Spirax Sarco are seeking an academic partner and a PhD student for an Industrial Mathematics Internship.

Description of proposed work plan

The versatile and dynamic research program at Spirax Sarco would benefit from a person who would like to pursue a study of computational fluid dynamics combined with structural vibration analysis.

The research team is currently undertaking a study into the feasibility of acoustic condition monitoring of steam traps. Steam traps are components with a main duty to release hot condensate and preserve live steam in the pipe. Additional information on steam engineering is available at http://www.spiraxsarco.com/resources/steam-engineering-tutorials.asp.

The main focus of this study will be on understanding/modelling of the interactions between a stainless steel pipe, leading to a steam trap, and one phase (steam or water) flow. Those interactions result in pipe vibrations, which are a valuable indication for the flow conditions. Once understood, this vibration information can be used as a foundation for the development of different condition monitoring procedures. These procedures could result in measurable increases in the efficiency of steam systems.

The areas of expertise and/or interests required by the candidates are in:

• Fluid mechanics
• Computational fluid dynamics and
• Structural vibrations

Knowledge of physics and numerical simulations will be also required. The candidate may be involved in conducting validating experimental work requiring good practical skills, research problem understanding and result interpretation.

A preliminary plan for conducting the study involves:

• Focused literature search on analytical models and numerical approaches to be applied to the proposed steam related work
• Define a fluid model on the basis of numerical approach, computational mesh, boundary and initial conditions, solver settings followed by model verification (supported by the results and knowledge available at Spirax). Attention should be paid on grid size, time step and convergence criteria
• Define a finite element analysis (FEA) structural model including mesh generation, boundary conditions and solver settings
• Define a fluid-structure model including selection of a domain an elements, boundary conditions and solver settings
• Define an one-way fluid-structure coupling procedure including pressure extraction and mapping
• Writing about the results obtained and the main findings of the conducted work.

The anticipated outcomes:

• Building, running and validating numerical models of the fluid flow (steam or water) and the steam trap pipework. To guarantee that those models are transferable to Spirax for the flow simulations ANSYS® CFX® will be used. The preferred software package for the FEA structural model and coupling is ANSYS® Multiphysics™
• These models will be further applied/extended for more complicated geometries of steam valves and as a base for the development of two-phase flow model(s)
• Understanding the influence of flow velocity, fluid density and fluid viscosity expressed by different Reynolds numbers
• Understanding the influence of geometric (diameter and length) and material properties (elastic modulus and density) of the pipe and trap sizes on the resulting vibrations

Duration of the project:
6 months

Company location
Cheltenham

Industrial supervisor
Jeremy Miller

For more details and to apply for this internship, please email Tristram Armour at the Industrial Mathematics KTN.

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