Numerical simulation of anode heat transfer of nitrogen arc utilizing two-temperature chemical non-equilibrium model

A detailed understanding of anode heat transfer is important for the optimization of arc processing technology.In this paper,a two-temperature chemical non-equilibrium model considering the collisionless space charge sheath is developed to investigate the anode heat transfer of nitrogen free-burning arc.The temperature,total heat flux and different heat flux components are analyzed in detail under different arc currents and anode materials.It is found that the arc current can affect the parameter distributions of anode region by changing plasma characteristics in arc column.As the arc current increases from 100 A to 200 A,the total anode heat flux increases,however,the maximum electron condensation heat flux decreases due to the arc expansion.The anode materials have a significant effect on the temperature and heat flux distributions in the anode region.The total heat flux on thoriated tungsten anode is lower than that on copper anode,while the maximum temperature is higher.The power transferred to thoriated tungsten anode,ranked in descending order,is heat flux from heavy-species,electron condensation heat,heat flux from electrons and ion recombination heat.However,the electron condensation heat makes the largest contribution for power transferred to copper anode.

Direct modeling for computational fluid dynamics

All fluid dynamic equations are valid under their modeling scales, such as the particle mean free path and mean collision time scale of the Boltzmann equation and the hydrodynamic scale of the Navier-Stokes （NS） equations. The current computational fluid dynamics （CFD） focuses on the numerical solution of partial differential equations （PDEs）, and its aim is to get the accurate solution of these governing equations. Under such a CFD practice, it is hard to develop a unified scheme that covers flow physics from kinetic to hydrodynamic scales continuously because there is no such governing equation which could make a smooth transition from the Boltzmann to the NS modeling. The study of fluid dynamics needs to go beyond the traditional numer- ical partial differential equations. The emerging engineering applications, such as air-vehicle design for near-space flight and flow and heat transfer in micro-devices, do require fur- ther expansion of the concept of gas dynamics to a larger domain of physical reality, rather than the traditional dis- tinguishable governing equations. At the current stage, the non-equilibrium flow physics has not yet been well explored or clearly understood due to the lack of appropriate tools. Unfortunately, under the current numerical PDE approach, it is hard to develop such a meaningful tool due to the absence of valid PDEs. In order to construct multiscale and multiphysics simulation methods similar to the modeling process of con- structing the Boltzmann or the NS governing equations, the development of a numerical algorithm should be based on the first principle of physical modeling. In this paper, instead of following the traditional numerical PDE path, we introduce direct modeling as a principle for CFD algorithm develop- ment. Since all computations are conducted in a discretized space with limited cell resolution, the flow physics to be mod- eled has to be done in the mesh size and time step scales. Here, the CFD is more or less a direct construction of dis- crete numerical evolution equations, where the mesh size and time step will play dynamic roles in the modeling process. With the variation of the ratio between mesh size and local particle mean free path, the scheme will capture flow physics from the kinetic particle transport and collision to the hydro- dynamic wave propagation. Based on the direct modeling, a continuous dynamics of flow motion will be captured in the unified gas-kinetic scheme. This scheme can be faithfully used to study the unexplored non-equilibrium flow physics in the transition regime.

Experimental and modeling study of kinetics for methane hydrate formation in a crude oil-in-water emulsion

A low-viscosity emulsion of crude oil in water can be believed to be the bulk of a flow regime in a pipeline.To differentiate which crude oil would and which would not counter the blockage of flow due to gas hydrate formation in flow channels,varying amount of crude oil in water emulsion without any other extraneous additives has undergone methane gas hydrate formation in an autoclave cell.Crude oil was able to thermodynamically inhibit the gas hydrate formation as observed from its hydrate stability zone.The normalized rate of hydrate formation in the emulsion has been calculated from an illustrative chemical affinity model,which showed a decrease in the methane consumption（decreased normalized rate constant） with an increase in the oil content in the emulsion.Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy（FTIR） of the emulsion and characteristic properties of the crude oil have been used to find the chemical component that could be pivotal in selfinhibitory characteristic of the crude oil collected from Ankleshwar,India,against a situation of clogged flow due to formation of gas hydrate and establish flow assurance.

Development of a simplified n-heptane/methane model for high-pressure direct-injection natural gas marine engines

High-pressure direct-injection (HPDI) of natu- ral gas is one of the most promising solutions for future ship engines, in which the combustion process is mainly controlled by the chemical kinetics. However, the employment of detailed chemical models for the multi-dimensional combustion simulation is significantly expensive due to the large scale of the marine engine. In the present paper, a reduced n-heptane/methane model consisting of 35-step reactions was constructed using multiple reduction approaches. Then this model was further reduced to include only 27 reactions by utilizing the HyChem (Hybrid Chemistry) method. An overall good agreement with the experimentally measured ignition delay data of both n-heptane and methane for these two reduced models was achieved and reasonable predictions for the measured laminar flame speeds were obtained for the 35-step model. But the 27-step model cannot predict the laminar flame speed very well. In addition, these two reduced models were both able to reproduce the experimentally measured in-cylinder pressure and heat release rate profiles for a HPDI natural gas marine engine, the highest error of predicted combustion phase being 6.5%. However, the engine-out CO emission was over-predicted and the highest error of predicted NOx emission was less than 12.9%. The predicted distributions of temperature and equivalence ratio by the 35-step and 27-step models are similar to those of the 334-step model. However, the predicted distributions of OH and CH2O are significantly different from those of the 334-step model. In short, the reduced chemical kinetic models developed provide a high-efficient and dependable method to simulate the characteristics of combustion and emissions in HPDI natural gas marine engines.

An analytical study on nonequilibrium dissociating gas flow behind a strong bow shockwave under rarefied conditions

In this paper, an explicitly analytical shock mapping relation is approximately deduced based on the theoretical modeling of the chemical nonequilibrium stagnation flow towards a slightly blunted nose. Based on the relation, the complex reacting stagnation flow problem can be discussed under the framework of the simplest normal shockwave flow. Therefore, a quantita- tively meaningful criterion for dissociation nonequilibrium flow, that is a specific Damk hler number Da d , is naturally intro- duced as the ratio of the mapping length of the stagnation streamline and the characteristic nonequilibrium scale. Da d is found to be dependent on the flow's rarefaction criterion W r , that is a specific Knudsen number. Then, based on Da d , a normalized analytical formulation is obtained to quantitatively predict the actual degrees of dissociation at the outer edge of the stagnation point boundary layer (SPBL). At last, the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is employed to validate the analytical results, and the related flow mechanism is discussed. The present study not only shows nonequilibrium features of the flow problem, but also provides an indispensable basis for the following study on the nonequilibrium SPBL heat transfer.

Influence of Metal Material Properties on Heat and Mass Transfer into Thermal Protection Surface with Phenomenological Catalytic Model

Surface heterogeneous catalysis in a high-enthalpy dissociated environment leads to a remarkable enhancement of aerodynamic heating into the thermal protection surface of hypersonic aircraft.To more accurately predict this catalytic heating,a kinetic catalytic model was constructed.This model involved four elementary reactions,the rates of which were determined on mean-field approximation and surface steady-state reaction assumption.By coupling this model into the viscous wall boundary condition of computational fluid dynamics(CFD)solver,the influences of metal material catalytic properties on heat and mass transfer into thermal protection materials were numerically investigated.Numerical results showed that atomic oxygen recombination catalyzed by surface material accounts for a major contribution to aerodynamic heating and thus variation in recombination rates from different materials leads to the significant difference in surface heat fluxes.From a comparative analysis of various materials,the catalytic activity increases from the inert platinum(Pt)to nickel(Ni)and finally to the active copper(Cu).As a result,the catalytic heating on Cu surface was more than twice of that on Pt surface.Further parametrical research revealed that the proper layout of inert material at the nose of aircraft could prevent stagnation catalytic heating from thermal damage by carrying near-wall dissociated atoms from the stagnation zone downstream.The material-relied heterogeneous catalysis mechanism in this study provides some technical support for the thermal protection system design of hypersonic aircraft.