Numerical Modelling of Coupled Heat and Mass Transfer in Porous Materials: Application to Cinder Block Bricks

In this work, we present numerical modelling of coupled heat and mass transfer within porous materials. Our study focuses on cinder block bricks generally used in building construction. The material is assumed to be placed in air. Moisture content and temperature have been chosen as the main transfer drivers and the equations governing these transfer drivers are based on the Luikov model. These equations are solved by an implicit finite difference scheme. A Fortran code associated with the Thomas algorithm was used to solve the equations. The results show that heat and mass transfer depend on the temperature of the air in contact with the material. As this air temperature rises, the temperature within the material increases, and more rapidly at the material surface. Also, thermal conductivity plays a very important role in the thermal conduction of building materials and influences heat and mass transfer in these materials. Materials with higher thermal conductivity diffuse more heat.

Mass transfer enhancement and hydrodynamic performance with wire mesh coupling solid particles in bubble column reactor

It is of vital significance to investigate mass transfer enhancements for chemical engineering processes.This work focuses on investigating the coupling influence of embedding wire mesh and adding solid particles on bubble motion and gas-liquid mass transfer process in a bubble column.Particle image velocimetry(PIV)technology was employed to analyze the flow field and bubble motion behavior,and dynamic oxygen absorption technology was used to measure the gas-liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient(kLa).The effect of embedding wire mesh,adding solid particles,and wire mesh coupling solid particles on the flow characteristic and kLa were analyzed and compared.The results show that the gas-liquid interface area increases by 33%-72%when using the wire mesh coupling solid particles strategy compared to the gas-liquid two-phase flow,which is superior to the other two strengthening methods.Compared with the system without reinforcement,kLa in the bubble column increased by 0.5-1.8 times with wire mesh coupling solid particles method,which is higher than the sum of kLa increases with inserting wire mesh and adding particles,and the coupling reinforcement mechanism for affecting gas-liquid mass transfer process was discussed to provide a new idea for enhancing gas-liquid mass transfer.

Efficient Inverse Analysis for Solving a Coupled Conduction,Convection and Radiation Problem Involving Non⁃gray Participating Media

The presence of non-gray radiative properties in a reheating furnace’s medium that absorbs,emits,and involves non-gray creates more complex radiative heat transfer problems.Furthermore,it adds difficulty to solving the coupled conduction,convection,and radiation problem,leading to suboptimal efficiency that fails to meet real-time control demands.To overcome this difficulty,comparable gray radiative properties of non-gray media are proposed and estimated by solving an inverse problem.However,the required iteration numbers by using a least-squares method are too many and resulted in a very low inverse efficiency.It is necessary to present an efficient method for the equivalence.The Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm is utilized to solve the inverse problem of coupled heat transfer,and the gray-equivalent radiative characteristics are successfully recovered.It is our intention that the issue of low inverse efficiency,which has been observed when the least-squares method is employed,will be resolved.To enhance the performance of the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm,a modification is implemented for determining the damping factor.Detailed investigations are also conducted to evaluate its accuracy,stability of convergence,efficiency,and robustness of the algorithm.Subsequently,a comparison is made between the results achieved using each method.

A new thermomechanical coupled FDEM model for geomaterials considering continuum-discontinuum transitions

A new thermomechanical(TM)coupled finite-discrete element method(FDEM)model,incorporating heat conduction,thermal cracking,and contact heat transfer,has been proposed for both continuous and discontinuous geomaterials.This model incorporates a heat conduction model that can accurately calculate the thermal field in continuousediscontinuous transition processes within a finite element framework.A modified contact heat transfer model is also included,which accounts for the entire contact area of discrete bodies.To align with the finite strain theory utilized in the FDEM mechanics module,the TM coupling module in the model is based on the multiplicative decomposition of the deformation gradient.The proposed model has been applied to various scenarios,including heat conduction in both continuous and discontinuous media during transient states,thermal-induced strain and stress,and thermal cracking conditions.The thermal field calculation model and the TM coupling model have been validated by comparing the numerical results with experiment findings and analytical solutions.These numerical cases demonstrate the reliability of the proposed model convincingly,making it suitable for use across a wide range of continuous and discontinuous media.

A coupled cryogenic thermo-hydro-mechanical model for frozen medium:Theory and implementation in FDEM

This paper presents the development of a coupled modeling approach to simulate cryogenic thermo-hydro-mechanical(THM)processes associated with a freezing medium,which is then implemented in the combined finite-discrete element method code(FDEM)for multi-physics simulation.The governing equations are deduced based on energy and mass conservation,and static equilibrium equations,considering water/ice phase change,where the strong couplings between multi-fields are supplemented by critical coupling parameters(e.g.unfrozen water content,permeability,and thermal conductivity).The proposed model is validated against laboratory and field experiments.Results show that the cryogenic THM model can well predict the evolution of strongly coupled processes observed in frozen media(e.g.heat transfer,water migration,and frost heave deformation),while also capturing,as emergent properties of the model,important phenomena(e.g.latent heat,cryogenic suction,ice expansion and distinct three-zone distribution)caused by water/ice phase change at laboratory and field scales,which are difficult to be all revealed by existing THM models.The novel modeling framework presents a gateway to further understanding and predicting the multi-physical coupling behavior of frozen media in cold regions.

New Progress of Magnetically-coupled Resonant Wireless Power Transfer Technology

近些年,无线电能传输技术受到了越来越广泛的关注。作为一种中等距离无线电能传输技术,自从美国麻省理工学院于2007年发表其研究成果后,磁耦合谐振式无线电能传输技术就成为了研究热点问题。该文在对无线电能传输技术进行总体介绍的基础上,主要对磁耦合谐振式无线电能传输技术进行概括论述。首先分析了磁耦合谐振式无线电能传输技术的基本结构和工作原理,介绍了目前运用于分析该技术的主要理论;接着对该技术目前的传输水平和热点问题进行了分类阐释,主要分为传输特性、新材料的应用、干扰问题和实际应用,介绍了目前的研究现状;最后在当前研究热点问题的基础之上,对该技术有待研究的问题以及发展趋势进行了展望。

Analysis of influence of heat exchangerfouling on heat transfer performancebased on thermal fluid coupling

A study on heat transfer performance by thermal fluid coupling simulation for the fouling in a shell-tube heat exchanger used in engineering was presented. The coupling simulation was performed in a fluid and solid domains under three different fouling conditions: fouling inside the tube, fouling outside the tube, and fouling inside the shell. The flow field, temperature, and pressure distributions in the heat exchanger were solved numerically to analyze the heat transfer performance parameters, such as thermal resistance. It is found that the pressure drop of the heat exchanger and the thermal resistance of the tube wall increase by nearly 30% and 20%, respectively, when the relative fouling thickness reaches 10%. The fouling inside the tube has more impact on the heat transfer performance of the heat exchanger, and the fouling inside the shell has less impact.

Transfer matrix method for determination of the natural vibration characteristics of elastically coupled launch vehicle boosters

The analysis of natural vibration characteristics has become one of important steps of the manufacture and dynamic design in the aerospace industry. This paper presents a new scenario called virtual cutting in the context of the transfer matrix method of linear multibody systems closed- loop topology for computing the free vibration characteristics of elastically coupled flexible launch vehicle boosters. In this approach, the coupled system is idealized as a triple-beam system-like structure coupled by linear translational springs, where a non-uniform free-free Euler-Bemoulli beam is used. A large thrust-to-weight ratio leads to large axial accelera- tions that result in an axial inertia load distribution from nose to tail. Consequently, it causes the development of significant compressive forces along the length of the launch vehicle. Therefore, it is important to take into account this effect in the transverse vibration model. This scenario does not need the global dynamics equations of a system, and it has high computational efficiency and low memory requirements. The validity of the presented scenario is achieved through com- parison to other approaches published in the literature.

Numerical simulation of aluminum holding furnace with fluid-solid coupled heat transfer

To predict three-dimensional temperature distribution of molten aluminum and its influencing factors inside an industrial aluminum holding furnace,a fluid-solid coupled method was presented.The fluid-solid coupled mathematics models of aluminum holding furnace in the premixed combustion processing were established based on mass conservation,moment conservation,momentum conservation,energy conservation and chemistry species conservation.Computational results agree well with the test data of the typical condition.The maximum combustion temperature is 1 850 K.The average temperature of the molten aluminum is 1 158 K,and the maximum temperature difference is about 240 K.The average temperature increases 0.3 ℃ while the temperature of combustion air increases 1 ℃.The optimal excess air ratio is 1.25-1.30.

Coupled Transfer of Water and Heat in Red Soil: Experiment and Numerical Modelling

Coupled transfer of soil water and heat in closed columns of homogeneous red soil was studied under laboratory conditions. A coupled model was constructed using soil physical theory, empirical equations and experimental data to predict the coupled transfer. The results show that transport of soil water was affected by temperature gradient, and the largest net water transport was found in the soil column with initial water content of 0.148 m3 m-3. At the same time, temperature changes with the transport of soil water was in a nonlinear shape as heat parameters were function of water content, and the changes of temperature were positively correlated with the net amount of water transported. Numerical modelling results show that the predicted values of temperature distribution were close to the observed values, while the predicted values of water content exhibited limited deviation at both ends of the soil column due to the slight temperature changes at both ends. It was indicated that the model proposed here was applicable.

A novel electron-phonon coupling thermoelasticity with Burgers electronic heat transfer

The electron-phonon interaction can reveal the microscopic mechanism of heat transfer in metals.The two-step heat conduction considering electron-phonon interaction has become an effective theoretical model for extreme environments,such as micro-scale and ultrafast processes.In this work,the two-step heat transfer model is further extended by considering the Burgers heat conduction model with the secondorder heat flux rate for electrons.Then,a novel generalized electron-phonon coupling thermoelasticity is proposed with the Burgers electronic heat transfer.Then,the problem of one-dimensional semi-infinite copper strip subject to a thermal shock at one side is studied by the Burgers two-step(BTS)model.The thermoelastic analytical solutions are systematically derived in the Laplace domain,and the numerical Laplace inversion method is adopted to obtain the transient responses.The new model is compared with the parabolic two-step(PTS)model and the hyperbolic two-step(HTS)model.The results show that in ultrafast heating,the BTS model has the same wave front jump as the HTS model.The present model has the faster wave speed,and predicts the bigger disturbed regions than the HTS model.More deeply,all two-step models also have the faster wave speeds than one-step models.This work may benefit the theoretical modeling of ultrafast heating of metals.

Controlling Roll Temperature by Fluid-Solid Coupled Heat Transfer

Currently, when magnesium alloy sheet is rolled, the method of controlling roll temperature is simple and inaccurate. Furthermore, roll temperature has a large influence on the quality of magnesium alloy sheet; therefore, a new model using circular fluid flow control roll temperature has been designed. A fluid heat transfer structure was designed, the heat transfer process model of the fluid heating roll was simplified, and the finite di erence method was used to cal?culate the heat transfer process. Fluent software was used to simulate the fluid?solid coupling heat transfer, and both the trend and regularity of the temperature field in the heat transfer process were identified. The results show that the heating e ciency was much higher than traditional heating methods(when the fluid heat of the roll and tempera?ture distribution of the roll surface was more uniform). Moreover, there was a bigger temperature di erence between the input and the output, and after using reverse flow the temperature di erence decreased. The axial and circum?ferential temperature distributions along the sheet were uniform. Both theoretical calculation results and numerical simulation results of the heat transfer between fluid and roll were compared. The error was 1.8%–12.3%, showing that the theoretical model can both forecast and regulate the temperature of the roll(for magnesium alloy sheets) in the rolling process.

Development of experimental study on coupled heat and moisture transfer in porous building envelope

A new facility was presented which can expediently and cheaply measure the transient moisture content profile in multi-layer porous building envelope.Then,a common multi-layer porous building envelope was provided,which was constructed by cement mortar-red brick-cement plaster.With this kind of building envelope installed in the south wall,a well-controlled air-conditioning room was set up in Changsha,which is one of typical zones of hot and humid climate in China.And experiments were carried out to investigate the temperature and moisture distribution in multi-layer building envelope in summer,both in sunny day and rainy day.The results show that,the temperature and humidity at the interface between the brick and cement mortar are seriously affected by the changes of outdoor temperature and humidity,and the relative humidity at this interface keeps more than 80% for a long-term,which can easily trigger the growth of mould.The temperature and humidity at the interface between the brick and cement plaster change a little,and they are affected by the changes of indoor temperature and humidity.The temperature and humidity at the interface of the wall whose interior surface is affixed with a foam plastic wallpaper are generally higher than those of the wall without wallpaper.The heat transfer and moisture transfer in the envelope are coupled strongly.

Coupled heat-fluid-solid numerical study on heat extraction potential of hot dry rocks based on discrete fracture network model

Fracture networks within hot dry rock(HDR)geothermal reservoirs are complex,and heat extraction via water injection is thus a coupled process of heat-fluid-solid multifield.In this paper,utilizing the theory of normally distributed random functions,we develop a corresponding pre-processing subprogram to establish a discrete network model of complex fracture distribution in HDR reservoirs;then construct a heat-fluid-solid finite element model for heat extraction via water injection and compare the numerical solution with the analytical solution of the one-dimensional non-isothermal consolidation problem for verification.The numerical simulation results show that the main factors affecting the heat extraction efficiency of HDR reservoirs include fracture width,fracture density,fracture permeability,and matrix permeability.When a HDR reservoir is injected with water for heat extraction,there is a certain threshold value of these influential parameters,beyond which the outlet temperature drops significantly,resulting in an obvious thermal breakthrough.When injecting water for heat extraction,the values of these parameters should be controlled and kept at a reasonable level,otherwise,the HDR reservoir may enter a thermal breakthrough stage in advance,which is not conducive for long-period heat extraction.Influenced by the random distribution of complex fractures,the leading edge of the cold front may present an irregular distribution.During the process of heat extraction,the stress gradually changes from a compressional state to a tensile state,which induces further damage to the HDR reservoir.

Advances in Inductively Coupled Power Transfer Technology for Rail Transit

Traditional power supply method for moving electric railway vehicles is based on contact type power collection technology.This sometimes cannot meet the requirements of modern rail transportation.A new wireless power transfer(WPT)technology can offer significant benefits in modern rail transportation particularly in some stringent environments.This paper reviews the status and the development of rail transit power supply technology,and introduces a new challenging technology--inductive power transfer(IPT)technology for rail transit.Tesla established the underpinning of IPT technology and creatively and significantly demonstrated power transfer by using highly resonant tuned coils long time ago.However,only in recent years the IPT technology has been significantly improved including the transfer air-gap length,transfer efficiency,coupling factor,power transfer capability and so on.This is mainly due to innovative semiconductor switches,higher control frequency,better coil designs and high performance material,new track and vehicle construction techniques.Recent advances in IPT for rail transit and major milestones of the developments are summarized in this paper.Some important technical issues such as coupling coil structures,power supply schemes,segmentation switching techniques for long-distance power supply,and bidirectional IPT systems for braking energy feedback are discussed.

Response analysis of NMRG system considering Rb-Xe coupling

The dynamic range of the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope can be effectively improved through the closedloop control scheme,which is crucial to its application in inertial measurement.This paper presents the analytical transfer function of Xe closed-loop system in the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope considering Rb–Xe coupling effect.It not only considers the dynamic characteristics of the system more comprehensively,but also adds the influence of the practical filters in the gyro signal processing system,which can obtain the accurate response characteristics of signal frequency and amplitude at the same time.The numerical results are compared with an experimentally verified simulation program,which indicate great agreement.The research results of this paper are of great significance to the practical application and development of the nuclear magnetic resonance gyroscope.

Power transfer efficiency in an air-breathing radio frequency ion thruster

Due to a series of challenges such as low-orbit maintenance of satellites, the air-breathing electric propulsion has got widespread attention. Commonly, the radio frequency ion thruster is favored by low-orbit missions due to its high specific impulse and efficiency. In this paper, the power transfer efficiency of the radio frequency ion thruster with different gas compositions is studied experimentally, which is obtained by measuring the radio frequency power and current of the antenna coil with and without discharge operation. The results show that increasing the turns of antenna coils can effectively improve the radio frequency power transfer efficiency, which is due to the improvement of Q factor. In pure N_2 discharge,with the increase of radio frequency power, the radio frequency power transfer efficiency first rises rapidly and then exhibits a less steep increasing trend. The radio frequency power transfer efficiency increases with the increase of gas pressure at relatively high power, while declines rapidly at relatively low power. In N_(2)/O_(2) discharge, increasing the N_(2) content at high power can improve the radio frequency power transfer efficiency, but the opposite was observed at low power. In order to give a better understanding of these trends, an analytic solution in limit cases is utilized, and a Langmuir probe was employed to measure the electron density. It is found that the evolution of radio frequency power transfer efficiency can be well explained by the variation of plasma resistance, which is related to the electron density and the effective electron collision frequency.

THE NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF UNSTEADY HEAT TRANSFER OF A PISTON-LINER COUPLED SYSTEM IN AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE

This paper provides a numerical analysis model of unsteady heat trans-fer in piston-liner set of an internal combustion engine.The model simulates the un-steady heat transfer process among the combustion mixture,piston set,lubricantfilm,liner and coolant in a whole engine cycle,and can predict the temperature fluc-tuation and distribution on piston crown,inner surface of liner,piston ring and thelubricant film.A computer program is developed to calculate the unsteady heat trans-fer process of piston-liner system in a water-cooled diesel engine.

ANALYSIS OF THE THERMOPHYSICAL PARAMETERS OF MOIST WOOD PARTICLE MATERIAL IN A COUPLED HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER PROCESS OF FREEZING BY USING FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

The coupled heat and moisture transfer in a freezing process of wood particle material was mathematically modeled in the paper. The models were interactively solved by using the numerical method(the finite element method and the finite difference method). By matching the theoretical calculation to an experiment, the nonlinear problem was analyzed and the variable thermophysical parameters concerned was evaluated. The analysis procedure and the evaluation of the parameters were presented in detail. The result of the study showed that by using the method as described in the paper, it was possible to determine the variable (with respect to temperature, moisture content and freezing state) thermophysical parameters which were unknown or difficult to measure as long as the governing equations for a considered process were available. The method can significantly reduces the experiment efforts for determining thermophysical parameters which arc very complicated to measure. The determined variable of the effective heat conductivity of wood particle material was given in the paper. The error of the numerical calculation was also estimated by the comparison with a matched experiment.

Non-equilibrium thermodynamic analysis of coupled heat and moisture transfer across a membrane

Non-equilibrium thermodynamics theory is used to analyze the transmembrane heat and moisture transfer process,which can be observed in a membrane-type total heat exchanger(THX).A theoretical model is developed to simulate the coupled heat and mass transfer across a membrane,total coupling equations and the expressions for the four characteristic parameters including the heat transfer coefficient,molardriven heat transfer coefficient,thermal-driven mass transfer coefficient,and mass transfer coefficient are derived and provided,with the Onsager’s reciprocal relation being confirmed to verify the rationality of the model.Calculations are conducted to investigate the effects of the membrane property and air state on the coupling transport process.The results show that the four characteristic parameters directly affect the transmembrane heat and mass fluxes:the heat and mass transfer coefficients are both positive,meaning that the temperature difference has a positive contribution to the heat transfer and the humidity ratio difference has a positive contribution to the mass transfer.The molar-driven heat transfer and thermal-driven mass transfer coefficients are both negative,implying that the humidity ratio difference acts to reduce the heat transfer and the temperature difference works to diminish the mass transfer.The mass transfer affects the heat transfer by 1%–2%while the heat transfer influences the mass transfer by7%–14%.The entropy generation caused by the temperature difference-induced heat transfer is much larger than that by the humidity difference-induced mass transfer.