Experimental Studies of Rotation Efficiency of Packing on Characteristics of Counter Flow Wet Cooling Tower

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khashayar Teimoori ◽  
Ali M. Sadegh

Packing in cooling towers is commonly used in nuclear power plants and air conditioning systems. However their efficiency with respect to the inlet air flow rate and the temperature of the water has not been fully investigated. In this research, the efficiency of packing rotational speed with respect to the wet counter flow of a cooling tower is experimentally investigated. In our experimental studies, six elliptical wooden plates that are equally spaced are used as a packing tower. The packing area of 0.85 m2 is considered with the following rotor speed ranges: 0.5, 3.5, 10, 15 and 17 rpm. It is assumed that the water mass flow rate is proportional to the inlet air to the tower. Six mass flow rates starting from 0.2 to 2.8 kg/h and the inlet air and water temperatures of 27°C and 45°C, respectively, are considered. The results illustrate that for the range of 0 to 5 rpm of the packing rotational speed the cooling rate of water is increased 3% for the water flow rate of 2.8 kg/h, and 24% for the water flow rate of 0.4 kg/h. Additionally, as a result of the increased rotational speed from 5 to over 17 rpm the cooling rate at both maximum and minimum water mass flow rates are increased from 13.9 to 34.4 percent, respectively. Furthermore, the water outlet temperature is reduced from 8.6°C to 3.3°C in the least and the most mass flow rates leading to the increased speed from 5 to 17 rpm, respectively. The experimental relationship between the inlet air temperature and the rotational speed of the packing has been determined. Also, the inlet water temperature at the maximum flow rate has been decreased to 3.4 and at the least water mass flow rate it has been decreased to 29 percent for the range of rotational speed from 5 to over 17 rpm of the packing rotation. All the results are depicted in several curves to show the actual variations of the variables.

Author(s):  
Khaled Yousef ◽  
Ahmed Hegazy ◽  
Abraham Engeda

Abstract This paper presents a Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulation for dry air/water-liquid and two-phase flow mixing in a vertical inverted U-tube using the mixture multiphase and turbulence models. This study is to investigate the flow behaviors and underlying some physical mechanisms encountered in dry air/water-liquid flow in the inverted U-tube. Water flows through the inverted U-tube while the dry air is entrained using the side-tube installed after the water flow downward. The inverted U-tube is tested at water mass flow rates of 2,4,6 and 8 kg/s, air mass flow rates, 0.000614–0.02292 kg/s, with dry air volume fractions 0.2–0.9. The obtained results are compared with the experimental data for model validation and the present CFD model is able to give an acceptable agreement. Also, the results show that, at water mass flow rate of 2 kg/s, there are vortices and turbulent intensity disturbances are noticed at the inverted U-tube higher part, which refers to an air entrainment occurrence from the side-tube. Theses disturbances starts to be stabilized at air mass flow rate around 0.00736 kg/s and air volume fraction, αa = 0.75. This means, if the air mass flow rate increases above this limit, the air entrainment may be blocked. On the other side, at water mass flow rate of 4 kg/s, there are little noticed disturbances until air mass flow rate of 0.00368 kg/s and αa = 0.43 and thereafter stabilized. After this point for water mass flow rate of 4 kg/s, increasing air mass flow rate may block the water flow and the whole inverted U-tube system possible stop flowing. Therefore, this study is able to estimate the required operational conditions and mass ratios for stable air entrainment process. Beyond these operational conditions, air entrainment may be blocked and the whole system discontinues its normal induced gravitational flow. In addition, this study proves that the inverted U-tube is able to generate a vacuum pressure up to 53.382 kPa based on the present geometrical configuration. This generated low-pressure by the inverted U-tube can be used for engineering applications which are working under vacuum and need continuous evacuating form the dry air and non-condensable gases. Furthermore, these findings motivate the utilizing of inverted U-tube for the air evacuation purposes for less power consuming in power plants.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 73-85
Author(s):  
Ali Sohani ◽  
Mohammad Hassan Shahverdian ◽  
Hoseyn Sayyaadi ◽  
Siamak Hoseinzadeh ◽  
Saim Memon

A photovoltaic system which enjoys water flow cooling to enhance the performance is considered, and the impact of water flow rate variation on energy payback period is investigated. The investigation is done by developing a mathematical model to describe the heat transfer and fluid flow. A poly crytalline PV module with the nomical capacity of 150 W that is located in city Tehran, Iran, is chosen as the case study. The results show that by incresing water flow rate, EPBP declines first linearly, from the inlet water flow rate of 0 to 0.015 kg.s-1, and then, EPBP approaches a constant value. When there is no water flow cooling, EPBP is 8.88, while by applying the water flow rate of 0.015 kg.s-1, EPBP reaches 6.26 years. However, only 0.28 further years decreament in EPBP is observed when the inlet water mass flow rate becomes 0.015 kg.s-1. Consequently, an optimum limit for the inlet water mass flow rate could be defined, which is the point the linear trend turns into approaching a constant value. For this case, as indicated, this value is 0.015 kg.s-1.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (24) ◽  
pp. 9056
Author(s):  
Khaled Yousef ◽  
Ahmed Hegazy ◽  
Abraham Engeda

An experimental and numerical study is presented in the current work for gas entrainment using an inverted vertical U-tube. Water flows vertically up in an inverted U-tube which creates a low-pressure region in the tube upper portion. This low-pressure region can be used to extract gases by connecting it to a branch pipe. The extracted gases considered in this work are a mixture of air and water vapor. The water vapor from the side branch pipe is mixed with the flowing water under the siphon effect. This results in a progressive water vapor condensation as the mixture proceeds towards the exit due to an increase in vapor partial pressure. The air is drawn by inertia to be released out at the tube lower exit of the inverted U-pipe. The current study deals with these complicated flow behaviors due to the mixing undergoing condensation. A test rig is designed for experimentally studying the behavior of water flow in an inverted U-tube where the air is mixed with the flowing water at the top region of this tube. The CFD computations are accomplished for a side gas mixture with volume fractions up to 0.7 with water vapor mass fractions in this mixture to be 0.1–0.5. The tested water mass flow rates in the main tube are 2, 4, 6, 8 kg/s to account for all possible flow mass ratios. The CFD computations are validated with water and air two phase flow with the measurements of both the experiments of the current research and the literature. The present results reveal that slightly raising the water mass flow rate at a constant side mixture mass ratio produces a reduced generated pressure in the upper tube part. This is attributed to extra water vapor condensation taking place rapidly by increasing the water flow rate in the tube upper part. Furthermore, the turbulence quantities begin to break down at a side mixture volume fraction of 0.55 with water and air mass flow rates of 2 kg/s and 0.002 kg/s, respectively. On the other side, raising the air mass flow rate at the higher values of water vapor and water mass flow rates breaks the generated vacuum pressure and turbulence due to entrainment. Moreover, this proposed framework can produce a lower static pressure, reaching 55.1 kPa, which makes it attractive for gas extraction. This new technique presents innovative usage with less consumable energy for extracting gases in engineering equipment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tobias Blanke ◽  
Markus Hagenkamp ◽  
Bernd Döring ◽  
Joachim Göttsche ◽  
Vitali Reger ◽  
...  

AbstractPrevious studies optimized the dimensions of coaxial heat exchangers using constant mass flow rates as a boundary condition. They show a thermal optimal circular ring width of nearly zero. Hydraulically optimal is an inner to outer pipe radius ratio of 0.65 for turbulent and 0.68 for laminar flow types. In contrast, in this study, flow conditions in the circular ring are kept constant (a set of fixed Reynolds numbers) during optimization. This approach ensures fixed flow conditions and prevents inappropriately high or low mass flow rates. The optimization is carried out for three objectives: Maximum energy gain, minimum hydraulic effort and eventually optimum net-exergy balance. The optimization changes the inner pipe radius and mass flow rate but not the Reynolds number of the circular ring. The thermal calculations base on Hellström’s borehole resistance and the hydraulic optimization on individually calculated linear loss of head coefficients. Increasing the inner pipe radius results in decreased hydraulic losses in the inner pipe but increased losses in the circular ring. The net-exergy difference is a key performance indicator and combines thermal and hydraulic calculations. It is the difference between thermal exergy flux and hydraulic effort. The Reynolds number in the circular ring is instead of the mass flow rate constant during all optimizations. The result from a thermal perspective is an optimal width of the circular ring of nearly zero. The hydraulically optimal inner pipe radius is 54% of the outer pipe radius for laminar flow and 60% for turbulent flow scenarios. Net-exergetic optimization shows a predominant influence of hydraulic losses, especially for small temperature gains. The exact result depends on the earth’s thermal properties and the flow type. Conclusively, coaxial geothermal probes’ design should focus on the hydraulic optimum and take the thermal optimum as a secondary criterion due to the dominating hydraulics.


Author(s):  
M. Fatouh

This paper reports the results of an experimental investigation on a pilot compression chiller (4 kW cooling capacity) working with R401a and R134a as R12 alternatives. Experiments are conducted on a single-stage vapor compression refrigeration system using water as a secondary working fluid through both evaporator and condenser. Influences of cooling water mass flow rate (170–1900 kg/h), cooling water inlet temperature (27–43°C) and chilled water mass flow rate (240–1150 kg/h) on performance characteristics of chillers are evaluated for R401a, R134a and R12. Increasing cooling water mass flow rate or decreasing its inlet temperature causes the operating pressures and electric input power to reduce while the cooling capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) to increase. Pressure ratio is inversely proportional while actual loads and COP are directly proportional to chilled water mass flow rate. The effect of cooling water inlet temperature, on the system performance, is more significant than the effects of cooling and chilled water mass flow rates. Comparison between R12, R134a and R401a under identical operating conditions revealed that R401a can be used as a drop-in refrigerant to replace R12 in water-cooled chillers.


2005 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. McGarry ◽  
L. Grega

The mass flow distribution and local flow structures that lead to areas of reactant starvation are explored for a small power large active area PEM fuel cell. A numerical model was created to examine the flow distribution for three different inlet profiles; blunt, partially developed, and fully developed. The different inlet profiles represent the various distances between the blower and the inlet to the fuel cell and the state of flow development. The partially and fully developed inlet profiles were found to have the largest percentage of cells that are deficient, 20% at a flow rate of 6.05 g/s. Three different inlet mass flow rates (stoichs) were also examined for each inlet profile. The largest percent of cells deficient in reactants is 27% and occurs at the highest flow rate of 9.1 g/s (3 stoichs) for the partially and fully developed turbulent profiles. In addition to the uneven flow distribution, flow separation occurs in the front four channels for the blunt inlet profile at all flow rates examined. These areas of flow separation lead to localized reactant deficient areas within a channel.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raghuvaran D. ◽  
Satvik Shenoy ◽  
Srinivas G

Abstract Axial flow fans (AFF) are extensively used in various industrial sectors, usually with flows of low resistance and high mass flow rates. The blades, the hub and the shroud are the three major parts of an AFF. Various kinds of optimisation can be implemented to improve the performance of an AFF. The most common type is found to be geometric optimisation including variation in number of blades, modification in hub and shroud radius, change in angle of attack and blade twist, etc. After validation of simulation model and carrying out a grid independence test, parametric analysis was done on an 11-bladed AFF with a shroud of uniform radius using ANSYS Fluent. The rotational speed of the fan and the velocity at fan inlet were the primary variables of the study. The variation in outlet mass flow rate and total pressure was studied for both compressible and incompressible ambient flows. Relation of mass flow rate and total pressure with inlet velocity is observed to be linear and exponential respectively. On the other hand, mass flow rate and total pressure have nearly linear relationship with rotational speed. A comparison of several different axial flow tracks with the baseline case fills one of the research gaps.


2016 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
pp. 301-305
Author(s):  
Jan Novotný ◽  
Jiří Nožička

The aim of this paper is to present a design and a development of a heat simulator, which will be used for a flow research in data centers. The designed heat simulator is based on an ideological basis of four-processor 1U Supermicro server. The designed heat simulator enables to control the flow and heat output within the range of 10–100 %. The paper covers also the results of testing measurements of mass flow rates and heat flow rates in the simulator. The flow field at the outlet of the server was measured by the stereo PIV method. The heat flow rate was determined, based on measuring the temperature field at the inlet and outlet of the simulator and known mass flow rate.


Energy ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 107 ◽  
pp. 725-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafał Laskowski ◽  
Adam Smyk ◽  
Janusz Lewandowski ◽  
Artur Rusowicz ◽  
Andrzej Grzebielec

Author(s):  
M. K. Mittal ◽  
R. Kumar ◽  
A. Gupta

The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of coiling on the flow characteristics of R-407C in an adiabatic spiral capillary tube. The characteristic coiling parameter for a spiral capillary tube is the coil pitch; hence, the effect of the coil pitch on the mass flow rate of R-407C was studied on several capillary tube test sections. It was observed that the coiling of the capillary tube significantly reduced the mass flow rate of R-407C in the adiabatic spiral capillary tube. In order to quantify the effect of coiling, the experiments were also conducted for straight a capillary tube, and it was observed that the coiling of the capillary tube reduced the mass flow rate in the spiral tube in the range of 9–18% as compared with that in the straight capillary tube. A generalized nondimensional correlation for the prediction of the mass flow rates of various refrigerants was developed for the straight capillary tube on the basis of the experimental data of R-407C of the present study, and the data of R-134a, R-22, and R-410A measured by other researchers. Additionally, a refrigerant-specific correlation for the spiral capillary was also proposed on the basis of the experimental data of R-407C of the present study.


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