CFD Analysis of Spiral Flow Fields in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells(PEMFCs)are largely used in various applications because of their pollution-free products and high energy conversion efficiency.In order to improve the related design,in the present work a new spiral flow field with a bypass is proposed.The reaction gas enters the flow field in the central path and diffuses in two directions through the flow channel and the bypass.The bypasses are arranged incrementally.The number of bypasses and the cross-section size of the bypasses are varied parametrically while a single-cell model of the PEMFC is used.The influence of the concentration of liquid water and oxygen in the cell on the performance of different flow fields is determined by means of Computational fluid dynamics(COMSOL Multiphysics software).Results show that when the bypass number is 48 and its cross-sectional area is 0.5 mm^(2),the cell exhibits the best performances.

Experimental Research on Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Spiral Flow in Horizontal Pipe

In view of the importance of gas-liquid two-phase spiral flow and the few research reports at home and abroad,the gas-liquid two-phase spiral flow patterns have been researched in a horizontal pipe with different parameters investigated by means of observation and a high-speed camera.Since the appearance of spiral flow makes the distribution of twophase flow more complicated,the flow patterns appearing in the experiments were divided into the Spiral Wavy Stratified Flow(SWS),the Spiral Bubble Flow(SB),the Spiral Slug Flow(SS),the Spiral Linear Flow(SL),the Spiral Axial Flow(SA),and the Spiral Dispersed Flow(SD) by the observations and with reference to the predecessors' research achievements.A flow pattern map has been drawn up.The influence of velocity,vane angle and vane area on flow pattern conversion boundary and pressure drop has been studied,with a solid foundation laid for the future research work.

TWO DIMENSIONAL SUBSONIC AND SUBSONIC-SONIC SPIRAL FLOWS OUTSIDE A POROUS BODY

In this paper,we investigate two dimensional subsonic and subsonic-sonic spiral flows outside a porous body.The existence and uniqueness of the subsonic spiral flow are obtained via variational formulation,which tends to a given radially symmetric subsonic spiral flow at far field.The optimal decay rate at far field is also derived by Kelvin ’s transformation and some elliptic estimates.By extracting spiral subsonic solutions as the approximate sequences,we obtain the spiral subsonic-sonic limit solution by utilizing the compensated compactness.The main ingredients of our analysis are methods of calculus of variations,the theory of second-order quasilinear equations and the compensated compactness framework.

OPTICAL TELEPHONE CORD PASSING THROUGH LONG PIPE WITH SPIRAL FLOW

A new effective technique, useful in telecommunications industry for passing an optical telephone cord attached to a connector through pipeline,has been developed using the spiral flow. Using this technique, the cord could be passed through a straight pipeline 150 meters long and a roll of vinyl tube 50 meters long. However, under the same condition, the cord could not pass through when using the turbulent flow. To obtain a high speed stable spiral flow, a nozzle with an annular slit connected to a conical cylinder was used. A pressurized fluid with no tangential flow was supplied through this slit and the fluid, passing through the conical cylinder, was deformed into spiral flow with the steeper axial velocity distribution compared to that of turbulence pipe flow due to Coanda effect and instability. As a result, the cord was attracted to the axis area of the pipe, which effectively increased the ability for the work of cord passing. This high ability for cord passing is attributed mainly to the reduction of the friction made between the cord and the pipe wall, caused by the deformation to spiral flow.

Geometrical Design and Simulation Study of upward Spiral Flow Windowless Target

Upward spiral flow target(USFT)is a new type ADS windowless target.The target is mainly composed of a guide tube and an impeller that is employed to generate upward spiral flow,as shown in Fig.1.

Main coolant pump resistance influence on single phase water reverse flow in the inverted U-tubes under natural circulation

Based on nuclear power plant(NPP) best-estimate transient analysis with RELAP5 / MOD3 code,the reactor point kinetics model in RELAP5 / MOD3 code is replaced by the two-group,3-D space and time dependent neutron kinetic model,and two-fluid model is replaced by drift flux model.A coupled three-dimensional physics and thermal-hydrodynamics model is used to develop its corresponding computing code,thus simulating natural circulation of single-phase flow for the PWR.In this paper,we report the forward and reverse flow distribution in the inverted U-tubes of the steam generator(SG) under some typical operating conditions in the natural circulation case, and analyze the influence of main coolant pump resistance on the forward and reverse flow distribution.The calculation results show that,the pressure drop between SG inlet and outlet plenum decreases,and the SG inlet and outlet mass flow decrease with an increased main coolant pump resistance,but net mass flux of reverse flow in inverted U-tubes,and the ratio of mass flow in all reverse flow tubes to that of main coolant pipeline increase, meanwhile,the secondary steam load is invariable in this process.

Particulate flow modelling in a spiral separator by using the Eulerian multi-fluid VOF approach

The Euler-Euler model is less effective in capturing the free surface of flow film in the spiral separator,and thus a Eulerian multi-fluid volume of fluid(VOF)model was first proposed to describe the particulate flow in spiral separators.In order to improve the applicability of the model in the high solid concentration system,the Bagnold effect was incorporated into the modelling framework.The capability of the proposed model in terms of predicting the flow film shape in a LD9 spiral separator was evaluated via comparison with measured flow film thicknesses reported in literature.Results showed that sharp air–water and air-pulp interfaces can be obtained using the proposed model,and the shapes of the predicted flow films before and after particle addition were reasonably consistent with the observations reported in literature.Furthermore,the experimental and numerical simulation of the separation of quartz and hematite were performed in a laboratory-scale spiral separator.When the Bagnold lift force model was considered,predictions of the grade of iron and solid concentration by mass for different trough lengths were more consistent with experimental data.In the initial development stage,the quartz particles at the bottom of the flow layer were more possible to be lifted due to the Bagnold force.Thus,a better predicted vertical stratification between quartz and hematite particles was obtained,which provided favorable conditions for subsequent radial segregation.

Numerical and experimental study on the falling film flow characteristics with the effect of co-current gas flow in hydrogen liquefaction process

Liquid hydrogen storage and transportation is an effective method for large-scale transportation and utilization of hydrogen energy. Revealing the flow mechanism of cryogenic working fluid is the key to optimize heat exchanger structure and hydrogen liquefaction process(LH2). The methods of cryogenic visualization experiment, theoretical analysis and numerical simulation are conducted to study the falling film flow characteristics with the effect of co-current gas flow in LH2spiral wound heat exchanger.The results show that the flow rate of mixed refrigerant has a great influence on liquid film spreading process, falling film flow pattern and heat transfer performance. The liquid film of LH2mixed refrigerant with column flow pattern can not uniformly and completely cover the tube wall surface. As liquid flow rate increases, the falling film flow pattern evolves into sheet-column flow and sheet flow, and liquid film completely covers the surface of tube wall. With the increase of shear effect of gas-phase mixed refrigerant in the same direction, the liquid film gradually becomes unstable, and the flow pattern eventually evolves into a mist flow.

BASIC HYDRODYNAMICS CHARACTERISTICS OF CAVITY SPIRAL FLOW IN A LARGE SIZE LEVEL PIPE

Based on the observation of a model test and in combination with some theoretical analysis, the researches of some basic hydrodynamics characteristics of cavity spiral flow in a large size level pipe with a shaft-inlet is presented in the paper, which include the basic flow pattern, formation condition of the cavity spiral flow, discharge Q, cavity diameter d0, wall pressure coefficient Cpw, velocity distribution, total energy dissipation rate η etc. The results show that the basic flow patterns can be divided into three zones according to the variations in amount of ventilation Ф, cavity diameter d0 and gas pressure p0 within cavity spiral flow when the upstream and downstream water level changes and that the basic hydrodynamics characteristics change with the flow pattern and have the different behaviour.

TRANSPORT EFFICIENCY OF THE SPIRAL FLOW IN CIRCULAR PIPE

A concise definition of Transport Efficiency (TE) was given to examine the amount of transported grains in the pipe flow with certain energy consumption. The transport characteristics and the so-called 'roto-floating' characteristics were studied from the tests of sediment transport in the normal pipe flow and the spiral pipe flow, and hereby the energy gradients of the two kinds of pipe flows were obtained. By comparing the mean concentrations at the same gradient, it was concluded that the TE of the latter is several times to over ten times higher than that of the former, and the lift of the latter is 200 times larger than that of the former for the nearly same TE. The spiral flow in circular pipe is suitable for transporting fine grains of high concentration, and with sedimentation trend and coarse grains.

Predicting Endometrium Receptivity with Parameters of Spiral Artery Blood Flow

In order To evaluate whether the parameters of spiral artery blood flow, as measured by transvaginal color Doppler, may be used to assess endometrium receptivity prior to embryo transfer (ET), a retrospective study of 94 infertile women who had undergone ART treatments with different outcomes (pregnant or nonpregnant) was done. Subendometrial blood flow was evaluated. The resistance index (RI), systolic/diastolic ratio (S/D) and pulsatility index (PI) were significantly lower in those who achieved pregnancy as compared with those who did not: 0.62±0.04 vs 0.68±0.04 (P<0.001), 2.66±0.33 vs 3.19±0.39 (P<0.01) and 1.15±0.17 vs 1.34±0.22 (P<0.05), respectively. Furthermore, when RI>0.72, PI>1.6, and S/D>3.6, no pregnancy occurred. These data suggest that the parameters of spiral artery blood flow could be used as a new assay in predicting endometrial receptivity before ET.

Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of spiral coiled tube: Effects of Reynolds number and curvature ratio

Numerical analysis was performed to investigate flow and heat transfer characteristics in spiral coiled tube heat exchanger. Radius of curvature of the spiral coiled tube was gradually increased as total rotating angle reached 12n. As the varying radius of curvature became a dominant flow parameter, three-dimensional flow analysis was performed to this flow together with different Reynolds numbers while constant wall heat flux condition was set in thermal field. From the analysis, centrifugal force due to curvature effect is found to have significant role in behavior of pressure drop and heat transfer. The centrifugal force enhances pressure drop and heat transfer to have generally higher values in the spiral coiled tube than those in the straight tube. Even then, friction factor and Nusselt number are found to follow the proportionality with square root of the Dean number. Individual effect of flow parameters of Reynolds number and curvature ratio was investigated and effect of Reynolds number is found to be stronger than that of curvature effect.

Flow Dynamics of a Spiral-groove Dry-gas Seal

The dry-gas seal has been widely used in different industries. With increased spin speed of the rotator shaft, turbulence occurs in the gas film between the stator and rotor seal faces. For the micro-scale flow in the gas film and grooves, turbulence can change the pressure distribution of the gas film. Hence, the seal performance is influenced. However, turbulence effects and methods for their evaluation are not considered in the existing industrial designs of dry-gas seal. The present paper numerically obtains the turbulent flow fields of a spiral-groove dry-gas seal to analyze turbulence effects on seal performance. The direct numerical simulation （DNS） and Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes （RANS） methods are utilized to predict the velocity field properties in the grooves and gas film. The key performance parameter, open force, is obtained by integrating the pressure distribution, and the obtained result is in good agreement with the experimental data of other researchers. Very large velocity gradients are found in the sealing gas film because of the geometrical effects of the grooves. Considering turbulence effects, the calculation results show that both the gas film pressure and open force decrease. The RANS method underestimates the performance, compared with the DNS. The solution of the conventional Reynolds lubrication equation without turbulence effects suffers from significant calculation errors and a small application scope. The present study helps elucidate the physical mechanism of the hydrodynamic effects of grooves for improving and optimizing the industrial design or seal face pattern of a dry-gas seal.

Study of Spiral Flow Generated through an Annular Slit

The effect of pressurized air inlets in the reservoir upstream of the annular slit on characteristics of the axial and tangential velocity components is investigated numerically, and the mechanism of occurrence of spiral nozzle flow is clarified. In simulations, Unified Platform for Aerospace Computational Simulation (UPACS) is used. The governing equations under consideration are the unsteady compressible Navier - Stokes. A second-order finite volume scheme with MUSCL (Roe scheme) is used to discretize the spatial derivatives, and a second order-central difference scheme for the viscous terms, and a MFGS (Matrix Free Gauss Seidel) is employed for time integration. Spalart-Allmaras model was used as a turbulence model. The results obtained are compared with velocity distributions in the experiment measured by the two-component fiber optic laser Doppler velocimeter system. The existence of discrete pressurized air inlets that leads to the occurrence of asymmetrical characteristics is a very important factor for the formation of spiral flow.

Dynamic Characteristics of High-speed Water-Lubricated Spiral Groove Thrust Bearing Based on Turbulent Cavitating Flow Lubrication Model

The water-lubricated bearings are usually the state of turbulent cavitating flow under high-speed conditions. And the distribution of cavitation bubbles and the interface effect between the two phases have not been included in previous studies on high-speed water-lubricated bearings. In order to study the influence of interface effect and cavitation bubble distribution on the dynamic characteristics of high-speed water-lubricated spiral groove thrust bearings(SGTB).A turbulent cavitating flow lubrication model based on two-phase fluid and population balance equation of bubbles was established in this paper. Stiffness and the damping coefficients of the SGTB were calculated using the perturbation pressure equations. An experimental apparatus was developed to verify the theoretical model. Simulating and experimental results show that the small-sized bubbles tend to generate in the turbulent cavitating flow when at a high rotary speed, and the bubbles mainly locate at the edges of the spiral groove. The simulating results also show that the direct stiffness coefficients are increased due to cavitation effect, and cross stiffness coefficients and damping coefficients are hardly affected by the cavitation effect. Turbulent effect on the dynamic characteristics of SGTB is much stronger than the cavitating effect.

Research on the falling film flow and heat transfer characteristics of FLNG spiral wound heat exchanger under sea conditions

As the key equipment of floating liquefied natural gas(FLNG)process,the performance of spiral wound heat exchanger(SWHE)influences operation costs and reliability of the whole system.The sea conditions destroy the falling film flow state of the refrigeration and then affect the heat transfer performance of FLNG SWHE.In order to design and optimize the SWHE,a cryogenic experimental device of FLNG process and a numerical model of falling film flow have been constructed to study the effects of sea conditions on the falling film flow and heat transfer characteristics of SWHE.The cryogenic experimental results show that the pitching conditions have larger effects on the heat transfer performance than yawing.Under the pitching angle of 7°,the natural gas temperature and gaseous refrigerant temperature increase by 3.22°C and 7.42°C,respectively.The flow rates of refrigerant and feed natural gas have a great impact on the heat transfer performance of SWHE under pitching and compound sloshing conditions.When the tilt angle increases to 9°,the tube structure with outer diameter D=8 mm and pipe spacing S=4 mm is recommended to reduce the drying area of the pipe wall surface.

Middle or low water pressure direct spiral double helix converging nozzle structure optimization and flow field analysis

In order to solve the problem of using new nozzle is proposed in fire rescue robot. middle or low water pressure to form fine water mist, a Existing water mist nozzles are basically used for high pressure and in large size, complex structure and poor low pressure atomization effect in comparison with requirement of snake-like fire rescue robots. On the basis of comprehensive typical spray noz- zles, a direct spiral double helix converging nozzle （DSDHCN） is proposed, which has the advanta- ges of small volume, light weight, simple structure, and convenient installation. To make the spray nozzle have good performance, and meet the requirements of more efficient fire extinguishing, a nu- merical study is carried out to analyze the internal and external full flow field of nozzle. A gas-liquid two-phase flow is applied to simulate the external full flow field of nozzle with VOF model in fluent software. The simulation results show the real situation of water flow out of the atomization nozzle and the water jet trajectory. Some simulations about middle or low water pressure direct spiral double he- lix converging optimized nozzle have been done in 30bar pressure. The simulation results show that the optimized nozzle structure not only makes the spray droplets have a good cone angle, but also have a sufficient axial velocity,which proves the structure rationality of the proposed optimized nozzle.

Hemodynamic effects of the spiral flow guider on small-diameter vascular graft

Small-diameter vascular grafts are in large demand for coronary and peripheral bypass procedures, but present products still fail in long-term clinical application. Hence, A new type of small-diameter vascular graft(SDVG) is designed with a spiral flow guider to induce spiral blood flow and thus improve the local hemodynamic performance. In present article, to investigated how the spiral flow guider influenced the hemodynam ic performance of this new SDVG, via computational fluid dynamics(CFD). The numerical results demonstrate that: 1) the spiral flow guider could indeed make the blood flow rotate; 2) the blood velocity near the vessel wall and wall shear rate(WSR) w ere greatly enhanced; 3) the number of the helical turns had obvious non-positive correlation with the hemodynamic performan ce of the new graft. It is believed that the increased blood velocity near the wall and the WSR are conductive to anti-throm bosis and anti-hyperplasia, hence the graft patency rate for long-term clinical use can be improved. Present study may also h elp better understand the optimal design of the spiral flow guider for the purpose of prolonging the long-term patency rate of th e SDVG.

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.

Constructal entransy dissipation rate and flow-resistance minimizations for cooling channels

Based on constructal theory,a construct of a volume that generates heat at every point and is cooled by the coolant in the constant or tapered channel is optimized by minimizing entransy dissipation rate and flow resistance.The optimal constructs of the rectangular elements with dimensionless mean thermal resistance minimization as well as the first-,secondand thirdorder assemblies with dimensionless global flow resistance minimizations are obtained respectively.The results show that both the mean temperature difference and the limiting temperature difference of rectangular elements based on EDR (entransy dissipation rate) and MTD (maximum temperature difference) minimizations respectively are almost equal.Comparing heat transfer performances from the two optimization procedures,the dimensionless global flow resistance is decreased more for the former procedure when the assembly’s order is high.It may create great superiority for constructal optimization to combine the entransy dissipation extreme principle with heat convection.