Apparatus and plant engineering

The high-temperature flow system was developed and built as part of the "Heat Up" project. The aim of the project was to optimise the heat transfer between fluids and electrical resistance heaters.

For this purpose, a flow circuit consisting of a fan, heating chamber with electrical resistance heating, measuring chamber, heat exchanger and a control system consisting of a PLC and HMI was installed in the plant engineering laboratory of FB 10. The control system is network-compatible; the flow circuit generates air speeds of up to 40 m/s at a maximum temperature of 700°C.

The entire enclosure is available to students digitally in virtual reality for their practical training. The VR goggles can be used to simulate initial familiarisation and commissioning:

• Students apply selected knowledge from the subject areas "Fundamentals of Heat Transfer", "Fluid Mechanics" and "Apparatus and Plant Engineering" in the dimensioning of a sensitive thermal storage tank using a practice-relevant example.
• Students experience the mapping of apparatus/machines/enclosures in a VR environment and can explain the benefits of VR for commissioning and troubleshooting on the one hand and for instructing third parties on safe operation in compliance with occupational health and safety on the other.
• Students will be able to measure the temperature-time curve when charging a latent thermal store and recognise the basic structure of I&C technology in plant engineering from the interaction between the control system, HMI, sensors and actuators.
• Students are able to describe the system of information processing from the recording of measured values to the validated mathematical model and independently analyse the measured values recorded and saved in a csv file. The knowledge gained is used to validate a simple mathematical model in ^Matlab®.
• The students learn to evaluate the specifications of a requirement specification and parameterise the previously validated model with the information they consider important. When scaling up the latent thermal memory to given technical data, students recognise iterative procedures as an instrument of practical work.

In addition to the research objectives mentioned, it will be possible to use the enclosure for paid R&D services:

• The dimensioning of a large number of applications in thermal process technology with predominantly convective heat transfer is complicated by uncertainties in the determination of the heat transfer coefficient.
• Typical workpieces, e.g. aluminium chassis parts, can be inserted into the measuring chamber. These can then be exposed to fluid in a targeted manner by means of customised flow guides ("nozzle system"), whereby fluid temperatures of up to 700°C are possible.
• The measurement of the temperature-time curve in the workpiece used and in the fluid then enables the precise determination of the convective heat transfer. This value can be used either for dimensioning or for validating any existing CFD models.