UCONN Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket

Sponsoring Company: Clarcor Engine Mobile Solutions

Project Title: Improving Pre-Cleaner Dust Separation Performance

Prime Contacts: Ken Dutil [email protected] Faculty Advisor: Dr. Tai-Hsi Fan

The Engineering Challenge: Clarcor is a world leader in design, development and production of filtration systems for the industrial, automotive and agricultural industries.

Agricultural and industrial equipment (see figure 1) operate in environments where air filtration is critical to operating efficiency and durability. Current air filtration systems consistent of a pre-cleaner to separate out large dirt/sand particles and a series of filtration elements for the smaller particles (see figure 2). The pre-cleaner typically consists of a series of “spin” tubes that extract the larger sand particles by centrifuging them out of the air stream (see figure 4). An improvement in the performance of the pre- cleaner would complement improvements in the filter elements and provide a significant market advantage for Clacor.

Description of Problem/Project : The objective of this project is to design and develop an higher performing spin tube for a pre-cleaner.

Attach photos/slides:

Figure 1 Figure 2 Air Filtration System

Figure 4 Spin Tubes

Expected Deliverables/Approach:

Research on sand separation methods.

Identify representative suction and flow levels.

Identify candidate designs (spin tubes and others)

Analytical modeling of designs using particle size distributions provided by Clacor.

Initial down select of concepts based on predicted sand separation capability compared to existing design.

Design, fabricate and test a test rig to measure the performance of a tube design. Include current design as a baseline for performance. Recommended spin tube design.

All analysis results, CAD models, data,etc..

 Is there a specific software package required for the projects? Y _X__ N ___

Which package (name/version) __Star CCM______

 U.S. Citizen/Person (green card) Required? Y____ N __X_

 Will Export Controlled data be used in project (EAR/ITAR) Y _____N_X__

 NDA/IP Agreements required? Y _X__ N __

 Other considerations: