Numerical study on electrostatic potential distribution of large cylindrical oil tanks

This study carried out a numerical simulation of electrostatic potential distribution in the cylindrical oil tank, focusing on spatial distribution of electrostatic potential and the variation tendency of the potential in the filling operation. Electrostatic potential distribution of stationary oil was illustrated, and the relationship between the electrostatic potential distribution and some parameters of the tank and oil was analyzed as well. Dynamic electrostatic distribution was studied when charged oil is filling into the tank, and ESD prevention measures’ effects on electrostatic potential distribution were simulated. Finally, calculation results of two other types of oil tanks were presented in brief.     

A new method for numerical differentiation based on direct and inverse problems of partial differential equations

In this paper, we mainly study a numerical differentiation problem which aims to approximate the second order derivative of a single variable function from its noise data. By transforming the problem into a combination of direct and inverse problems of partial differential equations (heat conduction equations), a new method that we call the PDEs-based numerical differentiation method is proposed. By means of the finite element method and the Tikhonov regularization, implementations of the proposed PDEs-based method are presented with a posterior strategy for choosing regularization parameters. Numerical results show that the PDEs-based numerical differentiation method is highly feasible and stable with respect to data noise.     

MHD squeezed flow of water functionalized metallic nanoparticles over a sensor surface

Present study is devoted to analyze the magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) squeezed flow of nanofluid over a sensor surface. Modeling of the problem is based on the geometry and the interaction of three different kinds of metallic nanoparticles namely: copper (Cu), alumina (Al₂O₃) and titanium dioxide (TiO₂) with the homogeneous mixture of base fluid (water). The self-similar numerical solutions are presented for the reduced form of the system of coupled ordinary differential equations. The effects of nanoparticles volume friction, permeable velocity and squeezing parameter for the flow and heat transfer within the boundary layer are presented through graphs. Comparison among the solvent are constructed for both skin friction and Nusselt number. Flow behavior of the working nanofluid according to the present geometry has analyzed through Stream lines. Conclusion is drawn on the basis of entire investigation and it is found that in squeezing flow phenomena Cu–water gives the better heat transfer performance as compare with the rest of mixtures.     

A refined numerical model for determining inflation-burst behavior of composite membrane structures

The airship structures made of multi-layer composite fabrics or membranes can offer the platform for earth observations, wireless communications and space research due to light weight and good mechanical performance. The structural safety and serviceability strongly depend on material properties and working conditions. Available studies are limited within service stress limits or are lack of suitable biaxial tensile constitutive models for understanding structural behavior. This paper thus focuses on a refined numerical model for determining inflation-burst behavior of composite airship structures considering new biaxial constitutive equations, novel failure criteria and manufacture factors.The differences between ideal and real forms of airship structures, e.g. volume difference, demonstrate the necessity for incorporating cutting-pattern effects in the initial numerical model. For structural analysis, stress distributions on real structural forms are different from those on ideal forms because of welding parts that can enhance local stiffness. The ultimate pressures are 56.7 kPa and 59.5 kPa for ideal and real structural forms. Structural breaking initiated at the maximum diameter of ideal structural forms propagates fast while welding parts can prevent breaking propagation for real structural forms. Therefore, the refined numerical model can reveal basic structural behavior and safety performance of airship structures in the inflation-burst processes.     

Numerical investigation on cold flow dynamics of supercritical water fluidized bed reactor with inclined distributor: Design and scale up

Supercritical water fluidized bed reactor (SCWFBR) is a novel concept for the gasification of coal and biomass to produce hydrogen. In this work, to enhance the mixing in the axial direction, an inclined distributor is introduced to optimize the flow dynamics in SCWFBR with partitioned fluid supply. Through numerical simulations based on the two fluid model (TFM), the effects of the inclined distributor structure and operating parameters on the solid distribution and the residence time are evaluated with the optimal values determined. Numerical results show that, area ratio = 2:1, SCW velocity ratio = 3:1, flow ratio = 3.36:1 and inclination angle = 20° are the optimal design in this paper. A predictive correlation of the minimum fluidization velocity for the improved SCWFBR is also proposed based on the numerical data. The average error between the correlation and numerical simulation results is approximately 1.4% which strongly demonstrates its capability. Finally, based on the optimal design, the lab-scale reactor is further scaled up and the studies about two scale-up rules are carried out. Only the cold flow is simulated in this study without considering chemical reaction which would be involved in future work.     

A two-phase, two-component model for vertical upward gas-liquid annular flow

In this paper, a new two-fluid two-component computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to simulate vertical upward two-phase annular flow. The two-phase VOF scheme is utilized to model the roll wave flow, and the gas core is described by a two-component phase consisting of liquid droplets and gas phase. The entrainment and deposition processes are taken into account by source terms of the governing equations. Unlike the previous models, the newly developed model includes the effect of liquid roll waves directly determined from the CFD code, which is able to provide more detailed and, the most important, more self-standing information for both the gas core flow and the film flow as well as their interactions. Predicted results are compared with experimental data, and a good agreement is achieved.     

Thermophysical effects of carbon nanotubes on MHD flow over a stretching surface

This article is intended for investigating the effects of magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and volume fraction of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) on the flow and heat transfer in two lateral directions over a stretching sheet. For this purpose, three types of base fluids specifically water, ethylene glycol and engine oil with single and multi-walled carbon nanotubes are used in the analysis. The convective boundary condition in the presence of CNTs is presented first time and not been explored so far. The transformed nonlinear differential equations are solved by the Runge–Kutta–Fehlberg method with a shooting technique. The dimensionless velocity and shear stress are obtained in both directions. The dimensionless heat transfer is determined on the surface. Three different models of thermal conductivity are comparable for both CNTs and it is found that the Xue [1] model gives the best approach to guess the superb thermal conductivity in comparison with the Maxwell [2] and Hamilton and Crosser [3] models. And finally, another finding suggests the engine oil provides the highest skin friction and heat transfer rates.     

Synthesis of narrow bandwidth flat-top ns pulse with multi-ultra-short pulses

Making use of the spectral narrowing of ultra-short pulses subject to amplification in the gain bandwidth media, a multi-ultra-short pulse coherent synthesizer (MUSPCS) developed from the traditional regenerative amplifier is proposed, and its operational principle is described. In the small signal gain regime, the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation on the MUSPCS have been made. The simulation results show that the narrow bandwidth flat-top long pulse can be composed if the parameters were controlled carefully.     

Density measurement for polymers by magneto-Archimedes levitation: Simulation and experiments

In a magneto-Archimedes levitation device, a polymer can be levitated in a paramagnetic medium, and its equilibrium levitated height is mainly related to its density. Here, a novel density measurement method for polymers via magneto-Archimedes levitation is proposed, in which the relationship between the density and the levitated height is determined through numerical simulation. COMSOL software is employed to simulate the distribution of magnetic field in the device, and FLUENT-EDEM multiphase software is adopted to predict the polymer's levitated height. A 3rd-order polynomial equation is fitted by simulation results for density calculation. Several experiments with different devices, different magnets, different mediums, and various polymers were carried out to verify the proposed method. Experimental results showed that the proposed method has high accuracy (0.0060–0.0130 g/cm³) in density measurements for small polymer samples (∼25 mm³). In general, the proposed method has prospects of broad application in polymer density-based testing.