Methods of detecting fouling caused by heating of milk

Fouling is the deposition of milk solids on heat transfer sur aces, particularly heat exchangers. It is a major industrial problem, which causes a decrease in heat transfer efficiency and shortens run times. The resultant effect is a decrease in process efficiency and economy. For studying and monitoring deposit formation, suitable fouling detectors or methods of measuring the deposit are required. This can be achieved through direct means, whereby the deposit is analyzed after a certain time, or indirectly through instrumentation for monitoring parameters such as temperature, pressure, flow rate, overall heat transfer coefficient, heat flux, and other physical properties. This article reviews the various reported fouling detection methods.

Heat and mass transfer during fry-drying of sewage sludge

Deep-frying, which consists of immersing a wet material in a large volume of hot oil, presents a process easily adaptable to dry rather than cook materials. A suitable material for drying is sewage sludge, which may be dried using recycled cooking oils (RCO) as frying oil. One advantage is that this prepares both materials for convenient disposal by incineration. This study examines fry-drying of municipal sewage sludge using recycled cooking oil. The transport processes occurring during fry-drying were monitored through sample weight, temperature, and image analysis. Due to the thicker and wetter samples than the common fried foods, high residual moisture is observed in the sludge when the boiling front has reached the geometric center of the sample, suggesting that the operation is heat transfer controlled only during the first half of the process followed by the addition of other mechanisms that allow complete drying of the sample. A series of mechanisms comprising four stages (i.e., initial heating accompanied by a surface boiling onset, film vapor regime, transitional nucleate boiling, and bound water removal) is proposed. In order to study the effect of the operating conditions on the fry-drying kinetics, different oil temperatures (from 120 to 180 degrees C), diameter (D = 15 to 25 mm), and initial moisture content of the sample (4.8 and 5.6 kg water(.)kg(-1) total dry solids) were investigated.

Electrochemical deposition of cupric ions for the determination of mass transfer rates to a stepped rotating cylinder electrode

The stepped rotating cylinder electrode (SRCE) geometry has been developed as a simple aid to the practical study of the flow-enhanced corrosion and applied electrochemistry problems commonly observed under conditions of disturbed, turbulent flow. The electrodeposition of cupric ions from an acid sulphate plating bath has been used to characterise differential rates of mass transfer to the SRCE. The variation in thickness of electrodeposited copperfilms has allowed the mapping of local rates of mass transfer over the active surface of this geometry. Both optical and scanning electron microscopy were used for the examination of metallographic sections to provide a high resolution evaluation of the distribution of mass transfer coefficient. Results are also discussed using the convective-diffusion model in combination with the existing direct numerical flow simulation (DNS) data for this geometry.

Patch and whole of surface mass-transfer rate measurements on a stepped rotating cylinder electrode

A recently developed whole of surface electroplating technique was used to obtain mass-transfer rates in the separated flow region of a stepped rotating cylinder electrode. These data are compared with previously reported mass-transfer rates obtained with a patch electrode. It was found that the two methods yield different results, where at lower Reynolds numbers, the mass-transfer rate enhancement was noticeably higher for the whole of the surface electrode than for the patch electrode. The location of the peak mass transfer behind the step, as measured with a patch electrode, was reported to be independent of the Reynolds number in previous studies, whereas the whole of the surface electrode shows a definite Reynolds number dependence. Large eddy simulation results for the recirculating region behind a step are used in this work to show that this difference in behavior is related to the existence of a much thinner fluid layer at the wall for which the velocity is a linear junction of distance from the wall. Consequently, the diffusion layer no longer lies well within a laminar sublayer. It is concluded that the patch electrode responds to the wall shear stress for smooth wall flow as well as for the disturbed flow region behind the step. When the whole of the surface is electro-active, the response is to mass transfer even when this is not a sole function of wall shear stress. The results demonstrate that the choice of the mass-transfer measurement technique in corrosion studies can have a significant effect on the results obtained from empirical data.

Scramjet lift, thrust and pitching-moment characteristics measured in a shock tunnel

Lift, pitching moment, and thrust/drag on a supersonic combustion ramjet were measured in the T4 free-piston shock tunnel using a three-component stress-wave force balance. The scramjet model was 0.567 m long and weighed approximately 6 kg. Combustion occurred at a nozzle-supply enthalpy of 3.3 MJ/kg and nozzle-supply pressure of 32 MPa at Mach 6.6 for equivalence ratios up to 1.4. The force coefficients varied approximately linearly with equivalence ratio. The location of the center of pressure changed by 10% of the chord of the model over the range of equivalence ratios tested. Lift and pitching-moment coefficients remained constant when the nozzle-supply enthalpy was increased to 4.9 MJ/kg at an equivalence ratio of 0.8, but the thrust coefficient decreased rapidly. When the nozzle-supply pressure was reduced at a nozzle-supply enthalpy of 3.3 MJ/kg and an equivalence ratio of 0.8, the combustion-generated increment of lift and thrust was maintained at 26 MPa, but disappeared at 16 MPa. Measured lift and thrust forces agreed well with calculations made using a simplified force prediction model, but the measured pitching moment substantially exceeded predictions. Choking occurred at nozzle-supply enthalpies of less than 3.0 MJ/kg with an equivalence ratio of 0.8. The tests failed to yield a positive thrust because of the skin-friction drag that accounted for up to 50% of the fuel-off drag.

The hydration of paper studied with solid-state magnetisation-exchange H-1 NMR spectroscopy

The wide-line H-1 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrum of paper in equilibrium with ambient humidity consists of super-imposed relatively broad and narrow lines. The narrower line is of the order of 2 kHz wide at half the maximum height, while the broader line is of the order of 40 kHz in width at half height. On the basis of these line widths, the narrow line is assigned to water sorbed to the paper, and the broad line to the polymeric constituents of the paper. It was not possible to distinguish between the various polymeric components of paper contributing to the H-1 NMR spectra. A modified Goldman-Shen pulse sequence was used to generate a spatial magnetisation gradient between the polymer and water phases. The exchange of magnetisation between protons associated with water and those associated with the macromolecules in paper was observed. The exchange of magnetisation is discussed within a heat transfer model for homonuclear dipolar coupling, with exchange being characterised by a spin-diffusion coefficient. Consideration of the magnitude of the initial rate of the exchange process and estimates of the spin-spin relaxation times based on H-1 line widths indicate that some water must exist in a sufficiently immobile state as to allow homonuclear dipolar interactions between adjacent polymer and water protons. Thus, water sorbed onto paper must exist in at least two states in mass exchange with each other. This observation allows certain conclusions to be drawn about the ratio of free/bound water as a function of moisture content and the dispersal of water within the polymer matrix.