Numerical simulation of micromixing effect on the reactive flow in a co-rotating twin screw extruder

To control the multicomponent reactions in extrusion, reactive-mixing flow in a co-rotating twin screw extruder was numerically studied in the present paper. Effects of initial species distribution, rotating speed and flow rate on a competitive-parallel reaction were investigated and the relationship between mixing and reactions was discussed from the view of chemical reaction engineering. The simulation results show the studied operational parameters, which determine residence time distribution, earliness of mixing and segregation degree of reactive-mixing flows, affect the local species concentration and reaction time and hence have significant influences on the reaction extent. Orthogonal test was adopted to clarify the significance of operational parameters.The analysis shows that initial species distribution and flow rate are the most important factors in the control of reaction extent, and effect of rotating speed is conditional depending on the micro-mixing status of the fluid.

Effect of the shaft eccentricity and rotational direction on the mixing characteristics in cylindrical tank reactors

Strategy of the shaft eccentricity is introduced to enhance the mixing characteristics in a flat bottomed cylindrical vessel without baffles. The mixing is ensured by a six-curved blade impeller. Three solutions which are models of food emulsions are used as working fluids. These solutions have a shear thinning behavior modeled by the power-law. The effects of fluid properties, stirring rates, impeller rotational direction and impeller eccentricity on the 3D flow fields and power consumption are investigated. Three values of impeller eccentricity are considered, namely 0%, 24% and 48% of the vessel diameter. It is found that the opposite clockwise rotational direction reduces the power consumption, compared with the clockwise rotational direction. Also, the obtained results show that an impeller placed at an eccentric position between 24% and 48% of the vessel diameter and at the third of the vessel height may ensure the best mixing characteristics.

Numerical study and acceleration of LBM-RANS simulation of turbulent flow

The coupled models of LBM （Lattice Boltzmann Method） and RANS （Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes） are more practical for the transient simulation of mixing processes at large spatial and temporal scales such as crude oil mixing in large-diameter storage tanks. To keep the efficiency of parallel computation of LBM, the RANS model should also be explicitly solved; whereas to keep the numerical stability the implicit method should be better for PANS model. This article explores the numerical stability of explicit methods in 2D cases on one hand, and on the other hand how to accelerate the computation of the coupled model of LBM and an implicitly solved RANS model in 3D cases. To ensure the numerical stability and meanwhile avoid the use of empirical artificial lim- itations on turbulent quantities in 2D cases, we investigated the impacts of collision models in LBM （LBGK, MRT） and the numerical schemes for convection terms （WENO, TVD） and production terms （FDM, NEQM） in an explic- itly solved standard k-e model. The combination of MRT and TVD or MRT and NEQM can be screened out for the 2D simulation of backward-facing step flow even at Re = 107. This scheme combination, however, may still not guarantee the numerical stability in 3D cases and hence much finer grids are required, which is not suitable for the simulation of industrial-scale processes.Then we proposed a new method to accelerate the coupled model of LBM with RANS （implicitly solved）. When implemented on multiple GPUs, this new method can achieve 13.5-fold accelera- tion relative to the original coupled model and 40-fold acceleration compared to the traditional CFD simulation based on Finite Volume （FV） method accelerated by multiple CPUs. This study provides the basis for the transient flow simulation of larger spatial and temporal scales in industrial applications with LBM-RANS methods.

Simulation of Double-Front Detonation of Suspended Mixed Cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine and Aluminum Dust in Air

The two-phase detonation of suspended mixed cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine （i.e., RDX） and aluminum dust in air is simulated with a two-phase flow model. The parameters of the mixed RDX-AI dust detonation wave are obtained. The double-front detonation and steady state of detonation wave of the mixed dust are analyzed. For the dust mixed RDX with density of 0.565kg/m3 and radius of 10μm as well as aluminum with density of 0.145kg/m3 and radius of 4μm, the detonation wave will reach a steady state at 23m. The effects of the size of aluminum on the detonation are analyzed. For constant radius of RDX particles with radius of 10μm, as the radius of aluminum particles is larger than 2.0 μm, the double-front detonation can be observed due to the different ignition distances and reaction rates of RDX and aluminum particles. As the radius of aluminum particles is larger, the velocity, pressure and temperature of detonation wave will be slower. The pressure at the Chapman-Jouguet （CJ） point also becomes lower. Comparing the detonation with single RDX dust, the pressure and temperature in the flow field of detonation of mixed dust are higher.

Numerical investigation of unsteady mixing mechanism in plate film cooling

A large-scale large eddy simulation in high performance personal computer clusters is carried out to present unsteady mixing mechanism of film cooling and the development of films. Simulation cases include a single-hole plate with the inclined angle of 30° and blowing ratio of 0.5, and a single-row plate with hole-spacing of 1.5D and 2D （diameters of the hole）. According to the massive simulation results, some new unsteady phenomena of gas films are found. The vortex system is changed in different position with the development of film cooling with the time marching the process of a single-row plate film cooling. Due to the mutual interference effects including mutual exclusion, a certain periodic sloshing and mutual fusion, and the structures of a variety of vortices change between parallel gas films. Macroscopic flow structures and heat transfer behaviors are obtained based on 20 million grids and Reynolds number of 28600.

Simulation Environments: Challenges for Advancement

A brief review of the basic terminology on simulation, simulation life-cycle activities such as model-based activities, behavior-oriented activities, and quality assurance activities is given. Then, the challenges and opportunities for the advancement of the state-of-the-art in simulation environments are discussed under the following headings: modelling environments, simulation environments, mixed simulation environments, and comprehensive simulation environments.

DEM simulation of influence of parameters on energy and degree of mixing

Powder mixing is being modeled using a simulation based on Newtonian mechanics. Variables under consideration include particle friction and the amplitude, frequency, and direction of shaking. Trajectories for each particle were recorded, and a mixing degree was calculated for each simulation, for which the average energy transferred into the powder system was recorded and compared to the resulting mixing degree. Mixing of particles originally located near the bottom was studied separately, as was the mixing of particles near the surface. This study shows that choosing the proper mixing parameters not only enhances the final result of mixing, but also yields good results with less strain on the material mixed and on the mixing device.

Synergistic and interference effects in coaxial mixers: Numerical analysis of the power consumption

This paper is concerned with the design and application of coaxial mixers with the aid of analysis of interaction between each individual impeller. Two types of coaxial mixers pitched blade turbine(PBT)-helical ribbon(HR)and inner-outer HR operated in laminar regime were studied experimentally and numerically. The interaction implies synergistic and interference effects, which was revealed through the investigation of axial circulation rate, energy dissipation rate and power consumption. The influence factors including rotational speed ratio,rotating mode and impeller configuration were explored systematically. Quantitative analysis of power consumption involves three parameters: rate of variation in power consumption, interactive mode and ratio of power consumption. Analysis indicated that some important properties were embodied in the power curve.These properties are one-way and two-way interactions, critical speed ratio and dominant impeller. Finally, a new suggestion for power estimation was given.

Simulation of ultrasonic attenuation in theelastic mixing particle system

For the study of predicting ultrasonic attenuation of elastic, spherical mixing par- ticles in the liquid-solid two-phase system, the Monte Carlo method （MCM） is introduced, serving as a probability and statistics technique to evaluate the inside ultrasonic events during the ultrasound propagation. On the basis of ultrasonic scattering and aborption, the continuous ultrasonic waves are represented as discrete and independent phonons. By recording the scat- tering events, tracing the trajectory of a moving phonon and calculating the number of phonons that finally reach the receiving transducer, the ultrasonic attenuation coefficient is obtained to be a frequence-dependent spectrum. Numerical investigations have been carried out to predict and compare the ultrasonic attenuation for a solid-liquid two-phase system with a single type particle. After verifing its feasibility, such a method is then appalied into mixing particle sys- tern, where the mixing iron particles and glass beads with various ratios are set as examples for the purpose of predicting ultrasonic attenuation for the monodisperse and polydisperse mixing particle systems. The results of MCM, the ECAH model, the Lloyd ~z Berry （LB） model and the Waterman model match well when the particle volume concentration is lower than 10%, corresponding to iron particles and glass beads respectively. In the case of two-phase system with mixing particles, it is shown that as the particle volume concentration increases to 10%, the variation of the ultrasonic attenuation coefficient with mixing ratio yields a nonlinear tendency. The physical properties of particles can also influence ultrasonic attenuation significantly.

Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm to Design Manufacturing Process Line Including Feasible and Infeasible Solutions in Neighborhood

This paper treats multi-objective problem for manufacturing process design. A purpose of the process design is to decide combinations of work elements assigned to different work centers. Multiple work elements are ordinarily assigned to each center. Here, infeasible solutions are easily generated by precedence relationship of work elements in process design. The number of infeasible solutions generated is ordinarily larger than that of feasible solutions generated in the process. Therefore, feasible and infeasible solutions are located in any neighborhood in solution space. It is difficult to seek high quality Pareto solutions in this problem by using conventional multi-objective evolutional algorithms. We consider that the problem includes difficulty to seek high quality solutions by the following characteristics： （1） Since infeasible solutions are resemble to good feasible solutions, many infeasible solutions which have good values of objective functions are easily sought in the search process, （2） Infeasible solutions are useful to select new variable conditions generating good feasible solutions in search process. In this study, a multi-objective genetic algorithm including local search is proposed using these characteristics. Maximum value of average operation times and maximum value of dispersion of operation time in all work centers are used as objective functions to promote productivity. The optimal weighted coefficient is introduced to control the ratio of feasible solutions to all solutions selected in crossover and selection process in the algorithm. This paper shows the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm on simple model.

Numerical analysis of enhanced mixing in a Gallay tote blender

The mixing performance of a multi-bladed baffle inserted into a traditional Gallay tote blender is explored by graphic processing unit-based discrete element method software. The mixing patterns and rates are investigated for a binary mixture, represented by two different colors, under several loading profiles. The baffle effectively enhances the convective mixing both in the axial and radial directions, because of the disturbance it causes to the initial flowing layer and solid-body zone, compared with a blender without a baffle. The axial mixing rate is affected by the gap between the baffle and the wall on the left and right sides, and an optimal blade length corresponds to the maximum mixing rate. However, the radial mixing rate increases with the blade length almost monotonically.

A Simplified Numerical Simulation Method Considering Active Devices for Opto-Electronic Mixed Modules

A simplified simulation method based on the FDTD technique that can handle active devices is proposed. This method well suits the electrical crosstalk analysis of multi-channel integrated, opto-electronic mixed modules. We apply this method to an 8-channel integrated super-compact high-sensitivity optical module. The results show good agreement between simulations and measurements.

Development on test equipment of coal slurry mixing tank

A coal slurry mixing tank is a key piece of equipment in the preparation of coal slurry for direct coal liquefaction.It is a gas-liquid-solid three-phase mixing device.Based on the performance of the existing coal slurry mixing equipment,a type of test equipment for horizontal continuous coal slurry preparation was developed,but to this point has limited research results.The test equipment consists of a mixing cylinder,mixer,stirring impeller and other components.Slurry mixing experiments were undertaken using the prototype,testing the performance of the device.A mathematical model was proposed specifically for the operation of a coal slurry mixing tank that is horizontally operated with high slurry concentration and rotary flow.The flow field in the horizontal coal mixing tank was simulated with the computational fluid dynamic (CFD) method.The experimental results match well with the CFD simulation results.Results show that the test device of a coal slurry mixing tank can be used to model the mixing of pulverized coal and the solvent oil.A strong correlation was obtained.

Numerical prediction of the frictional losses in sliding bearings during start-stop operation

With the increased use of automotive engine start-stop systems,the numerical prediction and reduction of frictional losses in sliding bearings during starting and stopping procedures has become an important issue.In engineering practice,numerical simulations of sliding bearings in automotive engines are performed with statistical asperity contact models with empirical values for the necessary surface parameters.The aim of this study is to elucidate the applicability of these approaches for the prediction of friction in sliding bearings subjected to start-stop operation.For this purpose,the friction performance of sliding bearings was investigated in experiments on a test rig and in transient mixed elasto-hydrodynamic simulations in a multi-body simulation environment(mixed-EHL/MBS).In mixed-EHL/MBS,the extended Reynold’s equation with flow factors according to Patir and Cheng has been combined on the one hand with the statistical asperity contact model according to Greenwood and Tripp and on the other hand with the deterministic asperity contact model according to Herbst.The detailed comparison of simulation and experimental results clarifies that the application of statistical asperity contact models with empirical values of the necessary inputs leads to large deviations between experiment and simulation.The actual distribution and position of surface roughness,as used in deterministic contact modelling,is necessary for a reliable prediction of the frictional losses in sliding bearings during start-stop operation.

Effect of methane-hydrogen mixtures on flow and combustion of coherent jets

Coherent jets are widely used in electric are furnace （EAF） steelmaking to increase the oxygen utilization and chemical reaction rates. However, the influence of fuel gas combustion on jet behavior is not fully understood yet. The flow and combustion characteristics of a coherent jet were thus investigated at steelmaking temperature using Fluent software, and a detailed chemical kinetic reaction mecha- nism was used in the combustion reaction model. The axial velocity and total temperature of the supersonic jet were measured via hot state experiments. The simulation results were compared with the experimental data and the empirical jet model proposed by Ito and Muchi and good consistency was obtained. The research results indicated that the potential core length of the coherent jet can be prolonged by optimizing the combustion effect of the fuel gas. Besides, the behavior of the supersonic jet in the subsonic section was also investigated, as it is an important factor for controlling the position of the oxygen lance. The investigation indicated that the attenuation of the coherent jet is more notable than that of the conventional jet in the subsonic section.