We are all engineers, so for the next five minutes, we would like to ask you to think like

engineers.
.
I think everyone who has ever worked in a larger industry can agree that any normal day is
filled with little problems that need to be addressed, right? And when we see a problem, we
fix it. If we see an obstacle, we find a way to jump over it.

This is the kind of day to day work that takes time from engineers all over the world, in every
company. But sometimes, when these seemingly small, day to day problems gather, it feels
like it is taking ALL of our time. This is where we, as engineers, need to take a step back and
ask ourselves: is there something I can do to stop these problems from occurring in the first
place? Instead of jumping over the obstacle, can I simply remove it?

ScanArc is a company that is facing an obstacle in the cooling systems they are using for
their furnaces. Today, ScanArc uses water cooling panels, in a construction where water
comes in at the bottom, circulates the furnace, hits a wall to change direction, then the water
goes back the other way around where it hits the wall again and goes back around the
furnace.

This is a model of one of the turns where the water changes direction. The water will come in
here, in high speed, abruptly smash into a wall, make a 1.80 and go on in the opposite
direction. Alright, let’s think like engineers, do you see the problem? We will have low
pressure regions with water swirling around in vortexes, which erodes the material
completely. This wear, means that ultimately, the construction breaks. On top of that, the
change in direction slows the water down, we lose energy.

Several, rather easy, solutions have been suggested with for example steering plates to direct
the water in order to achieve a more laminar flow, or even making the turn smoother with
rounded corners. However, these are all examples of quick fixes. But are they solutions?

This is where we need to take a step back and think, is there a solution? We think so.

Our solution consists of a whole new spiral design where the water moves in the same
direction around the entire furnace. This means that we get a continuous flow where we are
able to control the amount of turbulence. Less turbulence will decrease the erosion of the
walls and therefore this design will have low maintenance cost and the energy losses will
decrease because the water no longer has to change direction all the time.

BUT!!

This requires investigation, using CFD, in order to truly be able compare our solution to
present practice.
How much less energy will this design consume? How low will the cost of maintenance be?
How much will the environment benefit from this solution? Is it more than just a new design,
is it truly a concept that takes every aspect into consider ation?

What is our goal here? We don’t want to make quick fixes, we don’t want to use our
resources to build something that will break tomorrow. We are trying to create a sustainable
solution, but for that, we need your help!

Obstacles with the spiral?

Manufacturing
Inlet outlet (pressure/flow)

Would this design increase the heat transfer as well as reduce wear problems?