Energy and exergy analyses in drying process of non-hygroscopic porous packed bed using a combined multi-feed microwave-convective air and continuous belt system (CMCB)

This paper is concerned with the energy and exergy analyses in the drying process of non-hygroscopic porous packed bed by combined multi-feed microwave-convective air and continuous belt system (CMCB). Most importantly, this work focused on the investigation of drying phenomena under industrialized microwave processing. In this analysis, the effects of the drying time, hot-air temperature, porous structure (F-Bed and C-Bed) and location of magnetron on overall drying kinetics and energy utilization ratio (EUR) were evaluated in detail. The results showed that using the continuous microwave application technique had several advantages over the conventional method such as shorter processing times, volumetric dissipation of energy throughout a product with higher energy utilization and less exergy efficiency in drying process. The results presented here provided fundamental understanding for drying process using CMCB in industrial size.     

Flow control with electrode bank arrangements by electrohydrodynamics force for heat transfer enhancement in a porous medium

Active flow control with electrohydrodynamics (EHD) force in the channel flow has been numerically investigated for enhancing heat transfer. This study focuses on the effect of electrode bank arrangements and the number of electrodes on corona wind and fluid flow for heat transfer onto a porous medium. Aligned and staggered configurations of electrode banks are compared. The numerical results show that electric field intensity depends on electrical voltage and the number of electrodes. Shear flow is increased with larger numbers of electrodes and in the aligned configuration, resulting in the enhancement of vortex strength. The swirling flow from staggered configurations spread wider than that of aligned configurations, but the aligned configuration produced more turbulence. In addition, the temperature distribution in the channel flow is increased with increasing numbers of electrodes. With the effect of swirling flow, airflow above the porous sample surface is faster leads the heat to more transfer to the porous sample surface. This causes the temperature of porous medium to increase rapidly so the convective heat transfer coefficient on porous medium surface is increased. Finally, the modified case of the numerical results is validated against the experimental results. The experimental flow visualization is based on the incense smoke technique, in order to verify the accuracy of the swirling flow pattern subjected to the electric field. It is shown that the comparison results in both techniques are in good agreement.     

Experimental and Numerical Analysis of Microwave Heating of Water and Oil Using a Rectangular Wave Guide: Influence of Sample Sizes, Positions, and Microwave Power

The heating process of water and oil using microwave oven with rectangular wave guide is investigated numerically and experimentally. The numerical model is validated with an experimental study. The transient Maxwell’s equations are solved by using the finite difference time domain method to describe the electromagnetic field in the wave guide and sample. The temperature profiles and velocity field within sample are determined by the solution of the momentum, energy, and Maxwell’s equations. In this study, the effects of physical parameters, e.g., microwave power, the position of sample in wave guide, size, and thickness of sample, are studied. The results of distribution of electric field, temperature profiles, and velocity field are presented in details. The results show that the mathematical models are in agreement with the experimental data. Conclusively, the mathematical model presented in this study correctly explains the phenomena of microwave heating within the liquid layer.     

Microwave pre-curing of natural rubber-compounding using a rectangular wave guide

This article presents a new method to pre-cure natural rubber-compounding (NRc) by using microwave energy at a frequency of 2.45 GHz with a rectangular wave guide. The influences of microwave power input, specimen thicknesses, and vulcanized sulfur contents on the dielectric and thermal characteristics and cross-linked contents of microwave-cured NRc are studied. Furthermore, a generalized mathematical model for predicting temperature distribution inside the specimen during pre-heating is proposed. Significant results show that microwave energy can produce partial cross-linking at temperatures below the actual vulcanizing process. The numerical results from the model agree well with the results from the experiments.     

Numerical analysis of the influence of electrode position on fluid flow in 2-D rectangular duct flow

This paper numerically examines the influence of electrode arrangements and number of electrodes on fluid flow under electric field. The distance between the electrode and ground positions varies in the vertical direction (i.e., H = ?1 cm to 1 cm) and horizontal direction (i.e., L = 2 cm to 8 cm). Electrical voltage and inlet velocity are employed at 20 kV and 0.5 m/s, respectively. Numerical results show that swirling flow occur at H ≠ 0 cm and its direction depends on the location of H. When the distance L decreases, the swirling becomes smaller and the vorticity becomes stronger because of the higher and denser electric field intensity. Increasing the number of electrodes also increases the electric field, thus causing larger and more violent swirling. Comparisons of the flow visualization show that the simulation results are in good agreement with the experiment results.     

An analysis of heat transfer in liver tissue during microwave ablation using single and double slot antenna

Microwave ablation (MWA) is a process that uses the heat from microwave energy to kill cancer cells. MWA is able to focus radiation on the desired areas without damaging the surrounding tissue, entail a control of heating power for appropriate temperature distribution. Slot coaxial antennas are the most popular antennas in MWA because of their small dimensions and low cost to manufacture. To effectively treat liver cancer, these antennas can be used to produce a highly localized specific absorption rate (SAR) and temperature distribution pattern. In this work, the interstitial MWA in liver by single and double slot antennas is carried out. This paper focuses on the influence of antenna type on microwave power absorbed, SAR and temperature distribution. The results show that the maximum SAR and temperature appears in the liver tissue in case of single slot antenna which are higher than those of double slot antenna. However, no clear difference between these two microwave coaxial antenna (MCA) models has been shown, due to the low microwave power input from the MCA during MWA process.     

The method of fundamental solutions for solving free boundary saturated seepage problem

The problem of seepage flow through a dam is free boundary problem that is more conveniently solved by a meshless method than a mesh-based method such as finite element method (FEM) and finite difference method (FDM). This paper presents method of fundamental solutions, which is one kind of meshless methods, to solve a dam problem using the fundamental solution to the Laplace's equation. Solutions on free boundary are determined by iteration and cubic spline interpolation. The numerical solutions then are compared with the boundary element method (BEM), FDM and FEM to display the performance of present method.     

Analysis of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer: Pressure Buildup in an Unsaturated Porous Slab Exposed to Hot Gas

This study develops a mathematical model for coupled heat and mass transfer in an unsaturated porous slab exposed to a flowing hot gas. Effects of the initial saturation conditions on associated variables, i.e., total pressure, temperature, moisture content, and multiphase flow, are studied. The Newton-Raphson method based on a finite volume technique is applied. This study emphasizes the influence of initial saturation level and gravitational effect in heat and multiphase flow phenomena associated with this system. Gravity enhances the downward flow of liquid within the porous slab. Pressure buildup occurs near the interface between the wet and the dry zone. However, it appears that the order of magnitude to the total pressure is small. This study explains the fundamental mechanism of multiphase flow that involves heat and mass transfer in a heated unsaturated porous slab.     

Electromagnetic field effects on transport through porous media

The effect of an imposed electromagnetic field on forced convection in porous media is analyzed in this work. The transient Maxwell’s equations are solved to simulate the electromagnetic field inside the waveguide and within a porous medium. The Brinkman–Forchheimer extended Darcy (generalized model) equations are used to represent the flow fluid inside a porous medium. The local thermal non-equilibrium (LTNE) is taken into account by solving the two-energy equation model for fluid and solid phases. Computational domain is represented for a range of Darcy number from 10^?5 to 10^?7 and dimensionless electromagnetic wave power P¹ from 0 to 1600, and dimensionless electromagnetic wave frequency f¹ from 0 to 8. The effect of variations of the pertinent electromagnetic field parameters in affecting the flow and thermal fields and the Nusselt number are analyzed. This investigation provides the essential aspects for a fundamental understanding of forced convection in porous media while experiencing an applied electromagnetic field such as applications in the material-processing field.     

Analysis of Multiphase Flow and Heat Transfer: Pressure Buildup in an Unsaturated Porous Slab Exposed to Hot Gas

This study develops a mathematical model for coupled heat and mass transfer in an unsaturated porous slab exposed to a flowing hot gas. Effects of the initial saturation conditions on associated variables, i.e., total pressure, temperature, moisture content, and multiphase flow, are studied. The Newton-Raphson method based on a finite volume technique is applied. This study emphasizes the influence of initial saturation level and gravitational effect in heat and multiphase flow phenomena associated with this system. Gravity enhances the downward flow of liquid within the porous slab. Pressure buildup occurs near the interface between the wet and the dry zone. However, it appears that the order of magnitude to the total pressure is small. This study explains the fundamental mechanism of multiphase flow that involves heat and mass transfer in a heated unsaturated porous slab.