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The increase in temperature of developing concrete as a result of heat liberated by cementing reactions is the primary cause for thermally induced cracks in large concrete elements. It is very essential, in engineering to predict the temperature rises in order to be able to minimise the potential of crack formation. This thesis covers the experimental determination of the heat of hydration curve using the adiabatic calorimeter and experimental determination of transient heat transfer obtained from measurement of temperature variations in concrete at its early ages of hydration. The measured temperature profiles from a one-dimensional heat transfer scenario are then compared with the predicted temperature profiles. The adiabatic hydration curve of a concrete beam sample is used as input into a numerical technique known as the Green Element Method for the calculation of temperature profiles. Time-based boundary conditions are imposed on the equation governing the model and will be solved using the Green Element Method coded in Fortran Power Station 4.0. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of Durban-Westville, 2001.

Grain storage is an essential part of the food production chain. Therefore, pre- venting grain deterioration is a key issue in a grain storage system. There are several causes for spoilage, all resulting in grain quality and quantity loss. One approach to detect incipient spoilage is by detecting the produced volatiles. In the past, many sensors for detecting volatiles have been developed and are used in industry. However, most of the commercial gas sensors are bulky with high power consumption, mainly limited in range of operating temperature, or require a restricted control over temperature and humidity. This thesis describes the design, fabrication and evaluation of a gas sensor capable of detecting volatiles and considers the potential use of polymer- based sensors. Conductive polymer-based sensors have been reported sensitive to a wide range of volatiles but are commonly evaluated under a controlled environment. Conventional sensor reproducibility and repeatability are also a concern due to the difficulties associated with polymer composite film preparation. In addition, current studies have not fully explored sensor properties in response to humidity, a common factor in any environment, and a variable parameter in grain storage facilities. Moreover, these sensors suffer from ambient temperature dependency as they work based on partitioning mechanism. To enhance sensor performances and eliminate the temperature dependency, a new sensor structure is proposed. The new design uses standard lithography process to fabricate a thermally isolated cantilever containing interdigitated electrodes and a micro-heater to efficiently heat and maintain a constant temperature throughout the interdigitated electrodes. This structure eliminates sensor response drifts caused by ambient temperature variations. Capacitive measurements are performed as the means of volatile detection, which simplify the use of polymers due to the absence of conductive filler and the challenges associated with it. Frequency spectroscopy provides additional information regarding the presence of volatiles compared to conventional resistive sensors, since mechanisms other than swelling are involved. Moreover, frequency and temperature modulations can be employed to further enhance sensor performance, enabling the use of a reduced number of sensors in a sensor array.

This thesis presents an experiment and an analysis that evaluates some of the long-standing assumptions in deep vertical borehole ground heat exchanger (GHX) theory. These assumptions neglect ground heterogeneity and depth variations in GHX output and the ground temperature response (GTR). This thesis describes an apparatus and an experiment that measured the GTR at several depths, times, and at two different horizontal distances from a GHX both during and immediately after its operation. This thesis also reports the temperature response data, which may not be available from other sources in such detail. The experiment showed that the GTR can be highly depth dependant. The analysis involved a parametric study to characterize the GTR by developing an effective computer simulation of the experiment. The analysis showed that ground heterogeneity significantly affected the GTR and the GHX output in this study. Furthermore, this GHX output showed depth and time, dependence.

The maximum entropy moment closure for the two-moment approximation of the radiative transfer equation is presented. The resulting moment equations, known as the M1 model, are solved using a finite-volume method with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and two Riemann-solver based flux function solvers: a Roe-type and a Harten-Lax van Leer (HLL) solver. Three different boundary schemes are also presented and discussed. When compared to the discrete ordinates method (DOM) in several representative one- and two-dimensional radiation transport problems, the results indicate that while the M1 model cannot accurately resolve multi-directional radiation transport occurring in low-absorption media, it does provide reasonably accurate solutions, both qualitatively and quantitatively, when compared to the DOM predictions in most of the test cases involving either absorbing-emitting or scattering media. The results also show that the M1 model is computationally less expensive than DOM for more realistic radiation transport problems involving scattering and complex geometries.

The maximum entropy moment closure for the two-moment approximation of the radiative transfer equation is presented. The resulting moment equations, known as the M1 model, are solved using a finite-volume method with adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) and two Riemann-solver based flux function solvers: a Roe-type and a Harten-Lax van Leer (HLL) solver. Three different boundary schemes are also presented and discussed. When compared to the discrete ordinates method (DOM) in several representative one- and two-dimensional radiation transport problems, the results indicate that while the M1 model cannot accurately resolve multi-directional radiation transport occurring in low-absorption media, it does provide reasonably accurate solutions, both qualitatively and quantitatively, when compared to the DOM predictions in most of the test cases involving either absorbing-emitting or scattering media. The results also show that the M1 model is computationally less expensive than DOM for more realistic radiation transport problems involving scattering and complex geometries.

The present study has focused on the use of coil heat exchangers (CHEs) with microencapsulated phase change material (MPCM) slurries to understand if CHEs can yield greater rates of heat transfer. An experimental study was conducted using a counterflow CHE consisting of 3 helical coils. Two separate tests were conducted, one where water was used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) on the coil and shell sides, respectively; while the second one made use of MPCM slurry and water on the coil and shell sides, respectively. The NTU-effectiveness relationship of the CHE when MPCM fluid is used approaches that of a heat exchanger with a heat capacity ratio of zero. The heat transfer results have shown that when using a MPCM slurry, an increase in heat transfer rate can be obtained when compared to heat transfer results obtained using straight heat transfer sections. It has been concluded that the increased specific heat of the slurry as well as the fluid dynamics in helical coil pipes are the main contributors to the increased heat transfer.

The total worldwide base of installed wind energy peak capacity reached 94 GW by the end of 2007, including 1846 MW in Canada. Wind turbine systems are being installed throughout Canada and often in mountains and cold weather regions, due to their high wind energy potential. Harsh cold weather climates, involving turbulence, gusts, icing and lightning strikes in these regions, affect wind turbine performance. Ice accretion and irregular shedding during turbine operation lead to load imbalances, often causing the turbine to shut off. They create excessive turbine vibration and may change the natural frequency of blades as well as promote higher fatigue loads and increase the bending moment of blades. Icing also affects the tower structure by increasing stresses, due to increased loads from ice accretion. This can lead to structural failures, especially when coupled to strong wind loads. Icing also affects the reliability of anemometers, thereby leading to inaccurate wind speed measurements and resulting in resource estimation errors. Icing issues can directly impact personnel safety, due to falling and projected ice. It is therefore important to expand research on wind turbines operating in cold climate areas. This study presents an experimental investigation including three important fundamental aspects: 1) heat transfer characteristics of the airfoil with and without liquid water content (LWC) at varying angles of attack; 2) energy losses of wind energy while a wind turbine is operating under icing conditions; and 3) aerodynamic characteristics of an airfoil during a simulated icing event. A turbine scale model with curved 3-D blades and a DC generator is tested in a large refrigerated wind tunnel, where ice formation is simulated by spraying water droplets. A NACA 63421 airfoil is used to study the characteristics of aerodynamics and convective heat transfer. The current, voltage, rotation of the DC generator and temperature distribution along the airfoil, which are used to calculate heat transfer coefficients, are measured using a Data Acquisition (DAQ) system and recorded with LabVIEW software. The drag, lift and moment of the airfoil are measured by a force balance system to obtain the aerodynamics of an iced airfoil. This research also quantifies the power loss under various icing conditions. The data obtained can be used to valid numerical data method to predict heat transfer characteristics while wind turbine blades worked in cold climate regions.

Soot is formed whenever the combustion of hydrocarbon fuels is incomplete. Since soot particles are very small, they can be inhaled and cause severe health problems, such as pulmonary diseases. They can also cause environmental pollution, and have a significant effect on global warming and melting of polar ice sheets. The environmental and health impact of soot depends strongly on soot particle size and morphology, so there is a pressing need for measuring techniques that characterize aerosolized soot. Laser-Induced incandescence (LII) has proved to be a reliable technique for making spatial and temporal measurements of soot primary particle sizes and soot volume fractions. Nevertheless, there are some unresolved issues in LII, which may cause large errors in soot primary particle size inferred from LII data. One of these issues is anomalous cooling, which is the unexpectedly high initial rate of soot particle cooling observed in experiments, which can not be predicted by LII models. Among the speculations about the possible causes of this phenomenon is the transient gas dynamics effects which have been ignored in LII models. Another phenomena that has been speculated to affect LII predictions in high fluence LII, is how the gas dynamics of sublimed carbon clusters impact the local gas dynamics surrounding the particle during the cooling phase. The focus of this thesis is to investigate transient effects on heat conduction in low fluence LII, and the gas dynamics of sublimed species in high fluence LII using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. DSMC is a statistical/numerical method which works based on the physics of Boltzmann equation. In this method a large number of real molecules are represented by the so called simulated molecules and the state of these molecules is tracked during the simulation as they undergo collisions with each other and with the boundaries. The results show that transient effects contribute to anomalous cooling but are not the only cause of this phenomenon. The time scale over which transient effects are significant is also found to be very close to that of anomalous cooling which implies the real cause of anomalous cooling has some similarities to transient effects. Also regarding gas dynamics of sublimation, two effects in particular have been investigated using DSMC, namely, back flux of sublimed species and formation of shock waves. DSMC results confirm the back flux of sublimed species but no shock wave was observed for the boundary conditions considered in this study.