A thermo-fluid study of a diesel engine wet scrubber
Conference Publication ResearchOnline@JCUAbstract
In underground coal mining, wet scrubbers are used to remove diesel particulate matter and improve air quality, reduce equipment maintenance, and eliminate fire/explosion hazards by spark arresting and reduction of exhaust temperatures. Due to the difficulties of scrubber experimental investigations there is almost no published literature their thermo-fluid behaviour. This paper reports a study of a transient state mass and energy (thermodynamic first law) analysis on a scrubber. Quantitative data was obtained experimentally over 16 tests to investigate the energy balance of the scrubber. Energy contain within the exhaust gas is the lone source of energy input to the scrubber while Energy leaving from the scrubber comprises four portions namely exhaust energy, energy out due to change in control volume, heat lost from scrubber and heat flux in to the water. The average values of these output energies were 53.37%, 35.76%, 12.80% and 0.26% of input energy respectively. Energy balance errors of up to 50% of input energy were found in the data due to the difficulties associated with measuring radiant/convective heat loss and water content of high temperature exhaust gases. Never the less the analysis provides a benchmark for design of future investigations and highlighted some major issues associated with these devices. The major finding was that liquid water is ejected from the scrubber (i.e. Two-phase flow) due to excessive turbulence and high velocities at the exit which are highly undesirable for several operational reasons including damaged post-scrubber diesel particulate filters, and increased maintenance. The data analysis of this report can be used to provide a better understanding of the operating capacity of a scrubber. This will ultimately result in better advances in scrubber technology for the reduction of diesel emissions and improved humidity control strategies to prevent fire/explosion occurring in an underground mine and minimize adverse health effects on miners and associated staff.
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AFMC 2014: 19th Australasian Fluid Mechanics Conference
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978-0-646-59695-2
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4
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Melbourne, VIC, Australia
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Australasian Fluid Mechanics Society
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Clayton, VIC, Australia
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