Preface

This book focuses on the dissemination of information of permanent interest in mechanic applications and engineering technology. The considered applications are widely used in several industrial fields particularly in those of automotive and aerospace aspects. Many features related to Mechanic processes are presented. The presented case studies and development approaches aim to provide the readers, such as engineers and PhD students, with basic and applied studies broadly related to the Mechanic Applications and Engineering Technology.

The first chapter reports numerical simulations of three-dimensional laminar mixed convection heat transfer of water-based-Al2O₃ nanofluid in an open cubic cavity with a heated block. Ansys-Fluent was used to simulate 3D flows with heat transfer.

In the second chapter, nonlinear formulations of the Element-Free Galerkin Method (EFGM) are presented for the large deformation analysis of Ogden’s hyperelastic materials, which are considered incompressible. The EFGM requires no explicit mesh in computation and therefore avoids mesh distortion difficulties.

In the third chapter, a 3D numerical modeling with the LS-DYNA commercial code was developed using a coupled SPH-FEM method (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) and Finite element method (FEM)) to simulate the hydraulic behavior of a physical model Ski-Jump Spillway with dentates. Several examples of validation, taken from the literature, demonstrate the precision and reliability of developed numerical models.

The fourth chapter focuses on improving the inlet system of an LPG-H2 fueled engine by adding a static inclined blade turbine. It is a horizontal rotational axis turbine with four blades evenly distributed with an angle of inclination of 35°. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are used in order to capture the in-cylinder flow motion and its influence on the flow characteristics. The method is assessed by application to flow calculations in the intake manifold for 3000 rpm engine speed.

The purpose of the fifth chapter is to explain the effective utilization of the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) model in heat transfer applications for thermal problems, like fouling in a heat exchanger. The application of the ANN tool with different techniques and structures shows that it is an effective and powerful tool due to its small errors in comparison with experimental data.

The sixth chapter investigates the effect of nitrogen concentration, as a reactive gas, on the structure and properties of ZrN coatings deposited by magnetron sputtering. The structural and morphological properties of Zr-N films were described, followed by a detailed investigation of the mechanical properties of Zr-N coatings. By varying the nitrogen percentage, the structure and the hardness of Zr-N films were evaluated in a wide range.

In the seventh chapter, the problem of forced convection in a simple horizontal cylindrical pipe is studied. Two boundary conditions are considered, uniform constant heat flux and uniform temperature. The fluid to be heated is pseudoplastic, modeled by the Ostwald law (n ≤ 1.0). A fully developed velocity profile is assumed at the pipe entrance. The energy equation is solved numerically with a simple implicit finite difference scheme.

The eighth chapter presents the modeling and the experimental study of a water solar collector coupled to an optimized solar still developed in order to boost freshwater production in a solar distillation system. The desalination process is currently operated under the climatological conditions of Sfax, Tunisia. To numerically simulate the water solar collector, a dynamic model based on heat and mass transfer of the water solar collector was developed.

In the ninth chapter, the effect of film thickness on the structure and properties of Ti-N films deposited by magnetron sputtering are investigated. The structural properties of Ti-N films were described, followed by a detailed investigation into their mechanical properties by using theoretical and experimental analysis. The theoretical calculation presented the Rocksalt TiN structure with a lattice parameter of about 4.255 Å are confirmed by X-ray diffraction.