Oxidative stability of high-fatty acid rice bran oil at different stages of refining

The contents of natural antioxidants and the oxidative stability of rice bran oils at different refining steps were determined. Tocopherols and oryzanols were constant in crude and degummed oils but decreased in alkali-refined, bleached and deodorized oils. The process of degumming, alkali-refining, bleaching and deodorization removed 34% of the tocopherols and 51% of the oryzanols. During storage of deodorized oil for 7 wk, 34% of the tocopherols and 19% of the oryzanols were lost. The maximum weight gain, peroxide value and anisidine value were obtained from alkali-refined oil during storage. The order of oxidation stability was crude ≥ degummed > bleached = deodorized > alkali-refined oil.     

Spring-back characteristics of fiber metal laminate (GLARE) in brake forming process

The brake forming process has been considered as a feasible method for producing fiber metal laminate (GLARE) stringer. However, the spring-back developed during brake forming leads to serious problems in the final dimensional tolerance of the stringer. A series of experiments were performed to examine the effect of tool design and process parameters on the spring-back of GLARE. The parameters studied include punch radius, punch speed, forming load, and forming temperature. This paper shows that both design and process parameters can significantly affect the amount of spring-back. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was also carried out for the observation of delamination or cracking in the bent zone.     

Large eddy simulation of flow characteristics in an unconfined slot impinging jet with various nozzle-to-plate distances

To study the detailed flow structure of the unconfined plane impinging jet, a 3-dimensional flow analysis is carried out focused on the flow mechanism with the non-dimensional distance, L/d, as flow parameter by using the LES turbulent technique. The symbols d and L represent the nozzle width and the nozzle-to-plate distance, respectively. Then, the flow structures along both the stream-wise and spanwise direction are investigated. For these purposes, the plane impinging jet with Reynolds number of 11,000 is analyzed. The nozzle width was fixed at 1.5mm, but the nozzle-to-plate distance was varied between 4mm and 24mm. As a result, the plane impinging jet shows different flow patterns with L/d. In conclusion, the plane impinging jet is classified into three types with the non-dimensional variable, L/d. L/d≤4: Stable impinging jet, 4<L/d<11: periodically-stable impinging jet and L/d≥11: Unstable impinging jet.     

Inverse estimation of properties for charring material using a hybrid genetic algorithm

Fire characteristics can be analyzed more realistically by using more accurate material properties related to the fire dynamics and one way to acquire these fire properties is to use one of the inverse property estimation techniques. In this study an optimization algorithm which is frequently applied for the inverse heat transfer problems is selected to demonstrate the procedure of obtaining fire properties of a solid charring material with relatively simple chemical structure. Thermal decomposition is occurred at the surface of the test plate by receiving the radiative energy from external heat sources and in this process the heat transfer through the test plate can be simplified by an unsteady one dimensional problem. The input parameters for the analyses are the surface temperature and mass loss rate of the char plate which are determined from the actual experiment of from the unsteady one-dimensional analysis with a given set of eight properties. The performance of hybrid genetic algorithm (HGA) is compare with a basic genetic algorithm (GA) in order to examine its performance. This comparison is carried out for the inverse property problem of estimating the fire properties related to the reaction pyrolysis of some relatively simple materials; redwood and red oak. Results show that the hybrid genetic algorithm has better performance in estimating the eight pyrolysis properties than the genetic algorithm.     

Investigations on welding residual stress and distortion in a cylinder assembly by means of a 3D finite element method and experiments

In the present work, both experimental and numerical simulation methods are used to investigate the characteristics of welding distortion and residual stress distribution. A 3D thermo-mechanical Finite Element Analysis (FEA) method is used to predict the welding distortion and residual stress of cylinder-shaped multi-pass layer weldments. Each weld pass is performed using a quarter-circle balanced welding procedure. To investigate the influence of deposition sequence and welding heat input on the welding distortion and residual stress, a continuous welding procedure is also calculated. The corresponding FEA models considered a moving heat source, the deposition sequence, and temperature-dependent thermal and mechanical properties. The results predicted by 3D FEA model are generally in good agreement with the measurements. Finally, the numerical and experimental results suggest that both deposition sequence and heat input affect welding distortion and residual stress distribution. Furthermore, the 3D thermal-mechanical FEA method can predict cylinder-type welding distortion.     

Diagnostic flow metering using ultrasound tomography

For an accurate flow metering without considering the influences of flow control devices such as valves and elbows in closed conduits, velocity distribution in the cross-sectional area must be integrated. However, most flow meters, including multi-path ultrasonic, electromagnetic or Coriolis mass flow meters, require assumptions on the fully-developed turbulent flows to calculate flow rates from physical quantities of their own concern. Therefore, a long straight pipe has been a necessary element for accurate flow metering because the straight pipe can reduce flow disturbances caused by flow control devices. To reduce costs due to the installation of long straight pipes, another flow metering technique is required. For example, flow rates can be estimated by integrating velocity distributions in the crosssection of conduits. In the present study, ultrasound tomography was used to find the velocity distribution in the cross-section of a closed conduit where flow was disturbed by a Coriolis mass flow meter or a butterfly valve. A commercial multi-path ultrasonic flow meter was installed in the pipeline to measure the line-averaged velocity distribution in the pipe flow. The ultrasonic flow meter was rotated 180° at intervals of 10° to construct line-averaged velocity distributions in Radon space. Flow images were reconstructed by using a backprojection algorithm (inverse Radon transform). Flow diagnostic parameters were defined by calculating statistical moments, i.e., average, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis, based on the normalized velocity distribution. The flow diagnostic parameters were applied to flow images to find whether the parameters could discern flow disturbances in the reconstructed velocity distribution.     

Numerical study on the range enhancement of a centrifugal compressor with a ring groove system

A numerical study of casing treatments on a centrifugal compressor to improve stability and stall margin is presented. High efficiency, high pressure ratio, and a wide operating range are required for a high-performance centrifugal compressor. A ring groove casing treatment is effective for flow range enhancement in centrifugal compressors. Compressor performance was analyzed according to the ring groove location, and the results were compared with the case without a ring groove. The effect of guide vanes in the ring groove was also investigated. Four variants of grooves were modeled and simulated using computational fluid dynamics to optimize the groove location. Numerical analysis was performed using a commercial code ANSYS-CFX program. The simulation results showed that the ring groove increased the operating range of the compressor. The ring groove with guide vanes improved both performance of the compressor at low flow rates and the stall margin of the compressor.     

Fatigue life analysis of shot-peened bearing steel

Shot-peening effects on the fatigue life behavior of bearing steel (JIS SUJ2) have been investigated. Hourglass-shaped test specimens were heat-treated and then surface-treated using a shot-peening machine. Results of a rotary bending fatigue test showed that shotpeening suppressed not only much of the surface-originated fracture but also the scattering error of the probabilistic stress-life data, and improved the fatigue life by about 6 times through the load levels of the cyclic tests. Such large increase in fatigue life was driven by the following reasons: The increase of hardness in the skin caused the predicted fatigue limit stress to increase by 15%; fracture-initiating inclusions were distributed at deeper locations, experiencing low nominal stresses; and the increase in the fish-eye fracture size by an average of 180%.     

Numerical study on design for wave energy generation of a floater for energy absorption

In order to design a wave energy generating system of a floater type, a 6-DOF motion technique was applied to the three-Dimensional CFD analysis on a floating body and the behavior was interpreted according to the nature of the incoming waves. Waves in a tank model were generated using a single floater comparing with that of a Pelamis wave energy converter. In this paper, we focus on four variables, namely the wave height, angular velocity, diameter and length of the floater. The process was carried out in three stages and it was found that there are energy absorption differences in different parameters of wave height, length and the diameter of a floater during simulation, thus leading for the necessity of an optimal design for wave energy generation.     

A study on the flow characteristics of butterfly valve with baffles

Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology - In the industry, globe valves, which are commonly used to precise control the flow rate along with opening and closing flow in pipes, are technically...