The study of structure optimization of blast furnace cast steel cooling stave based on heat transfer analysis

The three-dimensional mathematical model of temperature and thermal stress field of cast steel cooling stave in a blast furnace has been modeled. Kinds of the parameters optimization of cast steel cooling stave in a blast furnace are proposed based on the heat transfer analysis. The results indicate that the values of the parameters optimization for a cast steel cooling stave are 200 mm for cooling channels interdistance, 25 mm for inner radius of the water channel, 180 mm for thickness of the cooling stave body, 70 mm for thickness of inlaid brick and 1.5 m/s for speed of cooling water. Reducing the water temperature would be uneconomical. The water temperature can be chosen according to the local conditions. The best choice for lining material is silicon nitrogen bond silicon carbide brick or silicon carbide brick.     

Numerical prediction of buoyancy driven micropolar fluid flow within uniformly heated eccentric annulus

In this paper, the problem of buoyancy driven micropolar fluid flow within an annulus formed between two circular concentric/eccentric tubes has been numerically investigated using Fourier spectral method. The annulus inner wall is uniformly heated and maintained at constant heat flux while the outer wall is cooled and kept at constant temperature. The full governing equations of linear momentum, angular momentum and energy have been solved to give the details of flow and thermal fields. The heat convection process in the annulus is mainly controlled by modified Rayleigh number Ra, Prandtl number Pr, radius ratio Rr, eccentricity, e and material parameters of Micropolar fluid. The material parameters are dimensionless spin gradient viscosity λ, dimensionless micro-inertia density B and dimensionless vortex viscosity D. The study considered a range of modified Ra up to 10⁵ and is carried out at three values of Pr, namely Pr = 0.1, 1.0 and 7.0, and at three values of parameter D, namely, D = 2, 4, 8 while the eccentricity is varied between −0.65 and +0.65. The radius ratio is fixed at 2.6 while the material parameters B and λ are assigned the value of 1. The effect of the controlling parameters on flow and thermal fields has been investigated with emphasis on the effect of these parameters on local and mean inner wall temperatures. The study has shown that for certain controlling parameters the steady mean temperature of inner wall of the annulus is maximum at a certain eccentricity. The study has also shown that as the parameter D increases the steady mean inner wall temperature increases. Moreover, the study has shown that as the Pr increases the mean inner wall temperature decreases.     

Falkner-Skan equation for flow past a stretching surface with suction or blowing: Analytical solutions

The simultaneous effects of suction and injection on tangential movement of a nonlinear power-law stretching surface governed by laminar boundary layer flow of a viscous and incompressible fluid beneath a non-uniform free with stream pressure gradient is considered. The self-similar flow is governed by Falkner-Skan equation, with transpiration parameter γ, wall slip velocity λ and stretching sheet (or pressure gradient) parameter β. The exact solution for β = −1 and three closed form asymptotic solutions for β large, large suction γ, and λ → 1 have also been presented. Dual solutions are found for β = −1 for each value of the transpiration parameter, including the non-permeable surface, for each prescribed value of the wall slip velocity λ. The large β asymptotic solution also dual with respect to wall slip velocity λ, but do not depend on suction and blowing. The critical values of γ, β and λ are obtained and their significance on the skin friction and velocity profiles is discussed. An approximate solution by integral method for a trial velocity profile is presented and results are compared with the exact solutions.     

A non-Newtonian fluid flow model for blood flow through a catheterized artery—Steady flow

In this paper the effects catheterization and non-Newtonian nature of blood in small arteries of diameter less than 100 μm, on velocity, flow resistance and wall shear stress are analyzed mathematically by modeling blood as a Herschel–Bulkley fluid with parameters n and θ and the artery and catheter by coaxial rigid circular cylinders. The influence of the catheter radius and the yield stress of the fluid on the yield plane locations, velocity distributions, flow rate, wall shear stress and frictional resistance are investigated assuming the flow to be steady. It is shown that the velocity decreases as the yield stress increases for given values of other parameters. The frictional resistance as well as the wall shear stress increases with increasing yield stress, whereas the frictional resistance increases and the wall shear stress decreases with increasing catheter radius ratio k (catheter radius to vessel radius). For the range of catheter radius ratio 0.3–0.6, in smaller arteries where blood is modeled by Herschel–Bulkley fluid with yield stress θ = 0.1, the resistance increases by a factor 3.98–21.12 for n = 0.95 and by a factor 4.35–25.09 for n = 1.05. When θ = 0.3, these factors are 7.47–124.6 when n = 0.95 and 8.97–247.76 when n = 1.05.     

A new family of unsteady boundary layers over a stretching surface

In this paper, a new family of unsteady boundary layers over a stretching flat surface was proposed and studied. This new class of unsteady boundary layers involves the flows over a constant speed stretching surface from a slot, and the slot is moving at a certain speed. Depending on the slot moving parameter, the flow can be treated as a stretching sheet problem or a shrinking sheet problem. Both the momentum and thermal boundary layers were studied. Under special conditions, the solutions reduce to the unsteady Rayleigh problem and the steady Sakiadis stretching sheet problem. Solutions only exist for a certain range of the slot moving parameter, α. Two solutions are found for −53.55° < α < −45°. There are also two solution branches for the thermal boundary layers at any given Prandtl number in this range. Compared with the upper solution branch, the lower solution branch leads to simultaneous reduction in wall drag and heat transfer rate. The results also show that the motion of the slot greatly affects the wall drag and heat transfer characteristics near the wall and the temperature and velocity distributions in the fluids.     

Hot deformation behavior and constitutive modeling of VCN200 low alloy steel

The hot working behavior of VCN200 medium carbon low alloy steel was analyzed by performing hot compression tests in temperature range of 850–1150 °C and at strain rates of 0.001–1 s⁻¹. Flow curves were typical of dynamic recrystallization during hot working over temperature range of 900–1150 °C and strain rates of 0.001–1 s⁻¹. However, at lower temperatures no indication of flow softening was observed. The constitutive analysis using the hyperbolic sine function was performed and the value of apparent activation energy for the hot deformation determined to be about 435 kJ/mol. The flow curves up to the peak were successfully modeled using a dynamic recovery model. All the factors in this model were defined in terms of the Zener–Hollomon parameter. A modified form of Avrami equation was used to estimate the fractional softening due to the dynamic recrystallization for any given strain in flow curve. Using this model, the flow curves were successfully predicted and generalized to different deformation conditions.     

Minimum flow problem on network flows with time-varying bounds

In this paper, we consider the minimum flow problem on network flows in which the lower arc capacities vary with time. We will show that this problem for set {0, 1, … , T} of time points can be solved by at most n minimum flow computations, by combining of preflow-pull algorithm and reoptimization techniques (no matter how many values of T are given). Running time of the presented algorithm is O(n²m).     

Enumerating K best paths in length order in DAGs

We address the problem of finding the K best paths connecting a given pair of nodes in a directed acyclic graph (DAG) with arbitrary lengths. One of the main results in this paper is the proof that a tree representing the kth shortest path is obtained by an arc exchange in one of the previous (k − 1) trees (each of which contains a previous best path). An O(m + K(n + log K)) time and O(K + m) space algorithm is designed to explicitly determine the K shortest paths in a DAG with n nodes and m arcs. The algorithm runs in O(m + Kn) time using O(K + m) space in DAGs with integer length arcs. Empirical results confirming the superior performance of the algorithm to others found in the literature for randomly generated graphs are reported.     

Recrystallization behavior of a Nb-microalloyed steel during hot compression

Using a Thermecmastor-Z hot simulator, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and static recrystallization (SRX) behavior of a Nb-microalloyed steel was investigated by single-hit compression tests and double-hit compression tests, respectively. The experimental results show that DRX will more easily occur at higher deformation temperature and lower strain rate. The deformation activation energy and stress exponent for the Nb-microalloyed steel are calculated to be 379.29 ± 23.56 kJ/mol and 5.76 in temperature range of 950 °C to 1100 °C by regression analysis, respectively. Furthermore, a semi-empirical model is developed to identify the peak stress and strain for DRX. It is found that SRX kinetics follows Avrami’s law, and the softening fraction predicted by the model agrees well with experimental results.     

等离子体电弧炉中的传热问题和一个设计原则

本文在供给电弧能量一定的条件下,建立了等离子体电弧炉二维传热模型,其传热系数可以随温度而变化。经过一些函数变换并采用分离变量法,给出了气体热流势和等离子体电弧炉传热效率η的分析表达式。最后本文还给出了传热效率η关于电弧与熔炼物间无量纲距离r₀和另一个无量纲量1/Q(以下详细说明)的简单的线性关系,它提供了一个电弧设计原则。     

Inverse minimum cost flow problems under the weighted Hamming distance

Given a network N(V, A, u, c) and a feasible flow x⁰, an inverse minimum cost flow problem is to modify the cost vector as little as possible to make x⁰ form a minimum cost flow of the network. The modification can be measured by different norms. In this paper, we consider the inverse minimum cost flow problems, where the modification of the arcs is measured by the weighted Hamming distance. Both the sum-type and the bottleneck-type cases are considered. For the former, it is shown to be APX-hard due to the weighted feedback arc set problem. For the latter, we present a strongly polynomial algorithm which can be done in O(n · m²).     

Inverse heat conduction problem in a thin circular plate and its thermal deflection

An inverse problem of transient heat conduction in a thin finite circular plate with the given temperature distribution on the interior surface of a thin circular plate being a function of both time and position has been solved with the help of integral transform technique and also determine the thermal deflection on the outer curved surface of a thin circular plate defined as 0 ? r ? a, 0 ? z ? h. The results, obtained in the series form in terms of Bessel’s functions, are illustrated numerically.     

Effect of aligned magnetic field on the steady viscous flow past a circular cylinder

The steady viscous incompressible and slightly conducting fluid flow around a circular cylinder with an aligned magnetic field is simulated for the range of Reynolds numbers 100 ? Re ? 500 using the Hartmann number, M. The multigrid method with defect correction technique is used to achieve the second order accurate solution of complete non-linear Navier–Stokes equations. The magnetic Reynolds number is assumed to be small. It is observed that volume of the separation bubble decreases and drag coefficient increases as M is increased. We noticed that the upstream base pressure increases slightly with increase of M whereas downstream base pressure decreases with increase of M. The effect of the magnetic field on the flow is discussed with contours of streamlines, vorticity, plots of surface pressure and surface vorticity.     

Approximation algorithms for constructing some required structures in digraphs

We consider a new problem of constructing some required structures in digraphs, where all arcs installed in such required structures are supposed to be cut from some pieces of a specific material of length L. Formally, we consider the model: a digraph D = (V, A; w), a structure S and a specific material of length L, where w: A → R⁺, we are asked to construct a subdigraph D′ from D, having the structure S, such that each arc in D′ is constructed by a part of a piece or/and some whole pieces of such a specific material, the objective is to minimize the number of pieces of such a specific material to construct all arcs in D′.     

Thermal dispersion driven by the spontaneous imbibition process

In this work, we have theoretically analyzed the thermal dispersion process under the influence of the spontaneous imbibition of a liquid trapped in a capillary element, considering the presence of a uniform temperature gradient. The capillary element is represented by a porous medium which is initially found at temperature T₀ and pressure P₀. Suddenly, the lower part of the porous medium touches a liquid reservoir at temperature T_l and pressure P₀. This contact between both phases, in turn causes spontaneously the imbibition process. Using a one-dimensional formulation of the average conservation laws, we derive the corresponding nondimensional momentum and energy equations. The numerical solutions permit us to evaluate the position and velocity of the imbibition front as well as the temperature profiles and Nusselt numbers. The above results are shown by taking into account the influence of three dimensionless parameters: the ratio of the characteristic thermal time to the characteristic imbibition time, β, the ratio of the hydrostatic head of the imbibed liquid to the characteristic pressure difference for the imbibition front, α, and the ratio of the dispersive thermal diffusivity to the effective thermal diffusivity of the medium, Ω. The predictions show that temperature profiles and the heat transfer process are strongly dependent on thermal dispersion effects, indicating a clear deviation in comparison with the case of Ω = 0 that represents the absence of the thermal dispersion.     

A multi-round generalization of the traveling tournament problem and its application to Japanese baseball

In a double round-robin tournament involving n teams, every team plays 2(n − 1) games, with one home game and one away game against each of the other n − 1 teams. Given a symmetric n by n matrix representing the distances between each pair of home cities, the traveling tournament problem (TTP) seeks to construct an optimal schedule that minimizes the sum total of distances traveled by the n teams as they move from city to city, subject to several natural constraints to ensure balance and fairness. In the TTP, the number of rounds is set at r = 2. In this paper, we generalize the TTP to multiple rounds (r = 2k, for any k ? 1) and present an algorithm that converts the problem to finding the shortest path in a directed graph, enabling us to apply Dijkstra’s Algorithm to generate the optimal multi-round schedule. We apply our shortest-path algorithm to optimize the league schedules for Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan, where two leagues of n = 6 teams play 40 sets of three intra-league games over r = 8 rounds. Our optimal schedules for the Pacific and Central Leagues achieve a 25% reduction in total traveling distance compared to the 2010 NPB schedule, implying the potential for considerable savings in terms of time, money, and greenhouse gas emissions.     

Acoustic fluid flow through holes and permeability of perforated walls

We first study the unsteady incompressible fluid flow through a hole in a wall in the two- and three-dimensional cases. In the first case, a convolution relation is obtained between the fluid flux through the hole and the difference of pressure between the far regions on the two sides of the wall. In the two-dimensional case, the pressure increases logarithmically with distance from the wall. In a second part, we study acoustic flow in a domain containing a wall with many small holes. The distance between two contiguous holes is of order η and the size of each hole, ε (η and ε are two small parameters). In the three-dimensional case the critical behaviour appears for ε = η²: it is described by a convolution relation between the flow through the wall and the jump of pressure. In the two-dimensional case, the critical behaviour appears if η log ε tends to a constant; there is a differential relation between the flow through the wall and the jump of pressure.     

Wall effect on determination of laminar burning velocity in a constant volume bomb using a quasi-dimensional model

In experiment, two optical and pressure-based methods are frequently used to evaluate laminar burning velocity of a combustible mixture. In the currently reported work, the pressure-based method was utilized to find the laminar burning velocity using the measurement of pressure variations during the combustion process in a spherical bomb and analyzing them through a multi-zone quasi-dimensional model. To check the results of the method, isooctane–air mixtures were used at equivalence ratios of 0.85 and 1.0 and initial pressures of 95 and 150 kPa with 343 K initial temperature. The time history of the bomb pressure during the combustion event, initial pressure and temperature, fuel type, and equivalence ratio were applied as input to a Fortran program written by the author based on the multi-zone combustion model; and, flame radius-time, flame speed, and laminar burning velocity at different pressures and temperatures were evaluated assuming spherical flame growth. The obtained results were compared with those of some other researchers and a reasonable agreement was observed. The wall effect on the laminar burning velocity at the end of the combustion process was clearly highlighted and a reliable range of burning velocity was distinguished. The results showed that the evaluated laminar burning velocity was not reliable at the late part of the combustion process due to possible local contact of flame front and the bomb wall, the wall effect on the reacting species, flow to small crevices, and the boundary layer effect.     

Axi symmetric 2D simulation and numerical heat transfer characteristics for the calibration furnace in a rectangular enclosure

This paper presents axi symmetric 2D numerical investigation of the spherical thermocouple calibration furnace in a rectangular enclosure. The focus is on the flow structure inside the Saturn (a hollow spherical cavity), external flow behavior due to annulus block heating and the surface temperature uniformity. Mesh sensitivity analysis is adopted to extract the mesh with minimum number of nodes but with fast convergent finite element solution. The basic strategy here is that temperature perturbation error at a single point instead of a single element contributed to the total perturbation error qualitatively remains the same. Agreement between numerical simulation results and the experiment results is good with a maximum temperature deviation 10 °C for the cavity temperature 400 °C. Finally, standard numerical temperature uncertainty due to variation in thermal conductivity is computed through the sensitivity coefficient using uncertainty analysis.