engleski

Lethal effects of hydrodynamic forces from hydrocyclones

The treatment of live organisms is of increasing interest in many biological processes. More often than not these organisms reside within a fluid environment, and one example is the directed use of organisms in a bioreactor to create a product. Excessive heat, radiation or fluid forces can be damaging. Contrary to the above example in which we want to aid an organisms survival by manipulating fluid environment, there are situations where we want to use hydrodynamic forces as the tool for the elimination of unwanted organism’s. An important example for such applications would be in the treatment of ballast waters. In the system investigated here fluid forces in a cyclonic system are used in order to eliminate unwanted organisms. However, regardless whether we want to use hydrodynamics forces for an organism’s benefits or disadvantage, the understanding and control of such forces is essential. This study is focused on understanding the action of those forces through the use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in order to evaluate the environmental parameters that contribute to cell damage. Data has become available that characterises the damage exerted by different cyclonic systems on sea water organisms when pumped into a ship’s ballast tanks. The work therefore aims to identify lethal conditions in the flow and use CFD to explain the action. Reverse engineering of this technology will allow the design of better fluid handling systems for sensitive organisms.

ballast water; treatment; hydrodynamic forces

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