Numerical Study of Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer Induced by Plasma Discharges

A numerical investigation is conducted to explore the evolution of a plasma discharge and its interaction with the fluid flow based on a self-consistent fluid model which couples the discharge dynamics with the fluid dynamics.The effects of the applied voltage on the distribution of velocity and temperature in initially static air are parainetrically studied.Furthermore,the spatial structure of plasma discharge and the resulting force contours in streamwise and normal directions are discussed in detail.The result shows that the plasma actuator produces a net force that should always be directed away from the exposed electrode,which results in an ionic wind pushing particles into a jet downstream of the actuator.When the energy added by the plasma is taken into account,the ambient air temperature is increased slightly around the electrode,but the velocity is almost not affected.Therefore it is unlikely that the induced flow is buoyancy driven.For the operating voltages considered in this paper,the maximum induced velocity is found to follow a power law,i.e.,it is proportional to the applied voltage to the 3.5 power.This promises an efficient application in the flow control with plasma actuators.

Heat transfer of nanofluidics in hydrophilic pores: Insights from molecular dynamics simulations

Nanofluidics in hydrophilic nanopores is a common issue in many natural and industrial processes. Among all,the mass transport of nanofluidics is most concerned. Besides that, the heat transfer of a fluid flow in nano or micro channels is always considered with adding nanoparticles into the flow, so as to enhance the heat transfer by convection between the fluid and the surface. However, for some applications with around 1 nm channels such as nano filtration or erosion of rocks, there should be no nanoparticles included. Hence, it is necessary to figure out the heat transfer mechanism in the single phase nanofluidics. Via non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations, we revealed the heat transfer inside nanofluidics and the one between fluid and walls by setting simulation into extremely harsh condition. It was found that the heat was conducted by molecular motion without temperature gradient in the area of low viscous heat, while it was transferred to the walls by increasing the temperature of fluids. If the condition back to normal, it was found that the viscous heat of nanofluidics could be easily removed by the fluid-wall temperature drop of less than 1 K.

A new algorithm of global tightly-coupled transient heat transfer based on quasi-steady flow to the conjugate heat transfer problem

Concerning the specific demand on solving the long-term conjugate heat transfer （CHT） problem, a new algorithm of the global tightly-coupled transient heat transfer based on the quasi-steady flow field is further put forward. Compared to the traditional loosely-coupled algorithm, the computational efficiency is further improved with the greatly reduced update frequency of the flow field, and moreover the update step of the flow field can be reasonably determined by using the engineering empirical formula of the Nusselt number based on the changes of the inlet and outlet boundary conditions. Taking a duct heated by inner forced air flow heating process as an example, the comparing results to the tightly-coupled transient calculation by Fluent software shows that the new algorithm can significantly improve the computational efficiency with a reasonable accuracy on the transient temperature distribution, such as the computing time is reduced to 22,8% and 40% while the duct wall temperature deviation are 7% and 5% respectively using two flow update time step of 100 s and 50 s on the variable inlet-flow rate conditions.

Numerical simulation of heat transfer process in cement grate cooler based on dynamic mesh technique

A grate cooler is key equipment in quenching clinker and recovering heat in cement production. A two-dimensional numerical model based on a 5000 t/d cement plant is proposed to for a study on the gas-solid coupled heat transfer process between the cooling air and clinker in a grate cooler. In this study, we use the Fluent dynamic mesh technique and porous media model through which the transient temperature distribution with the clinker motion process and steady temperature and pressure distribution are obtained. We validate the numerical model with the operating data of the cooling air outlet temperature. Then, we discuss the amount of mid-temperature air outlet and average diameter of clinker particles, which affect the heat effective utilization and cooling air pressure drop in clinker layer. We found that after adding one more mid-temperature air outlet, the average temperature of the air flowing into the heat recovery boiler increases by 29.04℃ and the ratio of heat effective utilization increases by 5.3%. This means heat recovery is more effective on adding one more mid-temperature air outlet. Further, the smaller the clinker particles, the more is the pressure drop in clinker layer; thus more power consumption is needed by the cooling fan.

CFD Study on Local Fluid-to-Wall Heat Transfer in Packed Beds and Field Synergy Analysis

To reach the target of smaller pressure drop and better heat transfer performance, packed beds with small tube-to-particle diameter ratio(D/dp<10) have now been considered in many areas. Fluid-to-wall heat transfer coefficient is an important factor determining the performance of this type of beds. In this work, local fluid-to-wall heat transfer characteristic in packed beds was studied by Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) at different Reynolds number for D/dp=1.5, 3.0 and 5.6. The results show that the fluid-to-wall heat transfer coefficient is oscillating along the bed with small tube-to-particle diameter ratio. Moreover, this phenomenon was explained by field synergy principle in detail. Two arrangement structures of particles in packed beds were recommended based on the synergy characteristic between flow and temperature fields. This study provides a new local understanding of fluid-to-wall heat transfer in packed beds with small tube-to-particle diameter ratio.

Secondary solar heat gain modelling of spectral-selective glazing based on dynamic solar radiation spectrum

The secondary solar heat gain,defined as the heat flows from glazing to indoor environment through longwave radiation and convection,grows with the increasing of glazing absorption.With the rapid development and application of spectrally selective glazing,the secondary solar heat gain becomes the main way of glazing heat transfer and biggest proportion,and indicates it should not be simplified calculated conventionally.Therefore,a dynamic secondary solar heat gain model is developed with electrochromic glazing system in this study,taking into account with three key aspects,namely,optical model,heat transfer model,and outdoor radiation spectrum.Compared with the traditional K-Sc model,this new model is verified by on-site experimental measurements with dynamic outdoor spectrum and temperature.The verification results show that the root mean square errors of the interior and exterior glass surface temperature are 3.25°C and 3.33°C,respectively,and the relative error is less than 10.37%.The root mean square error of the secondary heat gain is 13.15 W/m2,and the dynamic maximum relative error is only 13.2%.The simulated and measured results have a good agreement.In addition,the new model is further extended to reveal the variation characteristics of secondary solar heat gain under different application conditions(including orientations,locations,EC film thicknesses and weather conditions).In summary,based on the outdoor spectrum and window spectral characteristics,the new model can accurately calculate the increasing secondary solar heat gain in real time,caused by spectrally selective windows,and will provide a computational basis for the evaluation and development of spectrally selective glazing materials.

Ultrafast solid-liquid-vapor irradiated by femtosecond phase change of a thin gold fi laser pulses and pulse trains

Effects of different parameters on the melting, vaporization and resolidification processes of thin gold film irradiated by femtosecond pulses and pulse train were systematically studied. The classical two-temperature model was adopted to depict the non-equilibrium heat transfer in electrons and lattice, the melting and resolidification processes, which was~ characterized by the solid-liquid interfacial velocity, as well as elevated melting temperature and depressed solidifcation tempera- ture, was obtained by considering the interfacial energy balance and nucleation dynamics. Vaporization process which leads to ablation was described by tracking the location of liquid-vapor interface with an iterative procedure based on energy balance and gas kinetics law. The parameters in discussion included film thickness, laser fluence, pulse duration, pulse number, repetition rate, pulse train number, etc. Their effects on the maximum lattice temperature, melting depth and ablation depth were discussed based on the simulation results.