Optimization of Output Power and Thermal Efficiency of Solar‐Dish Stirling Engine Using Finite Time Thermodynamic Analysis

This paper presents an investigation on finite time thermodynamic (FTT) evaluation of a solar‐dish Stirling heat engine. FTTs has been applied to determine the output power and the corresponding thermal efficiency, exergetic efficiency, and the rate of entropy generation of a solar Stirling system with a finite rate of heat transfer, regenerative heat loss, conductive thermal bridging loss, and finite regeneration process time. Further imperfect performance of the dish collector and convective/radiative heat transfer mechanisms in the hot end as well as the convective heat transfer in the heat sink of the engine are considered in the developed model. The output power of the engine is maximized while the highest temperature of the engine is considered as a design parameter. In addition, thermal efficiency, exergetic efficiency, and the rate of entropy generation corresponding to the optimum value of the output power is evaluated. Results imply that the optimized absorber temperature is some where between 850 K and 1000 K. Sensitivity of results against variations of the system parameters are studied in detail. The present analysis provides a good theoretical guidance for the designing of dish collectors and operating the Stirling heat engine system.     

Effect of Tool Rotation Rate on Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior of Friction Stir Spot-Welded Al/Cu Composite

In this study, the friction stir spot welding of Al/Cu composite produced by accumulative roll-bonding process was performed using a triangular pin with no features. The influence of tool rotation rate on the microstructure, surface hardness, and tensile shear strength was examined. The results indicated that the weld made at lower tool rotation rate was not bonded because there was no intermixing between the upper and lower sheets. The maximum shear failure load increased with the increasing tool rotation rate, and reached a maximum value at 1400 rpm, which can be ascribed to the increasing area and effective length (d) of stir zone (SZ). The experimental observations showed the presence of the intermetallic compounds (Al₂Cu and AlCu₃) in the SZ. It was concluded that the intermetallic compounds, accompanied by the material crushing, increased the hardness of the SZ.     

Compositional analysis and rheological characterization of gum tragacanth exudates from six species of Iranian Astragalus

The sugar composition and viscoelastic behaviour of Iranian gum tragacanth exuded by six species of Astragalus was investigated at a concentration of 1.3% and varying ionic strength using a controlled shear-rate rheometer. Compositional analysis of the six species of gum tragacanth by high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection suggested the occurrence of arabinose, xylose, glucose, galactose, fucose, rhamnose and galacturonic acid residues in the gum structure; however, the proportions of each sugar varied significantly among the gums from the different species of Astragalus, and this variation led to interesting differences in functional properties. Rheological measurements performed on dispersions of the six species of gum tragacanth demonstrated viscoelastic properties. The mechanical spectra derived from strain sweep and frequency sweep measurements indicated that the different gum tragacanth dispersions had distinctive viscoelastic behaviours. Investigation of the viscoelastic properties of the different gum dispersions in the presence of NaCl revealed that the addition of NaCl could lead to slight to drastic decreases in the G′, G″ or η^∗ values of the various gums. In general, the results indicated that the six varieties of gum tragacanth studied exhibited significantly different rheological properties; therefore, these different gums may find use in a variety of applications as stabilisers, thickeners, emulsifiers and suspending agents depending on their rheological behaviour.     

Thermoeconomic optimization of a shell and tube condenser using both genetic algorithm and particle swarm

This paper presents a thermoeconomic optimization of a shell and tube condenser, based on two new optimization methods, namely genetic and particle swarm (PS) algorithms. The procedure is selected to find the optimal total cost including investment and operation cost of the condenser. Initial cost includes condenser surface area and operational cost includes pump output power to overcome the pressure loss. Design parameters are tube number, number of tube pass, inlet and outlet tube diameters, tube pitch ratio and tube arrangements (30, 45, 60 and 90°). Therefore, shell diameter should be selected less than 7 m, tube length should be less than 15 m, and ratio of diameter to tube length should be in the range of 1/12 to 1/3. In addition, it is found that GA provides better results for computer CPU running time, compared to PS algorithm. Finally, a sensitivity analysis of design parameters at the optimal point is conducted. Results show that an increase in the tube number leads to decrease in the objective function first then it leads to a considerable increment in objective function.     

Thermo‐economic‐environmental multiobjective optimization of a gas turbine power plant with preheater using evolutionary algorithm

In this study, the gas turbine power plant with preheater is modeled and the simulation results are compared with one of the gas turbine power plants in Iran namely Yazd Gas Turbine. Moreover, multiobjective optimization has been performed to find the best design variables. The design parameters of the present study are selected as: air compressor pressure ratio (r_AC), compressor isentropic efficiency (η_AC), gas turbine isentropic efficiency (η_GT), combustion chamber inlet temperature (T₃) and gas turbine inlet temperature. In the optimization approach, the exergetic, economic and environmental aspects have been considered. In multiobjective optimization, the three objective functions, including the gas turbine exergy efficiency, total cost rate of the system production including cost rate of environmental impact and CO₂ emission, have been considered. The thermoenvironomic objective function is minimized while power plant exergy efficiency is maximized using a genetic algorithm. To have a good insight into this study, a sensitivity analysis of the results to the interest rate as well as fuel cost has been performed. In addition, the results showed that at the lower exergetic efficiency in which the weight of thermoenvironomic objective is higher, the sensitivity of the optimal solutions to the fuel cost is much higher than the location of Pareto Frontier with the lower weight of thermoenvironomic objective. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Particle Transport and Deposition in a Hot-Gas Cleanup Pilot Plant

ABSTRACT

Development of hot-gas filtration systems for advanced clean coal technologies has attracted considerable attention in recent years. The Integrated Gasification and Cleanup Facility (IGCF), which is an experimental pilot plant for testing performance of ceramic candle filters for hot-gas cleaning, has been operational at the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) in Morgantown, West Virginia, for several years. The present work describes a computer simulation study of gas flow and particle transport and deposition in the IGCF filter vessel with four filters. The stress transport model of FLUENT? code is used for evaluating the gas mean velocity and the root mean-square fluctuation velocity fields in the IGCF filter vessel. The instantaneous fluctuation velocity vector field is simulated by a filtered Gaussian white-noise model. Ensembles of particle trajectories are evaluated using the recently developed PARTICLE code. The model equations of the code include the effects of lift and Brownian motion in addition to gravity. The particle deposition patterns on the ceramic filters are evaluated, and the effect of particle size is studied. The results show that, for a clean filter (just after the backpulse), the initial deposition rate of particles on the candle filters is highly nonuniform. Furthermore, particles of different sizes have somewhat different deposition patterns, which could lead to nonuniform cake compositions and thicknesses along the candle filters. The effects of variations in the filter permeability on the vessel gas flow patterns and the pressure drop, as well as on particle transport patterns, are also studied.     

Dairy Cattle Breeding Simulation Program: A simulation program to teach animal breeding principles and practices

A dairy cattle breeding simulation program (DCBSP v.4.9) has been developed to teach undergraduate and graduate students animal breeding principles associated with selection for multiple traits in dairy cattle. The current version of the program was written in FORTRAN 90, and a web-based interface was developed for the students to interact with the program in the teaching environment. This software simulates a population of dairy cattle herds and artificial insemination bulls through several generations by integrating students’ decisions about mating, culling, and selection of new heifers and bulls based on a multivariate animal mixed model evaluation and marker-assisted selection. All simulation parameters (e.g., number of herds and cows per herd, variance components, effect of genetic markers) can be defined by the administrator of the program in relation to the animal breeding course. During each running period, the program simulates the composition of each herd during a virtual year, generating new calves and new productive records and performing a genetic evaluation for all productive traits. A herd-specific productive summary of all demographic, productive, and genetic data is provided to the students at the end of each simulation period. After several running periods, the genetic trend can be evaluated, providing a realistic experience for the development of animal breeding skills that will be relevant to students with a basic knowledge of animal breeding. Earlier versions of this program have been used at several universities where it has proven to be a very useful teaching tool to illustrate the theoretical basis of animal breeding in livestock.     

Flow over trapezoidal side weir

In this paper, the hydraulic characteristics of a sharp crested trapezoidal side weir have been experimentally and theoretically investigated. It was found that the DeMarchi coefficient of discharge for a sharp crested trapezoidal side weir in subcritical flow is related to the main channel Froude number, the side slope of weir, ratio of weir height to upstream depth of flow and ratio of weir length to upstream depth of flow. Suitable equations for the discharge coefficient are also obtained.     

Copolymerization of ethylene/α‐olefins using bis(2‐phenylindenyl)zirconium dichloride metallocene catalyst: structural study of comonomer distribution

Catalysts have a major role in the polymerization of olefins and exert their influence in three ways: (1) polymerization behaviour, including polymerization activity and kinetics; (2) polymer particle morphology, including bulk density, particle size, particle size distribution and particle shape; and (3) polymer microstructure, including molecular weight regulation, chemical composition distribution and short‐ and long‐chain branching. By tailoring the catalyst structure, such as the creation of a bridge or introducing a substituent on the ligand, metallocene catalysts can play a major role in the achievement of desirable properties. Kinetic profiles of the metallocene catalyst used in this study showed decay‐type behaviour for copolymerization of ethylene/α‐olefins. It was observed that increasing the comonomer ratio in the feedstock affected physical properties such as reducing the melting temperature, crystallinity, density and molecular weight of the copolymers. It was also observed that the heterogeneity of the chemical composition distribution and the physical properties were enhanced as the comonomer molecular weight was increased. In particular, 2‐phenyl substitution on the indenyl ring reduced somewhat the melting point of the copolymers. In addition, the copolymer produced using bis(2‐phenylindenyl)zirconium dichloride (bis(2‐PhInd)ZrCl₂) catalyst exhibited a narrower distribution of lamellae (0.3–0.9 nm) than the polymer produced using bisindenylzirconium dichloride catalyst (0.5–3.6 nm). The results obtained indicate that the bis(2‐PhInd)ZrCl₂ catalyst showed a good comonomer incorporation ability. The heterogeneity of the chemical composition distribution and the physical properties were influenced by the type of comonomer and type of substituent in the catalyst. Copyright © 2010 Society of Chemical Industry