Projects
Analysis of Contact pipe
Pitch Black Group
Background
Pitch Black had a project to undertake detailed design for the upgrade of the water treatment plant at Amity Point on North Stradbroke Island. As part of this upgrade, a chlorine contact pipe was included. To enable a space effective installation a baffle was required in the contact pipe. The performance criteria of the baffle were prescribed to Envisage, with the brief to design a baffle, and quantify performance with CFD.
Approach
Envisage developed a parametric, 3D steady state CFD model of the chlorine contact pipe. A range of manufacturable geometries were assessed with the CFD model. Streamline data was integrated over the contact pipe to determine residence time distribution, and hence performance of each geometry.
Client Outcomes
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An open source, well defined, and scalable baffle plate design that met the performance criteria was recommended for detailed design and manufacture
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Additionally to the brief, pipe configurations were assessed, and a simple, easily manufacturable pipe configuration was recommended
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Additional geometric configurations were assessed upfront, and end-user concerns were addressed without the need for further simulations
CFD analysis and design
recommendations for plate clarifier
ENV Solutions
Background
Plate clarifiers are a significant device in water and wastewater treatment. Whilst numerous devices are available on the market, they are large devices, and ENV observed that few performed at their nameplate flow rates.
Approach
To assess clarifier performance, Envisage developed a segregated CFD model of two key subcomponents; distribution manifolds, and plates. While both chemical and physical processes occur in plate separators, it is known that all processes are steady when stable, aligned flow occurs within the device. Thus, to minimise model complexity, only water was modelled.
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Device performance was assessed on flow distribution within manifolds, and vorticity in flow over plates. Baseline performance was established through simulation of a market leading plate clarifier. A sweep of operating conditions was conducted to evaluate performance robustness, and where performance degraded. For the baseline device, it was observed that plate vorticity increased significantly at flow rates at which degraded performance was observed in the field. This established working confidence in the CFD model, and thus its suitability as a design tool.
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Following on from the shortcomings observed in the baseline device, the CFD model was used as a to assess geometric variations, and recommend a new device design.
Client Outcomes
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Key flow phenomena within device identified
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Operating regions of good performance were identified for the simulated components, and performance maps produced
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Recommendations were made for prototype manufacture and experimental evaluation
Abrasive flow control assessment
BlastOne
Background
Industrial scale abrasive blasting is a well established process. To control the flow of abrasive into pressurised air lines, an Abrasive Metering Valve is used to meter abrasive. Owing to the operating environment, these valves are necessarily expensive, and need to be depressurised before the operator can make an adjustment. Thus, as means for cost reduction, and effective system automation, it is attractive to investigate alternatives.
Approach
Envisage conducted a control volume analysis of the blasting pot, and formulated several hypotheses regarding abrasive motive, which were tested against existing experimental data.
Client Outcomes
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Areas for system improvement identified
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Alternative, cost effective methods of metering and control were identified
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Recommendations were made for prototype manufacture and experimental evaluation
Image source: BlastOne.com (analysis only delivered)
RPEQ certification of mobile equipment
Mitchell Services
Background
Mitchell Services approached Envisage for RPEQ design certification of a rod carrier. This is required for mobile plant to be used in QLD mines.
Approach
To assess suitability of the carrier design, Envisage conducted finite element analysis (FEA) under multiple load and support scenarios, including overloading and misuse.
Client Outcomes
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RPEQ certification was supplied at the nameplate payload.
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In its original configuration, few restrictions were identified against overloading, thus a physical restriction on overloading was recommended.
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A recommendation for re-enforcement to enable uprating of the current design was also made.