Evaporation of liquid fuel droplet at supercritical conditions

A comprehensive analysis of liquid fuel droplet evaporation at supercritical conditions is performed.The numerical model is based on complete time-dependent conservation equations,with a full account of variable thermophysical properties and vapor-liquid interfacial thermodynamics.And the model employs the Peng-Robinson(PR)equation of state(EOS).As a specific example,problems involving n-heptane droplet in nitrogen gas are investigated.The results indicate that the increase of ambient pressure and temperature results in the increase of surface temperature rise rate and surface regression rate.The transition from subcritical state to supercritical state can occur at the droplet surface when the droplet evaporates in a strongly supercritical environment.

Steady Lateral Growth of Three-Dimensional Particle Laden Density Currents

In this paper the steady lateral growth of three-dimensional turbulent inclined turbidity current is investigated. To simulate the current, an experimental setup is developed to analyze the turbidity current for different regimes in the particle laden density currents environment. The Buckingham’s π theorem together with a dimensional analysis is implemented to derive the appropriate non-dimensional variables. The experimental results were normalized and plotted in the form of non-dimensional graphs from which a theoretical model is developed and analyzed. Based on the results obtained for the steady lateral growth, three different regimes, namely, inertia-viscous one as the first regime, buoyancy-viscous and gravity-viscous as the second and third regimes are distinguished within the current.In these regimes, the force balance is between the driving and resisting forces. Namely, in the first regime, the force balance is between the inertia and viscous forces, in the second regime, the buoyancy and viscous forces, and in the third regime, gravity and viscous forces are balanced. The experimental results indicate that the lateral growth rate in the first regime is smaller than that in the second and third regimes due to the magnitude and type of the forces involved in those regimes. According to the graphical results, the three different lateral growth rates appear when the normalized current length is smaller than about 3, between about 3 and 10, and larger than about 10. In those regions,the slopes of the data are different with respect to one another.

Investigation on the Pinch Point Position in Heat Exchangers

The pinch point is important for analyzing heat transfer in thermodynamic cycles. With the aim to reveal the importance of determining the accurate pinch point, the research on the pinch point position is carried out by theoretical method. The results show that the pinch point position depends on the parameters of the heat transfer fluids and the major fluid properties. In most cases, the pinch point locates at the bubble point for the evaporator and the dew point for the condenser. However, the pinch point shills to the supercooled liquid state in the near critical conditions for the evaporator. Similarly, it shifts to the superheated vapor state with the condensing temperature approaching the critical temperature for the condenser. It even can shift to the working fluid entrance of the evaporator or the supereritical heater when the heat source fluid temperature is very high compared with the absorb- ing heat temperature. A wrong position for the pinch point may generate serious mistake. In brief, the pinch point should be founded by the itcrativc method in all conditions rather than taking for granted.

Simulation of gas kick with high H_2S content in deep well

： phase transition, from a subcritical state to a gaseous state, of the natural gas with high H2S content and the solubility of the H2S component in the drilling fluid will make the multiphase flow behavior very different from the pure natural gas-drilling fluid two-phase flow under the gas kick condition in a deep well. With consideration of the phase transition and the solubility of the H2S component in the natural gas, a multiphase flow model is established. The simulation analysis results indicate that, for a typical case of a well depth of 4 325 m, the density of the 100%-H2S natural gas can be 4 times higher than that of the 0%-H2S natural gas, and the solubility of the 100%-H2S natural gas is 130 times higher than that of the 0%-H2S natural gas. These will make the detection of the gas invasion more difficult. While the invasion gas moves up along the wellbore to a certain position, the phase transition and the release of the dissolved gas may cause a rapid volume expansion, increasing the blowout risk. The calculation results also show that the risks of a gas kick can be reduced by increasing the wellhead back pressure.