Thermal-Hydraulics of OC-OTEC Spout Flash Evaporators

1992 ◽  
Vol 114 (3) ◽  
pp. 187-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. M. Ghiaasiaan

A mechanistic model was developed for the thermal-hydraulic processes in the spout flash evaporator of an OC-OTEC plant. Nonequilibrium, two-fluid, conservation equations were solved for the two-phase flow in the spout, accounting for evaporation at the gas-liquid interface, and using a two-phase flow regime map consisting of bubbly, churn-turbulent and dispersed droplet flow patterns. Solution of the two-phase conservation equations provided the flow conditions at the spout exit, which were used in modeling the fluid mechanics and heat transfer in the evaporator, where the liquid was assumed to shatter into a spray with a log-normal size distribution. Droplet size distribution was approximated by using 30 discrete droplet size groups. Droplet momentum conservation equations were numerically solved to obtain the residence time of various droplet size groups in the evaporator. Evaporative cooling of droplets was modeled by solving the 1-D heat conduction equation in spheres, and accounting for droplet internal circulation by an empirical thermal diffusivity multiplier. The model was shown to favorably predict the available single-spout experimental data.

1983 ◽  
Vol 105 (2) ◽  
pp. 230-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isao Kataoka ◽  
Mamoru Ishii ◽  
Kaichiro Mishima

The mean droplet size and size distribution are important for detailed mechanistic modeling of annular two-phase flow. A large number of experimental data indicate that the standard Weber number criterion based on the relative velocity between droplets and gas flow predicts far too large droplet sizes. Therefore, it was postulated that the majority of the droplets were generated at the time of entrainment and the size distribution was the direct reflection of the droplet entrainment mechanism based on roll-wave shearing off. A detailed model of the droplet size in annular flow was then developed based on the above assumption. The correlations for the volume mean diameter as well as the size distribution were obtained in collaboration with a large number of experimental data. A comparison with experimental data indicated that indeed the postulated mechanism has been the dominant factor in determining the drop size. Furthermore, a large number of data can be successfully correlated by the present model. These correlations can supply accurate information on droplet size in annular flow which has not been available previously.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 2726-2732 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kalpana Hanthanan Arachchilage ◽  
Majid Haghshenas ◽  
Sharon Park ◽  
Le Zhou ◽  
Yongho Sohn ◽  
...  

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 2399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fengbo Yang ◽  
Xinyu Xue ◽  
Chen Cai ◽  
Zhu Sun ◽  
Qingqing Zhou

In recent years, multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have become more and more important in the field of plant protection in China. Multirotor unmanned plant protection UAVs have been widely used in vast plains, hills, mountains, and other regions, and become an integral part of China’s agricultural mechanization and modernization. The easy takeoff and landing performances of UAVs are urgently required for timely and effective spraying, especially in dispersed plots and hilly mountains. However, the unclearness of wind field distribution leads to more serious droplet drift problems. The drift and distribution of droplets, which depend on airflow distribution characteristics of UAVs and the droplet size of the nozzle, are directly related to the control effect of pesticide and crop growth in different growth periods. This paper proposes an approach to research the influence of the downwash and windward airflow on the motion distribution of droplet group for the SLK-5 six-rotor plant protection UAV. At first, based on the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equation and SST k–ε turbulence model, the three-dimensional wind field numerical model is established for a six-rotor plant protection UAV under 3 kg load condition. Droplet discrete phase is added to N-S equation, the momentum and energy equations are also corrected for continuous phase to establish a two-phase flow model, and a three-dimensional two-phase flow model is finally established for the six-rotor plant protection UAV. By comparing with the experiment, this paper verifies the feasibility and accuracy of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method in the calculation of wind field and spraying two-phase flow field. Analyses are carried out through the combination of computational fluid dynamics and radial basis neural network, and this paper, finally, discusses the influence of windward airflow and droplet size on the movement of droplet groups.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zurwa Khan ◽  
Reza Tafreshi ◽  
Matthew Franchek ◽  
Karolos Grigoriadis

Abstract Pressure drop estimation across orifices for two-phase liquid-gas flow is essential to size valves and pipelines and decrease the probability of unsafe consequences or high costs in petroleum, chemical, and nuclear industries. While numerically modeling flow across orifices is a complex task, it can assess the effect of numerous orifice designs and operation parameters. In this paper, two-phase flow across orifices has been numerically modeled to investigate the effect of different fluid combinations and orifice geometries on pressure drop. The orifice is assumed to be located in a pipe with fully-developed upstream and downstream flow. Two liquid-gas fluid combinations, namely water-air, and gasoil liquid-gas mixture were investigated for different orifice to pipe area ratios ranging from 0.01 to 1 for the superficial velocity of 10 m/s. Volume of Fluid multiphase flow model along with k-epsilon turbulence model were used to estimate the pressure distribution of liquid-gas mixture along the pipe. The numerical model was validated for water-air with mean relative error less than 10.5%. As expected, a decrease in orifice to pipe area ratio resulted in larger pressure drops due to an increase in the contraction coefficients of the orifice assembly. It was also found that water-air had larger pressure drops relative to gasoil mixture due to larger vortex formation downstream of orifices. In parallel, a mechanistic model to directly estimate the local two-phase pressure drop across orifices was developed. The gas void fraction was predicted using a correlation by Woldesemayat and Ghajar, and applied to separated two-phase flow undergoing contraction and expansion due to an orifice. The model results were validated for different orifices and velocities, with the overall relative error of less than 40%, which is acceptable due to the uncertainties associated with measuring experimental pressure drop. Comparison of the developed numerical and mechanistic model showed that the numerical model is able to achieve a higher accuracy, while the mechanistic model requires minimal computation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Krepper ◽  
P. Ruyer ◽  
M. Beyer ◽  
D. Lucas ◽  
H.-M. Prasser ◽  
...  

This paper concerns the model of a polydispersed bubble population in the frame of an ensemble averaged two-phase flow formulation. The ability of the moment density approach to represent bubble population size distribution within a multi-dimensional CFD code based on the two-fluid model is studied. Two different methods describing the polydispersion are presented: (i) a moment density method, developed at IRSN, to model the bubble size distribution function and (ii) a population balance method considering several different velocity fields of the gaseous phase. The first method is implemented in the Neptune_CFD code, whereas the second method is implemented in the CFD code ANSYS/CFX. Both methods consider coalescence and breakup phenomena and momentum interphase transfers related to drag and lift forces. Air-water bubbly flows in a vertical pipe with obstacle of the TOPFLOW experiments series performed at FZD are then used as simulations test cases. The numerical results, obtained with Neptune_CFD and with ANSYS/CFX, allow attesting the validity of the approaches. Perspectives concerning the improvement of the models, their validation, as well as the extension of their applicability range are discussed.


Author(s):  
Laurent Borsoi ◽  
Philippe Piteau ◽  
Xavier Delaune ◽  
Jose Antunes

Flow-induced vibration of heat-exchangers tubes is particularly studied in the nuclear industry for safety and cost reasons. It implies to have, among others, relevant characterizations of the random buffeting forces the cross-flow applies to the tube bundle. Work is still needed in this domain, particularly for two-phase flow, to improve the available data as the ones for PWR steam generator, currently very envelope. In parallel to get new experimental data, using “real” or substitutional mixtures (e.g. air-water instead of steam-water for PWR), it is essential to understand the basic excitation mechanisms which induce the vibrations under two-phase flow, as e.g. the influence of flow regimes. In this general framework, what can be learnt from deliberately simple models may be a contributive help. As a first attempt on this issue, the paper deals with the elementary case of a single rigid tube under air-water cross flow. This case is part of experiments carried out at CEA-Saclay with bundles where both tube support reactions and flow characteristics are measured, with respectively piezo-electrical sensors and bi-optical probes (BOP). The information provided by the BOP (mean interface velocity, statistical distribution, etc.) feeds a primitive model of water “droplet” impulses on the tube, based on a lot of crude assumptions about impact velocity, momentum conservation, impulse shape, statistical independence, etc., and which uses analytical results of random processes constructed from the superposition of random pulses. The “equivalent” excitation force, obtained in terms of dimensional PSD, is compared to the one measured in the drag and lift direction with an acceptable agreement, at least in order of magnitude. Comments and lessons are drawn from this first attempt, and some paths are advanced to improve this kind of primitive models, especially for treating rigid square bundles under air-water cross flow.


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