Enhancement of the thermal design of bitumen emulsion tanks by Scale Analysis, CFD models and experimental tests

The present paper applies Scale Analysis, numerical simulations and experimental tests to enhance the thermal design of a commercial mobile bitumen emulsion tank for road pavement. The objective is the reduction of diesel oil consumption with the lowest increment in heating time. The complexity of heat transfer in the system lies on the highly three dimensional behaviour of the fluid flow and the large disparity between characteristic length scales to be considered. Besides, the main heat transfer mechanism depends on the location. In spite of these difficulties, the proposed design achieves a reduction of 40% in diesel oil consumption with only a 28% increase in heating time.

► Bitumen emulsion tanks are thermally enhanced by measurements of temperature inside them.
► Scale Analysis determines characteristic length and time scales of heat phenomena.
► CFD simulations compare different virtual prototypes.
► The proposed design reduces diesel oil consumption by 40 % with only a 28% increase in heating time.