Modelling Study to Compare the Flow and Heat Transfer Characteristics of Low-Power Hydrogen,Nitrogen and Argon Arc-Heated Thrusters

A modelling study is performed to compare the plasma flow and heat transfer characteristics of low-power arc-heated thrusters （arcjets） for three different propellants： hydrogen, nitrogen and argon. The all-speed SIMPLE algorithm is employed to solve the governing equations, which take into account the effects of compressibility, Lorentz force and Joule heating, as well as the temperature- and pressure-dependence of the gas properties. The temperature, velocity and Mach number distributions calculated within the thruster nozzle obtained with different propellant gases are compared for the same thruster structure, dimensions, inlet-gas stagnant pressure and arc currents. The temperature distributions in the solid region of the anode-nozzle wall are also given. It is found that the flow and energy conversion processes in the thruster nozzle show many similar features for all three propellants. For example, the propellant is heated mainly in the near-cathode and constrictor region, with the highest plasma temperature appearing near the cathode tip; the flow transition from the subsonic to supersonic regime occurs within the constrictor region; the highest axial velocity appears inside the nozzle; and most of the input propellant flows towards the thruster exit through the cooler gas region near the anode-nozzle wall. However, since the properties of hydrogen, nitrogen and argon, especially their molecular weights, specific enthMpies and thermal conductivities, are different, there are appreciable differences in arcjet performance. For example, compared to the other two propellants, the hydrogen arcjet thruster shows a higher plasma temperature in the arc region, and higher axial velocity but lower temperature at the thruster exit. Correspondingly, the hydrogen arcjet thruster has the highest specific impulse and arc voltage for the same inlet stagnant pressure and arc current. The predictions of the modelling are compared favourably with available experimental results.

Modelling Study on the Plasma Flow and Heat Transfer in a Laminar Arc Plasma Torch Operating at Atmospheric and Reduced Pressure

A modelling study is performed to investigate the characteristics of both plasma flow and heat transfer of a laminar non-transferred arc argon plasma torch operated at atmospheric and reduced pressure. It is found that the calculated flow fields and temperature distributions are quite similar for both cases at a chamber pressure of 1.0 atm and 0.1 atm. A fully developed flow regime could be achieved in the arc constrictor-tube between the cathode and the anode of the plasma torch at 1.0 atm for all the flow rates covered in this study. However the flow field could not reach the fully developed regime at 0.1 atm with a higher flow rate. The arc-root is always attached to the torch anode surface near the upstream end of the anode, i.e. the abruptly expanded part of the torch channel, which is in consistence with experimental observation. The surrounding gas would be entrained from the torch exit into the torch interior due to a comparatively large inner diameter of the anode channel compared to that of the arc constrictor-tube.

Influence of nanoparticle concentrations on flow boiling heat transfer coefficients of Al_2O_3/R141b in micro heat exchanger by direct metal laser sintering

Al2O3/R141b ＋ Span-80 nanorefrigerant for 0.05 wt.% to 0.4 wt.% is prepared by ultrasonic vibration to investigate the influence of nanoparticle concentrations on flow boiling heat transfer of Al2O3/R141b ＋ Span-80 in micro heat exchanger by direct metal laser sintering. Experimental results show that nanoparticle concentrations have significantly impact on heat transfer coefficients by homogeneity test of variances according to mathematical statistics. The heat transfer performance of Al2O3/R141b ＋ Span-80 nanorefrigerant is enhanced after adding nanoparticles in the pure refrigerant R141b. The heat transfer coefficients of 0.05 wt.%, 0.1 wt.%, 0.2 wt.%, 0.3 wt.% and 0.4 wt.% Al2O3/R141 b ＋ Span-80 nanorefrigerant respectively increase by 55.0% 72.0%, 53.0% 42.3% and 39.9% compared with the pure refrigerant R141b. The particle fluxes from viscosity gradient, non-uniform shear rate and Brownian motion cause particles to migrate in fluid especially in the process of flow boiling. This migration motion enhances heat transfer between nanoparticles and fluid. Therefore, the heat transfer performance of nanofluid is enhanced. It is important to note that the heat transfer coefficients nonlinearly increase with nanoparticle concentrations increasing. The heat transfer coefficients reach its maximum value at the mass concentration of 0.1% and then it decreases slightly. There exists an optimal mass concentration corresponding to the best heat transfer enhancement. The reason for the above phenomenon is attributed to nanoparticles deposition on the minichannel wall by Scanning Electron Microscopy observation. The channel surface wettability increases during the flow boiling experiment in the mass concentration range from 0.2 wt.% to 0.4 wt.%. The channel surface with wettability increasing needs more energy to produce a bubble. Therefore, the heat transfer coefficients decrease with nanopartide concentrations in the range from 0.2 wt.% to 0.4 wt.%. In addition, a new correlation has been proposed by fitting the experimental data considering the influence of mass concentrations on the heat trans- fer performance. The new correlation can effectively predict the heat transfer coefficient.

Stagnation-point flow of couple stress fluid with melting heat transfer

Melting heat transfer in the boundary layer flow of a couple stress fluid over a stretching surface is investigated. The developed differential equations are solved for homotopic solutions. It is observed that the velocity and the boundary layer thickness are decreasing functions of the couple stress fluid parameter. However, the temperature and surface heat transfer increase when the values of the couple stress fluid parameter increase. The velocity and temperature fields increase with an increase in the melting process of the stretching sheet.

Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics Predictions with a Refined k-ε-f_u Turbulent Model in Impinging Jet

Local heat transfer and flow characteristics in a round turbulent impinging jet for Re≈23 000 is predicted numerically with the RANS approach and a k-ε-fu turbulence model. The heat transfer predictions and turbulence parameters are verified against the axis-symmetric free jet impingement measurements and compared with previous other turbulence models, and results show the k-ε-fu model has a good performance in predictions of the local wall heat transfer coefficient, and in agreement with measurements in mean velocity profiles at different radial positions as well. The numerical model is further used to examine the effect of the fully confined impingement jet on the local Nusselt number. Local Nusselt profiles in x and y-centerlines for the target plate over three separation distances are predicted. Compared with the experimental data, the numerical results are accurate in the central domain around the stagnation region and present a consistent structure distribution.

NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF THREE-DIMENSIONAL FLUID FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER IN TIG WELD POOL WITH FULL PENETRATION

A model is established to analyze three-dimensional fluid flow and heat transfer in TICweld pools with full penetration.It considers the deformation of the molten pool surfaceat the condition of full penetrated workpieees,takes the are pressure as the drivingforce of the pool surface deformation,and determines the surface configuration of weldpool based on the dynamic balance of arc pressure,pool gravity and surface tension atdeformed weld pool surface. The SIMPLER algorithm is used to calculate the fluid flowfield and temperature distribution in TIG weld pools of stainless steel workpieces.TIGwelding experiments are made to verify the validity of the model.It shows the calculatedresults by the model are in good agreement with experimental measurements. professor,Dept of Welding Engineering,Harbin Institute of Technology,Harbin 150006,China

Large-eddy Simulation of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in a Mixing Tee Junction

The temperature fluctuation caused by thermal striping phenomena of hot and cold fluids mixing results in cyclical thermal stress fatigue failure of the pipe wall. Mean temperature difference between hot and cold fluids was often used as thermal load in previous analysis of thermal fatigue failure, thereby the influences of the amplitude and frequency of temperature fluctuation on thermal fatigue failure were neglected. Based on the mechanism of flow and heat transfer which induces thermal fatigue, the turbulent mixing of hot and cold water in a tee junction is simulated with FLUENT platform by using the Large-eddy simulation（LES） turbulent flow model with the sub-grid scale（SGS） model of Smagorinsky-Lilly（SL） to capture the amplitude and frequency of temperature fluctuation. In a simulation case, hot water with temperature of 343.48 K and velocity of 0.15 m/s enters the horizontal main duct with the side length of 100 mm, while cold water with temperature of 296.78 K and velocity of 0.3 m/s enters the vertical branch duct with the side length of 50 mm. The numerical results show that the mean and fluctuating temperatures are in good agreement with the previous experimental data, which describes numerical simulation with high reliability and accuracy; the power spectrum density（PSD） on top wall is higher than that on bottom wall（as the frequency less than 1 Hz）, while the PSD on bottom wall is relatively higher than that on top wall （as the frequency of 1-10Hz）. The temperature fluctuations in full mixing region of the tee junction can be accurately captured by LES and can provide the theoretical basis for the thermal stress and thermal fatigue analyses.

Three-dimensional turbulent model of heat transfer and fluid flow in GTAW process

A two-equation K-ε turbulent fluid flow model is built to model the heat transfer and fluid flow in gas tungsten arc welding （GTAW） process of stainless steel S US310 and S US316. This model combines the buoyancy force, lorentz force and marangni force as the driving forces of thefluidflow in the weld pool. The material properties are functions of temperature in this model. The simulated results show that the molten metal flowing outward is mainly caused by the marangoni convection, which makes the weld pool become wider and shallower. The comparison of the weld pool shape of SUS310 and SUS316 shows that the slight differences of the value of thermal conductivity mainly attributes to the difference of the weld pool shape and the distinction of heat transport in laminar and turbulent model makes large diversity in the simulated results.

Effect of viscous dissipation and heat source on flow and heat transfer of dusty fluid over unsteady stretching sheet

This paper investigates the problem of hydrodynamic boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a dusty fluid over an unsteady stretching surface. The study considers the effects of frictional heating （viscous dissipation） and internal heat generation or ab- sorption. The basic equations governing the flow and heat transfer are reduced to a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations by applying suitable similarity transformations. The transformed equations are numerically solved by the Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg-45 order method. An analysis is carried out for two different cases of heating processes, namely, variable wall temperature （VWT） and variable heat flux （VHF）. The effects of various physical parameters such as the magnetic parameter, the fluid-particle interaction pa- rameter, the unsteady parameter, the Prandtl number, the Eckert number, the number density of dust particles, and the heat source/sink parameter on velocity and temperature profiles are shown in several plots. The effects of the wall temperature gradient function and the wall temperature function are tabulated and discussed.

Numerical Simulation of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in Funnel Shaped Mold of Thin Slab Continuous Caster

Thin slab casting is used widely in the world. The control of molten steel flow and solidification in the mold is difficult due to the high casting speed and complicated configuration of the mold. Numerical simulation was carried out to study the fluid flow and heat transfer in the funnel shaped mold. The influence of nozzle design, casting speed and nozzle submersion depth on the flow and temperature fields in the mold was investigated, and guidance for selecting configurations of submerged nozzle was obtained.

Heat transfer in boundary layer stagnation-point flow towards a shrinking sheet with non-uniform heat flux

In this paper, the effect of non-uniform heat flux on heat transfer in boundary layer stagnation-point flow over a shrinking sheet is studied. The variable boundary heat fluxes are considered of two types： direct power-law variation with the distance along the sheet and inverse power-law variation with the distance. The governing partial differential equations （PDEs） are transformed into non linear self-similar ordinary differential equations （ODEs） by similarity transformations, and then those are solved using very efficient shooting method. The direct variation and inverse variation of heat flux along the sheet have completely different effects on the temperature distribution. Moreover, the heat transfer characteristics in the presence of non-uniform heat flux for several values of physical parameters are also found to be interesting.

Modeling transient fluid flow and heat transfer phenothena in stationary pulsed current TIG weld pool

A mathematical model is presented to describe transient behavior of heat transfer and fluid flow in stationary pulsed current tungsten inert gas (PC-TIG) weld pool, which considers three kinds of driving, forces for weld pool convection, i,e. buoyancyforce, electromagnetic force and surface tension force. furthermore. the effect of vaporization heat flux at the free surface of weld pool and the temperature coefficient of surface tenston which is a function of temperatuer and composition are considered in the model In order to accelerate the convergence of iteration the AST(additive source term)method which concerns with the thermal energv boundary conditions is extended successfully to deal with the momentum boundary conditions by which the transient momentum equation and energy equation are mutually coupled. At the same time. ADI (Alternating direction implicit) method and DBC (double blocks correction) technque are employed to solve the finite difference equations. The results of numerical simulation demonstrate the transient behavior of PC-TIG weld pool, as well as the periodic variation of fluid flow and heat transfer with the periodic variation of welding current in stationary PC-TIG weld pool. The theoretical predictions based on this model are, shown to be in good accordance with the experimental measurements.

Analysis of material flow and heat transfer in friction stir welding of aluminium alloys

A three-dimensional viscous-plastic.finite element model is established based on computational fluid mechanics. The material during the welding process is considered as non-Newtonian fluid abided by Norton-Hoff constitutive law, and viscous dissipation is assumed as the unique heat source. The model is used to numerically simulate the material flow and heat transfer in friction stir welding, and capture some useful process characteristics, .such as heat generation, temperature distribution and fluid.flow; besides, the velocity field is used to calculate streamlines of material flow, and the dimension of the deformation zone is measured.

A numerical study on heat transfer enhancement and design of a heat exchanger with porous media in continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis system

The aim of this study is to use a new configuration of porous media in a heat exchanger in continuous hydrothermal flow synthesis(CHFS)system to enhance the heat transfer and minimize the required length of the heat exchanger.For this purpose,numerous numerical simulations are performed to investigate performance of the system with porous media.First,the numerical simulation for the heat exchanger in CHFS system is validated by experimental data.Then,porous media is added to the system and six different thicknesses for the porous media are examined to obtain the optimum thickness,based on the minimum required length of the heat exchanger.Finally,by changing the flow rate and inlet temperature of the product as well as the cooling water flow rate,the minimum required length of the heat exchanger with porous media for various inlet conditions is assessed.The investigations indicate that using porous media with the proper thickness in the heat exchanger increases the cooling rate of the product by almost 40% and reduces the required length of the heat exchanger by approximately 35%.The results also illustrate that the most proper thickness of the porous media is approximately equal to 90% of the product tube's thickness.Results of this study lead to design a porous heat exchanger in CHFS system for various inlet conditions.

Boundary Layer Flow of an Unsteady Dusty Fluid and Heat Transfer Over a Stretching Sheet with Non-Uniform Heat Source/Sink

An analysis has been carried out to study the effect of hydrodynamic laminar boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a dusty fluid over an unsteady stretching surface in the presence of non-uniform heat source/sink. Heat transfer characteristics are examined for two different kinds of boundary conditions, namely 1) variable wall temperature and 2) variable heat flux. The governing partial differential equations are transformed to system of ordinary differential equations. These equations are solved numerically by applying RKF-45 method. The effects of various physical parameters such as magnetic parameter, dust interaction parameter, number density, Prandtl number, Eckert number, heat source/sink parameter and unsteadiness parameter on velocity and temperature profiles are studied.

Differential Quadrature Method for Steady Flow of an Incompressible Second-Order Viscoelastic Fluid and Heat Transfer Model

The two-dimensional steady flow of an incompressible second-order viscoelastic fluid between two parallel plates was studied in terms of vorticity, the stream function and temperature equations. The governing equations were expanded with respect to a snmll parameter to get the zeroth- and first-order approximate equations. By using the differenl2al quadrature method with only a few grid points, the high-accurate numerical results were obtained.

Series solutions of annular axisymmetric stagnation flow and heat transfer on moving cylinder

The steady, laminar, incompressible flow and heat transfer of a viscous fluid between two circular cylinders for two different types of thermal boundary conditions are investigated. The governing Navier-Stokes and thermal equations of the flow are reduced to a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations. The equations are solved analyt- ically using the homotopy analysis method （HAM）. Convergence of the HAM solutions is discussed in detail. These solutions are then compared with recently obtained numericM and perturbative solutions. Plots of the velocity and temperature profiles are provided for various values of the relevant parameters.

Numerical Study of Turbulent Periodic Flow and Heat Transfer in a Square Channel with Different Ribs

A numerical investigation has been carried out to examine turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics in a three-dimensional ribbed square channels. Fluent 6.3 CFD code has been used. The governing equations are discretized by the second order upwind differencing scheme, decoupling with the SIMPLE (semi-implicit method for pressure linked equations) algorithm and are solved using a finite volume approach. The fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics are presented for the Reynolds numbers based on the channel hydraulic diameter ranging from 104 to 4 ′ 104. The effects of rib shape and orientation on heat transfer and pressure drop in the channel are investigated for six different rib configurations. Rib arrays of 45° inclined and 45° V-shaped are mounted in inline and staggered arrangements on the lower and upper walls of the channel. In addition, the performance of these ribs is also compared with the 90° transverse ribs.

Flow and heat transfer of a nanofluid over a hyperbolically stretching sheet

This article explores the boundary layer flow and heat transfer of a viscous nanofluid bounded by a hyperbolically stretching sheet. Effects of Brownian and thermophoretic diffusions on heat transfer and concentration of nanoparticles are given due attention. The resulting nonlinear problems are computed for analytic and numerical solutions. The effects of Brownian motion and thermophoretic property are found to increase the temperature of the medium and reduce the heat transfer rate. The thermophoretic property thus enriches the concentration while the Brownian motion reduces the concentration of the nanoparticles in the fluid. Opposite effects of these properties are observed on the Sherwood number.

Second-order slip MHD flow and heat transfer of nanofluids with thermal radiation and chemical reaction

The effects of the second-order velocity slip and temperature jump boundary conditions on the magnetohydrodynamic （MHD） flow and heat transfer in the presence of nanoparticle fractions are investigated. In the modeling of the water-based nanofluids containing Cu and A1203, the effects of the Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and thermal radiation are considered. The governing boundary layer equations are transformed into a system of nonlinear differential equations, and the analytical approximations of the solutions axe derived by the homotopy analysis method （HAM）. The reliability and efficiency of the HAM solutions are verified by the residual errors and the numerical results in the literature. Moreover, the effects of the physical factors on the flow and heat transfer are discussed graphically.