Session: 10-06-02: Fluid Measurements and Instrumentation

Paper Number: 145863

145863 - Design, Calibration and Validation of a Robust and Reliable Nanofuel Stability Device 

Nano-fuels are a revolutionary fuel alternative that is relatively new to the combustion community. Nano particles suspended in a fuel can increase the energy density of the base fuel while also reducing harmful chemicals emissions like NOX. These key points highlight the impact nano-fuels could have on the world. While Nano-fuels have their advantages they are not without their faults. The main problem with nano-fuels is that the nano particles tend to agglomerate and settle out of the colloidal suspension. This settling has been the main point of research on many research articles. There have been several methods used to study the stability of the colloidal suspension of nano-fuels. Zetametry, settling bed, and centrifugal separation have been used to study nano-fuel stability. Most of the techniques used in stability studies are expensive or invasive. Invasive techniques are less than ideal as they disturb the sample and do not allow the sample to settle out naturally. Expensive techniques are useful but not effective on a large scale. 

This paper proposes a significant improvement on a nano-fuel settling device formerly deployed by Gurjap et. Al and Rahat et. Al. By using light scattering techniques, we can accurately assess the settling patterns of each nano-fuel. Our setup consists of a 3-D printed part designed with 6 columns to hold 6 test tubes of suspensions. On the front side of the column there are light emitting diodes (LEDs). These LED’s produce white light that shines through the nano-fuel suspension. Once the light has passed through suspension, it reaches the other side of the column. On this back side there are photodiodes placed parallel to the LEDs. The light that transmits through the nano-fuel suspension hits the photodiode and produces current via the photoelectric effect. This current is passed through a multiplexer and is interpreted by an Arduino 2560 Mega. Once interpreted by the Arduino each photodiode gives values corresponding to how much light the photodiode received. The proposed setup contains 7 LED’s and 7 photodiodes along the height of a test tube facilitating a 40% increase in spatial resolution compared to the previous setup. There is a 35 percent reduction in wiring compared to previous setups, which reduces the complexity of the setup along with bringing the overall cost down significantly. This feet has been achieved by incorporating a PCB designed breadboard and using AdaFruit neopixel LED’s. Lastly, a housing unit has been constructed for the settling device which will allow the device to be portable, robust, and to generate noise free signals.

Presenting Author: Nitin Nagarkar The University of Iowa

Presenting Author Biography: A driven fourth-year electrical and mechanical engineering student at the University of Iowa, I have been actively involved in the Ratner Research Group since May 2022, contributing towards the nanofuel settling project.

I have worked on expanding and improving a custom-designed settling analyzer, additionally taking initiative to prepare various nanofuel solutions for testing and analysis.

Currently, in collaboration with my team, I have taken charge of designing and programming a new and improved, robust, portable, more efficient settling analyzer, involving different hardware elements and design components.

Authors:

Nitin Nagarkar The University of Iowa
Wesley Steiner The University of Iowa
Rahat Mollick The University of Iowa
Albert Ratner The University of Iowa