This thesis outlines a new approach to the Design and Development (D&D) of domestic boilers at the manufacturing company Potterton Limited. The project need was born out of changes in the marketplace, where competitive pressures demanded improvements in efficiency, reliability and value for money (the three key success factors). Working under senior management several inter-related application areas were identified, leading to new research in both the application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), and the management of the design process. The initial work focussed on performing a competitor benchmarking exercise and design literature review, with the objective of developing a new boiler design and management system. The Systematic Design methodology was utilised to develop an improved design concept using the three key success factors. At this stage a commercial CFD package (CFX) was procured to form the basis of a design tool, and the original strategy modified to incorporate a full validation program against an existing Potterton boiler. Three additional investigations were identified to provide the information and technology necessary for producing an effective management system. A technique known as Quality Function Deployment was utilised to derive a better understanding of customer requirements. An NVQ based skills model was developed for proactively managing the training and development needs of engineers, and the future technology orientation of the company investigated under the smart design project. The focus of the CFD work has been on the development of methodologies capable of simulating the boiler functions of turbulent pre-mixing, combustion, sensible heat transfer and condensation formation, In-depth development programs are presented on each of these areas, with a consideration of geometry, mesh, physical models and validation against experimental data. All validation data has been collected from a smallscale experimental investigation, where pressure, velocity, temperature and turbulence data has been measured under both hot and cold operating conditions. For each function a recommended approach is presented which can be used to investigate and improve boiler performance in terms of the three key success factors. The combination of these functions will form the basis of a boiler analysis tool, which will be used at the company.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:613428 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Humphris, C. C. |
| Publisher | University of Manchester |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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