Digital Twin of a Flue Gas Cleaning Process in a Laboratory Filter Test Device

For most students at Hochschule Nordhausen University of Applied Sciences in Nordhausen, Germany, Ansys Discovery is their first experience with simulation software. In accordance with the guiding principles of the university course “Understanding Physics — Constructing Better,” students implement topics from mechanics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics in initial design studies in Discovery’s Explore Mode. By validating the results in Refine Mode, they can evaluate the first results of product and process optimization in a time-efficient manner.

With real process investigations in the labs and additional experience with Ansys Granta EduPack and other Ansys software, students can easily create sustainable solutions and products. In general, studying applied science often inspires an interest in finite element analysis (FEA) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD), helping students become better engineers.

Challenges

The goal for one of the last teaching simulation projects for the students was to generate a digital twin of a flue gas cleaning process in a laboratory filter test device (FTD). The filter was defined as porous media in Discovery. In a very short time, they implemented the solid assembly in Discovery modeling and simulated fluid extraction to investigate the filter and find a physical solution in Refine Mode.

During the project, students investigated pressure drop, filter inflow velocity, and flow conformity. Next, they compared the measured lab results of pressure drop and velocity values with the digital twin results. At the end of the project, students were excited about the topic of digital engineering even without having any previous simulation experience.

Engineering Solutions

• Students used Granta EduPack to learn which material is useful for predefined boundaries, especially plastics, compounds, and additive manufacturing materials.
• Discovery offered their first experiences with direct modeling, simulation-oriented preparation of complex geometries, and still derivation.
• Discovery helped students understand the product and the philosophy of physics design.
• Ansys Workbench familiarized students with the basics of FEA and CFD and enabled them to conduct advanced investigations in process and product optimization. Students were also able to evaluate the results of mixing, heating, and printing with their own lab investigations.
• Ansys Rocky enabled students to understand the bulk material process with discrete element modeling (DEM) simulation and evaluate through their own lab investigation.