A Proposed Procedure for Identifying the Predominant Heat Transfer Modes Along the Length of Large Nickel Laterite Ore Rotary Kiln: Experimental Validation in an Industrial Process

Nickel is essential in many consumer, industrial, military, transport, aerospace, marine, and architectural products due to its outstanding physical and chemical properties. This work focuses on the calcination and pre-reduction of laterite nickel ore to produce ferronickel. Ferronickel is an alloy containing nickel (about 30% wt.) and iron used for manufacturing stainless steel. Calcination and pre-reduction entail removing chemically bonded water from partially dried ore and removing oxygen from mineral oxides in the calcine. Here we combine a proprietary database with operation data of two rotary kilns and model predictions of Mean Residence Time, shell losses, intraparticle evaporation, and intraparticle temperature distribution. The kilns feature notable differences in length, inclination angle, excess air, but the predicted Mean Residence Times are similar. A fitted profile of experimental solids bed temperature represented particles surface temperature. The model considered slab-like mineral particles with surface-to-center distances of 13, 25, and 38 mm. Results show notable differences in the drying zone length and average surface-to-center temperature differences. Surface-to-center distances higher than 25 mm result in average surface-to-center temperature differences higher than 80°C. The following steps are improvements in the particle model and its coupling with the gas and wall temperature profiles.

Reduction of Fuel Utilization Through Oxygen-Enriched Combustion in a Reheat Furnace Pusher-Type

Steelmaking is an energy-intensive process. Thus, energy efficiency is highly important. Several stages of steelmaking involve combustion processes. One of the most energy-consuming processes in steelmaking is the slab reheating process in a reheat furnace (RF). The energy released by fuel combustion is used to heat steel slabs to their proper hot-rolling temperature. The steel slabs move through the reheat furnace passing the three stages of heating called: Preheating Zone (PZ), Heating Zone (HZ), and Soaking Zone (SZ) to finally leave the discharge door at a rolling temperature of 2375 °F. One way to improve a reheat furnace’s fuel consumption is by implementing oxygen-enriched combustion. This study investigates the implementation of oxygen-enriched combustion in a pusher-type reheat furnace. The increment of oxygen in the combustion process allows for increasing the furnace gas temperature. Consequently, the oxygen enrichment approach allows for the reduction of fuel injection. The principal goal of this investigation is to model the combustion-based on oxygen-enrichment and develop parametric studies of fuel injection rates. The different simulations aim to match the slab heat flux profile of the industrial reheat furnace pusher-type. Computational fluid dynamics are used to generate the slab heat flux distribution. To reach more uniform slab heating, oxygen and fuel ports were alternated. Also, injection angles were modified to optimize slab heating and avoid the impact of hot spots. Thermocouple readings of the industrial reheat furnace are compared to simulation results. The results determined that 40–45% fuel reduction can be achieved.

Sustainable Poultry House Ventilation Using Dew Point Indirect Evaporative Cooler Aided With Radiative Cooling

Maintaining good production quality in layer poultry houses is directly correlated to the thermal environment of the laying hens as well as their breathable air quality. This work compares the performance of two passive cooling systems in meeting the thermal and indoor air quality requirements (CO2, water vapor and NH3) in a layer house in Doha, Qatar characterized by a semi-arid climate. The first system is a standalone cross flow dew point evaporative cooler (DPIEC) supplying air through a localized air distribution system. The second system is a DPIEC aided by a radiative cooling (RC) panel that pre-cools the supply fresh air, in an effort to reduce the system sizing, air and water consumption even further. To achieve these objectives, a modular analysis was adopted, where mathematical models were developed for the DPIEC and RC systems and the poultry house module conditioned by the localized system. A 3D CFD model was developed for the compartment conditioned by the localized system. The DPIEC was sized and the hourly variation in needed supply fresh air and water was determined for the critical month of May, June July of the summer season.

Numerical Thermal Performance Investigation of an Electric Motor Passive Cooling System Employing Phase Change Materials

This study investigates the cooling performance of a passive cooling system for electric motor cooling applications. The metal-based phase change materials are used for cooling the motor and preventing its temperature rise. As compared to oil-based phase change materials, these materials have a higher melting point and thermal conductivity. The flow field and transient heat conduction are simulated using the finite volume method. The accuracy of numerical values obtained from the simulation of the phase change materials is validated. The sensitivity of the numerical results to the number of computational elements and time step value is assessed. The main goal of adopting the phase change material based passive cooling system is to maintain the operational motor temperature in the allowed range for applications with high and repetitive peak power demands such as electric vehicles by using phase change materials in cooling channels twisted around the motor. Moreover, this study investigates the effect of the phase change material container arrangement on the cooling performance of the under study cooling system.

Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Effect of Injection Volume on Biomass Particle Cyclone Venturi Dryer

Cyclone venturi dryer is suitable for drying materials with large particle size and wide distribution. The working process of cyclone venturi dryer is a very complicated three-dimensional and turbulent motion, so it is difficult to be studied theoretically and experimentally. In order to study the internal flow characteristics of the biomass particle cyclone venturi dryer, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software was used to simulate the gas-solid two-phase flow field inside the cyclone venturi dryer. The continuous phase adopts the Realizable k-ε turbulence model and the particle phase is discrete. The effects of different injection volume on the pressure, velocity, and temperature fields inside a cyclone venturi dryer were analyzed. The results showed that the maximum pressure drop and velocity change inside the dryer were at the venturi pipe. The wet material of the cyclone venturi dryer was inhaled into the venturi contraction tube by the negative pressure formed after the highspeed airflow was ejected, thus the mixture was completed in the venturi throat. The wood debris material was mixed with the high-speed hot gas flow in the venturi throat and then sprayed into the diffusion pipe. In the diffusion pipe of venturi, the heat and mass transfer process of wet wood debris and heat flow in venturi diffusion tube was completed. It is in good agreement with the simulation results. This study can provide a reference for the optimization design of the related cyclone venturi dryer structure.

A Numerical Study on the Thermal Control of Lithium Batteries by Composite Phase Change Materials and Metal Foams

This study attempts to control the temperature peaks due to the operation of the battery itself by examining a two-dimensional model to numerically investigate the thermal control of a lithium battery of a commercial electric car. The battery has the dimensions of 8 cm × 31 cm × 67 cm and its capacity is equal to 232 Ah with 5.3 kWh. Thermal control is achieved by means of an internal layer of copper or aluminum foam and phase change material (paraffin), placed on the top of the battery and the external surfaces are cooled by a convective flow. The governing equations, written assuming the local thermal equilibrium for the metal foam, are solved with the finite volume method using the commercial code Ansys-Fluent. Different cases are simulated for different thicknesses of the thermal control system and external convective heat transfer coefficient. The results are given in terms of temperature fields, liquid fraction, surface temperature profiles as a function of time and temperature distributions along the outer surface of the battery for the different cases. In addition, some comparisons with pure PCM are provided to show the advantages of the composite thermal control system with PCM inside the metal foam.

Slip Gas Flow and Heat Transfer in Confined Porous Media With Different Shape Cylinders

With the recent advances in micro devices, an accurate gas flow and heat transfer analysis become more relevant considering the slip effect. A micro-scale, multiple-relaxation-time (MRT) lattice Boltzmann method with double distribution function approach is used to simulate flow and heat transfer through circular- and diamond-shaped cylinders at the porescale level. The velocity slip and temperature jump are captured at the boundaries using a non-equilibrium extrapolation scheme with the counter-extrapolation method. A pore-scale domain of micro-cylinders comprised of circle and diamond shape are studied. It is found that the permeability increases linearly with an increase in Knudsen number for both circular- and diamond-shaped cylinders. However, the permeability increase for circular obstacle is larger than that of the diamond one. A larger surface area for diamond cylinder will offer more resistance to flow, hence resulting in lower values. For heat transfer, the Nusselt number shows an increase with increasing Reynolds number, however, it decreases with the increase in porosity. Nusselt number values are found to be higher for a circular obstacle. A variable boundary gradient for circular obstacle could be a possible explanation for this difference.

Development of a Fast Fluid Dynamics Model Based on PISO Algorithm for Simulating Indoor Airflow

Real-time or faster-than-real-time flow simulation is crucial for studying airflow and heat transfer in buildings, such as building design, building emergency management and building energy performance evaluation. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) with Pressure Implicit with Splitting of Operator (PISO) or Semi-Implicit Method for Pressure Linked Equations (SIMPLE) algorithm is accurate but requires great computational resources. Fast Fluid Dynamics (FFD) can reduce the computational effort but generally lack prediction accuracy due to simplification. This study developed a fast computational method based on FFD in combination with the PISO algorithm. Boussinesq approximation is adopted for simulating buoyancy effect. The proposed solver is tested in a two-dimensional case and a three-dimensional case with experimental data. The predicted results have good agreement with the experimental results. In the two test cases, the proposed solver generates lower Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) compared to the FFD and at the same time, the proposed method reduces computational cost by a factor of 10 and 13 in the two cases compared to CFD.

Use of Machine Learning Tools to Assess Surface Dryout During Nucleate and Transition Boiling on Surfaces With Different Wetting and Substrate Properties

The work reported in this paper explored the use of machine learning tools to analyze quenching pool boiling data in the nucleate boiling range, near maximum heat flux range, and through the transition boiling range towards the Leidenfrost (minimum heat flux) point. It specifically explores the hypothesis that this sequence is a consequence of progressive dryout of the surface as the wall superheat increases. Machine learning tools are used with a heuristic model of the dryout parametric dependence to extract information about the magnitude of surface dryout as the superheat increases. From experimental data, the machine learning analysis provides an indication of how the dryout transition differs for different surface wetting characteristics and substrate materials. The wetting variations considered ranged from moderately wetted plain aluminum and copper surfaces to highly wetted nanostructured superhydrophilic surfaces. The data examined included aluminum and copper substrates. The results of the machine learning analysis indicate that the properties of the surface substrate can have a significant effect on the progressive surface dryout. In contrast, the surface wetting characteristics had a more limited effect for the surfaces tested. The paper concludes with an assessment of the implications of the findings for developing enhanced surfaces for boiling heat transfer performance.

Numerical Research on Heat Transfer Characteristics Analysis of Two Particles in Supercritical Water

In the supercritical water (SCW)-particle two-phase flow of fluidized bed, the particles that make up the particle cluster interact with each other through fluid, and it will affect the flow and heat transfer. However, due to the complex properties of SCW, the research on particle cluster is lacking, especially in terms of heat transfer. This research takes two particles as an example to study the heat transfer characteristics between SCW and another particle when one particle exists. This research uses the distance and angle between the two particles as the influencing factors to study the average heat transfer rate and local heat transfer rate. In this research, it is found that the effect is obvious when L/D = 1.1. When L = 1.1D, the temperature field and the flow field will partially overlap. The overlap of the temperature field will weaken the heat transfer between SCW and the particle. The overlap of the flow field has an enhanced effect on the heat transfer between SCW and the particle. The heat transfer between SCW and particles is simultaneously affected by these two effects, especially local heat transfer rate. In addition, this research also found that as the SCW temperature decreases, the thermal conductivity and specific heat of SCW increases, which enhances the heat transfer between SCW and the particles. This research is of great significance for studying the heat transfer characteristics of SCW-particle two-phase flow in fluidized bed.