Although the terms "Human Thermal Comfort" and "Indoor Air Quality (IAQ)" can be highly subjective, they still dictate the indoor climate design (HVAC design) of a building. In order to evaluate human thermal comfort and IAQ, one of three main tools are used, a) direct questioning the subjects about their thermal and air quality sensation (voting, sampling etc.), b) measuring the human thermal comfort by recording the physical parameters such as relative humidity, air and radiation temperature, air velocities and concentration gradients of pollutants or c) by using numerical simulations either including or excluding detailed thermo-physiological models. The application of the first two approaches can only take place in post commissioning and/or testing phases of the building. Use of numerical techniques can however be employed at any stage of the building design. With the rapid development in computational hard- and software technology, the costs involved in numerical studies has reduced compared to detailed tests. Employing numerical modelling to investigate human thermal comfort and IAQ however demand thorough verification and validation studies. Such studies are used to understand the limitations and application of numerical modelling of human thermal comfort and IAQ in indoor climates. This PhD research is an endeavour to verify, validate and apply, numerical simulation for modelling heat transfer and respiration of occupants in indoor climates. Along with the investigations concerning convective and radiation heat transfer between the occupants and their surroundings, the work focuses on detailed respiration modelling of sedentary human occupants. The objectives of the work have been to: verify the convective and radiation numerical models; validate them for buoyancy-driven flows due to human occupants in indoor climates; and apply these validated models for investigating human thermal comfort and IAQ in a real classroom for which field study data was available. On the basis of the detailed verification, validation and application studies, the findings are summarized as a set of guidelines for simulating human thermal comfort and IAQ in indoor climates. This PhD research involves the use of detailed human body geometries and postures. Modelling radiation and investigating the effect of geometrical posture has shown that the effective radiation area varies significantly with posture. The simulation results have shown that by using an effective radiation area factor of 0.725, estimated previously (Fanger, 1972) for a standing person, can lead to an underestimation of effective radiation area by 13% for the postures considered. Numerical modelling of convective heat transfer and respiration processes for sedentary manikins have shown that the SST turbulence model (Menter, 1994) with appropriate resolution of near wall region can simulate the local air velocity, temperature and heat transfer coefficients to a level of detail required for prediction of thermal comfort and IAQ. The present PhD work has shown that in a convection dominated environment, the detailed seated manikins give rise to an asymmetrical thermal plume as compared to the thermal plumes generated by simplified manikins or point sources. Validated simulation results obtained during the present PhD work have shown that simplified manikins can be used without significant limitations while investigating IAQ of complete indoor spaces. The use of simplified manikins however does not seem appropriate when simulating detailed respiration effects in the immediate vicinity of seated humans because of the underestimation in the amount of re-inhaled CO2 and pollutants from the surroundings. Furthermore, the results have shown that due to the simplification in geometrical form of the nostrils, the CO2 concentration is much higher near the face region (direct jet along the nostrils) as compared to a detailed geometry (sideways jet). Simulating the complete respiration cycle has shown that a pause between exhalation and inhalation has a significant effect on the amount of re-inhaled CO2. Previous results have shown the amount of re-inhaled CO2 to range between 10 - 19%. The present study has shown that by considering the pause, this amount of re-inhaled CO2 falls down to values lower than 1%. A comparison between the simplified and detailed geometry has shown that a simplified geometry can cause an underestimation in the amount of re-inhaled CO2 by more than 37% as compared to a detailed geometry. The major contribution to knowledge delivered by this PhD work is the provision of a validated seated computational thermal manikin. This PhD work follows a structured verification and validation approach for conducting CFD simulations to predict human thermal comfort and indoor air quality. The work demonstrates the application of the validated model to a classroom case with multiple occupancy and compares the measured results with the simulation results. The comparison of CFD results with measured data advocates the use of CFD and visualizes the importance of modelling thermal manikins in indoor HVAC design rather than designing the HVAC by considering empty spaces as the occupancy has a strong influence on the indoor air flow. This PhD work enables the indoor climate researchers and building designers to employ simplified thermal manikin to correctly predict the mean flow characteristics in indoor surroundings. The present work clearly demonstrates the limitation of the PIV measurement technique, the importance of using detailed CFD manikin geometry when investigating the phenomena of respiration in detail and the effect of thermal plume around the seated manikin. This computational thermal manikin used in this work is valid for a seated adult female geometry.

In particulate flows, the flow inertia impacts the motion and size distribution of the particles and this in turn, has a strong implication on global behavior of the emulsions such as their rheological properties. As such, the central goal of most of the investigations on dispersed multiphase flow, so far, has been to understand the phase distribution of particles and to correlate the global behavior of the system with this parameter. For pressure-driven particulate flows in a channel, it is known that the velocity gradient in the channel leads to a lateral force whose magnitude and direction depends on the viscosity and density ratios of the fluids and the drop deformation. This lateral (lift) force is the primary reason behind the various observed modes of phase distribution of the particles. Unfortunately, most of the studies conducted so far have been concerned with the solid particles and for flows at low to moderate Reynolds numbers. Little is known about the dynamics of deformable drops at high Reynolds numbers. The goal of this study is to bridge the gap by direct numerical simulations. A front tracking/finite difference technique is used to solve the Navier-Stokes equations in the fluids inside and outside of the drops. Initially, the drops are randomly distributed in the computational domain their evolutions are followed for a sufficiently long time so that the system reaches a quasi-steady state. The statistics about the flow then will be extracted. The flow inertia is increased incrementally by increasing the pressure gradient.

Submitted by Caroline Periotto (carol@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-10T13:41:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DissUJC.pdf: 2226574 bytes, checksum: d622ffd34696353d6a7dda5110671bce (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-20T19:49:12Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissUJC.pdf: 2226574 bytes, checksum: d622ffd34696353d6a7dda5110671bce (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2016-10-20T19:49:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DissUJC.pdf: 2226574 bytes, checksum: d622ffd34696353d6a7dda5110671bce (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-10-20T19:49:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissUJC.pdf: 2226574 bytes, checksum: d622ffd34696353d6a7dda5110671bce (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-07 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Studies carried out in fixed bed, a major experimental research equipment, use a simplified approach for assessing, for example, drying kinetics of various materials, known as thin-layer approach. For a given system can be encompassed in such an approach, the gas residence time in the system should be short enough so that it may be considered that the heat and mass balance between phases is quickly reached and moisture variation and temperature gas phase in the thin layer is negligible. However, some studies already show that structural parameters, the porosity, influence the speed profile of the behavior inside the bed, with a peak speed in the area close to the wall. Even with the advances in this field, obtaining measurements within the fixed bed are difficult to cause disturbances in its structure and changes in flow behavior, requiring the evaluation of the influence of the heat and mass transfer. Therefore, the analysis by techniques of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are shown as excellent usability for longer be applied in other similar complex systems that occur concurrent transfer mechanisms. In this context, the present study evaluated the drying process in a fixed bed of small thickness using the CFD technique (software ANSYS - FLUENT). For this study were tested with varying computational mesh refinement, analyzed results porosity distribution, air velocity, temperature and estimating the local mass transfer coefficient for the interior of a fixed bed dryer. The results show that should be used with caution thin layer approach because the energy available to the entire bed is not distributed uniformly, and the lower material layer receive more energy and get the greatest amount of heat in the gaseous phase in early stages of the dryer operation. The convective mass transfer coefficient indicates that the potential drying of such equipment varies as a function of position and time, mainly influenced by variations in system speed. / Estudos realizados em leitos fixos, um dos principais equipamentos de investigação experimental, utilizam uma abordagem simplificadora que permitem avaliar, por exemplo, a cinética de secagem dos mais diversos materiais, conhecida com abordagem em camada fina. Para que um determinado sistema possa ser englobado em tal abordagem, o tempo de residência do gás no sistema deve ser curto o bastante para que se possa considerar que o equilíbrio térmico e mássico entre as fases seja atingido rapidamente e a variação de umidade e temperatura da fase gasosa na camada delgada seja desprezível. Entretanto, alguns estudos já comprovam que parâmetros estruturais, com a porosidade, influenciam no comportamento do perfil de velocidade no interior do leito, apresentando um pico de velocidade na região próxima à parede. Mesmo com os avanços neste campo, a obtenção de medidas experimentais no interior do leito fixo é difícil, por causar perturbações em sua estrutura e modificações no comportamento do escoamento, necessitando de avaliação da influência sobre a transferência de calor e massa. Portanto, a análise por meio de técnicas de Fluidodinâmica Computacional (CFD) mostram-se como excelente possibilidade de utilização, por já serem aplicadas em outros sistemas de complexidade semelhante em que ocorrem mecanismos de transferência simultâneos. Neste contexto, no presente trabalho foi avaliado o processo de secagem em leito fixo de pequena espessura utilizando a técnica de CFD (software ANSYS – FLUENT). Para este estudo foram testadas malhas computacionais com refinamento variado, analisados resultados de distribuição de porosidade, velocidade do ar, temperatura e estimativa do coeficiente de transferência de massa local para o interior de um secador de leito fixo. Os resultados mostram que deve-se utilizar com cautela a abordagem em camada fina, pois a energia disponível para todo o leito não se distribui uniformemente, sendo que as camadas inferiores do material recebem maior energia e adquirem a maior quantidade de calor da fase gasosa nos instantes iniciais da operação do secador. O coeficiente convectivo de transferência de massa indica que o potencial de secagem em tal equipamento varia em função da posição e do tempo, principalmente, influenciado pelas variações de velocidade do sistema.

No description available.

Orientador: José Roberto Nunhez / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-25T09:46:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Villamizar_UrbanoMontanez_M.pdf: 2761421 bytes, checksum: b36bf4d1123da6ad78402c7d206517a3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Resumo: Os Erlenmeyers agitados têm sido utilizados como uma ferramenta em pesquisa na área biotecnológica e laboratórios industriais, especialmente em estágios iniciais, onde graças a sua praticidade, muitos experimentos podem ser realizados simultaneamente com um baixo custo e virtualmente sem supervisão. No entanto, esses dispositivos só fornecem informação limitada dos processos fenomenológicos que acontecem dentro do Erlenmeyer, tais como a velocidade rotacional, que dá uma ideia dos requerimentos de mistura, etc. Esta limitação pode dificultar a transição de um novo processo da bancada experimental para a escala piloto ou industrial. Alguns estudos de pesquisa têm sido realizados para determinar importantes variáveis de processo, tais como consumo de potência volumétrico, capacidade de transferência de oxigênio, estresse hidrodinâmico, etc. A fluidodinâmica computacional (CFD) tem ganhado importância recentemente no estudo dos fenômenos de transporte, graças aos avanços no desenvolvimento de software especializado, e poder computacional. O objetivo desse trabalho é simular o processo de agitação desenvolvido em um Erlenmeyer agitado em máquinas orbitais, utilizando o pacote computacional CFX versão 14. Os resultados CFD são comparados com os dados experimentais disponíveis para validar o modelo com o objetivo de estudar a fluidodinâmica desenvolvida nestes dispositivos / Abstract: Erlenmeyers have been used as a tool in many biotechnology research and industrial laboratories, especially in its early stages when many experiments can be performed simultaneously at low cost and nearly without supervision. However, these devices offer only limited information on the phenomenological processes occurring within these shake flasks, as the rotational speed which gives an idea of the mixing requirements, etc. This limitation could be a difficulty when trying to scale up new processes developed in laboratories to a pilot plant scale or an industrial processes. Some experimental research has been carried out to determine important process variables in Erlenmeyer agitation such as volumetric power consumption, oxygen transfer capacity, hydrodynamic stress, etc. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has recently gained importance in the study of transport phenomena, thanks to advances in the development of specialized software, and computational power. The objective of this work is to simulate the mixing process in an Erlenmeyer flask. The software used is CFX version 14. The CFD results is compared with the experimental data available to validate this computational model in order to study the fluid dynamics that develops in these devices / Mestrado / Desenvolvimento de Processos Químicos / Mestre em Engenharia Química

Orientadores: Milton Mori, Marcos Akira D'Ávila / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia Química / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T21:16:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MiillerLopes_MariaFernanda_M.pdf: 2798310 bytes, checksum: d508c014dbb2db75fd6d052fdf5a76c7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: Esta pesquisa tem por objetivo avaliar os resultados numéricos por Fluidodinâmica Computacional (CFD) e experimentais pela técnica de Velocimetria por Imagem de Partícula (PIV) e a técnica de Shadow Imaging em uma coluna de bolhas de 1m de altura, 14,5 cm de diâmetro com um distribuidor de gás de 5 furos de 1 mm de diâmetro cada. O sistema estudado foi o sistema bifásico água-ar. O estudo foi realizado no regime homogêneo de operação para as velocidades superficiais de gás de 0,3 cm/s, 0,5 cm/s e 0,7 cm/s. Os experimentos de PIV e shadow imaging foram realizados nas mesmas condições operacionais. Para uma boa representação do escoamento pela técnica de PIV foi necessário o tratamento de 2500 fotos para as velocidades mais baixas e 3500 fotos para a velocidade mais alta. Para a técnica de shadow imaging foi necessário o tratamento de 2000 fotos para a determinação do diâmetro médio das bolhas. Nos testes numéricos foram avaliados dois modelos de arraste, o de Ishii-Zuber (1979) e o de Zhang-Vanderheyden (2002), para a turbulência foi utilizado o modelo k-?, e o diâmetro de bolha utilizado foi o obtido experimentalmente pela técnica de shadow imaging. Perfis de velocidade média axial de líquido obtidos experimentalmente foram comparados com os dados numéricos. Análises dos tensores de Reynolds, energia cinética turbulenta e intensidade turbulenta também foram avaliados. Para a velocidade de 0,3 cm/s e 0,5 cm/s ambos os modelos de arraste representaram bem o escoamento. Para a velocidade de 0,7 cm/s o modelo de arraste de Zhang-Vanderheyden representou melhor o escoamento / Abstract: This research aims to evaluate the numerical results from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and experimental results obtained using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Shadow Imaging in a bubble column of 1m height, diameter of 14,5cm with a gas distributor with 5 holes of 1 mm diameter each one. The system studied was water-air. The study was performed in homogeneous operation regime for the superficial gas velocity of 0.3 cm/s, 0.5 cm/s and 0.7 cm/s. The PIV and shadow imaging experiments were performed under the same operation conditions. For a good flow representation of PIV data it was necessary to treat 2500 photos to the low superficial gas velocities and 3500 photos to the highest superficial gas velocity. For the shadow imaging technique it was necessary to treat 2000 photos for determining the bubble diameters. In the numerical tests two drag models were evaluated: Ishii-Zuber (1979) and Zhang-Vanderheyden (2002); for turbulence the k-? model was used and the bubble diameter used in the simulations was obtained experimentally by the shadow imaging technique. Average axial velocity profiles of fluid obtained experimentally were compared with numerical results. Analysis of Reynolds tensor, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent intensity were also evaluated. For superficial gas velocities of 0,3 cm/s and 0,5 cm/s both drag models show good agreement with experimental data. For superficial gas velocities of 0,7 cm/s Zhang-Vanderheyden drag model showed better agreement with experimental data / Mestrado / Desenvolvimento de Processos Químicos / Mestra em Engenharia Química

L'augmentation de la puissance spécifique du moteur pour une quantité d'énergie consommée donnée, ainsi que le couple à bas régime a toujours été l'un des plus grands défis pour les constructeurs automobiles. Ce but peut être atteint en utilisant un turbocompresseur. Un turbocompresseur automobile est un petit organe entraîné par les gaz d'échappement du moteur à travers une turbine radiale qui transfère mécaniquement l'énergie cinétique au compresseur centrifuge. Le compresseur centrifuge délivre de l'air comprimé aux cylindres pour assurer une meilleure combustion. La technologie a atteint un haut niveau de raffinement, et de nombreuses améliorations ont été étudiées et dans certains cas mises en production. Une large gamme de moteurs à combustion interne et de turbocompresseurs sont disponibles, mais seulement une bonne adaptation entre ces deux composants peut produire un moteur suralimenté efficace. Pour mener à bien les calculs qui permettent d'adapter le moteur au turbocompresseur, il est nécessaire d'avoir une représentation exacte de chaque composant du turbocompresseur et une capacité à déterminer le comportement de l'ensemble du système avec tous ses composants. Dans le cadre de ce travail le compresseur et la turbine sont étudiés pour différents points de fonctionnement et à faible régime en utilisant le code CFD elsA développé par l'Onera. Le travail est divisé en deux parties. La première partie est consacrée à l'étude du compresseur centrifuge avec tous ces composants (roue, diffuseur lisse et volute). Une étude détaillée sur le développement des écoulements secondaires et de l'écoulement de jeu est présentée. La performance de la volute et son influence sur la performance globale du compresseur est également étudiée. Les performances globales du compresseur sont comparées aux mesures expérimentales effectuées à l'ECN et montrent un bon accord. La deuxième partie est consacrée sur l'étude de la turbine à géométrie variable. Seuls le distributeur et la roue sont pris en compte dans les simulations. Une analyse détaillée de l'écoulement dans la turbine est présentée pour deux positions d'ailettes à l'aide des simulations stationnaires et instationnaires. / No abstract

Magister Scientiae - MSc / Computational Fluid Dynamics is the analysis of a system involving fluid flow, heat transfer and associated phenomena such as chemical reactions by means of a computer-based simulation. The simulations in this study are performed using (CFD) software package FLUENT. The mixture of two gases (Silane gas (SiH4) and Hydrogen gas (H2)) are delivered into the hot-wire chemical vapor deposition system (HWCVD) with the two deposited substrates (glass and Silicon). This process is performed by the solar cells group of the Physics department at the University of the Western Cape. In this thesis, the simulation is done using a CFD software package FLUENT, to model the gas-flow patterns inside the HWCVD system. This will show how the gas-flow patterns are affected by the varying temperature of the heater in each simulation performed in this study under a constant pressure of 60μBar of the system. / South Africa

We present a method for anisotropic mesh refinement to high-order numerical solutions. We accomplish this by assigning metrics to vertices that approximate the error in that region. To choose values for each metric, we first reconstruct an error equation from the leading order terms of the Taylor expansion. Then, we use a Fourier approximation to choose the metric associated with that vertex. After assigning a metric to each vertex, we refine the mesh anisotropically using three mesh operations. The three mesh operations we use are swapping to maximize quality, inserting at approximate circumcenters to decrease cell size, and vertex removal to eliminate small edges. Because there are no guarantees on the results of these modification tools, we use them iteratively to produce a quasi-optimal mesh. We present examples demonstrating that our anisotropic refinement algorithm improves solution accuracy for both second and third order solutions compared with uniform refinement and isotropic refinement. We also analyze the effect of using second derivatives for refining third order solutions. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Mechanical Engineering, Department of / Graduate

This dissertation deals with the numerical investigation of the physics of sprays autoigniting at diesel engine conditions using Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS), and with the modelling of droplet related effects within the Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) method for turbulent non-premixed combustion. The dissertation can be split in four different sections, with the content of each being summarized below. The first part of the dissertation introduces the equations that govern the temporal and spatial evolution of a turbulent reacting flow, and provides an extensive review of the CMC method for both single and two-phase flows. The problem of modelling droplet related effects in the CMC transport equations is discussed in detail, and physically-sound models for the unclosed terms that appear in these equations and that are affected by the droplet presence are derived. The second part of the dissertation deals with the application of the CMC method to the numerical simulation of several n-heptane sprays igniting at conditions relevant to diesel engine combustion. Droplet-related terms in the CMC equations were closed with the models developed in the first part of the dissertation. For all conditions investigated, CMC could correctly capture the ignition, propagation and anchoring phases of the spray flame. Inclusion of droplet terms in the CMC equations had little influence on the numerical predictions, in line with the findings of other authors. The third part of the dissertation presents a DNS study on the autoignition of n-heptane sprays at high pressure / low temperature conditions. The analysis revealed that spray ignition occurs first in well-mixed locations with a specific value of the mixture fraction. Changes in the operating conditions (initial turbulence intensity of the background gas, global equivalence ratio in the spray region, initial droplet size distribution) affected spray ignition through changes in the mixture formation process. For each spray, a characteristic ignition delay time and a characteristic droplet evaporation time could be defined. The ratio between these time scales was suggested as a key parameter for controlling the ignition delay of the spray. The last part of the dissertation exploits the DNS simulations to perform an a priori analysis of the applicability of the CMC method to autoigniting sprays. The study revealed that standard models for the mixing quantities used in CMC provide poor approximations in two-phase flows, and are partially responsible for the poor prediction of the ignition delay time. It was also observed that first-order closure of the chemical source terms performs poorly during the onset of ignition, suggesting that second-order closures may be more appropriate for studying spray autoignition problems. The contribution of the work presented in this dissertation is to provides a detailed insight into the physics of spray autoignition at diesel engine conditions, to propose and derive original methods for incorporating droplet evaporation effects within CMC in a physically-sound manner, and to assess the applicability and shortcomings of the CMC method to autoigniting sprays.