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Studying Heat transfer Mechanism: Convection vs Radiation

In this experiment, a stainless still vessel is being subjected to temperature and pressure change in order to investigate the amount of transferred heat due to convection and radiation. A heater at the center of the vessel would emit electromagnetic waves and depending on the amount of gas existing in the chamber, the amount of transferred heat to the inner wall of the vessel can be measured by collecting element and inner wall temperature. Users can run the vessel in different pressure conditions by incorporating a vacuum pump. To study the convection even further, nitrogen can be flushed into the vessel and the effect of inert gas on the heat transfer can be observed. 

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Image courtesy: Troy Oltsch, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell

Studying Fluid dynamics through turbomachines: Pumps & Compressors

A big part of chemical engineering world is fluid dynamics and learning how to move both liquids and gases along the process. On this module, there are several pumps and compressors to study thr fluid motion. Pumps available are centrifugal, impeller, and pistion pump. Centrifugal pumps can also be set up in parallel and series configuration for altering the system capacity and head. Using this module, user can generate pump charactreristic curves and obtian the efficiency of the system. Similar experimentation goes for compressors where piston compressor and rotary vane compressor are available. Collecting flowrate and differential pressure as variables are possible for further analysis.

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Image courtesy: Michael Luczai, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell

Studying Flow through pipes: Investigating friction coeffieicnt of fitting components

For any process you need to move your product from place to place and that requires a piping system. On this module, there are six major pipes and fitting and user can study the effect of pipe diameter, surface roughness, bend in the pipe, reducer and expander, and different valves on the differential pressure along the pipe. User learns how to use monometer to measure the pressure and how to calibrate a rotameter to measure the flowrate of a stream.

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Image courtesy: Kashief Bogannam, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell

Studying Heat exchangers: Investigating the efficiency and heat transfer coffecient 

Whether you want to heat up or cool down your process streams, you need a heat exchanger to change the temperature. On this module, there are 5 different heat exchangers with their own pros and cons. User gets to insert both hot and cold water into one of heat exchanger; shell&tube, tubular, plate, and jacketted vessel, and observe temperature of the inlet and the outlet of each stream to calculate heat transfer coffeicient and efficiency for co- and counter-current configurations. Fifth heat exhcnager is the finned heat exchanger where the cold medium in a cross-flow setting and velocity of exiting air can be measured by a hand-held anemometer. 

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Image courtesy: Troy Oltsch, Chemical Engineering, UMass Lowell

Each arrow on the figures above is pointing towards key components of the process flow diagram. Can you identify them? Post your answers on our forum.

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