Fluid Flow Analysis

eDart uses Mentor Graphics' Computational Fluid Dynamics software package called FloEFD.  We have over five years of experience using this software and have consulted with it for companies in a wide range of industries around the world.  Some examples include:

BackPressure Pipe

In a mineral concentrator the crushed ore is passed through a cascading system of floatation machines.  eDart valves are located between each cell to control the flow and are subjected to the pressure drop equal to the difference in height between the cells, however on the last cell there is a significant pressure drop across the valve.  Back pressure pipes are used in this case to represent another cell so the valve does not have to be specially designed for this increased pressure drop.  FloEFD was used to determine an improvement to the standard design.

Standard Backpressure pipe configuration

A sweep angle design as shown below is recommended as it reduces the recirculation after the abrupt elbow in the flow.  This lowers the chance of solids dropping out before they get carried over the overflow portion of the flow.

Recommended backpressure design

Heat Exchanger

One of the first problems we examined was the high temperature mixing in a tube and shell heat exchanger.  A large diameter bypass line allowed hot gases through the exchanger to mix with the cooler gas that had travelled through the heat exchanger pipes.  The shape of the diffuser after the valve is critical to ensure a good mixing profile.

Studies of a heat exchanger to improve mixing of the bypass gas

Cyclones

eDart has studied cyclones specifically to examine the build up on the far side of the vortex finder

 Cyclone Analysis for various inlet velocities

eDart has also shown an oil and gas company where different sized sand particles would report to in their separator.

HVAC

eDart has examined the HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) system in a machine room.

HVAC analysis in a machine room

Environmental Control

Another example is the flow analysis through a conditioning tower.  In this case we analysed the current system and made suggestions to improve the flow without removing the top inlet to change it to the standard “sweep” design.

Conditioning Tower Analysis with flow straightener suggestion