Browsing by Author "Popoola, Olalekan Tajudeen"

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    Melting of Aluminium in Pulsed Combustor Fired Furnace
    (Nigerian Society of Engineers, 2011) Olorunmaiye, John Adesiji; Popoola, Olalekan Tajudeen; Ibrahim, Rasaq
    The paper presents an experimental investigation of the use of a locally fabricated SNECMA-Lockwood type pulsed combustor to fire a metallurgical furnace designed for melting low melting point metals. The fuel used for firing the combustor is Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) sold in Nigeria. The working space of the furnace is 290 mm by 290 mm by 485 mm. The exit port of the pulsed combustor was fired into the Metallurgical furnace. Results showing the variation with time of the pulsed combustor exit port temperature. Temperature of 680 degree C was attained in the furnace when it was empty while a maximum temperature 66.7 degree C was attained when it was loaded with aluminum scraps. The aluminum scrap was melted in about thirty five minutes and the molten aluminum was used to cast two small objects. The result shows that a metallurgical furnace fired with pulsed combustor could be used to melt low melting metals like aluminum and lead.
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    Numerical Investigation of Heat Transfer in Straight Pipe of Elliptic Cross-Section Rotating in Orthogonal Mode
    (Published Faculty of Engineering and Technology, University of Ilorin, 2026) Popoola, Olalekan Tajudeen; Lasode, Olumuyiwa Ajani; Adegun, Isaac Kayode; Rabiu, Abdulakarim Baba
    Efficient heat removal in rotating cooling channels remains a critical challenge in thermal systems such as blades of gas turbine and rotating heat exchangers, where complex rotational forces significantly influence flow and temperature distributions. However, the combined effects of pipe eccentricity and orthogonal rotation on turbulent heat transfer in noncircular ducts are not yet fully quantified. This study numerically investigates the heat transfer characteristics of fluid flow in a straight pipe with an elliptical cross-section that rotates in an orthogonal mode. The objectives are to evaluate the influence of eccentricity, Rossby number, and Prandtl number on convective heat transfer. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model which is based on the finite volume method was developed using ANSYS Fluent. Simulations were conducted at a Reynolds number of 17,000 with a constant wall heat flux for three eccentricities (0.433, 0.866, and 0.916) and Prandtl numbers ranging from 0.73 to 7. Mesh independence was achieved at approximately 1.07 × 10⁶ computational nodes. The results showed that the Nusselt number increased with both Rossby and Prandtl numbers, reaching a maximum value of approximately 340 at Pr = 7 and Ro = 0.1. The pipe with eccentricity 0.916 exhibited the highest heat transfer performance. The findings provide practical design guidance for cooling channels in rotating machinery such as gas turbines, heat exchangers, and rotating electrical systems.