Probleemstelling:

For bulk transport and handling screw conveyers are a proven technology. Besides transport also numerous applications in industry require heating, cooling, drying, … of bulk products. This can also be done within the screw conveyers. The jacket of the conveying mechanism can be heated or cooled by a heat transfer fluid, but also the screw itself can be heated or cooled directly with a heat transfer fluid. The correct handling of the machine is necessary to obtain the desired results in terms of flow rate and temperatures. Although the transportation itself can be easily calculated the heat transfer during transport is much more difficult to calculate. The heat transfer processes can be analysed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) which is a branch of fluid mechanics that uses numerical methods and algorithms to solve and analyse problems that involve fluid flows.

Doelstelling:

The goal of this thesis is to model the mass and heat transfer inside a screw conveyer by CFD analysis. The optimal settings can be derived for a certain process depending on the screw configuration. It is the purpose the study the mode of heat transfer in detail and derive guidelines for the design of screw heat exchangers for handling of solid materials like soil. At the end it is possible to validate the model with experimental data obtained on a machine which is currently being built by Deswarte for transport and disinfection of soil.

This projects aids in sustainable development goal (SDG) 12: responsible consumption and production, by increasing crop and food production by adequate disinfection of residual soil still attached to food crops and might contain infectious materials like nematodes, weeds or fungus.