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Article
Publication date: 1 January 1996

C.E.R. Wainwright

In certain manufacturing categories the type of plant layout to adopt is determined by the type of production process. However, within multi‐product mid‐volume environments the…

3142

Abstract

In certain manufacturing categories the type of plant layout to adopt is determined by the type of production process. However, within multi‐product mid‐volume environments the type of plant layout to select is not as obvious, with recent trends indicating that the more traditional functional layout is being replaced by a cellular approach. Aims to provide an insight into the performance of contrasting approaches to plant layout by developing generic mathematical models, based on queuing theory, to examine the limitations and ability of each layout. Subsequently optimizes the models in terms of cost, size and scheduling effectiveness, within a common framework.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 16 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 15 October 2020

Hangduo Gao, Zhao Yin, Jun Liu, Quansheng Zang and Gao Lin

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the liquid sloshing behaviors in two-dimensional tanks with various porous baffles under the external excitation.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the liquid sloshing behaviors in two-dimensional tanks with various porous baffles under the external excitation.

Design/methodology/approach

Adopting the finite element method (FEM) and control variable method to study the impacts of the height, length, number, location, shape, porous-effect parameter of the porous baffle, the external load frequency and the shape of the tank on the liquid sloshing response.

Findings

The amplitude of the free surface can be reduced effectively when the baffle opening is appropriate. The anti-sway ability of the system increases in pace with the baffle’s height growing. Under the same conditions, the shapes of the baffles have an important effect on improving the anti-sway ability of the system.

Originality/value

As there exist the differences of the velocity potential between each side of the porous baffle, which means that there are two different velocity potentials at a point on the porous baffle, the conventional finite element modeling technologies are not suitable to be applied here. To deal with this problem, the points on the porous baffle are regarded as two nodes with the same coordinate to model and calculate.

Details

Engineering Computations, vol. 38 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0264-4401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 March 2014

Yanzhong Wang, Bin Wei, Keyan Ning and Ming Han

This research investigated the mechanism of wet friction plates of engagement and solved the problem that the lock-up friction coefficient of sinter material could not be obtained…

Abstract

Purpose

This research investigated the mechanism of wet friction plates of engagement and solved the problem that the lock-up friction coefficient of sinter material could not be obtained but from experiments for a long time. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Including four steps: surface topology sampling and reconstruction, fractal parameters obtaining and fractal surface simulating, micro-contact mechanics model and friction coefficient fractal model, and experimental verification.

Findings

After running in stage of the friction plates, the fractal dimension would reach a dynamically stable stage for a long time. The proportional coefficient K expresses the correlation between the base hardness and the asperities shear strength. The model could be property for one or more working condition via adjusting the coefficient K. The experiment data of friction coefficient are increased as the load magnified both in the model prediction and experiment practice. The trend is different from other models.

Originality/value

This research is original and it is supported by national defense project. It would be served for tracked vehicles to solve the defect in transmission system. The friction coefficient is obtained via solving the tangential force in MB model. The surface topography could be reconstructed by laser topography instrument and the parameters could be received by program.

Details

Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, vol. 66 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0036-8792

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2020

Moataz Alosaimi, Daniel Lesnic and Jitse Niesen

This study aims to at numerically retrieve five constant dimensional thermo-physical properties of a biological tissue from dimensionless boundary temperature measurements.

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to at numerically retrieve five constant dimensional thermo-physical properties of a biological tissue from dimensionless boundary temperature measurements.

Design/methodology/approach

The thermal-wave model of bio-heat transfer is used as an appropriate model because of its realism in situations in which the heat flux is extremely high or low and imposed over a short duration of time. For the numerical discretization, an unconditionally stable finite difference scheme used as a direct solver is developed. The sensitivity coefficients of the dimensionless boundary temperature measurements with respect to five constant dimensionless parameters appearing in a non-dimensionalised version of the governing hyperbolic model are computed. The retrieval of those dimensionless parameters, from both exact and noisy measurements, is successfully achieved by using a minimization procedure based on the MATLAB optimization toolbox routine lsqnonlin. The values of the five-dimensional parameters are recovered by inverting a nonlinear system of algebraic equations connecting those parameters to the dimensionless parameters whose values have already been recovered.

Findings

Accurate and stable numerical solutions for the unknown thermo-physical properties of a biological tissue from dimensionless boundary temperature measurements are obtained using the proposed numerical procedure.

Research limitations/implications

The current investigation is limited to the retrieval of constant physical properties, but future work will investigate the reconstruction of the space-dependent blood perfusion coefficient.

Practical implications

As noise inherently present in practical measurements is inverted, the paper is of practical significance and models a real-world situation.

Social implications

The findings of the present paper are of considerable significance and interest to practitioners in the biomedical engineering and medical physics sectors.

Originality/value

In comparison to Alkhwaji et al. (2012), the novelty and contribution of this work are as follows: considering the more general and realistic thermal-wave model of bio-heat transfer, accounting for a relaxation time; allowing for the tissue to have a finite size; and reconstructing five thermally significant dimensional parameters.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 30 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 April 2024

Dong Li, Yu Zhou, Zhan-Wei Cao, Xin Chen and Jia-Peng Dai

This paper aims to establish a lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for solid-liquid phase transition (SLPT) from the pore scale to the representative elementary volume (REV) scale. By…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to establish a lattice Boltzmann (LB) method for solid-liquid phase transition (SLPT) from the pore scale to the representative elementary volume (REV) scale. By applying this method, detailed information about heat transfer and phase change processes within the pores can be obtained, while also enabling the calculation of larger-scale SLPT problems, such as shell-and-tube phase change heat storage systems.

Design/methodology/approach

Three-dimensional (3D) pore-scale enthalpy-based LB model is developed. The computational input parameters at the REV scale are derived from calculations at the pore scale, ensuring consistency between the two scales. The approaches to reconstruct the 3D porous structure and determine the REV of metal foam were discussed. The implementation of conjugate heat transfer between the solid matrix and the solid−liquid phase change material (SLPCM) for the proposed model is developed. A simple REV-scale LB model under the local thermal nonequilibrium condition is presented. The method of bridging the gap between the pore-scale and REV-scale enthalpy-based LB models by the REV is given.

Findings

This coupled method facilitates detailed simulations of flow, heat transfer and phase change within pores. The approach holds promise for multiscale calculations in latent heat storage devices with porous structures. The SLPT of the heat sinks for electronic device thermal control was simulated as a case, demonstrating the efficiency of the present models in designing and optimizing SLPT devices.

Originality/value

A coupled pore-scale and REV-scale LB method as a numerical tool for investigating phase change in porous materials was developed. This innovative approach allows for the capture of details within pores while addressing computations over a large domain. The LB method for simulating SLPT from the pore scale to the REV scale was given. The proposed method addresses the conjugate heat transfer between the SLPCM and the solid matrix in the enthalpy-based LB model.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 September 2017

Chunlei Shao and Yang Zhao

The purpose of this paper is to study the dimensionless characteristics of a molten salt pump and propose an approach to carry out the modeling experiment by using water instead…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the dimensionless characteristics of a molten salt pump and propose an approach to carry out the modeling experiment by using water instead of molten salts.

Design/methodology/approach

External characteristics of the pump were estimated by using the steady flow model and compared with the experimental results. By taking water as the working fluid, the pathlines in the volute of the model pump were validated by the results obtained of high-speed photography. According to the derived dimensionless characteristics of the molten salt pump, the modeling experimental schemes were proposed. Adopting the validated numerical simulation model, the performance of the molten salt pump was studied in detail.

Findings

The modeling experimental schemes designed according to the dimensionless characteristics are theoretically feasible. However, to carry out the experiment successfully, factors such as rotational speed, geometric size, flow rate and head should be taken into account. The flow in the pumps is similar under the similar operating condition and the external characteristics of the similar pump can be converted to each other. Compared with transporting water, the decline of the head and efficiency is within 5 per cent when the viscosity is lower than 0.01453 Pa · s. The pump is not suitable for running under the critical Reynolds number of 1.0 × 107.

Originality/value

The current work revealed the relationships among the dimensionless performances of a molten salt pump and proposed a critical Reynolds number ReQcr for the pump running.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 27 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 December 2019

Aisong Qin, Qin Hu, Qinghua Zhang, Yunrong Lv and Guoxi Sun

Rotating machineries are widely used in manufacturing, petroleum, chemical, aircraft, and other industries. To accurately identify the operating conditions of such rotating…

Abstract

Purpose

Rotating machineries are widely used in manufacturing, petroleum, chemical, aircraft, and other industries. To accurately identify the operating conditions of such rotating machineries, this paper aims to propose a fault diagnosis method based on sensitive dimensionless parameters and particle swarm optimization (PSO)–support vector machine (SVM) for reducing the unexpected downtime and economic losses.

Design/methodology/approach

A relatively new hybrid intelligent fault classification approach is proposed by integrating multiple dimensionless parameters, the Fisher criterion and PSO–SVM. In terms of data pre-processing, a method based on wavelet packet decomposition (WPD), empirical mode decomposition (EMD) and dimensionless parameters is proposed for the extraction of the vibration signal features. The Fisher criterion is applied to reduce the redundant dimensionless parameters and search for the sensitive dimensionless parameters. Then, PSO is adapted to optimize the penalty parameter and kernel parameter for SVM. Finally, the sensitive dimensionless parameters are classified with the optimized model.

Findings

As two different time–frequency analysis methods, a method based on a combination of WPD and EMD used to extract multiple dimensionless parameters is presented. More vital diagnosis information can be obtained from the vibration signals than by only using a single time–frequency analysis method. Besides, a fault classification approach combining the sensitive dimensionless parameters and PSO-SVM classifier is proposed. The comparative experiment results show that the proposed method has a high classification accuracy and efficiency.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, very few efforts have been performed for fault classification using multiple dimensionless parameters. In this paper, eighty dimensionless parameters have been studied intensively, which provides a new strategy in fault diagnosis field.

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2007

G.A. Sheikhzadeh and M.A. Mehrabian

The purpose of this paper is to apply the numerical methods to study the heap leaching process in a bed of porous and spherical ore particles. This study is performed in two…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply the numerical methods to study the heap leaching process in a bed of porous and spherical ore particles. This study is performed in two stages: first, modeling the leaching process of a soluble mineral from a spherical and porous ore particle to obtain the distribution of mineral concentrations, leaching solvent concentration and dissolved mineral in the particles (the particle model), and second, modeling the heap leaching of the mineral from a porous bed consisting of spherical and porous ore particles to obtain the distribution of mineral concentrations, leaching solvent concentration and dissolved mineral in the bed (the bed model).

Design/methodology/approach

The governing equations are derived for the particle model, and then converted into non‐dimensional form using reference quantities. The non‐dimensional equations are discretised on a uniform spherical grid fitted to the particle using finite difference method. The resulting algebraic equations are solved using Tri‐Diagonal Matrix Algorithm, and the governing equations are derived for the bed model, and then converted into non‐dimensional form using reference quantities. The non‐dimensional equations are discretised explicitly on a one‐dimensional and uniform grid fitted to the bed. The unknown quantities are evaluated using the corresponding values at the previous time interval.

Findings

The results obtained from numerical modeling show that, when the particle has a low diffusion resistance or a high chemical resistance, the reaction takes place slowly and homogeneously throughout the ore particle. On the other hand, when the bed has a low convection resistance, the reaction takes place homogeneously throughout the bed. As the convection resistance increases, the non‐homogeneous (local) behavior predominates. It is also noticed that, when the chemical reaction resistance is high, the reaction takes place homogeneously throughout the bed.

Research limitations/implications

The dynamic diffusion and movement of solution in the ore particles and ore bed are not modeled and volumetric ratio of solution in the particles and the bed and also vertical velocity of solution in the bed are assumed to be fixed constants.

Practical implications

This study shows that the reaction takes place homogeneously throughout the bed when the convection resistance is low, the diffusion resistance is high, the concentration resistance is low, and the chemical reaction resistance is high.

Originality/value

Homogeneous reaction conditions being suitable for heap leaching operations are identified. Thus, it is recommended to approach the above conditions when preparing ore heaps and designing the relevant operation.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 October 2013

Piotr Wygonik

The paper aims to present a way of engine model integration, an aircraft (multitask) and the mission into the single model that allows to study, from the level of selection of the…

2178

Abstract

Purpose

The paper aims to present a way of engine model integration, an aircraft (multitask) and the mission into the single model that allows to study, from the level of selection of the engine cycle parameters, the feasibility of a specific mission with the assumed aerodynamic characteristics exemplified by a multitask airplane.

Design/methodology/approach

There were introduced dimensionless geometric and energetic criteria, binding parameters of the engine and the airplane. The following models were built: of the turbofan engine and the aircraft movements with the application of these criteria, creating a dimensionless model allowing for measuring the impact of engine design parameters on the efficiency of the mission undertaken.

Findings

The results were limited to the presentation of the impact of circuit parameters, such as engine TIT, OPR, BR on the defined criteria. The application of dimensionless criteria reduced the dimension of the task.

Practical implications

The presented method can be useful for engineers involved in the task of engine integration and the airplane at the preliminary design stage.

Originality/value

The originality of the presented solutions is reduced to provide a different, unconventional approach to the design process and not (so far) the engine itself but the entire aviation system.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, vol. 85 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0002-2667

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 August 2015

Saeid Aghighi, Amine Ammar, Christelle Metivier and Francisco Chinesta

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the advanced solution of the parametric non-linear model related to the Rayleigh-Benard laminar flow involved in the modeling of natural…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the advanced solution of the parametric non-linear model related to the Rayleigh-Benard laminar flow involved in the modeling of natural thermal convection. This flow is fully determined by the dimensionless Prandtl and Rayleigh numbers. Thus, if one could precompute (off-line) the model solution for any possible choice of these two parameters the analysis of many possible scenarios could be performed on-line and in real time.

Design/methodology/approach

In this paper both parameters are introduced as model extra-coordinates, and then the resulting multidimensional problem solved thanks to the space-parameters separated representation involved in the proper generalized decomposition (PGD) that allows circumventing the curse of dimensionality. Thus the parametric solution will be available fast and easily.

Findings

Such parametric solution could be viewed as a sort of abacus, but despite its inherent interest such calculation is at present unaffordable for nowadays computing availabilities because one must solve too many problems and of course store all the solutions related to each choice of both parameters.

Originality/value

Parametric solution of coupled models by using the PGD. Model reduction of complex coupled flow models. Analysis of Rayleigh-Bernard flows involving nanofluids.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 25 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 3000