No abstract

A computational model capable of simulating heat and mass transfer in conjugate fluid-porous domains is utilized to simulate forced convective drying. The material to be dried is considered as the porous region, which is coupled through interfaces to the surrounding pure fluid region. The computational model solves transport equations for mass and momentum, energy, and moisture in all regions simultaneously. The model includes non-equilibrium heat and moisture transport in the porous region such that the fluid and solid constituents, and the exchanges between them, are captured. The interfacial moisture transfer condition between phases in the porous region, and between the porous and pure fluid regions, is developed to show the level of detail required for modeling. The study considers the drying of apple flesh to validate the developed drying model against available experimental data. The results show accurate prediction of moisture content as a function of drying time for different airflow velocities, and correctly capture the influences of temperature, relative humidity and initial moisture content on the drying rate. Thus, the model is considered viable for taking steps towards implicit dynamic coupling of the constituents in the porous region.

The gas-liquid two-phase slug flow regime phenomenon is commonly encountered in the chemical engineering industry, particularly in oil and gas production transportation pipelines. Slug flow regime normally occurs for a range of pipe inclinations, and gas and liquid flowrates. A pipeline operating in the slug flow regime creates high fluctuations in gas and liquid flowrates at the outlet. Therefore, the monitoring of slugs and the measurement of their characteristics, such as the gas void fraction, are necessary to minimize the disruption of downstream process facilities. In this paper, a correlation between gas void fraction, absolute acoustic emission energy, and slug velocities in a two-phase air/water flow regime was developed using an acoustic emission technique. It is demonstrated that the gas void fraction can be determined by measurement of acoustic emission.

No abstract

No abstract