An experimental study of temperature and moisture content of wet porous materials under short-pulsed laser heating

The measurements of temperature and moisture content of a wet porous material were accomplished on the micro-seconds scale. The temperature wave was observed when the wet porous material was heated by short-pulsed laser with high power. It firstly revealed that the moisture content of wet porous material rapidly rises twice in one laser irradiation. The influences of laser parameters, the thickness and initial moisture content of the wet porous material on its temperature and moisture content were investigated.

Numerical Investigation on Flow and Heat Transfer Performance of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Based on Variable Turbulent Prandtlnumber Model

Flow and heat transfer characteristic of supercritical carbon dioxide(SCO_(2))are numerically investigated in the horizontal and vertical tubes.TWL turbulent Prandtl number model could well describe the behavior of SCO_(2) affected by the buoyancy.Under the cooling condition,the heat transfer performance of SCO_(2) along the upward direction is best and that along the downward direction is worst when bulk fluid temperatures are below the pseudocritical temperature.Reducing the ratio of heat flux to mass flux could decrease the difference of convective heat transfer coefficient in three flow directions.Under the heating condition,heat transfer deterioration only occurs in vertical upward and horizontal flow directions.Heat transfer deterioration of SCO_(2) could be delayed by increasing the mass flux and the deterioration degree is weakened in the second half of tube along the vertical upward flow direction.Compared with the straight tube,the corrugated tube shows better comprehensive thermal performance.

Numerical study of collection efficiency and heat-transfer characteristics of packed granular filter

The collection mechanism and heat-transfer characteristics of a packed granular filter were investigated using a three-dimensional randomly packed granular filter model. The bridging method was introduced to optimize the grids of contact points between granules. The influences of granular bed depth, gas velocity, and gas temperature on grade collection efficiency were investigated. The results indicated that a decrease of temperature improved collection efficiency when the particle diameter was greater than 5 |xm. The grade collection efficiency maintained a stable value when the Stokes number, St, was less than 0.009, but increased linearly with ig(St) when St > 0.009. A logarithmic mean temperature difference method was used to obtain overall heat-transfer coefficients of gas-solid two-phase flow through the packed granular filter. The results showed that convective heat transfer was enhanced due to the intro-duction of solid particles in the bed. The overall heat-transfer coefficient increased approximately linearly with an increase in particle loading ratio. The Nusselt number was related to the Reynolds number, the Archimedes number, and the particle loading ratio.

Numerical simulation of spray performance based on the Euler-Lagrange Approach

Numerical simulations have been carded out to investigate the liquid atomization and spray process using theDiscrete Phase Model of the commercial CFD code combined with the Wall-Film boundary conditions. The effectsof spray parameters on droplets Santer mean diameter (SMD), droplet collision speed, the thickness of liquid-film,the surface temperature and its uniformity were analyzed in the present study. The simulation results andthe experimental data obtained in the available literature agree within 13.8%. The computational results show thatthe spray pressure is the main factor to realize the atomization. Increasing the mass flux and the spray pressure,the droplet collision speed increases while the corresponding maximum film thickness on the heated surface declines.The surface temperature changes indistinctively with the increase of the spray distance, but the temperaturedistribution tends to be uniform.

Visualization of Film Wavelike Characteristics and Measurement of Film Thickness in Spray Cooling

An experimental investigation was performed to study the heat transfer in an eight-nozzle spray cooling system with de-ionized water as the working fluid. Visualization of the liquid-solid contact area and the flow near the heated surface was made using a microscopic lens system in conjunction with an advanced high-speed camera. The film thickness and film wavelike characteristics under liquid volume flow rates ranged from 2.78×10 -6 m 3 /s to 1.39×10 -5 m 3 /s and surface temperatures between 22℃ and 78.2℃ were examined respectively. The development process of the liquid film on the heated surface was observed. The local mean film thickness, the film wavelike characteristics and the behavior of the bubbles appeared in the liquid film were captured using an image processing technique. It is discovered that there exists a climax of local mean film thickness during the starting process of spray cooling. When the liquid film reaches the dynamic stable state, the dimensionless mean film thickness decreases with the increase of the liquid volume flow rate, and increases with the increase of surface temperature generally. Besides, the volume flow rate has a more significant impact on the wavelength and amplitude of the liquid film compared to the surface temperature.

Collection efficiency in a three-dimensional randomly arranged dual-layer granular bed filter

The dual-layer granular bed filter packed with randomly arranged granules was simulated to study the effects of bed depth of the lower layer of fine granules and the inlet gas velocity on the collection mechanism.The computational results show that the collection efficiency is much better from this granular bed than a single-layer granular bed,especially for particle diameters of 1-10μm.The inlet gas velocity has less effect on the grade collection efficiency of the dual-layer granular bed than of the single-layer granular bed.The dual-layer granular bed provides a high collection efficiency and low pressure drop.The relationship between the grade collection efficiency and the Stokes number(St)based on the inlet gas velocity is obtained.If St is below a threshold,the grade collection efficiency remains stable;if St is in value above threshold,the grade collection efficiency increases linearly with lg(St).As the bed depth of the lower layer of fine granules increases,the threshold for St shifts forward.

Effect of cavitating flow on forced convective heat transfer: a modeling study

With water as working medium,a numerical study on liquid convection heat transfer accompanied by cavitating flow in a circular tube was conducted by combining mixture model and Schnerr–Sauer cavitation mode in the commercial code,Ansys Fluent.Cavitation is instigated by setting a restriction orifice in the circular tube.The simulation results show that cavitation occurs around the wall of the restriction orifice and disappears at the downstream regions.The comparison of local heat transfer coefficients under the same mass flow rate indicates that,heat transfer is significantly augmented at the downstream regions of the restriction orifice because of the occurrence of cavitation.The analysis on the characteristics of cavitating and noncavitating flows confirms that the occurrence of cavitation can increase the turbulence intensity under the same mass flow rate,which is the origin for heat transfer to be enhanced.Based on it,the effects of such factors as inlet pressure and ratio of orifice to pipe diameter on cavitation enhanced heat transfer were further investigated for the purpose of application.

A structured packed-bed reactor designed for exothermic hydrogenation of acetone

Fixed-bed reactors randomly packed with catalysts have many disadvantages that may adversely affect the desired chemical reaction.The increasingly used monolithic reactor,in contrast,has many operational advantages;however,for a kinetically-controlled reaction,it does not contain sufficient catalyst to sustain the reaction.To address the problems associated with both randomly packed-bed reactor and the monolithic reactor,a structured packed-bed reactor was proposed and mathematical models were built for randomly packed-bed reactor and structured packed-bed reactor.Their respective performances were compared when applied to the exothermic reaction of the isopropanol-acetone-hydrogen chemical heat pump system.The results showed that the structured packed-bed reactor performed better in terms of pressure drop and heat transfer capacity,and had a lower radial temperature gradient,indicating that this reactor had a higher effective heat conductivity.Isopropanol on the catalyst particle surfaces was more concentrated near the tube wall because a wall effect existed in the boundary layer around the particle-wall contact points.

3D CFD modeling of acetone hydrogenation in fixed bed reactor with spherical particles

Acetone hydrogenation in a fixed bed reactor packed with spherical catalyst particles was simulated to study the effects of inlet gas velocity and particle diameter on hydrogenation reaction. Computational results show that the catalyst particles in the reactor are almost isothermal, and the high isopropanol concentration appears at the lee of the particles. With the increase of inlet velocity, the outlet isopropanol mole fraction decreases, and the total pressure drop increases drastically. Small diameter catalyst particles are favorable for acetone hydrogenation, but result in large pressure drop.

Effects of Chemical Reaction Caused by Cooling Stream on Film Cooling Effectiveness

With the increase of inlet temperature of gas turbines, the benefits by using the conventional methods are likely to approach their limits. Therefore, it is essential to study novel film cooling methods for surpassing these current limits. Based on the theory of heat transfer enhancement, a film cooling method with chemical reaction by cool- ing stream is proposed. In order to test the feasibility of the proposed method, numerical simulations have been conducted. The classic flat plate structure with a 30 degree hole is used for the simulation. In the present study, the effects of the parameters in relation to the chemical reaction on film cooling effectiveness, such as chemical heat sink, volume changes, and reaction rate, are investigated numerically. The conventional film cooling is also calculated for the comparison. The results show that film cooling effectiveness is improved obviously due to the chemical reaction, and the reaction heat and reaction rate of cooling stream have an important effect on film ef- fectiveness. However, the effect of volume changes can be ignored.

Simulation of Heat Transfer with the Growth and Collapse of a Cavitation Bubble Near the Heated Wall

The growth and collapse behaviors of a single cavitation bubble near a heated wall and its effect on the heat transfer are numerically investigated. The present study is designed to reveal the mechanism of cavitation enhanced heat transfer from a microscopic perspective. In the simulation, the time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations are solved in an axisymmetric two-dimensional domain. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is employed to track the liquid-gas interface. It is assumed that the gas inside the bubble is compressible vapor, and the surrounding liquid is incompressible water. Mass transfer between two phases is ignored. The calculated bubble profiles were compared to the available experimental data, and a good agreement was obtained. Then, the relationship among bubble motion, flow field and surface heat transfer coefficient was analyzed. On this basis, the effects of such factors as the initial distance between the bubble and the wall, the initial vapor pressure and the initial bubble nucleus size on the heat transfer enhancement are discussed. The present study is helpful to understand the heat transfer phenomenon in presence of cavitation bubble in liquid.

Acetone hydrogenation in exothermic reactor of an isopropanol–acetone–hydrogen chemical heat pump: effect of intra-particle mass and heat transfer

Intra-particle mass and heat transfer plays an important role in performance of the exothermic fixed-bed reactor for an isopropanol–acetone–hydrogen chemical heat pump. In this work, an exothermic fixed-bed reactor model, taking into account the actual packing structure, is established in the commercial software Fluent. A 120°segment of a tube with tube-to-particle diameter ratio(n) of4, where realistic particles are packed and set to porous media, is used to simulate the 3D external flow, concentration and temperature fields in the exothermic packed-bed reactor. The influence of catalyst particle diameter(dp) and micropore diameter(d0) on the intra-particle temperature,species distribution, reaction rate and selectivity is discussed. The appropriate dpand d0 are obtained. Simulation results showed that intra-particle temperature gradient is not obvious. Large dpand small d0 lead to remarkable gradient of reaction rate inside the catalyst particle and the decrease in the catalyst efficiency and reduce the acetone conversion and the selectivity in isopropanol. The optimal results reveal that the spherical catalyst with dpof 1 mm and dporeof 10 nm is appropriate for high-temperature acetone hydrogenation.

Interaction Mechanism of Double Bubbles in Hydrodynamic Cavitation

Bubble-bubble interaction is an important factor in cavitation bubble dynamics. In this paper, the dynamic behaviors of double cavitation bubbles driven by varying pressure field downstream of an orifice plate in hydrodynamic cavitation reactor are examined. The bubble-bubble interaction between two bubbles with different radii is considered. We have shown the different dynamic behaviors between double cavitation bubbles and a single bubble by solving two coupling nonlinear equations using the Runge-Kutta fourth order method with adaptive step size control. The simulation results indicate that, when considering the role of the neighbor smaller bubble, the oscil-lation of the bigger bubble gradually exhibits a lag in comparison with the single-bubble case, and the extent of the lag becomes much more obvious as time goes by. This phenomenon is more easily observed with the increase of the initial radius of the smaller bubble. In comparison with the single-bubble case, the oscillation of the bigger bubble is enhanced by the neighbor smaller bubble. Especially, the pressure pulse of the bigger bubble rises intensely when the sizes of two bubbles approach, and a series of peak values for different initial radii are acquired when the initial radius ratio of two bubbles is in the range of 0.9～1.0. Although the increase of the center distance between two bubbles can weaken the mutual interaction, it has no significant influence on the enhancement trend. On the one hand, the interaction between two bubbles with different radii can suppress the growth of the smaller bubble; on the other hand, it also can enhance the growth of the bigger one at the same time. The significant en-hancement effect due to the interaction of multi-bubbles should be paid more attention because it can be used to reinforce the cavitation intensity for various potential applications in future.

Exergy analysis and performance enhancement of isopropanol-acetone-hydrogen chemical heat pump

Exergy loss analysis was conducted to identify the irreversibility in each component of the isopropanol- acetone-hydrogen chemical heat pump （IAH-CHP）. The results indicate that the highest irreversibility on a system basis occurs in the distillation column. Moreover, the effect of operating parameters on thermodynamic performances of the IAH-CHP was studied and the optimal conditions were obtained. Finally, the potential methods to reduce the irreversibility of the IAH-CHP system were investigated. It is found that reactive distillation is apromising alternative. The enthalpy and exergy efficiency of the IAH-CHP with reactive distillation increases by 24.1% and 23.2%, respectively.