COMPUTATIONAL METHODOLOGY TO ANALYZE THE EFFECT OF MASS TRANSFER RATE ON ATTENUATION OF LEAKED CARBON DIOXIDE IN SHALLOW AQUIFERS

Exsolution and re-dissolution of CO2 gas within heterogeneous porous media are investigated using experimental data and mathematical modeling. In a set of bench-scale experiments, water saturated with CO2 under a given pressure is injected into a 2-D water-saturated porous media system, causing CO2 gas to exsolve and migrate upwards. A layer of fine sand mimicking a heterogeneity within a shallow aquifer is present in the tank to study accumulation and trapping of exsolved CO2. Then, clean water is injected into the system and the accumulated CO2 dissolves back into the flowing water. Simulated exsolution and dissolution mass transfer processes are studied using both nearequilibrium and kinetic approaches and compared to experimental data under conditions that do and do not include lateral background water flow. The mathematical model is based on the mixed hybrid finite element method that allows for accurate simulation of both advection- and diffusion- dominated processes.

Hybrid Finite Element Analysis of Heat Conduction in Orthotropic Media with Variable Thermal Conductivities

A hybrid finite element method is proposed for the heat conduction analysis with variable thermal conductivities. A linear combination of fundamental solutions is employed to approximate the intra-element temperature field while standard one-dimensional shape functions are utilized to independently define the frame temperature field along the element boundary. The influence of variable thermal conductivities embeds in the intra-element temperature field via the fundamental solution. A hybrid variational functional, which involves integrals along the element boundary only, is developed to link the two assumed fields to produce the thermal stiffness equation. The advantage of the proposed method lies that the changes in the thermal conductivity are captured inside the element domain. Numerical examples demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method and also the insensitivity to mesh distortion.

The Cluster Computation-Based Hybrid FEM–Analytical Model of Induction Motor for Fault Diagnostics

This paper presents a hybrid finite element method (FEM)–analytical model of a three-phase squirrel cage induction motor solved using parallel processing for reducing the simulation time. The growing development in artificial intelligence (AI) techniques can lead towards more reliable diagnostic algorithms. The biggest challenge for AI techniques is that they need a big amount of data under various conditions to train them. These data are difficult to obtain from the industries because they contain low numbers of possible faulty cases, as well as from laboratories because a limited number of motors can be broken for testing purposes. The only feasible solution is mathematical models, which in the long run can become part of advanced diagnostic techniques. The benefits of analytical and FEM models for their speed and accuracy respectively can be exploited by making a hybrid model. Moreover, the concept of cloud computing can be utilized to reduce the simulation time of the FEM model. In this paper, a hybrid model being solved on multiple processors in a parallel fashion is presented. The results depict that by dividing the rotor steps among several processors working in parallel, the simulation time reduces considerably. The simulation results under healthy and broken rotor bar cases are compared with those taken from a laboratory setup for validation.

The Importance of the Mixing Energy in Ionized Superabsorbent Polymer Swelling Models

The Flory–Rehner theoretical description of the free energy in a hydrogel swelling model can be broken into two swelling components: the mixing energy and the ionic energy. Conventionally for ionized gels, the ionic energy is characterized as the main contributor to swelling and, therefore, the mixing energy is assumed negligible. However, this assumption is made at the equilibrium state and ignores the dynamics of gel swelling. Here, the influence of the mixing energy on swelling ionized gels is quantified through numerical simulations on sodium polyacrylate using a Mixed Hybrid Finite Element Method. For univalent and divalent solutions, at initial porosities greater than 0.90, the contribution of the mixing energy is negligible. However, at initial porosities less than 0.90, the total swelling pressure is significantly influenced by the mixing energy. Therefore, both ionic and mixing energies are required for the modeling of sodium polyacrylate ionized gel swelling. The numerical model results are in good agreement with the analytical solution as well as experimental swelling tests.

Fire resistance of composite non-load bearing light steel framing walls

The light steel frame walls are mostly used for non-load bearing applications. The light steel framed walls are made with studs and tracks that require fire protection, normally achieved by single plasterboard, by composite protection layers or by insulation of the cavity. The partition walls are fire rated to resist by integrity and insulation. Seven small-scale specimens were tested to define the fire resistance of non-load bearing light steel frame walls made with different materials. All tests were validated using two-dimensional numerical models, based on the finite-element method, the finite-volume method and hybrid finite-element method. A good agreement was achieved between the numerical and the experimental results from fire tests. The fire resistance increases with the number of studs and also with the thickness of the protection layers. The hybrid finite-element method solution method looks to be the best approximation model to predict fire resistance.