Dense Granular Flows as a New Heat Transfer Fluid for Concentrated Solar Power

Author(s):  
Megan F. Watkins ◽  
Richard D. Gould

The increasing interest in concentrated solar power as a new form of renewable energy necessitates an improvement in overall system efficiency. Current heat transfer fluids employed to capture the concentrated heat demonstrate limited working temperature ranges. This study sought to investigate the use of dense granular flows as a possible new heat transfer fluid, as ceramic particles present virtually no restriction on working temperature. A bench-scale system simulating a single tube of a concentrated solar power central receiver was constructed and used to evaluate the heat transfer properties of the flow at low temperatures. Ceramic particles, 270μm in diameter, were gravity-fed through a vertical tube, resulting in granular flows with particle packing fractions of approximately 60%. Radial temperature profiles were measured and used to calculate the mean temperature of the fluid at different axial tube locations. The heat transfer coefficient was then calculated based on the input heat flux and measured wall and mean temperatures. The effect of the mass flow rate on the heat transfer coefficient was examined by using different orifices at the tube exit. As expected, the heat transfer coefficient increased with increasing flow rate. Heat transfer coefficients ranging from 330 to 380 W/m2-K were obtained for bulk temperatures ranging from 40 to 70°C. Previous works demonstrated comparable heat transfer coefficients at higher bulk temperatures. Thus, our preliminary heat transfer coefficient results demonstrate the potential of dense flows of ceramic particles for obtaining beneficial heat transfer properties at extremely high operating temperatures.

Author(s):  
Megan F. Watkins ◽  
Richard D. Gould

Ceramic particles as a heat transfer fluid for concentrated solar power towers offers a variety of advantages over traditional heat transfer fluids. Ceramic particles permit the use of very high operating temperatures, being limited only by the working temperatures of the receiver components, as well as demonstrate the potential to be used for thermal energy storage. A variety of system configurations utilizing ceramic particles are currently being studied, including upward circulating beds of particles, falling particle curtains, and flows of particles over an array of absorber tubes. The present work investigates the use of gravity-driven dense granular flows through cylindrical tubes, which demonstrate solid packing fractions of approximately 60%. Previous work demonstrated encouraging results for the use of dense flows for heat transfer applications and examined the effect of various parameters on the overall heat transfer for low temperatures. The present work examined the heat transfer to dense flows at high operating temperatures more characteristic of concentrated solar power tower applications. For a given flow rate, the heat transfer coefficient was examined as a function of the mean flow temperature by steadily increasing the input heat flux over a series of trials. The heat transfer coefficient increased almost linearly with temperature below approximately 600°C. Above 600°C, the heat transfer coefficient increased at a faster rate, suggesting an increased radiation heat transfer contribution.


Author(s):  
Ann-Christin Fleer ◽  
Markus Richter ◽  
Roland Span

AbstractInvestigations of flow boiling in highly viscous fluids show that heat transfer mechanisms in such fluids are different from those in fluids of low viscosity like refrigerants or water. To gain a better understanding, a modified standard apparatus was developed; it was specifically designed for fluids of high viscosity up to 1000 Pa∙s and enables heat transfer measurements with a single horizontal test tube over a wide range of heat fluxes. Here, we present measurements of the heat transfer coefficient at pool boiling conditions in highly viscous binary mixtures of three different polydimethylsiloxanes (PDMS) and n-pentane, which is the volatile component in the mixture. Systematic measurements were carried out to investigate pool boiling in mixtures with a focus on the temperature, the viscosity of the non-volatile component and the fraction of the volatile component on the heat transfer coefficient. Furthermore, copper test tubes with polished and sanded surfaces were used to evaluate the influence of the surface structure on the heat transfer coefficient. The results show that viscosity and composition of the mixture have the strongest effect on the heat transfer coefficient in highly viscous mixtures, whereby the viscosity of the mixture depends on the base viscosity of the used PDMS, on the concentration of n-pentane in the mixture, and on the temperature. For nucleate boiling, the influence of the surface structure of the test tube is less pronounced than observed in boiling experiments with pure fluids of low viscosity, but the relative enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient is still significant. In particular for mixtures with high concentrations of the volatile component and at high pool temperature, heat transfer coefficients increase with heat flux until they reach a maximum. At further increased heat fluxes the heat transfer coefficients decrease again. Observed temperature differences between heating surface and pool are much larger than for boiling fluids with low viscosity. Temperature differences up to 137 K (for a mixture containing 5% n-pentane by mass at a heat flux of 13.6 kW/m2) were measured.


Metals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 1367
Author(s):  
Nino Wolff ◽  
Golo Zimmermann ◽  
Uwe Vroomen ◽  
Andreas Bührig-Polaczek

Local heat transfer in gravity die casting is of great importance for precision in terms of distortion, mechanical properties, and the quality of the castings due to its effect on solidification. Depending on contact conditions such as liquid melt to solid mold, a gap between mold and component, or contact pressure between casting and mold as a result of shrinkage, there are very large differences in heat transfer. The influences of mold material, mold coating and its influence of aging, mold temperature control, and layout on the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) were investigated experimentally for different contact cases. The experiments were carried out on a rotationally symmetrical experimental setup with modular exchangeable die inserts and cores using an AlSi7Mg0.3 alloy. From the results of the individual test series, the quantitative shares of the above-mentioned influencing variables in the respective effective heat transfer coefficients were determined by means of analysis of variance. From this, the parameters having the most significant influence on the local heat balance were derived.


1998 ◽  
Vol 120 (4) ◽  
pp. 831-838 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Taslim ◽  
G. J. Korotky

Cooling channels, roughened with repeated ribs, are commonly employed as a means of cooling turbine blades. The increased level of mixing induced by these ribs enhances the convective heat transfer in the blade cooling cavities. Many previous investigations have focused on the heat transfer coefficient on the surfaces between these ribs and only a few studies report the heat transfer coefficient on the rib surfaces themselves. The present study investigated the heat transfer coefficient on the surfaces of round-corner, low-aspect-ratio (ARrib = 0.667) ribs. Twelve rib geometries, comprising three rib height-to-channel hydraulic diameters (blockage ratios) of 0.133, 0.167, and 0.25 as well as three rib spacings (pitch-to-height ratios) of 5, 8.5, and 10 were investigated for two distinct thermal boundary conditions of heated and unheated channel walls. A square channel, roughened with low-aspect-ratio ribs on two opposite walls in a staggered manner and perpendicular to the flow direction, was tested. An instrumented copper rib was positioned either in the middle of the rib arrangements or in the furthest upstream location. Both rib heat transfer coefficient and channel friction factor for these low-aspect-ratio ribs were also compared with those of square ribs, reported previously by the authors. Heat transfer coefficients of the furthest upstream rib and that of a typical rib located in the middle of the rib-roughened region of the passage wall were also compared.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (2) ◽  
pp. 381-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Taslim ◽  
C. M. Wadsworth

Turbine blade cooling, a common practice in modern aircraft engines, is accomplished, among other methods, by passing the cooling air through an often serpentine passage in the core of the blade. Furthermore, to enhance the heat transfer coefficient, these passages are roughened with rib-shaped turbulence promoters (turbulators). Considerable data are available on the heat transfer coefficient on the passage surface between the ribs. However, the heat transfer coefficients on the surface of the ribs themselves have not been investigated to the same extent. In small aircraft engines with small cooling passages and relatively large ribs, the rib surfaces comprise a large portion of the passage heat transfer area. Therefore, an accurate account of the heat transfer coefficient on the rib surfaces is critical in the overall design of the blade cooling system. The objective of this experimental investigation was to conduct a series of 13 tests to measure the rib surface-averaged heat transfer coefficient, hrib, in a square duct roughened with staggered 90 deg ribs. To investigate the effects that blockage ratio, e/Dh and pitch-to-height ratio, S/e, have on hrib and passage friction factor, three rib geometries corresponding to blockage ratios of 0.133, 0.167, and 0.25 were tested for pitch-to-height ratios of 5, 7, 8.5, and 10. Comparisons were made between the rib average heat transfer coefficient and that on the wall surface between two ribs, hfloor, reported previously. Heat transfer coefficients of the upstream-most rib and that of a typical rib located in the middle of the rib-roughened region of the passage wall were also compared. It is concluded that: 1 The rib average heat transfer coefficient is much higher than that for the area between the ribs; 2 similar to the heat transfer coefficient on the surface between the ribs, the average rib heat transfer coefficient increases with the blockage ratio; 3 a pitch-to-height ratios of 8.5 consistently produced the highest rib average heat transfer coefficients amongst all tested; 4 under otherwise identical conditions, ribs in upstream-most position produced lower heat transfer coefficients than the midchannel positions, 5 the upstream-most rib average heat transfer coefficients decreased with the blockage ratio; and 6 thermal performance decreased with increased blockage ratio. While a pitch-to-height ratio of 8.5 and 10 had the highest thermal performance for the smallest rib geometry, thermal performance of high blockage ribs did not change significantly with the pitch-to-height ratio.


1965 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 153 ◽  
Author(s):  
GI Pearman

An account is given of techniques and methods used in measurement of convective heat transfer from leaves of the succulent Carpobrotus. Heat transfer was studied under still air conditions and in wind (in a specially constructed wind-tunnel) up to velocities of 300 cm sec-1. A correlation was demonstrated between experimentally obtained values of heat transfer coefficients and theoretical values calculated from empirical formulae. At wind velocities of 300 cm sec-1 the heat transfer coefficient for Carpobrotus was increased to seven times its value still air.


Author(s):  
Michael Ngadi ◽  
Julian N. Ikediala

Average heat transfer coefficients of chicken drum shaped bodies were estimated using aluminum chicken drum shaped models. Three model drum sizes namely small, medium and large, and three frying oil viscosities for three temperature differences were used. Estimated heat transfer coefficients were in the range from 67 to 163 W/m²K. Increasing temperature difference increased heat transfer coefficient. Conversely, increasing the size of the chicken drum model bodies and oil viscosities decreased the heat transfer coefficient. A heat transfer correlation equation between average Nu and Ra was derived. The methodology developed in this study could be used to estimate heat transfer coefficients of chicken drum during deep-fat frying.


Author(s):  
S. Baldauf ◽  
M. Scheurlen ◽  
A. Schulz ◽  
S. Wittig

Heat transfer coefficients and the resulting heat flux reduction due to film cooling on a flat plate downstream a row of cylindrical holes are investigated. Highly resolved two dimensional heat transfer coefficient distributions were measured by means of infrared thermography and carefully corrected for local internal testplate conduction and radiation effects [1]. These locally acquired data are processed to lateral average heat transfer coefficients for a quantitative assessment. A wide range variation of the flow parameters blowing rate and density ratio as well as the geometrical parameters streamwise ejection angle and hole spacing is examined. The effects of these dominating parameters on the heat transfer augmentation from film cooling are discussed and interpreted with the help of highly resolved surface results of effectiveness and heat transfer coefficients presented earlier [2]. A new method of evaluating the heat flux reduction from film cooling is presented. From a combination of the lateral average of both the adiabatic effectiveness and the heat transfer coefficient, the lateral average heat flux reduction is processed according to the new method. The discussion of the total effect of film cooling by means of the heat flux reduction reveals important characteristics and constraints of discrete hole ejection. The complete heat transfer data of all measurements are used as basis for a new correlation of lateral average heat transfer coefficients. This correlation combines the effects of all the dominating parameters. It yields a prediction of the heat transfer coefficient from the ejection position to far downstream, including effects of extreme blowing angles and hole spacing. The new correlation has a modular structure to allow for future inclusion of additional parameters. Together with the correlation of the adiabatic effectiveness it provides an immediate determination of the streamwise heat flux reduction distribution of cylindrical hole film cooling configurations.


1997 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-67 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. SELWYN JEBSON ◽  
HONG CHEN

The performances of falling film evaporators used in the New Zealand dairy industry for concentrating whole milk were evaluated by determining kg steam used/kg water evaporated, and the heat transfer coefficient of each pass in the evaporators. A specially written computer program was used to calculate the results. The heat transfer coefficients varied from 0·3 to 3·0 kW/m2K, and the steam consumption from 0·10 to 0·39 kg steam/kg evaporation, depending on the number of effects. The steam consumptions for whole and skim milk were similar. The momentum of the vapours passing down the tubes, the temperature difference across the tubes, the viscosity of the feed and the liquid loading were found to be the main factors controlling the heat transfer coefficient. A correlation between the heat transfer coefficient and these factors is presented, and other factors likely to have an influence on the performance are discussed. The correlation is compared with that obtained for skim milk.


2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 66-72
Author(s):  
Tomasz Borowski ◽  
Dawid Sołoducha ◽  
Daniel Musik ◽  
Krzysztof Wójcik ◽  
Mariusz Chyla ◽  
...  

Abstract The objective of this paper is to present the investigations of the heat transfer process carried out by means of the multi-ribbon mixer. It is shown that the heat transfer process for the synergic effect of the mixing process and the flowing liquid through the mixer has significantly higher values of the heat transfer coefficients than the mixer with motionless impellers. The empirical correlations between the heat transfer coefficient and the operational parameters obtained in this work can provide guidance for the design and operation of an apparatus equipped with the multi-ribbon impeller. These empirical correlations can be used to predict the heat transfer coefficient for the multi-ribbon mixer.


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