Spray Impingement and Evaporation Through Porous Media

Author(s):  
Sathish K. Sankara Chinthamony ◽  
Chendhil Periasamy ◽  
S. R. Gollahalli

This paper presents an experimental study on spray impingement and fuel evaporation processes in porous media. Aviation-type kerosene (Jet-A) was used as the fuel and an open-cell, silicon carbide coated, carbon-carbon ceramic foam was used as the porous medium. The fuel was sprayed into a coflowing, preheated air environment using an air-blast atomizer. A Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) was used to measure Sauter mean diameter (SMD), liquid mass flux, and axial velocity of the droplets. The porous medium was resistively heated to simulate heat feedback from the combustion zone. An organic vapor analyzer, based on catalytic oxidation, was used to measure the concentration of kerosene vapor downstream of the porous medium. The temperature and flow rate of coflow air were held constant, while the fuel flow rate, and hence, the overall equivalence ratio, was varied from 0.3 to 0.6. Higher liquid mass flux was recorded away from the spray core region, due to the swirling action of atomizing air. Surface temperature measurements of porous media revealed the uniformity of thermo-electrical properties of the medium. Vapor concentration measurements with combustion heat feedback (a heat input of 33 kW/m2) increased the average vapor concentration by 63% and 43% than that of no heat feedback case for 0.3 and 0.6 equivalence ratios respectively.

SPE Journal ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (01) ◽  
pp. 01-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omid Mohammadzadeh ◽  
Shawn David Taylor ◽  
Dmitry Eskin ◽  
John Ratulowski

Summary One of the complex processes of permeability impairment in porous media, especially in the near-wellbore region, is asphaltene-induced formation damage. During production, asphaltene particles precipitate out of the bulk fluid phase because of pressure drop, which might result in permeability reduction caused by both deposition of asphaltene nanoparticles on porous-medium surfaces and clogging of pore throats by larger asphaltene agglomerates. Experimental data will be used to identify the parameters of an impairment model being developed. As part of a larger effort to identify key mechanisms of asphaltene deposition in porous media and develop a model for asphaltene impairment by pressure depletion, this paper focuses on a systematic design and execution of an experimental study of asphaltene-related permeability damage caused by live-oil depressurization along the length of a flow system. An experiment was performed using a custom-designed 60-ft slimtube-coil assembly packed with silica sands to a permeability of 55 md. The customized design included a number of pressure gauges at regular intervals along the coil length, which enabled real-time measurement of the fluid-pressure profile across the full length of the slimtube coil. The test was performed on a well-characterized recombined live oil from the Gulf of Mexico (GOM) that is a known problematic asphaltenic oil. Under a constant differential pressure, the injection flow rate of the live oil through the slimtube coil decreased over time as the porous medium became impaired. During the impairment stage, samples of the produced oil were collected on a regular basis for asphaltene-content measurement. After more than 1 month, the impairment test was terminated; the live oil was purged from the slimtube coil with helium at a pressure above the asphaltene-onset pressure (AOP); and the entire system was gently depressurized to bring the coil to atmospheric conditions while preserving the asphaltene-damaged zones of the coil. The permeability and porosity of the porous medium changed because of asphaltene impairment that was triggered by pressure depletion. Results indicated that the coil permeability was impaired by approximately 32% because of pressure depletion below the AOP, with most of the damage occurring in the latter section of the tube, which operated entirely below the AOP. Post-analytical studies indicated lower asphaltene content of the produced-oil samples compared with the injecting fluid. The distribution of asphaltene deposits along the length of the coil was determined by cutting the slimtube coil into 2- to 3-ft-long sections and using solvent extraction to collect the asphaltenes in each section. The extraction results confirmed that the observed permeability impairment was indeed caused by asphaltene deposition in the middle and latter sections of the coil, where the pressure was less than the AOP. With the success of this experiment, the same detailed analysis can be extended to a series of experiments to determine the effects of different key parameters on pressure-induced asphaltene impairment, including flow rate, wettability, and permeability.


Author(s):  
Hiroyasu Ohtake ◽  
Tomoyasu Tanaki ◽  
Yasuo Koizumi

Boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux—CHF—in mist cooling were investigated experimentally and analytically. Especially, the heat transfer in the mist cooling was examined focusing on the effects of droplet size and droplet velocity on the heat transfer characteristics. Steady state experiments of heat transfer were conducted using a pure copper cylinder and mist flow of water-air at room temperature. Liquid flow rate was 0.3, 0.9, 1.8, 4 and 8 l/hr, respectively; each air flow rate on normal condition was 0, 40, 75 and 120 lN/min. Furthermore, liquid mass flux on the heater surface for each experimental condition was measured by using a cylinder with a scale and the same diameter as the heater. Distribution of air velocity, average velocity of droplets and average diameter of droplets were measured by using a fine Pitot tube, laser doppler anemometry and immersion method, respectively. Three correlations of the mist cooling rate for non-boiling, evaporation of droplets and evaporation of the liquid film were developed by using the measured liquid mass flux, characteristic droplet velocity and wall superheat. A CHF model was presented by focusing on maximum evaporation rate of the liquid mass flux on a heater. A droplet evaporation model was proposed by using the transient heat conduction in a sphere. Finally, three dimensionless correlations for the mist cooling were presented.


2002 ◽  
Vol 465 ◽  
pp. 237-260 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. R. GRAHAM ◽  
J. J. L. HIGDON

Numerical computations are employed to study the phenomenon of oscillatory forcing of flow through porous media. The Galerkin finite element method is used to solve the time-dependent Navier–Stokes equations to determine the unsteady velocity field and the mean flow rate subject to the combined action of a mean pressure gradient and an oscillatory body force. With strong forcing in the form of sinusoidal oscillations, the mean flow rate may be reduced to 40% of its unforced steady-state value. The effectiveness of the oscillatory forcing is a strong function of the dimensionless forcing level, which is inversely proportional to the square of the fluid viscosity. For a porous medium occupied by two fluids with disparate viscosities, oscillatory forcing may be used to reduce the flow rate of the less viscous fluid, with negligible effect on the more viscous fluid. The temporal waveform of the oscillatory forcing function has a significant impact on the effectiveness of this technique. A spike/plateau waveform is found to be much more efficient than a simple sinusoidal profile. With strong forcing, the spike waveform can induce a mean axial flow in the absence of a mean pressure gradient. In the presence of a mean pressure gradient, the spike waveform may be employed to reverse the direction of flow and drive a fluid against the direction of the mean pressure gradient. Owing to the viscosity dependence of the dimensionless forcing level, this mechanism may be employed as an oscillatory filter to separate two fluids of different viscosities, driving them in opposite directions in the porous medium. Possible applications of these mechanisms in enhanced oil recovery processes are discussed.


2011 ◽  
Vol 291-294 ◽  
pp. 1689-1692
Author(s):  
Li Hong Yang ◽  
Da Hua Liu

Isothermal chamber, which is fabricated by empty chamber stuffed with thin metal wires, is a kind of test devices for flow rate characteristics of pneumatic components, and its temperature characteristics are critical to the accuracy of test results. In this paper, the stuffers in isothermal chamber were considered as porous medium with large porosity, so the temperature characteristics could be studied by numerical simulation. Though there are differences between simulation and experiment, they have same trends and the law of variation can be seen from the simulation results, which demonstrates the reliability of numerical simulation. Consequently, simulation can be an efficient method, which is energy-saving and cost-reducing.


Author(s):  
Chendhil Periasamy ◽  
S. R. Gollahalli

This paper presents a computational parametric study of evaporation processes in liquid-fueled, simulated porous media burners using a two-energy equation model. The effects of porous medium heat source, porous medium structure, fuel flow rate, and air inlet temperature on evaporation characteristics were determined. Predicted steady-state axial temperature profiles within the porous media and radial vapor concentration profiles at 5 cm downstream of the porous medium are presented. Vapor concentration results showed a strong dependence on porous medium temperature, which, in turn, depended on the strength of the heat source and the effectiveness of heat transfer between porous medium and coflow air. Simulations with different porosities demonstrated that the peak vapor concentration decreased as porosity increased. The peak vapor concentration dropped by 42 % when porosity was increased from 0.5 to 0.87. Under higher fuel flowrate conditions, the extent of completeness of evaporation decreased, showing that much stronger heat source was needed to maintain the complete evaporation. When the coflow air temperature was increased, the peak vapor concentration was found to increase and the vapor concentration spread more radially.


Author(s):  
C. Periasamy ◽  
A. Saboonchi ◽  
S. R. Gollahalli

This paper presents a numerical study of evaporation characteristics of liquid fuel spray in porous media. A two-energy equation model was employed to predict solid and gas phase temperatures. Governing equations were solved on a two-dimensional axisymmetric computational domain of 2.15 × 20 cm. An air-blast atomizer model was used to inject kerosene fuel spray on to the porous medium. Combustion in porous media was simulated by using a uniform volumetric heat source in the porous region. Numerical results were obtained with a commercial code Fluent 6.0. For a heat feedback rate of 1% of average heat input, the porous medium attained a temperature of 465 K. This data agreed well with experimental data obtained by infrared imaging. With an increase in heat feedback rate, the porous medium temperature also increased. Surface temperature distribution in porous media for different heat feedback rates was predicted. Results indicate that the transverse distribution was uniform within 1.5% of the mean value. Droplet diameter was smaller in spray core upstream of porous medium and increased radially due to the swirling action imparted to the atomizing air. Transverse vapor concentration results downstream of porous medium show that the distribution was uniform within 5% of the mean value, which demonstrates that porous medium uniformly distributes the fuel vapor-air mixture. The spatially homogeneous reactant mixture is important to achieve good combustion, reduce pollutant formation, and minimize instabilities in practical combustors. Effects of equivalence ratio and flame temperature on transverse vapor concentration profiles were also numerically studied. Porous media combustors could be used in gas turbine and industrial burner applications to reduce pollutant emissions.


2011 ◽  
Vol 268-270 ◽  
pp. 116-122
Author(s):  
Verónica Orjuela Contreras

The study of the profiles of velocity and fluid flow rate in porous media with cylindrical geometries were made, using Maple, and the results were obtained in terms of the Bessel Functions. Some of them were the generalized forms of the Haugen-Poiseuille Law. The results could be applied to synthetic media such as zeolites. Only newtonian fluids were considered, but it’s possible to consider non newtonian fluids in the future investigations.


Author(s):  
Chendhil Periasamy ◽  
Sathish K. Sankara Chinthamony ◽  
S. R. Gollahalli

The evaporation characteristics of an air-blast atomized kerosene spray in porous media in a 2D-axisymmetric coflow environment were studied numerically. A swirling primary air stream with varying intensity was used to aid the atomization process. The effects of non-Darcy flow in porous medium were modeled using a modified form of Ergun equation. Local thermal equilibrium between the fluid mixture and porous medium was assumed. Conductive and transient heat flux terms in the energy equation were modified to include the effective thermal conductivity and thermal inertia of the solid region respectively. The effective thermal conductivity was defined as the volumetric average between solid and fluid media. First, the temperature characteristics of the porous medium, arising from different source terms, were obtained. Complete vaporization of kerosene was achieved when the maximum temperature of the porous medium was at 590 K. The effects of porous medium temperature, primary air swirl number, fuel flow rate, and secondary (coflow) air inlet temperature on vaporization were analyzed. For all cases, kerosene vapor concentration profiles at five different axial locations in the domain (0.08, 0.12, 0.13, 0.14, and 0.19m from the nozzle) were obtained. An increase in secondary air inlet temperature from 373 K to 473 K increased the completeness of evaporation from 94% to 97%. When the swirl number was increased from 0.14 to 0.34, the peak vapor concentration was reduced by 31% and more vapor spread radially. The porous medium temperature was found to be a crucial factor in obtaining the complete vaporization of the spray.


Author(s):  
Deqi Chen ◽  
Qinghua Wang ◽  
Zhengang Duan ◽  
Liang-ming Pan

In this paper the study focuses on a visual investigation on the gas-water two-phase flow in a vertical circular narrow channel with 2 mm inner diameter under atmospheric pressure. Experiments were carried out with different working conditions, including different gases as gas-phase working fluids such as nitrogen, air, carbon dioxide and argon, and the gas flow rate, Q, varied between 0 ml/s (single liquid phase flow) to 9.0 ml/s, and the liquid mass flux, G, varied between 581.3 kg/m2s to 3201.8 kg/m2s. The influence of liquid mass flux, gas flow rate as well as Eo number and Mo number (using these two non-dimensional parameters to specify the effect of gas-phase properties) on the fluctuation of pressure drop and mass flux were investigated in this study. It is found that the pressure drop increases along with increasing liquid-phase flow rate with identical other working conditions, and the corresponding flow patterns are slug flow even though the liquid-phase flow rates are different. However, the pressure drop decreases at first and then increases along with gas-phase flow rate, with constant liquid flow rate (liquid mass flux), and the corresponding flow patterns include slug flow, slug-annular flow and annular flow. Based on the experimental result, it is also found that the smaller Eo number and Mo number of the gas-phase working fluid, the smaller the fluctuations of the pressure drop and mass flux would be due to the gas-phase working fluid is different.


Author(s):  
Chendhil Periasamy ◽  
Sathish K. Sankara Chinthamony ◽  
S. R. Gollahalli

The situations such as rapid evaporation, and significant heat generation/convective heat transfer, typically encountered in liquid-fueled porous media combustors, warrant the use of local thermal non-equilibrium models. Knowledge of fuel vaporization and mixing is important to understand the combustion characteristics. In this paper, a two-energy equation model is presented to account for the non-equilibrium between the solid and liquid phases. In this approach, two energy equations for solid and gas phases were solved. Kerosene fuel, issued from an air-blast atomizer, was injected on to a heated porous medium. Governing equations were applied on a 2-D axisymmetric, computational domain of 20.3 cm × 2.5 cm. Computer simulations were conducted using a commercial code Fluent 6.0. Heat transfer from combustion porous medium was simulated by setting a volumetric heat source in the porous region. Accordingly, the peak temperatures in porous media varied from 473 K to 590 K. Axial temperature profiles within the porous media were obtained with equilibrium and non-equilibrium models. Results indicated that the equilibrium models slightly underpredicted the peak temperature. Using non-equilibrium models, radial profiles of kerosene vapor concentration were obtained at different axial locations and the results showed that the thermal effects of the porous medium dominated in the evaporation process. Numerical results were also compared with available data and the agreement was found to be good.


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