A Novel Approach for Bounding the Stress Experienced by the Core of Utility-Scale Printed Circuit Heat Exchangers Under Thermohydraulic Loads

Author(s):  
Alon Katz ◽  
Mark C. Messner ◽  
Devesh Ranjan

Abstract Printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHEs) have rapidly gained popularity since being introduced nearly three decades ago, and they are currently widely deployed in the petrochemical and aviation industry. Their compactness, thermohydraulic efficiency, inherent suitability for high temperature/pressure fluids containment, and demonstrated durability are some of the reasons the nuclear industry is seeking to adopt this technology as well. However, the relatively strict nuclear-related regulatory design codes, especially when classified as critical to the safety of the reactors, are posing challenges to adopting the technology. From stress analysis point of view, one undesirable feature of PCHEs is their geometrical complexity which is implied by their multi-length-scale features. As a result, a full-scale model of a utility-scale exchanger cannot simply be solved on a computer because meshing such components results in a vast number of degrees of freedom. This work seeks to address the challenge of stress analyses to PCHEs by presenting a method to simplify the geometry of PCHE designs. The models proposed by this work can be practically analyzed on a standard computer and provide a path for implementing ASME design rules. The analyses presented herein are divided into five separate investigations. Each is carried out to incrementally simplify the analyzed model by addressing features such as the shapes of the flow passages, the complex distribution of stress in large components, the three-dimensionality of the stress and strain, the thermal stresses caused by thermohydraulic operation observed experimentally and more.

Author(s):  
F. Bianchi ◽  
P. Meloni ◽  
R. Ferri ◽  
A. Achilli

PERSEO device was developed in the framework of a domestic research program on innovative safety systems, with the purpose to increase the reliability of passive Decay Heat Removal Systems implementing in-pool heat exchangers. The device was tested at SIET Thermal-hydraulic Research Centre by modifying the existing PANTHERS IC-PCC facility. Two types of tests were performed: integral tests and stability tests. The experimental data acquired in the test campaign allowed a validation of a RELAP5/mod 3.3 beta release and CATHARE2 V1.5a/Mod8.1 full scale model of the PERSEO device. The paper deals with the comparison between the two codes against an integral test considered representative from the point of view of the PERSEO functioning and it highlights capabilities and limits of the codes in simulating such kind of test.


Author(s):  
Eugenio Urquiza ◽  
Kenneth Lee ◽  
Per F. Peterson ◽  
Ralph Greif

Printed circuit heat exchangers (PCHE) and the similar formed plate heat exchangers (FPHE) offer highly attractive economics due to their higher power densities when compared to more conventional shell-and-tube designs. However, their complex geometry makes them more vulnerable to damage from thermal stresses during transient thermal hydraulic conditions. Transient stresses far exceed those predicted from steady state analyses. Therefore, a transient, hydraulic, thermal, and structural analysis is needed to accurately simulate and design high performing PCHE. The overall length of the heat exchanger can be thousands of times larger than the characteristic length for the heat transfer and fluid flow. Furthermore, simulating the thermal hydraulics of the entire heat exchanger plate is very time consuming and computationally expensive. The proposed methodology mitigates this by using a multiscale analysis with local volume averaged (LVA) properties and a novel effective porous media (EPM) approach. This method is implemented in a new computer code named the compact heat exchanger explicit thermal and hydraulics (CHEETAH) code which solves the time-dependent, mass, momentum, and energy equations for the entire PCHE plate as well as hot and cold fluid streams using finite volume analysis (FVA). The potential of the method and code is illustrated with an example problem for a Heatric-type helium gas-to-liquid salt PCHE with offset strip fins (OSF). Given initial and boundary conditions, CHEETAH computes and plots transient temperature and flow data. A specially developed grid mapping code transfers temperature arrays onto adapted structural meshes generated with commercial FEA software. For the conditions studied, a multiscale stress analysis reveals mechanical vulnerabilities in the HX design. This integrated methodology using an EPM approach enables multiscale PCHE simulation. The results provide the basis for design improvements which can minimize flow losses while enhancing flow uniformity, thermal effectiveness, and mechanical strength.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (11) ◽  
pp. 3740
Author(s):  
Olafur Oddbjornsson ◽  
Panos Kloukinas ◽  
Tansu Gokce ◽  
Kate Bourne ◽  
Tony Horseman ◽  
...  

This paper presents the design, development and evaluation of a unique non-contact instrumentation system that can accurately measure the interface displacement between two rigid components in six degrees of freedom. The system was developed to allow measurement of the relative displacements between interfaces within a stacked column of brick-like components, with an accuracy of 0.05 mm and 0.1 degrees. The columns comprised up to 14 components, with each component being a scale model of a graphite brick within an Advanced Gas-cooled Reactor core. A set of 585 of these columns makes up the Multi Layer Array, which was designed to investigate the response of the reactor core to seismic inputs, with excitation levels up to 1 g from 0 to 100 Hz. The nature of the application required a compact and robust design capable of accurately recording fully coupled motion in all six degrees of freedom during dynamic testing. The novel design implemented 12 Hall effect sensors with a calibration procedure based on system identification techniques. The measurement uncertainty was ±0.050 mm for displacement and ±0.052 degrees for rotation, and the system can tolerate loss of data from two sensors with the uncertainly increasing to only 0.061 mm in translation and 0.088 degrees in rotation. The system has been deployed in a research programme that has enabled EDF to present seismic safety cases to the Office for Nuclear Regulation, resulting in life extension approvals for several reactors. The measurement system developed could be readily applied to other situations where the imposed level of stress at the interface causes negligible material strain, and accurate non-contact six-degree-of-freedom interface measurement is required.


Author(s):  
Mathias Fink

Time-reversal invariance can be exploited in wave physics to control wave propagation in complex media. Because time and space play a similar role in wave propagation, time-reversed waves can be obtained by manipulating spatial boundaries or by manipulating time boundaries. The two dual approaches will be discussed in this paper. The first approach uses ‘time-reversal mirrors’ with a wave manipulation along a spatial boundary sampled by a finite number of antennas. Related to this method, the role of the spatio-temporal degrees of freedom of the wavefield will be emphasized. In a second approach, waves are manipulated from a time boundary and we show that ‘instantaneous time mirrors’, mimicking the Loschmidt point of view, simultaneously acting in the entire space at once can also radiate time-reversed waves.


Author(s):  
O. Koshelnik ◽  
S. Hoisan

One of the ways to increase glass furnaces energy efficiency is to apply heat exchangers for flue gases thermal potential utilization. Flue gases losses is up to 25-40 % of the total amount of heat supplied in the furnace. These losses are influences by such factors as fuel type, furnace and burners design and manufactured product type. Regenerative heat exchangers with various types of heat storage packing is more efficient for high-power furnaces. Such types of regenerator checkerwork as Cowper checkerwork, two types of Siemens checkerwork, Lichte checkerwork and combined checkerwork have already been sufficiently researched, successfully applied and widely used for glass furnaces of various designs. All of its are made of standard refractory bricks. Basket checkerwork and cruciform checkerwork that are made of fused-cast molded refractory materials have been widely used recently as well. Further improvement of regenerative heat exchangers thermal efficiency only by replacing the checkerwork does not seem possible unless their size being increased. But this enlarging is not always realizable during the modernization of existing furnaces. From this point of view heat storage elements with a phase transition, where metal salts and their mixtures are used as a fusible agent look promising for glass furnaces. These elements can accumulate additional amount of heat due to phase transition, which allows to increase significantly heat exchanger thermal rating without its size and operating conditions changing. However, it is necessary to carry out additional studies of this type of checkerwork dealing with analysis of complex unsteady heat exchange processes in regenerators and selection of appropriate materials that satisfy the operating conditions of regenerative heat exchangers so that the checkerwork can be widely used for glass furnaces.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Gang-Hoon Seo

Since Southwest Airlines' disruptive innovation was introduced, low-cost carriers (LCCs) have had a prominent impact on the aviation industry. Therefore, considerable attention has been paid to the LCC model. However, it is still not clear whether it is a successful disruptive innovation, or what factors and differentiation points for successful LCC service exist from the passengers' perspective. As this study's methodology, quantitative and qualitative content analyses are conducted using the word-of-mouth data of 1,854 passengers of 20 airlines. This study found that the LCC model is perceived as a successful disruptive innovation from the passengers' point of view. For successful LCC service, LC airlines should offer higher quality services than passengers' expectations using basic service elements. Also, good staff characteristics, leaving a professional impression, and providing good optional services could play a role as differentiation tools.


2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2275-2279 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. R. CEMBRANOS ◽  
A. DOBADO ◽  
A. L. MAROTO

Extra-dimensional theories contain additional degrees of freedom related to the geometry of the extra space which can be interpreted as new particles. Such theories allow to reformulate most of the fundamental problems of physics from a completely different point of view. In this essay, we concentrate on the brane fluctuations which are present in brane-worlds, and how such oscillations of the own space–time geometry along curved extra dimensions can help to resolve the Universe missing mass problem. The energy scales involved in these models are low compared to the Planck scale, and this means that some of the brane fluctuations distinctive signals could be detected in future colliders and in direct or indirect dark matter searches.


2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafał Andrzejczyk ◽  
Tomasz Muszyński

Abstract The shell and coil heat exchangers are commonly used in heating, ventilation, nuclear industry, process plant, heat recovery and air conditioning systems. This type of recuperators benefits from simple construction, the low value of pressure drops and high heat transfer. In helical coil, centrifugal force is acting on the moving fluid due to the curvature of the tube results in the development. It has been long recognized that the heat transfer in the helical tube is much better than in the straight ones because of the occurrence of secondary flow in planes normal to the main flow inside the helical structure. Helical tubes show good performance in heat transfer enhancement, while the uniform curvature of spiral structure is inconvenient in pipe installation in heat exchangers. Authors have presented their own construction of shell and tube heat exchanger with intensified heat transfer. The purpose of this article is to assess the influence of the surface modification over the performance coefficient and effectiveness. The experiments have been performed for the steady-state heat transfer. Experimental data points were gathered for both laminar and turbulent flow, both for co current- and countercurrent flow arrangement. To find optimal heat transfer intensification on the shell-side authors applied the number of transfer units analysis.


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