Computational Fluid Dynamic Simulation of Single and Two-Phase Vortex Flow—A Comparison of Flow Field and Energy Separation

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gaurav Sharma ◽  
Sumana Ghosh ◽  
Srinibas Karmakar

In the present work, a computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulation has been performed to investigate single and two-phase vortex tube. Air in compressed form and partially condensed phase are used as working fluid, respectively. Simulation has been carried out using commercial CFD software package fluent 6.3.26. A detailed study has been performed to generate the profiles of velocity, pressure, and pathlines. These profiles provide an insight on how the process of energy separation as well as the flow field in the vortex tube gets affected on introduction of a liquid phase. The result shows that in case of cryogenic vortex tube, the flow reversal takes place closer to wall due to presence of a very thin wall adhering liquid film, while, in single-phase flow vortex tube, flow reversal is observed at the central portion. The model also predicts that presence of recirculation zone near warm end diminishes the refrigeration effect of vortex tube for two-phase flow.

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Luke ◽  
Mark Eagar ◽  
Michael Sears ◽  
Scott Felt ◽  
Bob Prozan

Author(s):  
Marco Pellegrini ◽  
Giulia Agostinelli ◽  
Hidetoshi Okada ◽  
Masanori Naitoh

Steam condensation is characterized by a relatively large interfacial region between gas and liquid which, in computational fluid dynamic (CFD) analyses, allows the creation of a discretized domain whose average cell size is larger than the interface itself. For this reason generally one fluid model with interface tracking (e.g. volume of fluid method, VOF) is employed for its solution in CFD, since the solution of the interface requires a reasonable amount of cells, reducing the modeling efforts. However, for some particular condensation applications, requiring the computation of long transients or the steam ejected through a large number of holes, one-fluid model becomes computationally too expensive for providing engineering information, and a two-fluid model (i.e. Eulerian two-phase flow) is preferable. Eulerian two-phase flow requires the introduction of closure terms representing the interactions between the two fluids in particular, in the condensation case, drag and heat transfer. Both terms involve the description of the interaction area whose definition is different from the typical one adopted in the boiling analyses. In the present work a simple but effective formulation for the interaction area is given based on the volume fraction gradient and then applied to a validation test case of steam bubbling in various subcooling conditions. It has been shown that this method gives realistic values of bubble detachment time, bubble penetration for the cases of interest in the nuclear application and in the particular application to the Fukushima Daiichi accident.


2014 ◽  
Vol 541-542 ◽  
pp. 1288-1291
Author(s):  
Zhi Feng Dong ◽  
Quan Jin Kuang ◽  
Yong Zheng Gu ◽  
Rong Yao ◽  
Hong Wei Wang

Calculation fluid dynamics software Fluent was used to conduct three-dimensional numerical simulation on gas-liquid two-phase flow field in a wet flue gas desulfurization scrubber. The k-ε model and SIMPLE computing were adopted in the analysis. The numerical simulation results show that the different gas entrance angles lead to internal changes of gas-liquid two-phase flow field, which provides references for reasonable parameter design of entrance angle in the scrubber.


2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew R. Pearson ◽  
Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi

Heat pipes are well known as simple and effective heat transport devices, utilizing two-phase flow and the capillary phenomenon to remove heat. However, the generation of capillary pressure requires a wicking structure and the overall heat transport capacity of the heat pipe is generally limited by the amount of capillary pressure generation that the wicking structure can achieve. Therefore, to increase the heat transport capacity, the capillary phenomenon must be either augmented or replaced by some other pumping technique. Electrohydrodynamic (EHD) conduction pumping can be readily used to pump a thin film of a dielectric liquid along a surface, using electrodes that are embedded into the surface. In this study, two two-phase heat transport devices are created. The first device transports the heat in a linear direction. The second device transports the heat in a radial direction from a central heat source. The radial pumping configuration provides several advantages. Most notably, the heat source is wetted with fresh liquid from all directions, thereby reducing the amount of distance that must be travelled by the working fluid. The power required to operate the EHD conduction pumps is a trivial amount relative to the heat that is transported.


2000 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. T. Lacerda ◽  
A. T. Prata ◽  
F. Fagotti

Abstract Several phenomena occurring inside refrigerating systems depend on the interaction between the refrigeration oil and the refrigerant working fluid. Regarding the refrigeration cycle, good miscibility of oil and refrigerant assure easy return of circulating oil to the compressor through the reduction of the oil viscosity. Inside the compressor the lubricant is mainly used for leakage sealing, cooling of hot elements and lubrication of sliding parts. In the compressor bearing systems the presence of refrigerant dissolved in the oil greatly influences the performance and reliability of the compressor due to the outgassing experienced by sudden changes in temperature and pressure resulting in a two-phase mixture with density and viscosity strongly affecting the lubricant characteristics. A general understanding of the oil-refrigerant mixture flow is crucial in developing lubrication models to be used in analysis and simulation of fluid mechanics problems inside the compressor. In the present investigation the refrigeration oil flow with refrigerant outgassing is explored experimentally. A mixture of oil saturated with refrigerant is forced to flow in two straight horizontal tubes of constant diameter. One tube is used for flow visualization and the other is instrumented for pressure and temperature measurements. At the tubes inlet liquid state prevails and as flow proceeds the pressure drop reduces the gas solubility in the oil and outgassing occurs. Initially small bubbles are observed and eventually the bubble population reaches a stage where foaming flow is observed. The flow visualization allowed identification of the two-phase flow regimes experienced by the mixture. Pressure and temperature distributions are measured along the flow and from that mixture quality and void fraction were estimated.


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