Heat Transfer Analysis of Stenter Machine

Abstract

The Stenter machine is used for the treatment of woven and knitted fabrics. The Stenter itself is a very versatile and common machine in textile finishing. Almost every open width textile fabric is treated on stenter during its processing. There are four type of process that can be done on Stenter. Drying, Heat Setting, Finishing and Coating. The heat setting chamber is the main part of the Stenter machine. Heat exchanger, nozzle, blowers are the other main part of the chamber. In the present study, the thermal redesign of the hot air nozzle is undertaken using computational and analytical tools. Apart from convective heating other heating techniques such as infrared heating ,radio frequency drying etc. are studied. The CFD analysis of nozzle indicate that there is good conformance between experimental & CFD results. Thus further optimization of nozzle design may be done using CFD analysis. Without slot & protusion in nozzle, the CFD analysis indicate that the outlet velocity is much lower as compared to present nozzle, so protusion is necessary for the required velocity. The overall Stenter efficiency may be improved by consideration of waste heat recovery system, exhaust humidity monitoring, various speed drives, thermal insulation applications, heat exchanger and nozzle systems.