EVALUATION OF STRAIN-STRESS STATE OF THE IMPROVED OIL SLUDGE THERMAL TREATMENT MODULAR UNIT DESIGN

Abstract

Oil sludge treatment is an important environmental challenge. It should be noted, that oil sludge is a valuable raw material, which should be refined to the extraction of useful products, as it yields environmental and economic effect, or used as fuel. There are several methods and techniques of oil sludge treatment. It should be noted that each of them has certain advantages as well as disadvantages. Among the variety of methods and techniques, burning is the most common one. But this process leads to atmosphere and soil secondary pollution as it is accompanied by toxic combustion gases emission. It makes more economical sense that the relatively small amounts of oil sludge, which are distant from the stationary treatment units, are to be treated at the locations of sludge pits. It calls for modular build mobile units that are to be mounted on off-road vehicles. The main problems at mobile units origination are performance and reliability assurance at high temperatures, that are necessary for the treatment process; low capacity, because of the process duration, as mainly the surface layers of oil sludge are heated. This is why critical components in minimal temperature zones and uniform heating throughout the oil sludge should be anticipated in mobile units just like in stationary units. This article introduces a model, fully describing the construction, and all the components of the oil sludge treatment unit. Strain-stress state analysis of unit’s bottom individually and of the unit integrally at startup and after reaching the operating mode with account to different configurations of the unit’s bottom has determined the most stressed area.