Transport Modelling
The speed at which heat or mass is transferred through a
material is of great importance to engineers and
manufacturers. Depending on the application it may be
desirable to have a slow transfer of heat, for insulating
purposes, or a fast transfer of heat, for increased
productivity in moulding applications or for higher efficiency
heat exchangers. Mass diffusion is important in such processes
as moisture permeability of paint films or the degradation of
the matrix in polymer composite laminates and some packaging
material. Plastic products are increasingly being made as
layered designs so the manufacturer has the freedom to tailor
the products properties to a particular application.
To better understand how a material is performing under
service conditions or during manufacturing it is desirable to
use modelling and visualisation techniques to predict the
material response. Transport modelling refers to the
modelling of heat and mass transfer as both are considered as
transport processes that originate from molecular activity.
Heat transfer is initiated by a temperature difference in a
medium while mass transfer is initiated by a difference in the
concentration (chemical potential for more complex systems
with stress gradients) of some chemical species in a
mixture.
TherMOL Software
The software tool TherMOL
has been specifically developed at NPL for generic
applications which require modelling of multi-material
systems, subjected to transient heat or mass transfer. TherMOL
currently has the capability to model 3D material arrays and
uses optimisation methods and the NPL Grid to help determine
unknown material and model parameters. TherMOL is currently
being developed at NPL in the following areas:
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