• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.71-76
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• 2014

As the importance of transmission efficiency to reducing fuel consumption and conserving the environment rapidly increases, reducing the drag torque in an automotive wet clutch is emerging as an important issue in the automotive industry. The drag torque in a clutch occurs from viscous drag generated by automatic transmission fluid in the narrow gap between separate friction plates. In this study, the drag torques in an automotive wet clutch are investigated with respect to the angle and density of the grooves between separate friction plates by three-dimensional finite element simulation of a single set of wet clutch disks considering the two-phase flow of air and oil. The simulation results shows that the drag torque generally increases with the rotational speed to a critical point and then decreases at the high-speed regime. The grooves between the plates plays an important role in reducing the drag peak, and the inclined angle of the grooves affects the oil flow. The grooves with an angle of $50^{\circ}$ shows the lowest drag torques at both low and high speeds. The flow vectors inside the $50^{\circ}$ grooves shows clear evidence that the fluid flows out more easily from the grooves compared with the flow vectors inside grooves with lower angles. The simulation results shows that increasing the number of grooves (density of grooves) decreases the drag torque.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.38 no.9
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• pp.731-737
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• 2014

A vortex chamber is a simple device that separates compressed gas into a high-temperature stream and a low-temperature stream. It is increasing in popularity as a next-generation heat exchanger, but the flow physics associated with it is not yet well understood. In the present study, both experimental and numerical analyses were performed to investigate the temperature separation phenomenon inside the vortex chamber. Static pressures and temperatures were measured using high-sensitivity pressure transducers and thermocouples, respectively. Computational fluid dynamics was applied to simulate 3D unsteady compressible flows. The simulation results showed that the temperature separation is strongly dependent on the diameter of the vortex chamber and the supply pressure at the inlet ports, where the latter is closely related to the viscous work. The previous concept of a pressure gradient wave may not be a reasoning for temperature separation phenomenon inside the vortex chamber.

• Korea-Australia Rheology Journal
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.157-164
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• 2007

Microencapsulation of cells within microfluidic devices enables explicit control of the membrane thickness or cell density, resulting in improved viability of the transplanted cells within an aggressive immune system. In this study, living cells (3T3 and L929 fibroblast cells) are encapsulated within a semi-permeable membrane (calcium crosslinked alginate gel) in two different device designs, a flow focusing and a core-annular flow focusing geometry. These two device designs produce a bead and a long microfibre, respectively. For the alginate bead, an alginate aqueous solution incorporating cells flows through a flow focusing channel and an alginate droplet is formed from the balance of interfacial forces and viscous drag forces resulting from the continuous (oil) phase flowing past the alginate solution. It immediately reacts with an adjacent $CaCl_2$ drop that is extruded into the main flow channel by another flow focusing channel downstream of the site of alginate drop creation. Depending on the flow conditions, monodisperse microbeads of sizes ranging from $50-200\;{\mu}m$ can be produced. In the case of the microfibre, the alginate solution with cells is extruded into a continuous phase of $CaCl_2$ solution. The diameter of alginate fibres produced via this technique can be tightly controlled by changing both flow rates. Cell viability in both forms of alginate encapsulant was confirmed by a LIVE/DEAD cell assay for periods of up to 24 hours post encapsulation.

• Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.37-48
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• 1990

The drag and heat transfer reduction phenomena and degradation effects of drag reducing polymer solutions which are known as the viscoelastic fluids are investigated experimentally for the turbulent circular tube flows. Two stainless steel tubes are used for the experimental flow loops. Aqueous solutions of Polyacrylamide Separan AP-273 with concentrations from 300 to 1000 wppm are used as working fluids. Flow loops are set up to measure the friction factors and heat transfer coefficients of test tubes in the once-through system and the recirculating flow system. Test tubes are heated by power supply directly to apply constant heat flux boundary conditions on the wall. Capillary tube viscometer and falling ball viscometer are used to measure the viscous characteristics of fluids and the characteristic relaxation time of a fluid is determined by the Powell-Eyring model. The order of magnidude of the thermal entrance length of a drag reducing polymer solution is close to the order of magnitude of the laminar entrance length of Newtonian fluids. Dimensionless heat transfer coefficients of the viscoelastic non-Newtonian fluids may be represented as a function of flow behavior index n and newly defined viscoelastic Graetz number. As degradation continues viscosity and the characteristic relaxation time of the testing fluids decrease and heat transfer coefficients increase. The characteristic relaxation time is used to define the Weissenberg number and variations of friction factors and heat transfer coefficients due to degradation are presented in terms of the Weissenberg number.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.30 no.6
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• pp.337-342
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• 2014

The reduction of drag torque is an important research issue in terms of improving transmission efficiency. Drag torque in a wet clutch occurs because of the viscous drag generated by the transmission fluid in a narrow gap (clearance) between the friction plate and a separate plate. The objective of this paper is to observe the effects of the friction plate area and the clearance on the drag torque using finite element simulation. The two-phase flow of air and oil fluid is considered and modeled for the simulation. The simulation analysis reveals that as the rotational speed increases, the drag torque generally increases to a critical point and then decreases sharply at a high speed regime. The clearance between the two plates plays an important role in controlling drag torque peak. An increase in the clearance causes a decrease in shear stress; thus, the drag torque also decreases according to Newton's law of viscosity. An observation of the effect of the area of contact between transmission fluid and friction plate shows that the drag torque increases with the contact area. The flow vectors inside the flow channel present clear evidence that the velocity of the fluid flows is faster with a larger friction plate, that is, in the case of a larger contact area. Therefore, the optimum size of the friction plate should be determined carefully, considering both the clutch performance and drag reduction. It is expected that the results from this study can be very useful as a database for clutch design and to predict the drag torque for the initial design with respect to various clutch parameters.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.9
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• pp.3808-3814
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• 2011

The prediction of heat transfer and pressure drops in the exchanger passages is a clue to the problem of heat exchanger design. In order to make such predictions for non-Newtonian fluids, it is necessary to know the relation between the viscous properties of the fluid and the wall shear rate in the duct. This study deals with the limits of validity of the power law equation. The useful methodology of the present research involves a consideration of a more general equation which has power law and Newtonian behavior as asymptotes. It isconcluded that use of the power law equation outside of its applicability range can lead to serious errors inpredicting the heat transfer and pressure drops. The present computational results of the friction factors times Reynolds number for shear-thinning fluid flows in a triangular duct are compared with previous published results, showing agreement with 0.13 % in Newtonian region and 2.85 % in power law region. These shear-thinning fluid results also showed the 12% increase of convective heat transfer enhancement compared with Newtonian heat transfer.

• Clean Technology
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.283-288
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• 2019

Monodisperse microparticles has been particularly enabling for various applications in the encapsulation and delivery of pharmaceutical agents. The microfluidic devices are attractive candidates to produce highly uniform droplets that serve as templates to form monodisperse microparticles. The microfluidic devices that have micro-scale channel allow precise control of the balance between surface tension and viscous forces in two-phase flows. One of its essential abilities is to generate highly monodisperse droplets. In this paper, a microfluidic approach for preparing monodisperse polycaprolactone (PCL) microparticles is presented. The microfluidic devices that have a flow-focusing generator are manufactured by soft-lithography using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The crucial factors in the droplet generation are the controllability of size and monodispersity of the microdroplets. For this, the volumetric flow rates of the dispersed phase of oil solution and the continuous phase of water to generate monodisperse droplets are optimized. As a result, the optimal flow condition for droplet dripping region that is able to generate uniform droplet is found. Furthermore, the droplets containing PCL polymer by solvent evaporation after collection of droplet from device is solidified to generate the microparticle. The particle size can be controlled by tuning the flow rate and the size of the microchannel. The monodispersity of the PCL particles is measured by a coefficient of variation (CV) below 5%.

• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2020

The most common approach for computing engineering flow problems at high Reynolds number is still the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) computations based on turbulence models with wall functions. The recently developed generalized wall functions blending between the wall-limiting viscous and the outer logarithmic relations ensure a smooth transition of flow quantities across two regions. The performances and convergence properties of widely used turbulence models with wall functions that are applicable for turbulence kinetic energy (TKE), turbulent and specific dissipation rates, and eddy viscosity are presented through a series of near wall flow simulations. The present results show that RNG k-𝜖 model should be carefully applied with small tolerance to get the stable solution when the first grid lies in the buffer layer. The standard k-𝜖 and RNG k-𝜖 models are not sensitive to the selection of wall functions for both TKE and eddy viscosity, while the k-ω SST model should be applied together with kL-wall function for TKE and nutUB-wall functions for eddy viscosity to ensure accurate and stable boundary conditions. The applications to a backward-facing step flow at Re=155,000 reveal that the reattachment length is reasonably well predicted on appropriately refined mesh by all turbulence models, except the standard k-𝜖 model which about 13% underestimates the reattachment length regardless of the grid refinement.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.12
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• pp.511-517
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• 2016

Current oil-type potential transformers for trains are filled with insulating oil, which could have problems like explosions due to rising inner pressure during train operation. Therefore, mold and dry-type potential transformers are being developed to prevent explosions. One problem in manufacturing mold-type transformers is preventing void formation around the coiled core inside the mold during epoxy filling, which could cause an electrical spark. Micro voids can remain in the resin after filling, and macro voids can occur due to the structure shape. A transformer that is being developed has a cavity at the junction of the core and the coil for better performance, and when highly viscous epoxy flows inside the cavity channel, macro voids can form inside it. Therefore, in this study, the free-surface flow of the mold filling procedure was analyzed numerically by applying the VOF method. The results were used to understand the phenomena of void formation inside the cavity and to modify the process conditions to reduce voids.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.29 no.12
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• pp.35-44
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• 2013

In this study, a particle method without using grid was applied for analysing large deformation problems in soil flows instead of using ordinary finite element or finite difference methods. In the particle method, a continuum equation was discretized by various particle interaction models corresponding to differential operators such as gradient, divergence, and Laplacian. Soil behavior changes from solid to liquid state with increasing water content or external load. The Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion was incorporated into the particle method to analyze such three-dimensional soil behavior. The yielding and hardening behavior of soil before failure was analyzed by treating soil as a viscous liquid. First of all, a sand column test without confining pressure and strength was carried out and then a self-standing clay column test with cohesion was carried out. Large deformation from such column tests due to soil yielding or failure was used for verifying the developed particle method. The developed particle method was able to simulate the three-dimensional plastic deformation of soils due to yielding before failure and calculate the variation of normal and shear stresses both in sand and clay columns.