Simulación del movimiento del jugo en un intercambiador pirotubular para la industria panelera

This article presents a study to optimize tube configuration in a pirotubular reservoir used in the sugar cane industry. Optimized tube configuration should eliminate problems in the stage of juice clarification (during which juice is heated from 60°C to 96°C), and improve panela's quality. This study consists of: a) a mathematical model describing the macroscopic flow of juice, b) a finite-element modelling (FEM) simulation of the microscopic flow, and c) a comparison between results obtained by the two methods. The FEM simulated flow is then applied to several geometric configurations of the tubes in order to optimize tube configuration to provide an improved juice clarification stage. From the configurations tested, semielliptical tubes presented a better performance.