The Venturi tube measures the fluid’s flowrate by use of an obstruction in the flow path. As a tool to understand the fundamental principles of Chemical Engineering, an experimental device for flow measurement integrating a Venturi tube was developed in the course of the Chemical Engineering Projects I from the Federal University of Lavras. The system was constructed with materials of low-cost and easy access. The experimental results for the flow and pressure drop were compared with theorical values and with additional data obtained by the use of a numerical and computational method (CFD). The discharge coefficient was 0.680 ± 0.018 [-], an intermediate value of those found in the literature for orifice plate and flow nozzle meters. The numerical method was successfully able to predict the pressure drop in the system.
In simulations, when using multipartitioned computers, the way in which the mesh is partitioned directly affects the average time per iteration, and therefore, the computational cost. This study proposes an analysis of the average time per iteration of 23 different partition methods available for tridimensional mesh in software FLUENT 19.2. For the calculation of the average iteration time, 100 iterations were used. Generally, the best partitioning methods were those in which the mesh division was made perpendicularly to the axis of the equipment. It was stated the choice of an adequate partitioning method can save high costs of computational power. For the hydrocyclone studied, with a computer with 8 cores, approximately 24.56 hours of simulation were saved, representing almost 20% of the total time.
The drying is fundamental to the preservation of materials, particularly food, which is sensible to damaging related to moisture because of its hygroscopic nature. The drying increases the shelf life of these products and reduces their overall weight, which facilitates the logistics and aggregates value to the product. Computational Fluid Dynamics is a potentially facilitating tool for the analysis of drying variables, such as velocity, air temperature, and particle temperature, which have great influence on the drying rate. This work aimed at studying different numeric models for the simulation of a fixed bed drying operation, analyzing the influence of the equilibrium ratio and water diffusivity in the solid on the results. The computations were made in the software FLUENT 19.2, using the Multiphase Eulerian Granular Model with packed bed configuration and different mass transfer models: Constant, Species-Constant, Species-Sherwood, Ranz-Marshall, and Hughmark, as well as heat transfer models: Constant Heat Transfer Coefficient, Constant Nusselt Number, Ranz-Marshall, and Hughmark. The mass transfer models with the best performance were the Ranz-Marshall and Hughmark models. A strong influence of the equilibrium ratio was observed for both models, and a moderate influence of the water diffusivity. The influence of equilibrium ratio and water diffusivity was not observed for the other models. The heat transfer models did not present expressive difference, and the system reached thermal equilibrium quickly. The overall study of the models and the influence of different parameters was effective, and was able to document the obtained results for future optimization and further investigation of the numeric model.
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