QUENCH TANK CFD OPTIMIZATION

As a final deliverable for my computational fluid dynamics course, we were tasked with improving the velocity profile and pressure distributions within a quenching tank to improve the cooling of steel rods. With uneven velocity and fluid pressure distributions, quenching can cause undesired distortion and non-uniformity in the mechanical properties of the steel rods.

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The target goals within this project were to maintain a minimum velocity of 80 FPM (equivalent to 0.4064 m/s) across the center line of the rod (Line B), keep maximum and minimum velocities within a range of +/- 10% of the average velocity, and reduce the pressure gradient throughout the tank (Line A to C).

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After 5 iterations, I was able to achieve 2 out of the 3 goals. On the final iteration, a minimum velocity of 0.552 m/s was obtained at line B, and a much more even pressure drop from lines A through C was achieved. Unfortunately, the maximum and minimum velocities were not within 10% of the average velocity, but the profile was much flatter from the graph results, proving the fluid velocity has been more evenly spread.

Although this deliverable was smaller in scope than some of my other design projects, it was a fun exercise that allowed me to become familiar with ANSYS workbench, and general CFD analysis procedures, such as mesh independence tests. It was also a refreshing change from solid modelling analysis.

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