scholarly journals Feasibility study of the university of Utah TRIGA reactor power upgrade - part II: Thermohydraulics and heat transfer study in respect to cooling system requirements and design

2013 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 352-361
Author(s):  
Philip Babitz ◽  
Dongok Choe ◽  
Tatjana Jevremovic
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Power Level ◽  
Flow Simulation ◽  
Nucleate Boiling ◽  
Reactor Power ◽  
Convection Current ◽  
Triga Reactor ◽  
Higher Power ◽  
The University

The thermodynamic conditions of the University of Utah's TRIGA Reactor were simulated using SolidWorks Flow Simulation, Ansys, Fluent and PARET-ANL. The models are developed for the reactor's currently maximum operating power of 90 kW, and a few higher power levels to analyze thermohydraulics and heat transfer aspects in determining a design basis for higher power including the cost estimate. It was found that the natural convection current becomes much more pronounced at higher power levels with vortex shedding also occurring. A departure from nucleate boiling analysis showed that while nucleate boiling begins near 210 kW it remains in this state and does not approach the critical heat flux at powers up to 500 kW. Based on these studies, two upgrades are proposed for extended operation and possibly higher reactor power level. Together with the findings from Part I studies, we conclude that increase of the reactor power is highly feasible yet dependable on its purpose and associated investments.

scholarly journals Numerical Evaluation of a HVAC System Based on a High-Performance Heat Transfer Fluid

Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (11) ◽  
pp. 3298
Author(s):  
Gianpiero Colangelo ◽  
Brenda Raho ◽  
Marco Milanese ◽  
Arturo de Risi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
High Performance ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Electrical Energy ◽  
Simulation Software ◽  
Heat Transfer Fluid ◽  
Hvac System ◽  
Dynamic Simulations ◽  
Heating And Cooling ◽  
The University

Nanofluids have great potential to improve the heat transfer properties of liquids, as demonstrated by recent studies. This paper presents a novel idea of utilizing nanofluid. It analyzes the performance of a HVAC (Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning) system using a high-performance heat transfer fluid (water-glycol nanofluid with nanoparticles of Al2O3), in the university campus of Lecce, Italy. The work describes the dynamic model of the building and its heating and cooling system, realized through the simulation software TRNSYS 17. The use of heat transfer fluid inseminated by nanoparticles in a real HVAC system is an innovative application that is difficult to find in the scientific literature so far. This work focuses on comparing the efficiency of the system working with a traditional water-glycol mixture with the same system that uses Al2O3-nanofluid. The results obtained by means of the dynamic simulations have confirmed what theoretically assumed, indicating the working conditions of the HVAC system that lead to lower operating costs and higher COP and EER, guaranteeing the optimal conditions of thermo-hygrometric comfort inside the building. Finally, the results showed that the use of a nanofluid based on water-glycol mixture and alumina increases the efficiency about 10% and at the same time reduces the electrical energy consumption of the HVAC system.

Cooling of a Finned Cylinder by a Jet Flow of Air

2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. Gori ◽  
F. De Nigris ◽  
E. Pippione ◽  
G. Scavarda
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Jet Flow ◽  
Impinging Jets ◽  
Transfer Coefficients ◽  
Electric System ◽  
Heavy Trucks ◽  
Turbo Compressor ◽  
University Of Rome ◽  
The University

The paper describes a patented proposal to use jets of air in the cooling system of heavy trucks. Preliminary tests have been carried out, in the Heat Transfer Laboratory of the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, to evaluate the heat transfer characteristics of a jet flow of air, impinging onto an externally finned cylinder. The cylinder is internally heated with an electric system. Thermocouples, located inside the cylinder, allow to measure the wall temperatures, in order to calculate the local and average convective heat transfer coefficients. A preliminary design of the practical apparatus, applied to heavy trucks, has been done in cooperation with Iveco. Nozzles are designed to be put after the fan of heavy trucks to converge air, in the form of jets, onto the tube where the charged air is flowing from the outlet of the turbo-compressor. The efficiency of the jet flow increases the cooling performances but, due to the high temperature at the outlet of the turbo-compressor, it may not be enough. The heat transfer cooling performances are enhanced if the tube to be cooled is externally finned. Some preliminary experiments have been carried out in a real scale bank test of an heavy truck engine at the Engineering Testing Laboratories Department of Iveco. Comparisons are done between the experiments and a simple theoretical model. Some conclusions are drawn about the cooling at different fluid dynamics conditions of the impinging jets.

Improvement of Temperature Evaluation Model of Biological Shielding Concrete for HTTR Test Simulating LOFC With VCS Inactive

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shoji Takada ◽  
Shunki Yanagi ◽  
Kazuhiko Iigaki ◽  
Masanori Shinohara ◽  
Daisuke Tochio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Natural Convection ◽  
Thermal Radiation ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Evaluation Model ◽  
Reactor Core ◽  
Reactor Power ◽  
Coolant Temperature ◽  
Water Cooling ◽  
Reactor Outlet

HTTR is a helium gas cooled graphite-moderated HTGR with the rated power 30 MWt and the maximum reactor outlet coolant temperature 950°C. The vessel cooling system (VCS), which is composed of thermal reflector plates, cooling panel composed of fins connected between adjacent water cooling tubes, removes decay heat from reactor core by heat transfer of thermal radiation, conduction and natural convection in case of loss of forced cooling (LOFC). The metallic supports are embedded in the biological shielding concrete to support the fins of VCS. To verify the inherent safety features of HTGR, the LOFC test is planned by using HTTR with the VCS inactive from an initial reactor power of 9 MWt under the condition of LOFC while the reactor shut-down system disabled. In this test, the temperature distribution in the biological shielding concrete is prospected locally higher around the support because of thermal conduction in the support. A 2-dimensional symmetrical model was improved to simulate the heat transfer to the concrete through the VCS support in addition to the heat transfer thermal radiation and natural convection. The model simulated the water cooling tubes setting horizontally at the same pitch with actual configuration. The numerical results were verified in comparison with the measured data acquired from the test, in which the RPV was heated up to around 110 °C without nuclear heating with the VCS inactive, to show that the temperature is locally high but kept sufficiently low around the support in the concrete due to sufficient thermal conductivity to the cold temperature region.

A Compact Nanostructure Integrated Pool Boiler for Microscale Cooling Applications

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhsincan S¸es¸en ◽  
Cem Baha Akkartal ◽  
Wisam Khudhayer ◽  
Tansel Karabacak ◽  
Ali Kos¸ar
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Surface Temperature ◽  
High Efficiency ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Bubble Formation ◽  
Heat Removal ◽  
Nucleate Boiling ◽  
External Energy ◽  
Excessive Heat ◽  
Aluminum Base

An efficient cooling system consisting of a plate, on which copper nanorods (nanorods of size ∼100nm) are integrated to copper thin film (which is deposited on Silicon substrate), a heater, an Aluminum base, and a pool was developed. Heat is transferred with high efficiency to the liquid within the pool above the base through the plate by boiling heat transfer. Near the boiling temperature of the fluid, vapor bubbles started to form with the existence of wall superheat. Phase change took place near the nanostructured plate, where the bubbles emerged from. Bubble formation and bubble motion inside the pool created an effective heat transfer from the plate surface to the pool. Nucleate boiling took place on the surface of the nanostructured plate helping the heat removal from the system to the liquid above. The heat transfer from nanostructured plate was studied using the experimental setup. The temperatures were recorded from the readings of thermocouples, which were successfully integrated to the system. The surface temperature at boiling inception was 102.1°C without the nanostructured plate while the surface temperature was successfully decreased to near 100°C with the existence of the nanostructured plate. In this study, it was proved that this device could have the potential to be an extremely useful device for small and excessive heat generating devices such as MEMS or Micro-processors. This device does not require any external energy to assist heat removal which is a great advantage compared to its counterparts.

Two Phase Flow Simulation for Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer Calculation in Waterjacket of Diesel Engine

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Mohammadi ◽  
Hossein Hashemi ◽  
Ali Jazayeri ◽  
Mahdi Ahmadi
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Temperature Field ◽  
Diesel Engine ◽  
Transfer Coefficient ◽  
Cylinder Head ◽  
Boiling Heat Transfer ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Nucleate Boiling ◽  
Two Phase ◽  
Phase Mixture

Basic understanding of the process of coolant heat transfer inside an engine is an indispensable prerequisite to devise an infallible cooling strategy. Coolant flow and its heat transfer affect the cooling efficiency, thermal load of heated components, and thermal efficiency of a diesel engine. An efficient approach to study cooling system for diesel engine is a 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) calculation for coolant jacket. Therefore, computer simulation can analyze and consequently optimize cooling system performance, including complex cooling jacket. In this paper a computational model for boiling heat transfer based on two-phase Mixture model flow is established. Furthermore, the phenomenon of nucleate boiling, its mathematical modeling, and its effect on heat transfer is discussed. Besides, the static, total and absolute pressure, velocity and stream lines of the flow field, heat flux, heat transfer coefficient and volume fraction of vapor distribution in the coolant jacket of a four-cylinder diesel engine is computed. Also, comparison between experimental equation (Pflaum/Mollenhauer) and two-phase Mixture model for boiling hat transfer coefficient is done and good agreement is seen. In conclusion, it is observed that at high operating temperatures, nucleate boiling occurs in regions around the exhaust port. Numerical simulation of boiling heat transfer process of cooling water jacket and temperature field in the cylinder head of the diesel engine is compared with the data measured on the engine test bench. The calculated results indicate that this method can reflect the impact of boiling heat transfer on water jacket rather accurate. Therefore, this method is benefit to improve the computational precision in the temperature field computation of a cylinder head.

On Development of a Semi-Mechanistic Wall Boiling Model

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saurish Das ◽  
Hemant Punekar
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Phase Change ◽  
Thermal Stresses ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Nucleate Boiling ◽  
Heat Fluxes ◽  
Working Fluid ◽  
Wall Heat Transfer ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Transfer Phenomenon

In modern cooling systems the requirement of higher performance demands highest possible heat transfer rates, which can be achieved by controlled nucleate boiling. Boiling based cooling systems are gaining attention in several engineering applications as a potential replacement of conventional single-phase cooling system. Although the controlled nucleate boiling enhances the heat transfer, uncontrolled boiling may lead to Dry Out situation, adversely affecting the cooling performance and may also cause mechanical damage due to high thermal stresses. Designing boiling based cooling systems requires a modeling approach based on detailed fundamental understanding of this complex two-phase heat and mass transfer phenomenon. Such models can help analyze different cooling systems, detect potential design flaws and carry out design optimization. In the present work a new semi-mechanistic wall boiling model is developed within commercial CFD solver ANSYS FLUENT. A phase change mechanism and wall heat transfer augmentation due to nucleate boiling are implemented in mixture multiphase flow framework. The phase change phenomenon is modeled using mechanistic evaporation-condensation model. Enhancement of wall heat transfer due to nucleate boiling is captured using 1D empirical correlation, modified for 3D CFD environment. A new method is proposed to calculate the local suppression of nucleate boiling based on the flow velocity, and hence this model can be applied to any complex shaped coolant passage. For different wall superheat, the wall heat fluxes predicted by the present model are validated against experimental data, in which 50-50 volume mixture of aqueous ethylene glycol (a typical anti-freeze coolant mixture) is used as working fluid. The validation study is performed in ducts of different sizes and shapes with different inlet velocities, inlet sub-cooling and operating pressures. The results are in good agreement with the experiments. This model is applied to a typical automobile Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) system to study boiling heat transfer phenomenon and the results are presented.

Numerical investigation of thermal performance of key components of electric vehicles using nucleate boiling

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Shyamkumar P.I. ◽  
Suneet Singh ◽  
Atul Srivastava ◽  
Milan Visaria
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Bubble Dynamics ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Flow Boiling ◽  
Rectangular Channel ◽  
Nucleate Boiling ◽  
Single Bubble ◽  
Scavenging Effect ◽  
Multiple Bubbles ◽  
Straight Flow

Abstract An efficient thermal management system is desirable for improving the performance of key components of electric vehicle (EV), such as battery packs and Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistors (IGBTs). This paper investigates the application of single bubble nucleate boiling heat transfer in battery and IGBT component cooling pack. A semi mechanistic flow boiling model, which combines four main sub-models i.e. phase change model, micro-region model, Marangoni model, and contact angle model is developed to get the insight of various subprocesses like bubble inception, growth, departure, scavenging effect while the bubble departs and condensation. For model validation, simulations are carried out for single bubble flow boiling in a vertical rectangular channel and compared against the experimental data available in the literature. Thereafter, simulations are carried out for the battery and IGBT cooling pack to understand the physical phenomena associated with nucleate boiling in such systems. The choice of a single vapor bubble vis-à-vis multiple bubbles has been based on the objective of validating the developed numerical model. An enhancement of ∼30% in heat transfer is achieved for both battery and IGBT components when the system is subjected to a nucleate boiling cooling regime as compared to a conventional single-phase convection cooling system. Nusselt number variation due to the single bubble movement along the coolant path is studied in detail for both serpentine-shaped cooling path in a battery and straight flow path in an IGBT. Moreover, the influence of Reynolds number over bubble dynamics is analyzed.

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