Effect of different heat transfer fluids on discharging performance of phase change material included cylindrical container during forced convection

In the present work,effects of various heat transfer fluids on the discharging performance of a phase change material(PCM) included cylindrical container are numerically assessed during forced convection.The heat transfer fluid air,hydrogen,water and nanofluid with alumina particles are used and the the geometric variation of the PCM embedded region is also considered.The finite element method is used as the solver.Dynamic features of heat exchange with various phases are explored for different heat transfer fluid types,Reynolds number(between 100 and 300) and PCM embedded region geometric variation(h_(x)between 0.01 d_(1) and 0.65 d_(1),hybetween 0.1 h_(1) and 0.4 h_(1)).It is observed that discharging time is significantly influenced by the heat transfer fluid type while full phase transition time for air is obtained as more than 10 times when hydrogen is utilized as heat transfer fluid.The best performance is achieved with nanofluid.When the PCM integrated region size is reduced,discharging time is generally reduced while due to the form of the geometry,vortex formation is established in the PCM region.This results in performance degeneration at the highest radius and height of the inner cylinder.Discharging time increases by about 12% when radius of the inner cylinder is increased from h_(x)=0.35 d_(1) to h_(x)=0.45 d_(1).Dynamic features of PCM temperature and liquid fraction are affected with Reynolds number while discharging time is reduced by about 48% when configurations with the lowest and highest Reynolds number are compared.

Experimental Studies on the Thermal Performance of a Parabolic Dish Solar Receiver with the Heat Transfer Fluids SiC+ Water Nano Fluid and Water

An experimental investigation has been carried out with aa point focusing dish reflector of 12 square meters aperture area, exposed to the average direct normal irradiations of 810 W/m^2. This work focuses on enhancinge the energy and exergy efficiencies of the cavity receiver by minimizing the temperature difference between the wall and heat transfer fluids. Two heat transfer fluids Water and SiC + water nano fluid have been prepared from 50 nm particle size and 1% of volume fraction, and experimented separately for the flow rates of 0.2 lpm to 0.6 lpm with an interval of 0.1 lpm. The enhanced thermal conductivity of nano fluid is 0.800115 W/mK with the k_(eff)/k_b ratio of 1.1759 determined by using the Koo and Kleinstreuer correlation. The maximum attained energy and exergy efficiencies are 29.14% and 24.82% for water, and 32.91% and 39.83% for SiC+water nano fluid. The nano fluid exhibits enhanced energy and exergy efficiency of 12.94% and 60.48% than that of water at the flow rate of 0.5 lpm. The result shows that the system with SiC+Water produces higher exergy efficiency as compared to energy efficiency; in the case of water alone, the energy efficiency is higher than exergy efficiency.

Heat transfer and friction factor of Therminol liquid phase heat transfer fluid in a ribbed tube

Experiments and simulations on flow and heat transfer behavior of Therminol-55 liquid phase heat transfer fluid have been conducted in a ribbed tube with the outer diameter and inner diameter 25.0 and 20.0 mm,pitch and rib height of 4.5 and 1.0 mm.respectively.Experimental results show that the heat transfer and thermal performance of Therminol-55 liquid phase heat transfer fluid in the ribbed tube are considerably improved compared to those of the smooth tube.The Nusselt number increase with the increase of Reynolds number.The increase in heat transfer rate of the ribbed tube has a mean value of 2.24 times.Also,the pressure drop results reveal that the average friction factor of the ribbed tube is in a range of 2.4 and 2.8 times over the smooth tube.Numerical simulations of three-dimensional flow behavior of Therminol-55 liquid phase heat transfer fluid are carried out using three different turbulence models in the ribbed tube.The numerical results show that the heat transfer of ribbed tube is improved because vortices are generated behind ribs,which produce some disruptions to fluid flow and enhance heat transfer compared with smooth tube.The numerical results prove that the ribbed tube can improve heat transfer and fluid flow performances of Therminol liquid phase heat transfer fluid.

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.

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.

STUDIES ON HEAT TRANSFER OF FLUID OSCILLATED WITHIN PIPES

This paper is a brief summarization of research achievements about enhanced heat transfer of a fluid oscillated within pipes. Analytical solutions, numerical results and dimensional analyses are summarized and compared with experimental data in the paper. Also, the mechanism of enhanced heat transfer is discussed. It is considered that increase in the effective area of heat conduction and increase in temperature gradient are the main reasons of enhanced heat transfer.

A Numerical Study on Fully Developed Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer in a Spiral Finned Tube

In this paper, the standard k-ε two-equation model is adopted to numerically simulate fully developed fluid flow and heat transfer in a spiral finned tube within a cracking furnace for ethylene manufacturing. By variable transformation, the original 3-D problem is converted into a 2-D problem in spiral coordinates. The algorithm of SIMPLEC is used to study the fully developed fluid flow and heat transfer in the spiral finned tube at constant periphery temperature and constant axial heat flux. The computed results agree pretty well with the experimental data obtained from the industry. Further studies on the fluid flows and temperature profiles at different Reynolds numbers within straight and spiral finned tubes are conducted and the mechanisms involved are explored. It is found that with the spiral finned tube, pressure drop increases to a great extent whereas heat transfer tends to be decreased.

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.

Investigation on Temperature Field Calibration and Analysis of Wind Tunnel

For wind tunnels,it is essential to conduct temperature and flow field calibration on their test section,which is an important indicator for evaluating the quality of wind tunnel flow fields.In the paper,a truss composed of temperature sensors was used to calibrate the temperature field of a completed wind tunnel section.By adjusting the distance between the temperature measurement truss and the nozzle,as well as the wind speed,the temperature field distribution data at different positions could be obtained.Analyze these data to identify important factors that affect the distribution of temperature field.Simultaneously,the temperature field of the wind tunnel was simulated accordingly.The purpose is to further analyze the fluid heat transfer between air and wind tunnel walls through numerical simulation.Through the above analysis methods,the quality of the temperature field in the wind tunnel has been further verified,providing reference for future wind tunnel tests of relevant models.

Numerical simulation of heat release performance of filling body under condition of heat extracted by fluid flowing in buried tube

It is the basic requirement of the synergetic exploitation of deep mineral resources and geothermal resources to arrange the heat transfer tube in filling body. The heat release performance of filling body directly impacts on the exploiting efficiency of geothermal energy. Based on heat transfer theory, a three-dimensional unsteady heat transfer model of filling body is established by using FLUENT simulation software. Taking the horizontal U-shaped buried pipe as research object, the variation of temperature field in filling body around buried pipe is analyzed during the heat release process of filling body;the initial temperature of filling body, the diameter of buried pipe, the inlet temperature and inlet velocity of heat transfer fluid influencing of coupling heat transfer, which exists between heat transfer fluid and surrounding filling body within a certain axial distance of buried tube, and influencing of temperature difference between inlet and outlet of heat transfer fluid and on heat transfer performance of filling body are also discussed. It not only lays a theoretical foundation for the synergetic exploitation of mineral resources and geothermal energy in deep mines, but also provides a reference basis for the arrangement of buried pipes in filling body as well as the selection of working conditions for heat transfer fluid.

Study on performance of a packed bed latent heat thermal energy storage unit integrated with solar water heating system

In thermal systems such as solar thermal and waste heat recovery systems, the available energy supply does not usually coincide in time with the process demand. Hence some form of thermal energy storage (TES) is necessary for the most effective utilization of the energy source. This study deals with the experimental evaluation of thermal performance of a packed bed latent heat TES unit integrated with solar flat plate collector. The TES unit contains paraffin as phase change material (PCM) filled in spherical capsules, which are packed in an insulated cylindrical storage tank. The water used as heat transfer fluid (HTF) to transfer heat from the solar collector to the storage tank also acts as sensible heat storage material. Charging experiments were carried out at varying inlet fluid temperatures to examine the effects of porosity and HTF flow rate on the storage unit performance. The performance parameters such as instantaneous heat stored, cumulative heat stored, charging rate and system efficiency are studied. Discharging experiments were carried out by both continuous and batchwise processes to recover the stored heat, and the results are presented.

Computational analysis of the flow of pseudoplastic power-law fluids in a microchannel plate

The flow of pseudoplastic power-law fluids with different flow indexes at a microchannel plate was studied using computational fluid dynamic simulation.The velocity distribution along the microchannel plate and especially in the microchannel slits,flow pattern along the outlet arc and the pressure drop through the whole of microchannel plate were investigated at different power-law flow indexes.The results showed that the velocity profile in the microchannel slits for low flow index fluids was similar to the plug flow and had uniform pattern.Also the power-law fluids with lower flow indexes had lower stagnation zones near the outlet of the microchannel plate.The pressure drop through the microchannel plate showed huge differences between the fluids.The most interesting result was that the pressure drops for power-law fluids were very smaller than that of Newtonian fluids.In addition,the heat transfer of the fluids through the microchannel with different channel numbers in a wide range of Reynolds number was investigated.For power-law fluid with flow index(n=0.4),the Nusselt number increases continuously as the number of channels increases.The results highlight the potential use of using pseudoplastic fluids in the microheat exchangers which can lower the pressure drop and increase the heat transfer efficiency.

High-temperature corrosion of Sn-Bi-Zn-Ga alloys as heat transfer fluid

The new heat transfer alloy is highly reactive at high temperatures,and the corrosion of the container material determines the service life of the heat transfer system.The high-temperature corrosion of Sn-Bi-Zn-Ga alloys as heat transfer fluid was investigated.The microstructure and elemental distribution were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy(FESEM)and energy dispersive spectroscopy(EDS).The thermal properties before and after corrosion were studied by differential scanning calorimetry(DSC).The results show that the corrosion kinetics of the studied materials follows the parabolic law and the thermal properties after corrosion are improved.Ga significantly improves the thermal conductivity.316 stainless steel exhibits excellent corrosion resistance due to its high Cr and Ni contents.Corrosion mechanism analysis shows that the oxidation of Ga has a smaller Gibbs free energy,and an oxide forms at the corrosion interface to prevent dissolution corrosion and oxidative corrosion of the container material.

Thermal energy storage inside the chamber with a brick wall using the phase change process of paraffinic materials:A numerical simulation

Phase change materials are one of the potential resources to replace fossil fuels in regards of supplying the energy of buildings.Basically,these materials absorb or release heat energy with the help of their latent heat.Phase change materials have low thermal conductivity and this makes it possible to use the physical properties of these materials in the tropical regions where the solar radiation is more direct and concentrated over a smaller area.In this theoretical work,an attempt has been made to study the melting process of these materials by applying constant heat flux and temperature.It was found that by increasing the thickness of phase change materials’layers,due to the melting,more thermal energy is stored.Simultaneously it reduces the penetration of excessive heat into the chamber,so that by increasing the thickness of paraffin materials up to 20 mm,the rate of temperature reduction reaches more than 18%.It was also recognized that increasing the values of constant input heat flux increases buoyancy effects.Increasing the Stefan number from 0.1 to 0.3,increases the temperature by 6%.

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.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF CASTING PROCESS

In this paper, the development status of casting numerical simulation technology is introduced. In additional, mathematical model, solution method, initial condition, boundary condition and defect predicting scheme of foundry process are also analyzed, which include the mold filling process, solidification process and the process coupling fluid flow with heat transfer. Finally, a practical casting is taken out to show how to predict defects and optimize foundry process with numerical simulation technology.

Comparisons between different models for thermal simulation of GTAW process

Two mathematical models are built to study the effects of the fluid flow on thermal distributions of the gas tungsten arc welding（GTAW） process. One model is based on the heat conductivity equation, which doesn＇t take the effects of the fluid flow into account, and the other couples the laminar heat transfer and fluid flow in the weld pool, which is called laminar fluid flow model in short. The simulated results of the two models show that the pattern and velocity of the fluid flow play a critical role in determining the thermal distribution and the weld pool shape. For the laminar fluid flow model, its highest temperature is 400 K lower than that calculated with the other model and the depth of its weld pool is shallower too, which is mainly caused by the main vortex of the flow in the weld pool.

Numerical Study of a Cylindro-Parabolic Cooker “Blazing Tube”

The objective of this work is to numerically determine the thermal performance of the parabolic cylinder cooker commonly “blazing tube”. These performances were determined by establishing heat balances at the different levels of the system. The equations obtained have been discretized;simplifying assumptions have been made to facilitate their resolution. We adopted Gauss Seidel’s method using MATLAB software to solve these equations. The temperatures of the coolant, the glass and the absorber were determined as a function of time and along the tube. The thermal efficiency was also determined. It emerged that the different temperatures evolve linearly as a function of the length of the tube. Yield and temperatures depend on the amount of sunshine.

Exploring the influence of optical and thermal parameters on the effectiveness of parabolic trough collector receiver units

This study investigates the optimization of physical parameters in a parabolic trough collector receiver unit to improve its thermal and optical performance.The parameters include the transmissivity,reflectivity,absorptivity,emissivity and thermal conductivity of the outer cover and absorber pipe.This study utilizes a novel experimental design and a simulation model that accounts for the infrared reflectivity inside the receiver.The simulation results were validated by the experimental data,with a maximum deviation of 8%.The study analyses the effects of varying the physical parameters on the heat transfer fluid temperature,total plant efficiency,temperature profiles,temperature gradients and thermal stress.The study finds that increasing the reflectivity and decreasing the emissivity of the outer cover and the absorber pipe significantly enhance the performance,with maximum increases of 25.8%and 26.5%in total efficiency,respectively.The study also finds that increasing the thermal conductivity of the absorber pipe reduces the temperature gradients and thermal stress,with maximum decreases of 42.2%and 29%,respectively.This study provides valuable insights for optimizing the receiver design and operation in solar-thermal systems.