Investigation of the Flow Mal-Distribution in Microchannels

Author(s):  
Jyh-Tong Teng ◽  
Jiann-Cherng Chu ◽  
Min-Sheng Liu ◽  
Chi-Chuan Wang ◽  
Ralph Greif

This study examines the mal-distribution problem in microchannel manifolds. The tubes are of triangular shape with hydraulic diameter of 25 and 50 μm. Ranges of the Reynolds number are from 0.1 to 9. The test results indicate that the mal-distribution decreases with the rise of flow rate. For an inlet flow rate of 0.1 mL/min at the distributor inlet, the maximum difference of the translational velocity among manifolds is about 45%. The difference is reduced to 33% if the flow rate is increased to 0.153 mL/min. The maximum translational velocity inside the manifolds is located at the edge of the manifolds and the center portion has the smallest translational velocity. This is because of the spread and turn around water that helps to contribute the increase of flow rate nearby the edge.

Author(s):  
Nikhil Ashokbhai Baraiya ◽  
Satynarayanan R. Chakravarthy

Abstract A lab-scale bluff body combustor is mapped for its stability and flame dynamics of non-premixed flames. The characteristics are observed across variations in the fuel composition, as well as in the inlet flow rate. The combustor is seen to exhibit markedly different dynamics for each of the varied fuel compositions. This behavior is explained on the basis of mean flame stabilization behavior and on the combined effects of the fuel-jet momentum flux and global equivalence ratio. It is seen that the H2 flames primarily act as a pilot source for secondary combustion of either CO or CH4. Further, it is seen that, the high momentum flux associated with H2-CO mixtures result in combustion near the wall and outside the bluff-body shear layers at low inlet flow rates. Whereas, at high inlet flow rates, the mean heat release rate is seen to stabilize closer to the injection holes as well as extend to near the bluff-body shear layer. This marked difference in flame stabilization is seen to have a drastic effect on the nature of oscillations inside the chamber. This is contrasted to H2-CH4 (synthesis natural gas) flames that exhibit stabilization inside the bluff-body wake at high inlet flow rate. The difference between H2-CH4 and H2-CO flames with regards to combustion dynamics is then explained as a result of the flame stabilization behavior, which is seen to be different across the varied fuel compositions. While H2-CH4 flame exhibits the well-known large wake structures responsible for combustion instability, H2-CO flame exhibits no such structures, owing to their stabilization point. Further analysis using pressure fixed phase instants reveal the difference in nature of combustion dynamics across the tested fuel compositions and are justified using the spatial Rayleigh index map.


2021 ◽  
Vol 104 (2) ◽  
pp. 003685042110236
Author(s):  
Gang Li ◽  
Jinli Zhang ◽  
Jia Liu ◽  
Tao Luo ◽  
Yu Xi

Pb(II) leakage from batteries, dyes, construction materials, and gasoline threaten human health and environmental safety, and suitable adsorption materials are vitally important for Pb(II) removal. Bone char is an outstanding adsorbent material for water treatment, and the effectiveness in Pb(II) removing need to be verified. In this paper, the transport characteristics of Pb(II) in columns filled with a sand and bone char mixture were studied at the laboratory scale, and the influences of the initial concentration, column height, inlet flow rate, and competing ion Cu(II) on Pb(II) adsorption and transport were analyzed. The Thomas and Dose-Response models were used to predict the test results, and the mechanisms of Pb(II) adsorption on bone char were investigated. The results showed that the adsorption capacity of the bone char increased with increasing column height and decreased with increasing initial Pb(II) concentration, flow rate, and Cu(II) concentration. The maximum adsorption capacity reached 38.466 mg/g and the saturation rate was 95.8% at an initial Pb(II) concentration of 200 mg/L, inlet flow rate of 4 mL/min, and column height of 30 cm. In the competitive binary system, the higher the Cu(II) concentration was, the greater the decreases in the breakthrough and termination times, and the faster the decrease in the Pb(II) adsorption capacity of the bone char. The predicted results of the Dose-Response model agreed well with the experimental results and were significantly better than those of the Thomas model. The main mechanisms of Pb(II) adsorption on bone char include a surface complexation reaction and the decomposition-replacement-precipitation of calcium hydroxyapatite (CaHA). Based on selectivity, sensitivity, and cost analyses, it can be concluded that bone char is a potential adsorbent for Pb(II)-containing wastewater treatment.


2012 ◽  
Vol 610-613 ◽  
pp. 2000-2005
Author(s):  
Chun Yan Xu ◽  
Hong Jun Han

The uncertainty of operating parameters hinders the practical application of the biological desulfurization. To solve this problem, this study which was conducted in room temperature, pH around seven conditions, investigated the effects of the operating parameters on the hydrogen sulfide (H2S) removal performance in the biotrickling filter, including inlet H2S concentration, inlet flow rate or gas retention time, inlet volume load and circulating liquid spraying flux. The results showed that, the inlet H2S concentration should be controlled within 800mg/m3, 650mg/m3, 400mg/m3, 300mg/m3 respectively while the inlet flow rate was 150L/h, 200L/h, 250L/h, 300L/h, at those conditions, the outlet H2S concentrations were lower than 8mg/m3 and the H2S removal efficiencies were more than 98%. The optimum gas retention time was 12.37s, corresponding to the inlet flow rate of 200L/h, at this time, even if the inlet H2S concentration as high as 700mg/m3, the removal efficiency could be still more than 98%, the outlet concentration of H2S was only 13.1mg/m3. The maximum inlet volume load was 130g/(m3•h), in this condition, the outlet concentration of H2S could be controlled below 12mg/m3, the removal efficiency could above 98.4%.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Rong Guo ◽  
Zanzan Sun ◽  
Zhen Huang ◽  
Rui Luo

Abstract Aiming at reducing the high-amplitude and wide-frequency noise in charged air intake system of the powertrain, this paper proposes a new method for predicting the acoustic characteristics of an irregular cross-section multi-chamber perforated resonator under flow conditions. By this method, the presence of three-dimensional sound waves and the effects of higher-order modes are considered, and the acoustic performance of the resonator can be evaluated through the computation of transmission loss. Moreover, by discretizing the cross-section of perforated resonator and extracting node information, this method can solve the acoustic characteristics of the perforated resonator with any cross-section. Based on the transfer matrix method, the quadrupole parameters of each chamber are obtained. Then the acoustic characteristics of the multi-chamber perforated resonator could be calculated. The theoretical prediction data and the experimental data have been compared and the results show good agreement within the entire frequency range, which verifies the accuracy of the theoretical prediction approach. Based on this prediction approach, the influence of section ratio, structure parameters and inlet flow rate on the acoustic characteristics of the resonator is explored. The results show that when the structural parameters change, the peak resonance frequency of the resonator will have a regular shift. With the increase of the inlet flow rate, the main frequency band of sound attenuation will decrease significantly. The theoretical method developed in this work can be used for the calculation and optimization of multi-chamber resonators in various applications.


Author(s):  
G. M. Raposo ◽  
A. O. Nieckele

Development of small size and weight separation equipment are crucial for the petroleum off-shore exploration. Since centrifugal fields are several times stronger than the gravity field, cyclonic separation has became very important as a unit process for compact gas-liquid, liquid-liquid and solid-liquid separation. The major difference between the various cyclones is their geometry. Cyclone optimization for different uses is, every year, less based on experiments and more based on mathematical models. In the present work, the flow field inside high oil content hydrocyclones is numerically obtained with FLUENT. The performance of two turbulence models, Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES), to predict the flow inside a high oil content hydrocyclone, is investigated by comparing the results with experimental data available in the literature. All models overpredicted the tangential component, especially at the reverse cone region. However, the prediction of the tangential turbulent fluctuations with LES was significant better than the RSM prediction. The influences of the inlet flow rate and hydrocyclone length in the flow were also evaluated. RSM model was able to foresee correctly, in agreement with experimental data, the correct tendency of pressure drop reduction with decreasing inlet flow rate and increasing length.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Ronghua Chen ◽  
Minghao Zhang ◽  
Kailun Guo ◽  
Dawei Zhao ◽  
Wenxi Tian ◽  
...  

Two-phase flow instability may occur in nuclear reactor systems, which is often accompanied by periodic fluctuation in fluid flow rate. In this study, bubble rising and coalescence characteristics under inlet flow pulsation condition are analyzed based on the MPS-MAFL method. To begin with, the single bubble rising behavior under flow pulsation condition was simulated. The simulation results show that the bubble shape and rising velocity fluctuate periodically as same as the inlet flow rate. Additionally, the bubble pairs’ coalescence behavior under flow pulsation condition was simulated and compared with static condition results. It is found that the coalescence time of bubble pairs slightly increased under the pulsation condition, and then the bubbles will continue to pulsate with almost the same period as the inlet flow rate after coalescence. In view of these facts, this study could offer theory support and method basis to a better understanding of the two-phase flow configuration under flow pulsation condition.


Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Tian ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Lingzhi Xie ◽  
Zhichun Ni ◽  
Qingzhu Wei ◽  
...  

Thermal comfort is an important aspect to take into consideration for the indoor environment of a building integrated with a semi-transparent Photovoltaics (STPV) system. The thermal comfort of units with photovoltaic windows and that of conventional windows, which is an ordinary without PV, were evaluated via on-site tests and questionnaires. Using the thermal comfort investigation of the test rig, the maximum difference in air temperature was found to be around 5 °C between test unit and comparison unit. The predicted mean vote (PMV)–predicted percentage dissatisfied (PPD) value of the test unit was better than that of the comparison unit. It was observed that on sunny days, the PMV value ranged from 0.2 (nature) to 1.3 (slightly warm) in the test unit, and that of the comparison unit was 0.7 (slightly warm) to 2.0 (warm), thereby providing better thermal comfort, especially during mornings. The maximum difference in PPD values was found to reach 27% between the two units at noon. On cloudy days, the difference was negligible, and the thermal sensation between the foot and the head were almost the same. Fifty respondents were asked to complete a carefully designed questionnaire. The thermal sensation of the test unit was better than that of comparison unit, which corresponded with the test results. Thermal, lighting, acoustic, and other environment comfort scores were combined, and the acceptance of the test unit with the STPV windows was found to be 73.8%. The thermal sensation difference between men and women was around 5%. Thus, during summer, STPV windows can improve the thermal comfort and potentially reduce the air-conditioning load.


2014 ◽  
Vol 496-500 ◽  
pp. 703-706
Author(s):  
Xiao Xin Wang ◽  
Tao Wang ◽  
Jun Zheng Wang

To meet the requirement of unsteady flow rate generating system for compressible fluid, an inlet flow rate control method with sonic nozzle is proposed. When inlet flow rate is known, feedback of unsteady flow rate can be obtained by an isothermal tank. A proper sonic nozzle is designed according to the technical requirements, and the flow rate is calculated. Open loop experiments are carried out on generating system with and without sonic nozzle. The results indicate that influence of downstream on upstream can be greatly reduced by the designed sonic nozzle, and accurate feedback of unsteady flow rate is ensured.


2019 ◽  
Vol 29 (7) ◽  
pp. 2253-2276
Author(s):  
Mohammad Haji Mohammadi ◽  
Joshua R. Brinkerhoff

Purpose Turbomachinery, including pumps, are mainly designed to extract/produce energy from/to the flow. A major challenge in the numerical simulation of turbomachinery is the inlet flow rate, which is routinely treated as a known boundary condition for simulation purposes but is properly a dependent output of the solution. As a consequence, the results from numerical simulations may be erroneous due to the incorrect specification of the discharge flow rate. Moreover, the transient behavior of the pumps in their initial states of startup and final states of shutoff phases has not been studied numerically. This paper aims to develop a coupled procedure for calculating the transient inlet flow rate as a part of the solution via application of the control volume method for linear momentum. Large eddy simulation of a four-blade axial hydraulic pump is carried out to calculate the forces at every time step. The sharp interface immersed boundary method is used to resolve the flow around the complex geometry of the propeller, stator and the pipe casing. The effect of the spurious pressure fluctuations, inherent in the sharp interface immersed boundary method, is damped by local time-averaging of the forces. The developed code is validated by comparing the steady-state volumetric flow rate with the experimental data provided by the pump manufacturer. The instantaneous and time-averaged flow fields are also studied to reveal the flow pattern and turbulence characteristics in the pump flow field. Design/methodology/approach The authors use control volume analysis for linear momentum to simulate the discharge rate as part of the solution in a large eddy simulation of an axial hydraulic pump. The linear momentum balance equation is used to update the inlet flow rate. The sharp interface immersed boundary method with dynamic Smagorinsky sub-grid stress model and a proper wall model is used. Findings The steady-state volumetric flow rate has been computed and validated by comparing to the flow rate specified by the manufacturer at the simulation conditions, which shows a promising result. The instantaneous and time averaged flow fields are also studied to reveal the flow pattern and turbulence characteristics in the pump flow field. Originality/value An approach is proposed for computing the volumetric flow rate as a coupled part of the flow solution, enabling the simulation of turbomachinery at all phases, including the startup/shutdown phase. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first large eddy simulation of a hydraulic pump to calculate the transient inlet flow rate as a part of the solution rather than specifying it as a fixed boundary condition. The method serves as a numerical framework for simulating problems incorporating complex shapes with moving/stationary parts at all regimes including the transient start-up and shut-down phases.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chalinee Phiphattanaphiphop ◽  
Komgrit Leksakul ◽  
Rungrueang Phatthanakun ◽  
Trisadee Khamlor

Abstract Microfluidics is proposed as a technique for efficient sperm sorting, to achieve the ultimate goal of resolving infertility problems in livestock industry. Our study aimed to design a microfluidic sperm-sorting device (SSD) through a high-efficacy and cost- and time-effective fabrication process, by using COMSOL Multiphysics simulation and modeling software, and the design of experiment (DOE) method. The eight factors affecting SSD performance were established. The simulation was then run, and statistically significant factors were analyzed. Minitab16 was used to optimize the design modulus factor. By setting the statistical significance at p < 0.05, the factors affecting experimental structure were analyzed. At a desirability of 97.99, the optimal parameters for the microfluidic chip were: angle between sperm and medium inlet chambers (A = 43°), sperm inlet flow rate (B = 0.24 µL min−1), medium inlet flow rate (C = 0.34 µL min−1), and inlet and outlet chamber lengths (D = 5000 µm). These optima were then applied to microfluidics device construction. The device was produced using soft lithographic microfabrication techniques and tested on Holstein–Friesian bull sperm. The highest bull sperm-sorting performance for this microfluidic device prototype was 96%. The error between the simulation and the actual microfluidic device was 2.72%. Fluid viscosity ranges analysis-based simulations revealed acceptable fluid viscosity tolerances for the SSD. The simulation results revealed that the acceptable tolerance range for fluid viscosity was 0.00001–0.003 kg m−1 s−1. This optimally designed microfluidic chip-based SSD may be integrated into sperm x/y separation micro devices.


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