The Influence of Core Capacitance on the Dynamic Performance of a Single-Phase Natural Circulation Loop With End Heat Exchangers

The effect of wall-core capacitance of heat exchangers on the dynamic behavior of a natural circulation loop (NCL) with end heat exchangers is studied under various excitations such as step, ramp, exponential, and sinusoidal. The transient one-dimensional conservation equations are derived for loop fluid, hot and cold fluid streams, and wall core of both heat exchangers. The solution of a set of transient partial differential equations and one integro-differential equation for loop fluid circulation rate is achieved through a finite-element technique. Imposing the excitations to the inlet temperature of hot fluid, the effects of wall-core capacitance on the responses of outlet temperatures of both hot and cold fluid streams and flow rate of loop fluid are studied. Wall-core capacitance diminishes the initial transients and delays the inception of hot and cold fluids outlet temperature profiles as well as loop fluid flow profile. Further, it has the ability to bring even unstable system behavior with reverse flows into a stable system with steady loop flow rate through quickly decaying oscillations. System responses are also greatly influenced by boundary conditions such as hot and cold fluids flow rates and their inlet temperature excitations such as step, ramp, and exponential. As flow stability is an important subject for single-phase NCLs, a stability map is constructed and compared with zero wall-core capacitance. Inclusion of wall-core capacitance in the present study reveals the important fact that the stable state operating zone widens with the wall-core capacitance.     

Transient behavior of co-current parallel flow three-fluid heat exchanger

Transient behavior of co-current parallel flow three-fluid compact heat exchangers with the effect of two-dimensional longitudinal heat conduction through the separating sheet and axial dispersion in fluids has been investigated numerically by using the Gauss–Seidel iterative technique for step excitation provided to hot fluid inlet temperature. The results reveal that the performance of the heat exchanger is affected when two-dimensional longitudinal conduction in separating sheets and axial dispersion in fluids are considered.     

转静盘腔中蒸汽/空气瞬态响应特性对比

为对比蒸汽和空气在转静盘腔中的瞬态响应特性,建立了转静盘腔数值计算模型,基于用户自定义函数编程编写了非稳态边界条件,通过CFD非稳态数值模拟方法研究了进口压力以阶跃函数和斜坡函数变化时蒸汽和空气流动的瞬态响应特性。研究表明:蒸汽的瞬态响应特性明显优于空气;同一无量纲跃升幅值下,两种介质瞬态响应过程的总体趋势基本相同;当无量纲跃升幅值由1. 05增至1. 25时,蒸汽总温的超调量比空气平均低45. 9%;斜坡时间由0. 025 s增至0. 16 s时,蒸汽总温的超调量比空气平均低39. 4%;对于同一流动参数,蒸汽的响应时间要明显少于空气。     

Thermoelectric performance using counter-flowing thermal fluids

Counter-flowing thermal fluids are conducive to generate a homogeneous temperature difference on thermoelectric (TE) generator. This study allowed the hot and cold fluids of having constant inlet temperature to flow in the opposite, and examined TE performance of module at different flow rates. The results show that TE performance gradually increases with flow rate in the initial stage of fluid flow, and reaches a transient peak value after the module surfaces are completely covered by thermal fluids, and then tends to be stable. High flow rate leads to larger performance and reduces the time of achieving them. Effect of flow rate on stable performance is slightly more than that of inlet temperature of thermal fluids, which makes regulating the flow rate to be a feasible way to harvest more heat for TE conversion. Module features present a specific trend and provide the supports for the benefit of counter-flowing thermal fluids.     

Dynamic performance of a natural circulation loop with end heat exchangers under different excitations

In the present work the dynamic performance of a natural circulation loop (NCL) has been studied under step, ramp, exponential and sinusoidal excitations. The loop is equipped with two heat exchangers at its lower and upper end for the heating and cooling of the loop fluid. For the analysis, transient one-dimensional conservation equations have been constructed for the loop fluid as well as for the two fluid streams of hot and cold end heat exchangers. The solution of a set of differential equations and one integro-differential equation has been obtained through a finite element method (FEM). For different excitations imposed to the inlet temperature of the hot fluid responses have been studied for the outlet temperature of the two fluid streams and the mass flow rate of the coupling fluid. It has been observed that all these quantities experience some initial transients before reaching the steady state. Time needed for the attainment of steady state varies with the type of excitation. A finite time delay is observed before the cold fluid stream temperature starts responding to the excitation. This delay is related to the time required for the advection of a fluid particle.     

Comparison of dynamic performance for direct and fluid coupled indirect heat exchange systems

Three different arrangements of heat exchange from a hot fluid stream to a cold fluid stream such as, direct heat exchanger and fluid coupled indirect heat exchanger both with forced circulation loop as well as thermally driven natural circulation loop have been considered in the present work. Dynamic performance of these three arrangements has been studied for four different excitations namely, step, ramp, exponential and sinusoidal. These excitations are imposed at the hot fluid inlet temperature. Finite element technique is used to solve the transient one-dimensional conservation equations. A thorough comparison of the dynamic performance of these three arrangements is made. It is found that the direct heat exchanger does not have any time delay between the response and the excitation function. Moreover, the phase difference between the sinusoidal excitation and response is the lowest in this case.     

Performance analysis in near-critical conditions of organic Rankine cycle

According to fluid critical temperature and heat source temperature, organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is recognized in two categories: subcritical ORC and supercritical ORC. For a given heat source, some organic fluids not only can be used in subcritical ORC, but also can be used in supercritical ORC. For heat source with temperature of 90 °C, HFC125, HFC143a and HF218 can be used in both ORCs. Performance of the three substances in both cycles, especially in near-critical conditions is studied with expander inlet temperature of 85 °C and hot water mass flow rate of 1 kg/s. The results show that when fluids go in supercritical ORC from subcritical ORC, cycle thermal efficiency varies continuously, while mass flow rate and net power generation vary discontinuously. Maximum net power generation in near-critical conditions of subcritical ORC is higher than that of supercritical ORC. For HFC125 and HFC143a, outlet temperature of hot water decreases with the increase of heating pressure ratio. For HF218, outlet temperature of hot water increases firstly and decreases secondly with the increase of heating pressure ratio, which leads to an increase of net power generation with the increase of heating pressure ratio in high heating pressure ratio conditions.     

A New Method for Analyzing Heat Exchangers- Matching of Temperature Field

In heat exchangers, the magnitude of Nu of each duct is influenced by the temperature field, since the ratio of heat capacity rate will influence the matching status of the temperature field between contacting ducts, the total heat transfer coefficient is related with the ratio of heat capacity rate. Considering this relationship, a new method for analyzing heat exchanger is proposed - matching of temperature field. First, for a single duct with the temperature field varying exponentially along the flow direction, its Nu is calculated. Then under the hypothesis that the thermal resistance of the wall is negligible, the matching condition was set like this: both the temperature and heat flux are equal for the hot and cold fluids at the wall, so the matching relationship of parameter that describes the temperature field of the hot and cold fluids, was obtained. Finally the relationship between the total Nu and the ratio of heat capacity rate along with the ratio of inherent thermal resistance is obtained. Compared with traditional analyzing methods, the temperature matching method can be used to get the total heat transfer coefficient directly, and also be used for optimization of heat exchanger design. For a parallel flow, the optimal ratio of heat capacity rate is reciprocal to the ratio of inherent thermal resistance, and for a counter flow, the optimal ratio of heat capacity rate is zero or infinity.     

Control of turbulent channel flow over a backward‐facing step by suction or injection

Experiments have been performed for turbulent channel flow over a backward‐facing step. The backward‐facing step is controlled by equipping a slit at the bottom corner of the step. Low momentum fluids in the recirculation region are sucked or high momentum fluids are injected from the slit. The width of the slit is changed between 2, 3, and 5 mm, and the flow ratio is varied from 0.00 to 0.15. The wall static pressure and local heat transfer coefficient are measured behind the backward‐facing step. The wall shear stress is measured using a micro flow sensor. In addition, the velocity profiles and turbulent intensities are measured by a split hot film probe. It is found that the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics are controlled by the flow ratio. When the suction flow ratio is 0.06, the highest performance is obtained. Enhancement of the heat transfer is related to the increase of turbulence intensity. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Heat Trans Asian Res, 33(8): 490–504, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/htj.20036     

Exergy transfer effectiveness on heat exchanger for finite pressure drop

In this paper, exergy transfer effectiveness is defined to describe the performance of heat exchangers operating above/below the surrounding temperature with/without finite pressure drop. It is discussed systemically that the effects of heat transfer units number, the ratio of the heat capacity of cold fluids to that of hot fluids and flow patterns on exergy transfer effectiveness of heat exchangers. Furthermore, the results of exergy transfer effectiveness with a finite pressure drop are compared with those without pressure drop when different objective media, such as ideal gas and incompressible liquid, etc. are applied. The detailed comparisons of the exergy transfer effectiveness with heat transfer effectiveness are also performed for the parallel flow, counter flow and cross flow heat exchangers operating above/below the surrounding temperature.     

Heat transfer using a correlation by neural network for natural convection from vertical helical coil in oil and glycerol/water solution

A physical-empirical model is designed to describe heat transfer of helical coil in oil and glycerol/water solution. It includes an artificial neural network (ANN) model working with equations of continuity, momentum and energy in each flow. The discretized equations are coupled using an implicit step by step method. The natural convection heat transfer correlation based on ANN is developed and evaluated. This ANN considers Prandtl number, Rayleigh number, helical diameter and coils turns number as input parameters; and Nusselt number as output parameter. The best ANN model was obtained with four neurons in the hidden layer with good agreement (R > 0.98). Helical coil uses hot water for the inlet flow; heat transfer by conduction in the internal tube wall is also considered. The simulated outlet temperature is carried out and compared with the experimental database in steady-state. The numerical results for the simulations of the heat flux, for these 91 tests in steady-state, have a R ≥ 0.98 with regard to experimental results. One important outcome is that this ANN correlation is proposed to predict natural convection heat transfer coefficient from helical coil for both fluids: oil and glycerol/water solution, thus saving time and improving general system performance.     

Performance of Counterflow Microchannel Heat Exchangers Subjected to External Heat Transfer

This article analyzes the effect of external heat transfer on the thermal performance of counterflow microchannel heat exchangers. Equations for predicting the axial temperature and the effectiveness of both fluids as well as the heat transferred between the fluids, while operating under external heating or cooling conditions, are provided in this article. External heating may decrease and increase the effectiveness of the hot and cold fluids, respectively. External cooling may improve and degrade the effectiveness of the hot and cold fluids, respectively. For unbalanced flows, the thermal performance of the microchannel heat exchanger subjected to external heat transfer depends on the fluid with the lowest heat capacity. At a particular number of transfer units (NTU), the effectiveness of both the fluids increased with decrease in heat capacity ratio when the hot fluid had the lowest heat capacity. When the cold fluid had the lowest heat capacity, the effectiveness of both fluids increased with decrease in heat capacity ratio at low values of NTU but at high values of NTU the effectiveness increased with increase in heat capacity ratio. A term called the “performance factor” has been introduced in this article to assess the relative change in effectiveness due to external heat transfer.     

Effect of magnetic field on near-wall coherent structures and heat transfer in magnetohydrodynamic turbulent channel flow of low Prandtl number fluids

A numerical study is carried out of the magnetic field effects on the coherent structures and the associated heat transfer in a turbulent channel flow with constant temperature at the bottom (cold) and top (hot) walls. Results from direct numerical simulations are conditionally sampled in order to extract the dominant coherent structures in the near-wall region for flows with and without a uniform external magnetic field in the wall-normal direction. The Reynolds number based on the bulk velocity and the wall distance is 5600, while only a representative small Stuart number of 0.01 is explored. Two fluids with Prandtl numbers of 0.01 and 0.71 are studied. It is shown that the conditionally averaged quasi-streamwise vortices are modified by the magnetic field with their size being increased and their strength decreased. The underlying organized fluid motions are damped by the Lorentz force and the turbulent heat transfer related to the action of quasi-streamwise vortices is decreased by the magnetic field. For the higher Prandtl number fluid, a similarity between the coherent temperature and the coherent streamwise velocity fluctuations is observed for both types of flow. This is diminished for the lower Prandtl number fluid, especially in the magnetohydrodynamic flow, inhibiting the intrusion of cold (hot) fluid from the cold (hot) wall towards the central region.     

Natural convection boundary-layer adjacent to an inclined flat plate subject to sudden and ramp heating

The natural convection thermal boundary-layer adjacent to an inclined flat plate subject to sudden heating and a temperature boundary condition which follows a ramp function up until a specified time and then remains constant is investigated. The development of the flow from start-up to a steady state has been described based on scaling analyses and verified by numerical simulations. Different flow regimes based on the Rayleigh number are discussed with numerical results for both boundary conditions. For ramp heating, the boundary-layer flow depends on the comparison of the time at which the ramp heating is completed and the time at which the boundary layer completes its growth. If the ramp time is long compared with the steady-state time, the layer reaches a quasi-steady mode in which the growth of the layer is governed solely by the thermal balance between convection and conduction. On the other hand, if the ramp is completed before the layer becomes steady; the subsequent growth is governed by the balance between buoyancy and inertia, as for the case of instantaneous heating.     

Mathematic simulation on power generation by roll cake type of thermoelectric double cylinders

Analytical expression of electric power was deduced in case of the large-scale thermoelectric device that consists of the cylindrical double tubes like roll cake and is exposed to the two thermal fluids. The output powers of 16 systems were mathematically described by the simultaneous equations based on heat exchange. The temperature profiles in the device depend on the flow directions of hot and cold fluids, but the flow directions did not change the output power. Resultantly, eight sets of solutions for the output power were deduced. The maximum output power was the largest in the two systems (V2CC-I and V2CC-II system), where two fluids flow in counter directions and one of the fluids goes into the system from the inside of the inner cylinder. These chosen systems can generate the thermoelectric power equivalent with the single cylinder system (V1C system) using only 36% material of V1C.     

Fluid-solids flow with thermal and hydrodynamic non-equilibrium

A model is developed to describe the behaviour of particles in air streams. The equations of particle flow and heat transfer are given in dimensionless form. Two practical applications for suspension flows are solved: (a) the flow past a temperature step and (b) the injection of hot particles in a pipe carrying a gas. In both cases instantaneous velocity and temperature differences for the gas and solids are calculated and the effect of several dimensionless groups (such as Reynolds numbers, loading and dimension ratios) on these two quantities is determined. It was found that non-equilibrium effects are accentuated when bigger particles are in the mixture.     

热负荷阶跃变化条件下热回流式换热系统缺陷机理及优化方法研究

针对国内某北方核电厂的设备冷却水系统热回流式换热器,分析了不同热负荷下热回流式换热系统的稳态特性及负荷阶跃变化下热回流式换热系统缺陷机理,提出了热回流式换热器系统优化方法。研究表明:在不同热负荷下热回流式换热器系统切换的关键是与不同热负荷对应的具有特定温度的伴流的形成;热负荷阶跃变化下状态转换瞬态过程中存在系统缺陷,其根本原因在于单纯采取调节热回流率的方法,具有较大的时间滞后性;调节换热器冷介质侧的流体流量,改变换热器传热系数,强化了对状态改变的快速响应;采取热回流叠加换热器旁流方法,可以解决原有系统状态转换瞬态过程中存在的缺陷。     

Second law analysis on the heat transfer of the horizontal concentric tube heat exchanger

In the present study, the theoretical and experimental results of the second law analysis on the heat transfer and flow of a horizontal concentric tube heat exchanger are presented. The experiments setup are designed and constructed for the measured data. Hot water and cold water are used as working fluids. The test runs are done at the hot and cold water mass flow rates ranging between 0.02 and 0.20 kg/s and between 0.02 and 0.20 kg/s, respectively. The inlet hot water and inlet cold water temperatures are between 40 and 50 °C, and between 15 and 20 °C, respectively. The effects of the inlet conditions of both working fluids flowing through the heat exchanger on the heat transfer characteristics, entropy generation, and exergy loss are discussed. The mathematical model based on the conservation equations of energy is developed and solved by the central finite difference method to obtain temperature distribution, entropy generation, and exergy loss. The predicted results obtained from the model are validated by comparing with the present measured data. There is reasonable agreement from the comparison between predicted results and those from the measured data.     

Decay of thermal stratification in a water body for solar energy storage

An experimental study of the temperature decay in a thermally stratiffied water body is carried out. An enclosed water body is initially stratified by the recirculating flow of hot water discharge and also, statically, by the addition of hot water at the top of cold fluid. The time dependent temperature profiles are measured for various initial temperature distributions and ambient conditions. The results obtained indicate the temperature field to be largely one-dimensional and a simple analytical model is formulated to study the basic nature of the process. A fairly good agreement with experiments is obtained. The study discusses the basic mechanisms that arise and considers the decay process in terms of these mechanisms. Several interesting features, with respect to energy storage in stratified fluids, are brought out.     

Countercurrent Double-Pipe Heat Exchanger Subjected to Flow-Rate Step Change,Part II: Analytical and Experimental Transient Response

This article investigates the analytical time constants of temperatures transient response along a countercurrent heat exchanger when a mass flow-rate step change is applied on hot fluid flowing through the inner duct. The time constants of the hot and cold fluids are spatially linear and the fluid not submitted to step change shows two types of transient response. The first corresponds to a linear spatial decreasing of the time constant, while the second presents a uniform time constant along the heat exchanger. For each case, the analytical expressions of time constants are derived taking the conditions of the transient response on the boundaries of the heat exchanger. The condition which enables distinguishing the two cases is also proposed in this article. The comparison between theoretical and experimental results allows us to validate the analytical expressions, which depend on the initial and final steady states. The influence of the magnitude of flow-rate step change on the transient behavior is studied by maintaining the initial steady state. In the same way, the initial steady-state effect is investigated with the same magnitude of the flow-rate step change. The comparison of response time to positive and negative flow-rate step change is also presented for different values of cold-fluid flow rate.