Numerical Modeling of Multidirectional Flow and Heat Transfer in Graphitic Foams

2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Mohsen Karimian ◽  
Anthony G. Straatman

To investigate the feasibility of the use of foams with an interconnected spherical pore structure in heat transfer applications, models for heat transfer and pressure drop for this type of porous materials are developed. Numerical simulations are carried out for laminar multidirectional thermofluid flow in an idealized pore geometry of foams with a wide range of geometry parameters. Semiheuristic models for pressure drop and heat transfer are developed from the results of simulations. A simplified solid-body drag equation with an extended high inertia term is used to develop the hydraulic model. A heat transfer model with a nonzero asymptotic term for very low Reynolds numbers is also developed. To provide hydraulic and heat transfer models suitable for a wide range of porosity, only a general form of the length-scale as a function of pore structure is defined a priori, where the parameters of the function were determined as part of the modeling process. The proposed ideal models are compared to the available experimental results, and the source of differences between experimental results and the ideal models is recognized and then calibrated for real graphitic foam. The thermal model is used together with volume-averaged energy equations to calculate the thermal dispersion in graphitic foam. The results of the calculations show that the linear models for thermal dispersion available in literature are oversimplified for predicting thermal dispersion in this type of porous material.

Fractals ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (01) ◽  
pp. 1540003 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHENGBIN ZHANG ◽  
LIANGYU WU ◽  
YONGPING CHEN

The Sierpinski fractal is introduced to construct the porous metal foam. Based on this fractal description, an unsteady heat transfer model accompanied with solidification phase change in fractal porous metal foam embedded with phase change material (PCM) is developed and numerically analyzed. The heat transfer processes associated with solidification of PCM embedded in fractal structure is investigated and compared with that in single-pore structure. The results indicate that, for the solidification of phase change material in fractal porous metal foam, the PCM is dispersedly distributed in metal foam and the existence of porous metal matrix provides a fast heat flow channel both horizontally and vertically, which induces the enhancement of interstitial heat transfer between the solid matrix and PCM. The solidification performance of the PCM, which is represented by liquid fraction and solidification time, in fractal structure is superior to that in single-pore structure.


Author(s):  
Ignacio Carvajal-Mariscal ◽  
Florencio Sanchez-Silva ◽  
Georgiy Polupan

In this work the heat transfer and pressure drop experimental results obtained in a two step finned tube bank with conical fins are presented. The tube bank had an equilateral triangle array composed of nine finned tubes with conical fins inclined 45 degrees in respect with the tube axis. The heat exchange external area of a single tube is approximately 0.07 m2. All necessary thermal parameters, inlet/outlet temperatures, mass flows, for the heat balance in the tube bank were determined for different air velocities, Re = 3400–18400, and one constant thermal charge provided by a hot water flow with a temperature of 80 °C. As a result, the correlations for the heat transfer and pressure drop calculation were obtained. The experimental results were compared against the analytical results for a tube bank with annular fins with the same heat exchange area. It was found that the proposed tube bank using finned tubes with conical fins shows an increment of heat transfer up to 58%.


Author(s):  
Teresa B. Hoberg ◽  
Kenshiro Muramatsu ◽  
Erica M. Cherry ◽  
John K. Eaton

Open-cell metal foams are of interest for a variety of thermal engineering applications because of their high surface-to-volume ratio and high convective heat transfer coefficients relative to conventional fins. The tortuous flow path through the foam promotes rapid transverse mixing, a fact that is important in heat exchanger applications. Transverse mixing acts to spread heat away from a heated surface, bringing cooler fluid to the foam elements that are in direct contact with the surface. Heat is also spread by conduction in the foam ligaments. The present work addresses fully-coupled thermal dispersion in a metal foam. Dispersion of the thermal wake of a line source was measured. A conjugate heat transfer model was developed which showed good agreement with the data. The validated model was used to examine the complementary effects of the mechanical dispersion, molecular diffusion in the gas, and conduction in the solid.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (5) ◽  
pp. 975-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Yong and ◽  
K. Sumathy

Quasi-local absorption heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop inside a horizontal tube absorber have been investigated experimentally, with R-22/DMA as the working pair. The absorber is a counterflow coaxial tube-in-tube heat-exchanger with the working fluid flowing in the inner tube while the water moves through the annulus. A large temperature gliding has been experienced during the absorption process. Experimental results show that the heat transfer coefficient of the forced convective vapor absorption process is higher compared to the vertical falling film absorption. A qualitative study is made to analyze the effect of mass flux, vapor quality and solution concentration on pressure drop and heat transfer coefficients. On the basis of the experimental results, a new correlation is proposed whereby the two-phase heat transfer is taken as a product of the forced convection of the absorption and the combined effect of heat and mass transfer at the interface. The correlation is found to predict the experimental data almost within 30 percent.


Author(s):  
Marek Dzida ◽  
Krzysztof Kosowski

In bibliography we can find many methods of determining pressure drop in the combustion chambers of gas turbines, but there is only very few data of experimental results. This article presents the experimental investigations of pressure drop in the combustion chamber over a wide range of part-load performances (from minimal power up to take-off power). Our research was carried out on an aircraft gas turbine of small output. The experimental results have proved that relative pressure drop changes with respect to fuel flow over the whole range of operating conditions. The results were then compared with theoretical methods.


Author(s):  
Ki Wook Jung ◽  
Hyoungsoon Lee ◽  
Chirag Kharangate ◽  
Feng Zhou ◽  
Mehdi Asheghi ◽  
...  

Abstract High performance and economically viable thermal cooling solutions must be developed to reduce weight and volume, allowing for a wide-spread utilization of hybrid electric vehicles. The traditional embedded microchannel cooling heat sinks suffer from high pressure drop due to small channel dimensions and long flow paths in 2D-plane. Utilizing direct “embedded cooling” strategy in combination with top access 3D-manifold strategy reduces the pressure drop by nearly an order of magnitude. In addition, it provides more temperature uniformity across large area chips and it is less prone to flow instability in two-phase boiling heat transfer. Here, we present the experimental results for single-phase thermofluidic performance of an embedded silicon microchannel cold-plate bonded to a 3D manifold for heat fluxes up to 300 W/cm2 using single-phase R-245fa. The heat exchanger consists of a 52 mm2 heated area with 25 parallel 75 × 150 μm2 microchannels, where the fluid is distributed by a 3D-manifold with 4 micro-conduits of 700 × 250 μm2. Heat is applied to the silicon heat sink using electrical Joule-heating in a metal serpentine bridge and the heated surface temperature is monitored in real-time by Infra-red (IR) camera and electrical resistance thermometry. The experimental results for maximum and average temperatures of the chip, pressure drop, thermal resistance, average heat transfer coefficient for flow rates of 0.1, 0.2. 0.3 and 0.37 lit/min and heat fluxes from 25 to 300 W/cm2 are reported. The proposed Embedded Microchannels-3D Manifold Cooler, or EMMC, device is capable of removing 300 W/cm2 at maximum temperature 80 °C with pressure drop of less than 30 kPa, where the flow rate, inlet temperature and pressures are 0.37 lit/min, 25 °C and 350 kPa, respectively. The experimental uncertainties of the test results are estimated, and the uncertainties are the highest for heat fluxes < 50 W/cm2 due to difficulty in precisely measuring the fluid temperature at the inlet and outlet of the micro-cooler.


1993 ◽  
Vol 115 (4) ◽  
pp. 890-896 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Manglik ◽  
A. E. Bergles

Thermal-hydraulic design correlations are developed to predict isothermal f and Nu for in-tube, turbulent flows with twisted-tape inserts. Experimental data taken for water and ethylene glycol, with y = 3.0, 4.5, and 6.0, are analyzed, and various mechanisms attributed to twisted tapes are identified. Tube blockage and tape-induced vortex mixing are the dominant phenomena that result in increased heat transfer and pressure drop; for loose- to snug-fitting tapes, the fin effects are insignificant. The limiting case of a straight tape insert correlates with the hydraulic-diameter-based smooth tube equation. Tape twist effects are thus isolated by normalizing the data with the asymptotic predictions for y = ∞, and the swirl effects are found to correlate with Re and l/y. The validity of the final correlations is verified by comparing the predictions with previously published data, which include both gases and liquids, under heating and cooling conditions and a wide range of tape geometries, thereby establishing a very generalized applicability. Finally, correlations for laminar (presented in the companion Part I paper) and turbulent flows are combined into single, continuous equations. For isothermal f, the correlation describes most of the available data for laminar-transition-turbulent flows within ±10 percent. For Nu, however, a family of curves is needed due to the nonunique nature of laminar-turbulent transition.


Author(s):  
Lazarus Godson ◽  
B. Raja ◽  
D. Mohan Lal ◽  
S. Wongwises

The convective heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop of silver-water nanofluids is measured in a counter flow heat exchanger from laminar to turbulent flow regime. The experimental results show that the convective heat transfer coefficient of the nanofluids increases by up to 69% at a concentration of 0.9 vol. % compared with that of pure water. Furthermore, the experimental results show that the convective heat transfer coefficient enhancement exceeds the thermal conductivity enhancement. It is observed that the measured heat transfer coefficient is higher than that of the predicted ones using Gnielinski equation by at least 40%. The use of the silver nanofluid has a little penalty in pressure drop up to 55% increase 0.9% volume concentration of silver nanoparticles.


2002 ◽  
Vol 124 (3) ◽  
pp. 155-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Bhattacharya ◽  
R. L. Mahajan

In this paper, we present recent experimental results on forced convective heat transfer in novel finned metal foam heat sinks. Experiments were conducted on aluminum foams of 90 percent porosity and pore size corresponding to 5 PPI (200 PPM) and 20 PPI (800 PPM) with one, two, four and six fins, where PPI (PPM) stands for pores per inch (pores per meter) and is a measure of the pore density of the porous medium. All of these heat sinks were fabricated in-house. The forced convection results show that heat transfer is significantly enhanced when fins are incorporated in metal foam. The heat transfer coefficient increases with increase in the number of fins until adding more fins retards heat transfer due to interference of thermal boundary layers. For the 20 PPI samples, this maximum was reached for four fins. For the 5 PPI heat sinks, the trends were found to be similar to those for the 20 PPI heat sinks. However, due to larger pore sizes, the pressure drop encountered is much lower at a particular air velocity. As a result, for a given pressure drop, the heat transfer coefficient is higher compared to the 20 PPI heat sink. For example, at a Δp of 105 Pa, the heat transfer coefficients were found to be 1169W/m2-K and 995W/m2-K for the 5 PPI and 20 PPI 4-finned heat sinks, respectively. The finned metal foam heat sinks outperform the longitudinal finned and normal metal foam heat sinks by a factor between 1.5 and 2, respectively. Finally, an analytical expression is formulated based on flow through an open channel and incorporating the effects of thermal dispersion and interfacial heat transfer between the solid and fluid phases of the porous medium. The agreement of the proposed relation with the experimental results is promising.


Author(s):  
Sunil Mehendale

Microchannel evaporators are being increasingly considered for application in residential and commercial cooling and heat pump applications. This work analyzes the principles of refrigerant circuiting design in refrigerant-to-air heat exchangers using an element-by-element model developed for a microchannel evaporator. Geometric parameters such as microchannel tube depth, tube height, and port size, louvered fin density, louver angle, louver height, louver pitch, and fin height, as well as the air side face velocity, the refrigerant pressure-drop and heat transfer as a function of refrigerant mass flux are considered in the analysis. The model was first validated using data available in the open literature, thus providing a high level of confidence in the predictive ability of the model. Starting with a given microchannel tube and louvered fin geometry and a fixed number of tubes (and fins), the thermal performance of the heat exchanger was simulated over a wide range of two pass circuit configurations and tube lengths. It was found that the heat transfer versus pressure-drop trade-off provides an optimum relationship between the fraction of tubes in the first pass and the heat exchanger length. The sensitivity of the evaporator cooling capacity to the percentage of tubes in the first pass was also explored.


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