Evaluation of Current Commercial 3D Printing Technology

Evaluation of Current Commercial 3D Printing Technology

Mentor(s): Chenn Zhou and John Moreland

Graduate

Peg-board Presentation

Given today’s adoption of domestic 3D printers, a practical analysis of the commercially available technology was conducted. Various filaments were tested for quality, performance, and applications. While developing practical prints, data was collected to evaluate the necessary user know-how, current technological limitations, and potential advancements in technology. A 3-D printing guide including: temperature settings, object orientation, material selection, etc, was created and compiled along with existing data to serve future and existing users through Purdue and the general 3-D printing community.

Investigation of High Rate Natural Gas Injection through Various Lance Designs in a Blast Furnace

Mentor(s): Chenn Zhou, Bin Wu, and Tyamo Okosun

Graduate

Peg-board Presentation

A blast furnace is a large counter-flow reactor used to reduce iron ore into liquid iron. Recently, Natural Gas (NG) has seen widespread use as substitute fuel for injection into blast furnaces, primarily due to the relatively low price in the North American market. Lances are used to inject fuel into the hot blast air in the blowpipe/tuyere region of a blast furnace. In order to improve fuel combustion rate and increase production efficiency, various lance designs were taken into consideration. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques were used to simulate the combustion behavior of NG and its impact on the high void fraction region of the furnace referred to as the raceway. The CFD model also provided detailed information on gas velocity, temperature and species distributions, particle number density and unburned char distributions, raceway formation, and combustion efficiency.

Selective Catalytic Reduction Flow Model Analysis

Mentor(s): Chenn Zhou, Bin Wu, and Armin Silaen

Graduate

Peg-board Presentation

An SCR (selective catalytic reduction) unit which functions to remove NOx from the flue gas at a coal-fired power plant experiences problems with ash build-up on the catalyst layers. The build-up leads to high pressure drop across the across the layers as well as increased maintenance costs for ash removal. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) techniques were used to model the flow inside the SCR. Analysis of the CFD simulation results revealed that flow recirculations behind guiding vanes were the root cause of the ash buildup. Various guiding vane configurations were then simulated in order to find an economical solution to eliminate or minimize the flow circulations.

Development of a Virtual Steel Wheel

Mentor(s): Chenn Zhou, John Moreland, and Lucas Phillips

Graduate

Peg-board Presentation

There are many types of processes and facilities involved in the making of steel. Due to the diversity of equipment and the variety of methods, it can be hard to understand each process. To address this, the Association for Iron and Steel Technology (AIST) has created a reference called “The Making, Shaping, and Treating of Steel (MSTS),” typically referred to as the “Steel Wheel.” However, the Steel Wheel only displays the names of processes. The aim of this project is to produce a set of 3D models and animations that can be used for a web-based, interactive Steel Wheel to be hosted on AIST’s website and for general education about the making, shaping, and treatment of steel. Each process has a specific animation and model that has been developed using real-world references but with reduced complexity. AIST has been involved in the process by providing references for the individual processes and guiding the overall look and feel of the renders.

Numerical Simulation and Optimization of a Carbon Monoxide Boiler

Mentor(s): Chenn Zhou, Bin Wu, and Guangwu Tang

Graduate

Peg-board Presentation

Carbon Monoxide (CO) boilers play an important role in the petroleum refining industry, which combust the flue gas with a certain amount of CO (approximately 10 percent) generated in the regeneration process. The potential thermal heat of CO would finally provide heat to generate steam for different uses in the petroleum refining plants. The combustion process and heat transfer in the CO boiler would have great effect on the thermal efficiency and operation safety. In this paper, one CO boiler facing low thermal efficiency and high operation risk has been studied. A three-Dimensional (3D) Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model was developed with detailed description on the combustion process and flow characteristics. The developed model has a good agreement with the plant data. Optimization on the heat transfer between the tube and combustion flue gas was conducted based on adding checker walls.

End of Mill Media Life Study used in the Production of Colorant

Mentor(s): Masoud Mojtahed

Graduate

Poster Presentation

The objective of this project is to find scientific evidence of when the media used at a colorant plant reaches the end of its life cycle. What makes this project unique is that due to various parameters affecting the media at this facility a concrete life expectancy has not be found. To do so parameters like the properties of the equipment parts, mill settings, and pigment compositions will be analyzed for the effects it causes on the ceramic media. The analyses will be based off past data and new testing preformed. From the data collected a rating equation will be formed where each different parameter can be plugged in. The equation will tell how the parameters will affect the media life. The result of this study will be to reduce material cost by 10% for the company. This reduction will save the company an estimated $28,800 the first year. This is done by giving the company a concrete method for projecting mill media replacement using a Wiebull Distribution equation.