary and a third type (Robin) condition is considered at the other one. The parameter is estimated by minimizing the squared errors where noisy observations are numerically simulated at different positions and instants. The results are evaluated by means of the relative errors for different levels of noise. In order to enhance the estimation performance, an optimal design technique is chosen to select the most informative data. Finally, the improvement of the estimate is discussed when an optimal design is used.

Assessment of influence of urban aerosol vertical profile on clear-sky diffuse radiance pattern

Aerosol particles spread in the atmosphere play an important role in solar light scattering and thus co-determine the sky radiance/luminance pattern as well as diffuse irradiances/illuminances at the ground. The particular influence is given by their optical properties and by their distribution in the atmosphere. The dependence of the aerosol extinction coefficient on altitude is usually described by the exponential law, which results from averaging of a large amount of aerosol realizations. This is also frequently the case of simulating of the solar diffuse radiance/luminance distribution over the sky, when it is based on solving the radiative transfer problem. However, the aerosol vertical profile can sometimes be significantly different from the exponential one. Mainly in the urban environment, the aerosol is often well-mixed within the atmospheric boundary layer, so its volume extinction coefficient is almost constant there. This work investigates how such different profiles affect the clear sky radiance pattern and consequently also the ground-based horizontal diffuse irradiance. The numerical simulations reveal that the discrepancies are negligible in practice. So it appears that the aerosol vertical distribution does not play any important role in sky radiance calculations and the standard exponential law is general enough to cover also various specific aerosol conditions.

Radiation heat transfer between human and cryocabin walls

The paper considers the particular case of intensive radiation heat transfer in the system consisting of a human body and cryocabin walls of cryosauna. Calculations for three models have been made, namely, human-vertical wall, which is arranged parallel to a human, human-vertical wall, which is positioned at a certain angle, and a human-cryosauna. Analytical calculations are compared with Ansys-bassed numerical calculations. The impact of radiation heat transfer in this radiation-convective heat transfer problem is estimated. Conclusions are drawn about taking into account the radiation heat transfer and a rational method for calculating this heat transfer problem.

Non-contact heat transfer models identification for laser hyperthermia of semi-transparent materials

The identification of mathematical models of heat transfer traditionally involves the installation of temperature sensors inside the sample under study and registration of the response to external thermal effects. In cases where the use of contact methods for measuring temperature is impossible, it is necessary to develop new approaches to determining the unknown thermophysical and radiation-optical characteristics. Laser hyperthermia of superficial tissues is one such case. The paper proposes a method for identifying a model of one-dimensional unsteady heating of a semitransparent sample using non-contact thermometry. A feature of the physical process under consideration is the possibility of its discretization. Due to this, a two-stage iterative procedure for solving the inverse heat transfer problem was formulated. The implementation of the proposed algorithm using software made it possible to carry out a computational experiment. The results showed the effectiveness of this approach. The presented method can be used in the development of means for monitoring and regulating the laser hyperthermia procedure.

Investigation of the boundary layer zone with an aerodynamic flow around an axisymmetric spindle-shaped body for solving conjugate problems of heat and mass transfer

The article discusses the possibility of calculating the thickness of the boundary layer when flowing around an axisymmetric spindle-shaped body without using empirical similarity coefficients. For this, the use of physical analogy of processes is proposed. The necessary flow conditions are described. The two-dimensional Laplace equation is solved for the near-surface region of the laminar flow around the body, obtained by rotating a curve of a given shape. When solving the problems of conjugate heat transfer, the regularities of the interaction of the flow with the body surface are taken into account, which, as a result, is reduced to the joint solution of the boundary layer equations describing the flow field and the heat conduction equations describing the propagation of temperature fields inside and outside the body. In view of the complexity or impossibility of the analytical solution of such problems, it is customary to resort to numerical methods for solving these equations. Even the numerical solution of the conjugate heat transfer problem is associated with a huge number of calculations, the availability of computing power and significant time costs. Therefore, it is customary to solve such problems in a quasi-stationary approximation, which imposes certain restrictions on the scope of application

CycleStyleGAN-Based Knowledge Transfer for a Machining Digital Twin

Digitalisation of manufacturing is a crucial component of the Industry 4.0 transformation. The digital twin is an important tool for enabling real-time digital access to precise information about physical systems and for supporting process optimisation via the translation of the associated big data into actionable insights. Although a variety of frameworks and conceptual models addressing the requirements and advantages of digital twins has been suggested in the academic literature, their implementation has received less attention. The work presented in this paper aims to make a proposition that considers the novel challenges introduced for data analysis in the presence of heterogeneous and dynamic cyber-physical systems in Industry 4.0. The proposed approach defines a digital twin simulation tool that captures the dynamics of a machining vibration signal from a source model and adapts them to a given target environment. This constitutes a flexible approach to knowledge extraction from the existing manufacturing simulation models, as information from both physics-based and data-driven solutions can be elicited this way. Therefore, an opportunity to reuse the costly established systems is made available to the manufacturing businesses, and the paper presents a process optimisation framework for such use case. The proposed approach is implemented as a domain adaptation algorithm based on the generative adversarial network model. The novel CycleStyleGAN architecture extends the CycleGAN model with a style-based signal encoding. The implemented model is validated in an experimental scenario that aims to replicate a real-world manufacturing knowledge transfer problem. The experiment shows that the transferred information enables the reduction of the required target domain data by one order of magnitude.

Application of Population-Based Techniques to Identification of Diffusive and Convective Parameters in Timber Drying

Timber drying consists of reducing the moisture content up to a level required by the intended application of the wood product. A proper drying operation is essential to reduce time and energy, as well as to prevent defects. Numerical simulation of this class of problems constitutes an important tool available to the process engineer to define the best drying schedule. However, a successful prediction requires knowledge of the wood properties and additional process parameters. This work is inserted within this framework and aims at discussing strategies do determine material and process parameters using inverse problem techniques. The timber drying process accounts for the fully coupled solution of the heat and mass (moisture) transfer problem, whereas the inverse problem is solved within the time domain based on population-based optimization techniques.

Solving bio-heat transfer multi-layer equation using Green’s Functions method

An analytical method using Green’s Functions for obtaining solutions in bio-heat transfer problems, modeled by Pennes’ Equation, is presented. Mathematical background on how treating Pennes’ equation and its μ2T term is shown, and two contributions to the classical numbering system in heat conduction are proposed: inclusion of terms to specify the presence of the fin term, μ2T, and identify the biological heat transfer problem. The presentation of the solution is made for a general multi-layer domain, deriving and showing general approaches and Green’s Functions for such n number of layers. Numerical examples are presented to simplify human skin as a two-layer domain: dermis and epidermis, accounting metabolism as a heat source, and blood perfusion only at the dermis. Time-independent summations in the series-solution are written in closed forms, leading to better convergence along the boundaries. Details on obtaining the two-layer solution and its eigenvalues are presented for boundary conditions of prescribed temperature inside the body and convection at the surface, such as its intrinsic verification.