Optimum Operating Conditions for Subcritical/Supercritical Fluid-Based Natural Circulation Loops

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ajay Kumar Yadav ◽  
Souvik Bhattacharyya ◽  
M. Ram Gopal

Natural circulation loop (NCL) is simple and reliable due to the absence of moving components and is preferred in applications where safety is of foremost concern, such as nuclear power plants and high-pressure thermal power plants. In the present study, optimum operating conditions based on the maximum heat transfer rate in NCLs have been obtained for subcritical as well as supercritical fluids. In recent years, there is a growing interest in the use of carbon dioxide (CO2) as loop fluid in NCLs for a variety of heat transfer applications due to its excellent thermophysical environmentally benign properties. In the present study, three-dimensional (3D) computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis of a CO2-based NCL with isothermal source and sink has been carried out. Results show that the heat transfer rate is much higher in the case of supercritical phase (if operated near pseudocritical region) than the subcritical phase. In the subcritical option, higher heat transfer rate is obtained in the case of liquid operated near saturation condition. Correlations for optimum operating condition are obtained for a supercritical CO2-based NCL in terms of reduced temperature and reduced pressure so that they can be employed for a wide variety of fluids operating in supercritical region. Correlations are also validated with different loop fluids. These results are expected to help design superior optimal NCLs for critical applications.

Author(s):  
Aashish Kumar ◽  
Manoj Kumar Mondal

Abstract Improvement of thermal management can significantly enhance the coefficient of performance (COP) of the thermoelectric (TE) system which is one of the potential solutions for cooling electronic components. Since heat sinks are an integral part of all the electronic equipment, therefore, great consideration is given towards meticulous selection of heat sink for improving its reliability and performance. Various methods are being studied to improve heat transfer rates of heat sink such as microchannel, liquid cooling, nano-fluids, fin topology optimization, anodization of pins, and changing heat sink materials. Recent studies have demonstrated that perforations in pins increase the heat transfer rate of pin fin heat sink, though, the results are inadequate to infer the best geometry. Further research is hence necessary to establish the best possible combination of geometry, size, and number of perforations. The present work aims to numerically identify a heat sink configuration with maximum heat transfer rate among several configuration possibilities under laminar flow condition using ANSYS Fluent 18.2. The simulation results demonstrate that lateral perforation in fins enable higher heat transfer rate than the unmodified heat sink geometry, due to higher Nusselt number and reduced pressure drop. The parametric study also reveals that heat sink with three elliptical perforations boost heat transfer rates (about 21% higher) when compared to heat sink with solid and other perforated geometries. Furthermore, perforations reduce weight and greater effectiveness, making it more desirable for its wide-scale applications.


Molecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (12) ◽  
pp. 3711
Author(s):  
Asifa ◽  
Talha Anwar ◽  
Poom Kumam ◽  
Zahir Shah ◽  
Kanokwan Sitthithakerngkiet

In this modern era, nanofluids are considered one of the advanced kinds of heat transferring fluids due to their enhanced thermal features. The present study is conducted to investigate that how the suspension of molybdenum-disulfide (MoS2) nanoparticles boosts the thermal performance of a Casson-type fluid. Sodium alginate (NaAlg) based nanofluid is contained inside a vertical channel of width d and it exhibits a flow due to the movement of the left wall. The walls are nested in a permeable medium, and a uniform magnetic field and radiation flux are also involved in determining flow patterns and thermal behavior of the nanofluid. Depending on velocity boundary conditions, the flow phenomenon is examined for three different situations. To evaluate the influence of shape factor, MoS2 nanoparticles of blade, cylinder, platelet, and brick shapes are considered. The mathematical modeling is performed in the form of non-integer order operators, and a double fractional analysis is carried out by separately solving Caputo-Fabrizio and Atangana-Baleanu operators based fractional models. The system of coupled PDEs is converted to ODEs by operating the Laplace transformation, and Zakian’s algorithm is applied to approximate the Laplace inversion numerically. The solutions of flow and energy equations are presented in terms of graphical illustrations and tables to discuss important physical aspects of the observed problem. Moreover, a detailed inspection on shear stress and Nusselt number is carried out to get a deep insight into skin friction and heat transfer mechanisms. It is analyzed that the suspension of MoS2 nanoparticles leads to ameliorating the heat transfer rate up to 9.5%. To serve the purpose of achieving maximum heat transfer rate and reduced skin friction, the Atangana-Baleanu operator based fractional model is more effective. Furthermore, it is perceived that velocity and energy functions of the nanofluid exhibit significant variations because of the different shapes of nanoparticles.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahyar Ashouri ◽  
Mohammad Mehdi Zarei ◽  
Ali Moosavi

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of geometrical parameters, eccentricity and perforated fins on natural convection heat transfer in a finned horizontal annulus using three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann flux solver. Design/methodology/approach Three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann flux solver is used in the present study for simulating conjugate heat transfer within an annulus. D3Q15 and D3Q7 models are used to solve the fluid flow and temperature field, respectively. The finite volume method is used to discretize mass, momentum and energy equations. The Chapman–Enskog expansion analysis is used to establish the connection between the lattice Boltzmann equation local solution and macroscopic fluxes. To improve the accuracy of the lattice Boltzmann method for curved boundaries, lattice Boltzmann equation local solution at each cell interface is considered to be independent of each other. Findings It is found that the maximum heat transfer rate occurs at low fin spacing especially by increasing the fin height and decreasing the internal-cylindrical distance. The effect of inner cylinder eccentricity is not much considerable (up to 5.2% enhancement) while the impact of fin eccentricity is more remarkable. Negative fin eccentricity further enhances the heat transfer rate compared to a positive fin eccentricity and the maximum heat transfer enhancement of 91.7% is obtained. The influence of using perforated fins is more considerable at low fin spacing although some heat transfer enhancements are observed at higher fin spacing. Originality/value The originality of this paper is to study three-dimensional natural convection in a finned-horizontal annulus using three-dimensional lattice Boltzmann flux solver, as well as to apply symmetry and periodic boundary conditions and to analyze the effect of eccentric annular fins (for the first time for air) and perforated annular fins (for the first time so far) on the heat transfer rate.


Author(s):  
Hiroki Kobayashi ◽  
Kentaro Yaji ◽  
Shintaro Yamasaki ◽  
Kikuo Fujita

Abstract Heat exchangers are devices that typically transfer heat between two fluids. The performance of a heat exchanger such as heat transfer rate and pressure loss strongly depends on the flow regime in the heat transfer system. In this paper, we present a density-based topology optimization method for a two-fluid heat exchange system, which achieves a maximum heat transfer rate under fixed pressure loss. We propose a representation model accounting for three states, i.e., two fluids and a solid wall between the two fluids, by using a single design variable field. The key aspect of the proposed model is that mixing of the two fluids can be essentially prevented. This is because the solid constantly exists between the two fluids due to the use of the single design variable field. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method through three-dimensional numerical examples in which an optimized design is compared with a simple reference design, and the effects of design conditions (i.e., Reynolds number, Prandtl number, design domain size, and flow arrangements) are investigated.


Author(s):  
Seongil Kim ◽  
Sangmin Choi ◽  
Jari Lappalainen ◽  
Tae-Ho Song

In a circulating fluidized bed boiler, the large thermal mass and flow characteristics of the solids strongly affect the transient response of the circulating fluidized bed loop temperature, which determines the heat transfer rate to steam flow. Therefore, it is essential to interpret the dynamic response of the solid behavior in the circulating fluidized bed loop for the stable and efficient operation of the circulating fluidized bed boiler. In this study, the dynamic simulation of the solid behavior along with the flue gas flow in a circulating fluidized bed loop was performed by applying the core-annulus approach for the solid-gas flow inside the furnace and selected models for other physical phenomena of the fluidized bed. The circulating fluidized bed loop of a commercial boiler was selected as the target system. Especially, the model simulates the characteristics of the solid behavior, such as the local solid mass distribution, and the solid flow inside the furnace and the circulating solid according to the various operating conditions. These aspects are difficult to measure and quantify in a real power plant. In this paper, the simulated furnace temperature behavior as the representative performance parameter of the circulating fluidized bed loop was discussed along with the qualitative operation experiences reported in the literature. The operating conditions include the feed rate of fuel and air, the particle size, the solid inventory and the solid circulation rate. Furnace temperature behavior was reproduced through the simulation for each operating case in the literature and was analyzed with the solid behavior along with the combustion rate and heat transfer rate of the circulating fluidized bed loop. The simulation enables quantitative evaluation of the effect of the solid behavior on the temperatures of the furnace and return part in the various operating conditions.


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