Date of Award
5-2009
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.S.
Degree Program
Engineering
Department
Mechanical Engineering
Major Professor
Wang, Ting
Second Advisor
Guillot, Martin
Third Advisor
Hall III, Carsie A.
Abstract
Evaporators separate liquids from solutions. For maximum efficiency, designers reduce the temperature difference between the heating and heated media using multiple-stage evaporators. This efficiency requires increased size and bulk. A vendor claimed its thermal compression evaporator achieved high efficiency with only two stages. It did not function as claimed. This project investigated the evaporator's design to identify its problems and propose an alternative design with a minimized footprint. The analysis showed theoretical flaws and design weaknesses in the evaporator, including violation of the first law of thermodynamics. An alternative thermal compressor design was created through computational fluid dynamics using spreadsheet methods developed in house, aided by the software product FLUENT. Detailed component sizing was done using the software product HYSYS. The proposed redesign achieved four to one efficiency with two stage thermal compression, using one half of the space of a traditional system of similar performance.
Recommended Citation
Day, Benjamin Marc, "An Evaluation and Redesign of a Thermal Compression Evaporator" (2009). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 926.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/926
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.