Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Flow and Heat Transfer in Stationary Two-Pass Rectangular Duct (AR = 1:2) with Continuous and Broken V- shaped ribs

The combined experimental and Large Eddy Simulations (LES) were performed in the stationary two-pass duct of aspect ratio (AR) 1:2. The experiments were conducted with three different rib arrangements, namely 60° V, 60° V-IV, and broken 60° V-IV ribs, and analysis was carried out with Reynolds numbers of 45,000, 60,000, and 75,000. The infrared thermography (IRT) technique is employed to obtain the local temperature distribution on heated smooth and ribbed surfaces. In all ribbed cases, the copper ribs are glued to the heated surface with a fixed rib height-to-hydraulic diameter (e / Dh) ratio is 0.125 and the rib pitch-to-height ratio (P / e) is 10 and 5 for continuous and broken ribs, respectively. In addition, LES turbulence model was adopted for carrying out simulation to understand the flow and heat transfer behavior in ducts populated with all three V-shaped ribs. The comparison of the time-averaged thermal fields generated using computations has been made with experimentally measured Nusselt numbers, friction factors, thermal performance factor (TPF), and Reynolds analogy performance parameter (RAPP) for all cases. The overall thermal performance factor was found to be quantitatively within 8.0 - 10.66% between experimental and numerical results. Among all the cases, the 60° V-IV ribbed duct provides the best TPF and RAPP than the other two ribbed ducts, whereas the smooth duct shows poor TPF.

Effects of injection pressure and impingement distance on flat-wall impinging spray flame and its heat flux under diesel engine-like condition

Heat loss is one of the main causes of energy losses in modern direct injection diesel engines. This heat loss of the engine occurs during combustion, mainly due to the heat transfer between the impinging spray flame and the piston cavity wall. It is of more critical in small size engines. In order to decrease heat transfer, we need to examine the phenomenon of heat transfer through the combustion chamber walls more fully. To achieve this, we investigated the effects of flame impingement on transient heat flux to the wall. By using a constant volume vessel with a fixed impingement wall, the surface heat flux of the wall at the locations of spray flame impingement was measured with three thin film thermocouple heat flux sensors. The combined effect of impingement distance and injection pressure on the heat transfer was investigated parametrically. The results showed that an increase of injection pressure with longer impinging distance led to an increase in the heat transfer coefficient, which had a dominant effect on local heat flux compared with local temperature distribution. Moreover, we confirmed that the relation between Nusselt number and Reynolds number is a useful measure for describing the heat transfer phenomena in diesel combustion.

Thermo-Molecular Gas-Film Lubrication (t-MGL) Considering Temperature Distributions and Accommodation Coefficients: Analyses by Quasi-Free-Molecular t-MGL Equation

In the present paper, the flying characteristics of a step slider flying in either air or He with a local temperature distribution of the disk are analyzed using the thermo-molecular gas-film lubrication (t-MGL) equation in the quasi-free-molecular flow region (quasi-free-molecular t-MGL equation: t-MGLqfm eq.). The gas temperature in the t-MGLqfm equation, τG, is assumed to be that in the free molecular limit, τGfm, defined by temperatures and accommodation coefficients at the disk, τW0, α0, and those at the slider, τW1, α1, respectively. The decreases in static spacing for the slider flying in He are significant. Moreover, the spacing decreases as the accommodation coefficients of the disk, α0, decreases, that is, as the ratio of specular reflection increases. The spacing fluctuation caused by a running wavy disk varies according to both the ambient gas (air/He) and the boundary accommodation coefficients.

Experimental Tests With Non-Uniformly Heated 19-Pins Fuel Bundle Cooled by HLM

An experimental campaign was performed on a non-uniformly heated 19-pins wire-spaced fuel pin bundle simulator, cooled by Heavy Liquid Metal and installed in the NACIE-UP (NAtural CIrculation Experiment-UPgrade) facility located at the ENEA Brasimone Research Center (Italy). The experimental tests concerned mass flow rate transition of the primary coolant from forced to natural circulation, with fuel pin bundle simulator characterized by non-uniform power distribution. The main objective of the performed experimental campaign was to perform integral system and local thermal-hydraulic analysis, in particular to investigate the flow in different flow regimes and specifically the transition from forced to natural circulation flow and, more specifically, analyze the behavior of the 19-pins wire-spaced fuel pin simulator (FPS) during such transient. Indeed, the performed test were characterized by non-uniform heating of the bundle (i.e. just some pins switched on), so the effects of this non-uniformity on the local temperatures and on the overall system behavior was evaluated. A deep investigation on the local temperature distribution was performed thanks to the accurate instrumentation provided in the bundle (67 thermocouples). For instance, in some cases, the wall temperatures relative to pins switched off remained below the relative sub-channel temperature, depending on the heating distribution. The obtained experimental data provided useful information for the characterization of the bundle and the computation of the heat transfer coefficient. Moreover, the collected system data can be helpful for STH codes validation, whereas the local fuel bundle data, especially the ones from dissymmetric tests can be useful for the qualification and benchmarking of CFD codes and coupled STH/CFD methods for HLM systems.

Micro-macro model for prediction of local temperature distribution in heterogeneous and two-phase media

Heat flow in heterogeneous media with complex microstructure follows tortuous path and therefore determination of temperature distribution in them is a challenging task. Two-scales, micro-macro model of heat conduction with phase change in such media was considered in the paper. A relation between temperature distribution on the microscopic level, i.e., on the level of details of microstructure, and the temperature distribution on the macroscopic level, i.e., on the level where the properties were homogenized and treated as effective, was derived. The expansion applied to this relation allowed to obtain its more simplified, approximate form corresponding to separation of micro- and macro-scales. Then the validity of this model was checked by performing calculations for 2D microstructure of a composite made of two constituents. The range of application of the proposed micro-macro model was considered in transient states of heat conduction both for the case when the phase change in the material is present and when it is absent. Variation of the effective thermal conductivity with time was considered and a criterion was found for which application of the considered model is justified.

Developments of MEMS-Based Thermocouple Array for Sensing Effects of a Flow Channel on PEMFC Local Temperature Distribution

Measuring temperature inside PEMFCs is necessary for proper water management, because water vapor pressure is a strong function of temperature. In this paper, we have developed thin film thermocouple (TFTC) array to measure temperature distributions near the Cathode Catalyst layer (CCL) with a resolution smaller than the rib-channel scale. The sensor array was placed between CL and gas diffusion layer (GDL) at the cathode. No performance decrement was observed with the insertion of TFTC array. The measurements of temperature distributions showed that the temperature rises at the cathode CL is about 9 °C at 1.2 A/cm2 with supplying 98.5 % RH Hydrogen / Air.