Multi-physical simulation of stirring effect on heating uniformity in a microwave reactor with interlayer

Author(s):  
Pengcheng Zou ◽  
Guangyuan Jin ◽  
Guoyu Nie ◽  
Chunfang Song ◽  
Zhengwei Cui

Abstract Due to the exhaustion of fossil fuels and environmental degradation, biodiesel has attracted much attention as a new energy source. Currently, microwave reactors are used extensively for producing biodiesel. However, nonuniform heating of producing biodiesel in microwave reactors is a major problem. In order to solve the problem, a microwave reactor with an interlayer which can obviously improve the uniformity of microwave heating was designed. In this work, the heating efficiency and heating uniformity of the reactor were discussed from two aspects of waveguide position and interlayer thickness by means of multi-physical coupling calculation. According to the calculation results, the optimization model of a microwave reactor with an interlayer was obtained. Then, based on the above optimization model of a microwave reactor with an interlayer, a stirrer that can improve the heat transfer of the fluid material was introduced. The Maxwell equation, heat transfer equation and flow equation were coupled by multi-physical field simulation method to explore the influence of different factors of stirrer on power consumption and heating uniformity. Through response surface analysis, it was found that the primary and secondary order of stirring factors affecting microwave heating uniformity was stirring speed > impeller diameter > bottom clearance, and there was an interaction between different factors. From the two aspects of stirring power consumption and heating uniformity, the best stirring effect was obtained.

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (13) ◽  
pp. 3954
Author(s):  
Liang Xu ◽  
Qicheng Ruan ◽  
Qingyun Shen ◽  
Lei Xi ◽  
Jianmin Gao ◽  
...  

Traditional cooling structures in gas turbines greatly improve the high temperature resistance of turbine blades; however, few cooling structures concern both heat transfer and mechanical performances. A lattice structure (LS) can solve this issue because of its advantages of being lightweight and having high porosity and strength. Although the topology of LS is complex, it can be manufactured with metal 3D printing technology in the future. In this study, an integral optimization model concerning both heat transfer and mechanical performances was presented to design the LS cooling channel with a variable aspect ratio in gas turbine blades. Firstly, some internal cooling channels with the thin walls were built up and a simple raw of five LS cores was taken as an insert or a turbulator in these cooling channels. Secondly, relations between geometric variables (height (H), diameter (D) and inclination angle(ω)) and objectives/functions of this research, including the first-order natural frequency (freq1), equivalent elastic modulus (E), relative density (ρ¯) and Nusselt number (Nu), were established for a pyramid-type lattice structure (PLS) and Kagome-type lattice structure (KLS). Finally, the ISIGHT platform was introduced to construct the frame of the integral optimization model. Two selected optimization problems (Op-I and Op-II) were solved based on the third-order response model with an accuracy of more than 0.97, and optimization results were analyzed. The results showed that the change of Nu and freq1 had the highest overall sensitivity Op-I and Op-II, respectively, and the change of D and H had the highest single sensitivity for Nu and freq1, respectively. Compared to the initial LS, the LS of Op-I increased Nu and E by 24.1% and 29.8%, respectively, and decreased ρ¯ by 71%; the LS of Op-II increased Nu and E by 30.8% and 45.2%, respectively, and slightly increased ρ¯; the LS of both Op-I and Op-II decreased freq1 by 27.9% and 19.3%, respectively. These results suggested that the heat transfer, load bearing and lightweight performances of the LS were greatly improved by the optimization model (except for the lightweight performance for the optimal LS of Op-II, which became slightly worse), while it failed to improve vibration performance of the optimal LS.


2021 ◽  
Vol 232 ◽  
pp. 116383
Author(s):  
Peng Yan ◽  
Andrzej I. Stankiewicz ◽  
Farnaz Eghbal Sarabi ◽  
Hakan Nigar

2017 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. e13468
Author(s):  
Pu Guang Yi ◽  
Pu Cheng Xi ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Song Chun Fang

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 1070-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiwei Peng ◽  
Jiann-Yang Hwang ◽  
Chong-Lyuck Park ◽  
Byoung-Gon Kim ◽  
Gerald Onyedika

Author(s):  
Mir-Akbar Hessami ◽  
Arnd Hilligweg

The energy efficiency of refrigerators not only depends on the efficiency of the various components used in the cycle but also on their thermodynamics cycle efficiency as well the thermal efficiency of the cabinet housing the components. Efficiency improvements to the thermodynamics cycle and refrigerator components have been the subject of various papers published in the open literature. Not many researchers have looked at reducing the heat leakage into the refrigerator cabinet with the explicit objective of reducing the power consumption of the unit and hence improving its thermal efficiency. This paper is based on an experimental study of this topic, and includes information on the experimental rig used and the results obtained. This research was performed in two stages: The first stage was focused on improving the energy efficiency by changing wall insulation while the second stage was to study the heat transfer through the doors’ gaskets. For the first part, a domestic refrigerator was instrumented with many thermocouples and heat flux meters to measure the inside and outside air temperatures and the heat transfer through the wall of the unit, respectively. These measurements were taken under different environmental conditions as well as different insulation thickness in the walls of the cabinet. For the second part, using a specially designed and manufactured experimental rig, various door gaskets were placed between a warm and a cold chamber and heat transfer through the gasket was measured. The results showed that by adding 30 mm polystyrene insulation to the walls of the refrigerator, the heat transfer through the walls reduced by around 35%. The power consumption data agreed very well with the measured heat flux through the walls. The percentage heat transfer through the doors’ gaskets was confirmed to be about 13% of the total heat transferred into the unit.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashok Kumar ◽  
P. Bera

A comprehensive numerical investigation on the natural convection in a hydrodynamically anisotropic porous enclosure is presented. The flow is due to nonuniformly heated bottom wall and maintenance of constant temperature at cold vertical walls along with adiabatic top wall. Brinkman-extended non-Darcy model, including material derivative, is considered. The principal direction of the permeability tensor has been taken oblique to the gravity vector. The spectral element method has been adopted to solve numerically the governing conservative equations of mass, momentum, and energy by using a stream-function vorticity formulation. Special attention is given to understand the effect of anisotropic parameters on the heat transfer rate as well as flow configurations. The numerical experiments show that in the case of isotropic porous enclosure, the maximum rates of bottom as well as side heat transfers (Nub and Nus) take place at the aspect ratio, A, of the enclosure equal to 1, which is, in general, not true in the case of anisotropic porous enclosures. The flow in the enclosure is governed by two different types of convective cells: rotating (i) clockwise and (ii) anticlockwise. Based on the value of media permeability as well as orientation angle, in the anisotropic case, one of the cells will dominate the other. In contrast to isotropic porous media, enhancement of flow convection in the anisotropic porous enclosure does not mean increasing the side heat transfer rate always. Furthermore, the results show that anisotropy causes significant changes in the bottom as well as side average Nusselt numbers. In particular, the present analysis shows that permeability orientation angle has a significant effect on the flow dynamics and temperature profile and consequently on the heat transfer rates.


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