Drying and firing of ceramic products are processes that require high energy consumption. Making these processes more efficient can improve product quality, reduce processing time and energy consumption, and promote economic and environmental gains. In this sense, this work aims to quantify heat transfer in an intermittent ceramic kiln during the heating and cooling stages, with and without thermal insulation. All mathematical formulation is based on the first law of thermodynamics. From the results, we conclude that the greatest heat loss occurs by radiation in the sidewalls of the equipment, and that a considerable amount of energy is required to heat the sidewalls, base, and ceiling of the kiln. Further, with the use of thermal insulation, it was concluded that a high reduction in the heat lost through the sidewalls was achieved, thus providing a global energy gain of approximately 35% and a reduction in the maximum external surface temperature from 249.34 to 79.47 °C when compared to the kiln without thermal insulation, reducing the risks of work accidents and thermal discomfort when in operation.
Currently, the oil industry deals with the challenge of produced-water proper disposal, and the membrane-separation technology appears as an important tool on the treatment of these waters. In this sense, this work developed a mathematical model for simulating the oil/water separation by a ceramic membrane. The aim was to investigate the thermal aspects of the separation process via computational fluid dynamic, using the Ansys CFX® 15 software (15, Ansys, Inc., Canonsburg, PA, USA). Oil concentration, pressure, and velocity distributions, as well as permeation velocity, are presented and analyzed. It was verified that the mathematical model was capable of accurately representing the studied phenomena and that temperature strongly influences the flow behavior.
The development of thermal energy storage systems is a possible solution in the search for reductions in the difference between the global energy supply and demand. In this context, the ability of some materials, the so-called phase change materials (PCMs), to absorb and release large amounts of energy under specific periods and operating conditions has been verified. The applications of these materials are limited due to their low thermal conductivity, and thus, it is necessary to associate them with high-conductivity materials, such as metals, to make the control of energy absorption and release times possible. Bearing this in mind, this paper presents a numerical analysis of the melting process of a PCM into a triplex tube heat exchanger (TTHX) with finned copper tubes, which allowed for the heat transfer between a heating fluid (water) and the phase change material to power a liquid-desiccant air conditioning system. Through the analysis of the temperature fields, liquid fractions, and velocities, as well as the phase transition, it was possible to describe the material charging process; then, the results were compared with experimental data, which are available in the specialized literature, and presented mean errors of less than 10%. The total required time to completely melt the PCM was about 105.5 min with the water being injected into the TTHX at a flow rate of 8.3 L/min and a temperature of 90 °C. It was observed that the latent energy that accumulated during the melting process was 1330 kJ, while the accumulated sensitive energy was 835 kJ. The average heat flux at the internal surface of the inner tube was about 3 times higher than the average heat flux at the outer surface of the TTHX intermediate tube due to the velocity gradients that developed in the internal part of the heat exchanger, and was about 10 times more intense than those observed in the external region of the equipment.
Fibras de sisal tem despertado o interesse da academia e indústria, devido as suas excelentes características para uso em diversas aplicações. Essas fibras, ao serem extraídas da planta, estão úmidas e, são submetidas a secagem para redução do teor de umidade. O controle do processo de secagem é de grande importância para garantir a qualidade das fibras em termos de resistência mecânica e coloração. Nesse sentido, este trabalho tem como objetivo estudar teoricamente a secagem de fibras de sisal em estufa com circulação forçada de ar. Foram propostos modelos matemáticos para predizer o comportamento transiente do teor de umidade médio e temperatura superficial, e do teor de umidade de equilíbrio das fibras, em função da temperatura do ar de secagem e concentração de vapor de água no leito de fibras. Resultados preditos das cinéticas de secagem e aquecimento, e do teor de umidade de equilíbrio higroscópico das fibras são apresentados e comparados com os dados experimentais, em diferentes condições operacionais. Verificou-se que um bom ajuste foi obtido, com coeficiente de correlação maior que 0,99, para todos os modelos analisados.
In this work was conducted a theoretical and experimental study of water absorption in polyester matrix composites reinforced with sisal fiber at temperatures of 25, 50 and 70°C. A fiber content 44.6% sisal fibers, and 55.4% polyester matrix were used in the manufacture of the polymer composite. The dimensions of the composite were 20x20x3mm3and 20x20x6mm3. Water absorption tests were conducted by immersion of the samples in a distilled water bath and the water uptake calculated by weight difference of the samples in the dry and wetted condition at different elapsed time. A three-dimensional mathematical model was developed to predict mass transfer during the water absorption inside the parallelepiped solid. Results of water absorption kinetic and moisture content distribution inside the composites showed the more favorable areas which presents delamination problems due the weakness of the fiber-matrix interface and consequently, reduction in the mechanical properties. It was found that the high water bath temperatures accelerate the absorption process and that the water absorption of the sisal reinforced polymer composite with 3 mm of thickness was faster than the with 6 mm of thickness.
Oil spill at sea by pipeline cracks can cause environmental damage. Knowledge of interfacial phenomena of immiscible liquids helps to study the dispersion of pollutants in oceans, favoring thus flow behavior of the forecast in the vicinity of the leak in submerged pipelines. This study aims to numerically study the leakage of behavior in a submerged pipeline carrying oil. It adopted a two-dimensional model based on mass conservation equations, linear momentum and the model k-ε standard turbulence. We used the Ansys CFX for meshing with 40,510 hexahedral elements. The results of pressure fields and volumetric fraction of oil are analyzed and discussed.
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