Micro segment analysis of supercritical methane thermal-hydraulic performance and pseudo-boiling in a PCHE straight channel

The printed circuit heat exchanger(PCHE) is receiving wide attention as a new kind of compact heat exchanger and is considered as a promising vaporizer in the LNG process. In this paper, a PCHE straight channel in the length of 500 mm is established, with a semicircular cross section in a diameter of 1.2 mm.Numerical simulation is employed to investigate the flow and heat transfer performance of supercritical methane in the channel. The pseudo-boiling theory is adopted and the liquid-like, two-phase-like, and vapor-like regimes are divided for supercritical methane to analyze the heat transfer and flow features.The results are presented in micro segment to show the local convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop. It shows that the convective heat transfer coefficient in segments along the channel has a significant peak feature near the pseudo-critical point and a heat transfer deterioration when the average fluid temperature in the segment is higher than the pseudo-critical point. The reason is explained with the generation of vapor-like film near the channel wall that the peak feature related to a nucleateboiling-like state and heat transfer deterioration related to a film-boiling-like state. The effects of parameters, including mass flow rate, pressure, and wall heat flux on flow and heat transfer were analyzed.In calculating of the averaged heat transfer coefficient of the whole channel, the traditional method shows significant deviation and the micro segment weighted average method is adopted. The pressure drop can mainly be affected by the mass flux and pressure and little affected by the wall heat flux. The peak of the convective heat transfer coefficient can only form at high mass flux, low wall heat flux, and near critical pressure, in which condition the nucleate-boiling-like state is easier to appear. Moreover,heat transfer deterioration will always appear, since the supercritical flow will finally develop into a filmboiling-like state. So heat transfer deterioration should be taken seriously in the design and safe operation of vaporizer PCHE. The study of this work clarified the local heat transfer and flow feature of supercritical methane in microchannel and contributed to the deep understanding of supercritical methane flow of the vaporization process in PCHE.

Adsorption of methane onto mudstones under supercritical conditions: Mechanisms, physical properties and thermodynamic parameters

Since the mechanisms of methane-mudstone interactions are important for estimating shale gas reserves,methane adsorption under supercritical conditions of 30 MPa pressure and 303.15,333.15,363.15 K temperatures was studied to measure the excess methane adsorption in two mudstone samples from Yanchang Formation,Ordos Basin.Excess adsorption features inflection points where the amount of adsorbed gas changes from increasing to decreasing concentrations.Three methods(fixed,slope,and freely fitted density)were applied to calculate the adsorbed-phase density(rad),which was then used to fit the measured excess adsorption.Two criteria,the goodness-of-fit and whether the fitting can obtain reasonable absolute adsorption,were applied to determine the most accurate model.Results indicated that the supercritical Dubinin-Radushkevich(SDR)model with freely fitted rad was the most reasonable model.The volume of adsorbed methane at 363.15 K is close to the micropore(d<2 nm)volume of the corresponding mudstone.Considering the actual geological conditions,the adsorbed gas should be predominantly stored in micropores.Thermodynamic parameters reveal that the methane adsorption on mudstone is a physisorption process that is jointly controlled by the heterogeneity of,and interaction forces between the methane molecule and,the rock surface.

Thermal Performance of Mini Cooling Channels for High-Power Servo Motor with Non-Uniform Heat Dissipation

High-power servo motor is widely employed as a necessary actuator in flight vehicles.The urgent problem to be solved restraining the working performance of servo motor is no longer the torque and power,but the heat dissipation capability under high-power working conditions,which may cause the overheat,even burn down of motor or other potential safety hazards.Therefore,a structure of mini cooling channels with appropriate channel density is designed in accordance with the non-uniform heat flux of servo motor in this paper.Combined with the regenerative cooling method,the cryogenic fuel supercritical methane is served as the coolant,which is easy to be obtained from the propulsion system,and the heat from the servo motor can be transported to the combustion for reusing.According to the actual working cases of servo motor,a numerical model is built to predict the thermal performance of cooling channels.In order to better represent the secondary flow of coolant in the cooling channels,especially the turbulent mixed flow in the manifold,the k-εRNG model with enhanced wall treatment is employed resulting from its precise capacity to simulate the secondary and wall shear flow.On this basis,the heat transfer mechanism and thermal performance of cooling channels,as well as the influence of various heat flux ratios are investigated,which can offer an in-depth understanding of restraining excessive temperature rise and non-uniformity distribution of the servo motor.By the calculation results,it can be concluded that under the adjustment of the channel density according to the corresponding heat flux,the positive role of the appropriate channel density and the manifolds on heat transfer is manifested.Moreover,the maximum temperature difference of heating wall can be kept within an acceptable range of the servo motor.The heat transfer coefficient in the manifold is nearly 2–4 times higher compared with that in the straight cooling channels.The effect of buoyancy force cannot be neglected even in the manifold with turbulent mixed flow,and the pattern of heat transfer is mixed convection one in all the flow regions.The thermal resistance R and overall Nusselt number Nu are affected remarkably by all the operation parameters studied in the paper,except the pressure,while the overall thermal performance coefficientηdemonstrates differently.The strong impact of heat flux ratio is implied on thermal performance of the cooling channels.Higher heat flux ratio results in the stronger non-uniform temperature distribution.Meanwhile,only tiny temperature differences of the fluid and inner wall in manifolds among various heat flux ratios are demonstrated,resulting from the positive effect of mixture flow on heat transfer.