Abstract

RESTREPO, Álvaro; FLOREZ, Luís C.  and  TIBAQUIRA, Juan E.. Design simulation and construction of an evaporator coil in the Colombian sugar cane industry. Ingeniería Mecánica [online]. 2017, vol.20, n.2, pp. 51-57. ISSN 1815-5944.

This paper describes the design, construction and numerical simulation of a coil for the evaporation process of the juice of sugar cane process in Colombia. The purpose of this design is to improve the geometry of the existing coil to decrease the evaporation time and consequently the use of fuel. The heat transfer model includes an empirical correlation for obtaining the cane juice heat convection coefficient. In addition, aspects related to the minimum exchange area, the number of tubes and the steps of the coil were included. Using the temperature field obtained from the numerical simulation, we identify the most suitable geometry for the construction of the coil. The simulation and the experimental evaluation in field results show that lower evaporation times are achieved at lower vapor pressures than the original system, which is reflected in the reduction of bagasse consumption during steam generation.

Keywords : evaporator coil; sugar cane juice; sugar cane industry; computational fluid dynamics (CFD).

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