Most of the formulations regarding the characteristics of a shell and tube heat exchanger have a common assumption; namely that the baffle plates are equidistant. This assumption fails to cater the real world scenario for defective baffles as the alteration in a shell and tube heat exchanger invalidates the equidistant baffle spacing of the plates. In this regard, a small six baffles heat exchanger was modeled in the computational fluid dynamics software package and studied by removing each baffle plate one at a time. Effect of removing each baffle plate on the temperature, pressure, heat transfer coefficient, and total heat transfer rate was recorded. It was observed that variation in the pressure drop for the same number of baffle plates varies along the axial order of the plates. The change in pressure drop due to the removal of the baffle plate near the inlet and the outlet was lowest and reaches a maximum in the axial center. It was also found that the plates below the radial center contribute higher towards the overall heat transfer as compared to those above.
Stemming plugs are one of the widely used accessory in surface mining operations. Stemming plugs assist conventional stemming material in gas retention and help in better fragmentation and explosive utilization. Effective use of the stemming plugs results in economic benefits and enhance the efficacy of the project. Economic and productive viability of stemming plugs have been conducted in depth by different researchers. Addition of stemming plugs to a new system requires ergonomic challenges for operators conducting drilling and blasting operation. Induction of a newer product in already established system is subject to overall positive feedback. This work investigates ergonomics of three different stemming plugs introduced to a limestone quarry in Pakistan. The stemming plugs were evaluated based on extra time needed, workers feedback, failures during operation, recovery time after failure and number of extra equipment required to carry out the operation. Points based matrix was established with likeliness of each plug and based on overall scores stemming plug 1 was most acceptable followed by stemming plug 3. Stemming plug 2 was disliked by operation and did not reach the level of acceptability of operators. This work will help stemming plug making industry in adapting to best practices by incorporating ergonomics of plugs in designing. Literature shows no previous work on ergonomics of stemming plugs.
Plastic obtained from the discarded computers, televisions, refrigerators, and other electronic devices is termed as e-plastic waste. E-plastic waste is non-biodegradable waste. This paper focuses to investigate the replacement of fine aggregate with plastic aggregate obtained from e-plastic. The paper presents a detailed comparison of concrete properties (i.e.: compressive strength, tensile strength, flexural strength, density and workability) for normal concrete and concrete containing e-plastic fine aggregates. The testing was conducted according to the ASTM standards. 28-day Compressive, Flexural and Split tensile strengths were determined. In addition to the effect of e-plastic fine aggregate, silica fume is added as an admixture to find the effect on strengths. Authors have performed a compressive, flexural and tensile test of concrete mix with various percentages of e-plastic aggregates (i.e., 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%) and silica fume (i.e.: 0, 5 and 10%) and concrete densities are also considered. It has been concluded that an increase in the e-plastic fine aggregate results in reduction in densities, compressive, flexural and tensile strength values. However, when we add silica fume to the concrete mixture it leads to strength values similar to the control mixture. The optimum obtained concrete blend contained 5% e-plastic fine aggregates and 10% silica fume. The addition of silica fume in concrete mixtures increases the 28-day compressive, flexural and tensile strengths. Moreover, the density of concrete decreases with the increase in the e-plastic aggregates.