The purpose of a heat pump is to control the temperature of an enclosed space. This is done by using heat exchange with a heat source, for example water, air, or ground. In the air source heat pump that has been studied during this master thesis, a refrigerant exchanges heat with the outdoor air and with a water distribution system. The heat pump is controlled through the circuit containing the refrigerant and it is therefore crucial that this circuit is functional. To ensure this, a diagnosis system has been created, to be able to detect and isolate sensor errors. The diagnosis system is based on mathematical models of the refrigerant circuit with its main components: a compressor, an expansion valve, a plate heat exchanger, an air heat exchanger, and a four-way valve. Data has been collected from temperature- and pressure sensors on an air source heat pump. The data has then been divided into data for model estimation and data for model validation. The models are used to create test quantities, which in turn are used by a diagnosis algorithm to determine whether an error has occurred or not. There are nine temperature sensors and two pressure sensors on the studied air source heat pump. Four fault modes have been investigated for each sensor: Stuck, Offset, Short circuit and Open circuit. The designed diagnosis system is able to detect all of the investigated error modes and isolate 40 out of 44 single errors. However, there is room for improvement by constructing more test quantities to detect errors and decouple more fault modes. To further develop the diagnosis system, the existing models can be improved and new models can be created.

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High pressure vapour-liquid equilibrium experiments were undertaken with a static high-pressure apparatus designed by Prof. J. D. Raal and commissioned by Prof. D. Ramjugernath. Isothermal VLE binary data data was measured at moderate temperatures and pressures ranging from atmospheric to 7.2 bar. The equipment had a combined operating pressure and temperature limit of approximately 150 bar and 215° C respectively. The apparatus was initially designed for the measurement of gas-liquid binary systems- where one of the components was supercritical at the operating conditions. Test data were measured for the pentane + ethanol system at 100.41°C. The 2-methyl-2-butene + TAME, hydrocarbon + olefin system, was observed at 70°C, 94.6°C and 104.5°C. The apparatus was modified for the measurement of binary systems containing sub-critical components at the operating conditions specified. An injection port was installed on the apparatus assembly such that the second component of the binary system could be introduced into the equilibrium cell. The binary VLE data was regressed using various thermodynamic models. The direct method or phi-phi approach was considered. The equations of state models used in the regression were the Peng-Robinson-Stryjek-Vera (PRSV) and Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK). The 1-fluid van der Waals, Wong and Sandler mixing rules were selected to estimate binary interactions. The excess Gibbs energy equations coupled with the Wong and Sandler mixing rules were the NRTL and WILSON equations. / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Phase equilibrium data are vital in process design for chemical industries. Development of / Thesis (M.Sc.Eng.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2006.

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Physical vapour deposition (PVD) techniques used for the application of advanced surface engineering materials have been developed over many years, but only in about the last 10 years has the unbalanced magnetron sputtering (UBMS) PVD technique been developed and emerged as one of the most promising techniques for depositing reliable and high quality films used in industrial production. Hard coatings have been studied for many years for the purpose of improving the performance of various tools, mechanical parts, and engineering components. The most studied binary hard coatings (such as stoichiometric titanium nitrides and titanium carbides) and the ternary hard coating (such as titanium carbonitride) have been developed for wear resistance for many years. Although many investigations have been made into the production of coatings with stoichiometric phases, it is both scientifically and commercially interesting to investigate the production and reproducibility of the pure titanium sub-nitride Ti2N films. The first results in chapter 5 describe work carried out to investigate the effect of nitrogen and carbon concentration within the films and was a prelude to the main activity of the development of Ti2N films using commercial conditions. The work for Ti2N was carried out without substrate rotation in the UBMS coating process. The static deposition processes were studied to give a better understanding of the effect of partial pressures on the compositions of the Ti-N films. The phase development as a function of the composition of the films was investigated. The main contribution during this procedure was to achieve a suitable range of nitrogen partial pressure by which the films containing pure Ti2N phase were produced using a UBMS deposition technique. The nitrogen content of the film was very sensitive to variation in nitrogen partial pressure and the nitrogen concentration influenced the phases developed in the films. The reproducibility of the pure Ti2N phase was also discussed in this initial work. A series of extensive experiments were conducted to investigate the formation of Ti2N phase in the UBMS deposition processes using one to three fold rotations. The nitrogen partial pressure of the deposition process was basically determined from the results of the initial work. The effect of substrate rotation on the film composition during processing was studied. In general the film deposited using substrate rotation consisted of different composition using the same chamber condition in one process in which the nitrogen content of the coating increased from one fold rotation to three fold rotation. The film containing dominant eTi2N phase could be produced on a sample using three fold rotation in a process whilst the multiphase compositions (aTiN0.3 + eTi2N) were developed on the sample using the one and two fold rotations in the same process. Characteristics of the eTi2N films and the films containing multiphase compositions were investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), glow discharge optical emission spectrometer (GDOES), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and a variety of mechanical testing instruments. The eTi2N films have very smooth surface, very dense and fine columnar structure, relatively high hardness, and excellent adhesion with the substrate. The drilling tests using coated high speed steel drills compared the coatings containing eTi2N phase with those containing a single TiN phase and showed excellent wear resistant results.6.

>Magister Scientiae - MSc / In this thesis we report on the deposition of silicon nanostructures using a 3-zone thermal chemical vapour deposition process at atmospheric pressure. Nickel and gold thin films, deposited by DC sputtering on crystalline silicon substrates, were used as the catalyst material required for vapour-solid-liquid growth mechanism of the Si nanostructures. The core of this work is centred around the effect of catalyst type, substrate temperature and the source-to-substrate distance on the structural and optical properties of the resultant Si nanostructures, using argon as the carrier gas and Si powder as the source. The morphology and internal structure of the Si nanostructures was probed by using high resolution scanning and transmission electron microscopy, respectively. The crystallinity was measured by x-ray diffraction and the high resolution transmission electron microscopy. For composition and elemental analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to quantify the bonding configuration, while electron energy-loss spectroscopy in conjunction with electron dispersion spectroscopy reveals the composition. Photoluminescence and UV-visible spectroscopy was used to extract the emission and reflection properties of the synthesized nanostructures.