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| Url | https://cimne.com/sgp/rtd/Project.aspx?id=706 | ||
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| Acronym | ELASTIC-FLOW | ||
| Project title | AUMENTO DE LA EFICIENCIA EN PROCESOS DE MEZCLA Y TRANSMISIÓN DE CALOR UTILIZANDO FLUIDOS VISCOELÁSTICOS EN RÉGIMEN LAMINAR Y TURBULENTO. EFFICIENCY OPTIMIZATION IN MIXING AND HEAT TRANSFER PROCESSES USING VISCOELASTIC FLUIDS IN LAMINAR AND TURBULENT REGIMES | ||
| Reference | DPI2015-67857-R | ||
| Principal investigator |
Ramón CODINA ROVIRA - codina@cimne.upc.edu
Joan BAIGES AZNAR - jbaiges@cimne.upc.edu |
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| Start date | 01/01/2016 | End date | 31/12/2018 |
| Coordinator | CIMNE | ||
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| Program | Fomento I+D+i orientada a retos sociedad | Call | Proyectos de I+D: Retos de la Sociedad 2015 |
| Subprogram | Retos Investigación: Proyectos de I+D+i | Category | Nacional |
| Funding body(ies) | MINECO | Grant | $125,840.00 |
| Abstract | In this project we will deal with the design of new fluid transport and heat transfer mechanisms using viscoelastic fluids. Viscoelastic fluids have very advantageous properties for heat transfer and transport, because they have and increased mixing capacity and as a consequence heat transfer coefficients are increased. Also, pressure losses are reduced in the transport of viscoelastic fluids, which allows to diminish the cost associated to the pumping or transport of the fluid. The design of the new heat transfer mechanisms will be done by means of numerical simulation tools, particularly using the finite element method. For this, the development of new numerical simulation tools is necessary. The new numerical methods to be developed during the project will be based in several research areas. First of all, we will deal with the implementation of realistic constitutive models for viscoelastic fluids, which will need to be coded in a high-performance computational environment. The thermo-mechanical coupling of the viscoelastic fluids will also be taken into account by using the Boussinesq model for thermal coupling. A basic ingredient will be the development of logarithmic formulations for viscoelastic fluids which will allow us to simulate flows at high Weissenberg numbers. The second important point of the methods to be developed for the numerical simulation of viscoelastic flows is the models for phenomena of elastic turbulence. In order to deal with elastic turbulence, new turbulence models based in the Variational Multiscale Method (VMS) will be investigated. The new turbulence models will be adjusted so that they are able to capture in an accurate manner the mechanisms for the viscous and elastic dissipations which are characteristic of viscoelastic fluids at high Weissenberg numbers. Finally, the developed formulations will be coupled to free surface models for finite element formulations which allow to simulate, by taking into account the discontinuities in fluid interface, the movement of viscoelastic fluids when more than one type of fluid is present. In order to do this, new enriched shape functions for finite elements which allow to capture discontinuities at the interface will need to be implemented. Once all of these computational tools will be developed, they will be implemented in a computation platform capable of performing numerical simulations in large scale supercomputers. This phase of the project will be composed of an implementation stage, a domain decomposition algorithms development stage for multiphase flow, and finally a stage which will deal with the development of adaptive algorithms for finite elements which allow to concentrate the computational power in the areas of the computational domain where it is required the most. Once the computational tool will be available, it will be used for the design and optimization of heat exchange devices and heat transport machinery both at the industrial and the domestic level. We also plan to apply the developed methods to the design and optimization of mixing processes in chemical reactors. Finally, the scientific results of the project will be published in high impact number international scientific journals and disseminated in scientific congresses. Also, all the results will be transmited to industrial partners. In this sense, the project has received the letters of interest of the companies BAXI S.A. and FWN S.L for the industrial exploitation of the resu | ||