Heat Transfer - Design Project

Instructions:

You must work in a team of three or four of your choosing. Submit one report for the entire team. If you don't choose your members before the Team Construction Due date you will be assigned into a team by the instructor. The Interim Design Review is optional, but if you do submit one, I will carefully inspect your work and make comments to improve your design and process. Then you will have time to work-out any problems or issues, fix mistakes, or alter your design. This should allow you the chance to develop a very good and practical design (assuming that you have substantial work attempted for the Interim Design). The Interim Design does not need to be typed and formal, but have it very neat so that I can clearly inspect your work. Your final design report will be typed with the format indicated below. Sample calculations can be done by hand in the appendix, but your calculation/design steps with some equations should be in the main body of the report. I also want your design explained well and readable (i.e., pay attention to presentation, clarity, and grammar). Since a design report is not the same as a homework assignment, don't just do some calculations with a few numbers in boxes. Explain your steps and show all of your work neatly. A good design with sloppiness and poor explanation will appear like a bad design. I do grade grammar and clarity.

Desalination Water Delivery System

Your rich uncle, Mortimer, and his wife, Aunt Theodosia live in an extravagant mansion located upon their sprawling 20 acres with manicured lawns, exquisite landscaping, an Olympic-size swimming pool, fountains, and wooded glades. Their 20,000 square foot house includes a two-story wood-paneled library, wine cellar, 12' x 20' saltwater aquarium, an indoor arboretum, and a plush home cinema. Uncle Mortimer's "garage" (which is more like a showroom) contains his collection of Porsches, his medieval knights' armor collection, and his gold-plated and diamond studded golf club set among other beauties. They are continually extending their business portfolio and investments; over the past few years they bought and now operate the Overlook Hotel and Bates Motel (not the ones that are creepy). Last year they bought a few oil wells. Uncle Mort's prime oil location is in the Middle East. While directing operations there, he needed a humble place to call home. So he bought one of the islands off the coast of Dubai, United Arab Emirates:

Uncle Mort needs a cost effective water supply. Of course, the island is surrounded by water, but full of salt, it is useless. Uncle Mort plans to install a desalination plant; knowing there are various options, he is considering thermal distillation (boiling seawater, capturing the steam and condensing it back into liquid water, as shown in the schematic below). Obviously the desalination plant needs connected to the Gulf and his residential operations. After learning of your vast new knowledge of heat transfer, Uncle Mortimer has asked you to design the heat transfer system for his desal plant. This may require pump(s), container(s), a piping system, and heating/cooling components, etc.

Preliminary Reply Investigation: some (not all) considerations during the first week:
• What is required for thermal desalination?
• What are the possible energy sources you may use to boil the seawater?
• Initial component list and approximate sizes for needed water capacity.

Some considerations after your initial investigations:

• Be cautious that the components and design are not too costly. You should keep track of approximate expenses for components, and keep notes of how you kept costs down. Uncle Mort will want to know. You do not need to consider installation costs, unless your design plan is especially unique. (Consult your customer to determine if installation costs are required for your plan.)

• You are designing the heat transfer system (boiling and condensing stages) only. You do not need to design the water post treatment system and storage & delivery components.

• Be careful with all fluid components sizing (pipes, pumps, etc.). Do not drastically oversize or undersize your pump.

• Consider operational expenses for Uncle Mortimer. In other words, choose your pump(s), energy source, and other power-using components wisely. What will it cost per year to run your designed desalination system?