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The existing grape drying technology and equipment often have problems such as poor hygiene conditions, high drying costs, and large drug residues. Therefore, the market urgently needs grape drying equipment with low energy consumption, high efficiency, and a green-clean processing process. To solve the above problems, a piece of integrated drying equipment combining the two technologies of air impingement blanching and air impingement drying for multi-layer grape material drying is designed. The dried product quality is directly affected by the airflow field distribution. Therefore, obtaining good airflow distribution and airflow velocity uniformity in the drying chamber via parametric studies is essential to ensure uniform drying of products. Since parametric and optimization investigations by physical experiments are usually expensive and time-consuming, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) being a flexible and less expensive tool can be employed to perform such studies. In the current work, the airflow velocity distribution and uniformity of the drying material room are analyzed by Ansys Fluent software. The airflow velocity non-uniformity coefficient is used to evaluate airflow uniformity. Results show that the original design has poor uniformity and needs to be optimized. The influence of air inlet chamber deflection device and material truck airflow baffles on the flow field of the material drying room is investigated to improve the uniformity of airflow distribution. Considering drying efficiency and uniformity, drying material room structure with the addition of deflection device design with the structural parameters of L = 50 mm and θ = 76°, airflow baffle design with the structural parameters of h = 0 mm, θ2 = 20° is chosen as the final optimized design. After optimization, the velocity of airflow between material layers has improved overall, and the maximum difference of average airflow velocity between material layers has been reduced from 0.73 m/s to 0.69 m/s, improving the drying uniformity of dried materials. In comparison to other drying equipment, the current integrated drying equipment combing air impingement blanching and drying has the advantages of being efficient and energy-saving, suitable for large-scale drying of grapes with better drying quality. The current results could guide the drying equipment design for grapes and develop the grape drying industry with high-dried quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Airflow velocity uniformity in material drying room used in steam blanching and hot-air vacuum drying equipment is crucial for obtaining a good drying quality of fruits and vegetables. To analyze the airflow velocity uniformity and give the optimization design for improving the airflow uniformity, CFD method is used for the flow field analysis of material drying room and the velocity non-uniformity coefficient is used as the evaluation indicator for the velocity uniformity. Results show that the airflow velocity distribution in the material drying room at the original inlet airflow distribution chamber is relatively uneven and the airflow velocity non-uniformity coefficient in drying area is 34 %. For reducing the airflow velocity non-uniformity, the airflow velocity distribution of three structural modification directions with 12 designs in total are analyzed and compared. The minimum airflow velocity non-uniformity coefficient for adding a spoiler model, reducing the closed end width and adding nozzle baffles are 17.1 %, 30.2 %, 10.4 %, respectively. Through comparison, adding the nozzle baffle with a width of 11 mm at the rear end of each nozzle outlet is considered as the optimal designs to conduct the experimental validation. Experimental validation results shows the the relative error between the simulated value and the measured value is within 10 %, proving that the CFD prediction results is reliable and the research results can give a theoretical reference for the designers to evaluate and optimize the structure of inlet airflow distribution chamber for improving the airflow uniformity in drying area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In vehicles, air conditioning tends to offer efficient thermal conditioning and air circulation inside cabin for passenger comfort from different climate variation. The working performance of air conditioning system in vehicles is an essential factor for thermal comfort and driving safety of the passenger compartment of vehicles. Therefore, it is of great significance to construct a numerical simulation model for theoretical analysis and performance evaluation of vehicle air conditioning system. In current research, the air conditioning system of an electric vehicle is taken as the research subject. Internal flow field characteristics of air conditioning system is investigated by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Results show that the air flow in air-conditioning system is relatively smooth, and the velocity distribution in the front windshield A area and the driver's field of vision of the left and right windows is not ideal when the defrosting-demisting mode is on; the velocity and air quantity distribution of the two outlets in the middle air duct are not uniform under blowing mode. In view of the uneven distribution of velocity and air quantity, the corresponding optimization scheme is proposed. After optimization, the cell relative velocity of the front windshield is significantly improved, and velocity distribution of the side window glass is slightly increased and the defrosting-demisting performance meets the vehicle defrosting requirements of national standard; after optimization, the air quantity distribution of the air ducts at blowing mode is more uniform, which is conducive to the comfort of the passenger compartment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving an optimal cooling of the generator unit is indispensable for high working performance. In this work, computational fluid dynamics analysis on the flow field of the conventional type and silent type of the S688CCS series generator unit is conducted, and design optimization of the generator unit with poor cooling is studied based on flow field analysis results. Flow field simulation results indicate that the total cooling air quantity of the silent type generator unit is lower than that of the conventional type generator unit, and the cooling air quantity of the radiator is also lower than that of the conventional type generator unit, which is not conductive for the cooling of the silent type generator unit. The flow field optimization is achieved by adopting the single variable control method to improve the structure of the fan cover, silent components for silence, adjacent structure, and air inlet grille. The corresponding structure optimization scheme is put forward. After optimization, the air quantity for the cooling radiator of the silent type generator unit is 44.33% higher than that of its original structure, and the total cooling air quantity is higher than that of the conventional type generator unit. The research results in this work can provide a theoretical basis for the design of the cooling air flow path of generator units for achieving an optimal cooling performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]