Flow Resistance Characteristics of a Specific Fuel RP-3 in Helical Tubes at Supercritical Pressure With Uniform Heat Flux

Author(s):  
Nan Zhang ◽  
Yanchen Fu ◽  
Haoran Huang ◽  
Jie Wen ◽  
Nigeer Te

The flow resistance characteristics of aviation kerosene RP-3 in horizontal helical tubes at the supercritical pressure under heating condition are investigated. Both pressure drop and friction factor were examined under uniform heat flux of 50kW/m2−300kW/m2, mass flux from 786kg/m2s to 1375kg/m2s, and helical diameter from 20mm to 40mm. The influence of viscous factors on the resistance is analyzed to explore flow characteristics in a helical tube and provide a reference for the design of heat exchangers. Friction factor decreases with the increase of heat flux at low inlet temperatures 323K and 423K. It is explained that the viscosity changes more dramatically than the density. When the fluid inlet temperature is 523K and the fluid mean temperature Tb is close to pseudo-critical temperature, frictional flow resistance becomes significantly larger Tpc due to huge variations in thermal properties in the radical direction. The effect of centrifugal force makes the friction factor decline slowly. The friction factor goes up with the enlargement of mass flux when Tb>0.81Tpc. This phenomenon is caused by the larger radial velocity gradient under the large mass flux. Different helical diameters play the leading roles for the bending flow in the tubes.

Volume 3 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Jaewoo Shim ◽  
Ji-Su Lee

In recent years it is well known that models based on the local condition hypothesis give significant correlations for the prediction of CHF (Critical Heat Flux), using only few local variables. In this work, a study was carried out to develop a generalized CHF correlation in vertical round tubes with uniform heat flux. For this analysis, a CHF database that composed of over 10,000 CHF data points, which were collected from 12 different sources, was used. The actual data used in the development of this correlation, after the elimination of some questionable data, consisted of 8,951 data points with the following parameter ranges: 0.101 ≤ P (pressure) ≤ 20.679 MPa, 9.92 ≤ G (mass flux) ≤ 18,619.39 kg/m2s, 0.00102 ≤ D (diameter) ≤ 0.04468 m, 0.03 ≤ L (length) ≤ 4.97 m, 0.11 ≤ qc (CHF) ≤ 21.42 MW/m2, and −0.87 ≤ Xe (exit qualities) ≤ 1.58. The result of this work showed that regardless of various flow patterns and regimes that exist in the wide flow conditions, the prediction of CHF can be made accurately with few major local variables: the system pressure (P), tube diameter (D), mass flux of water (G), and true mass flux of vapor (GXt). The new correlation was compared with 5 well-known CHF correlations published in world literature. The new correlation can predict CHF within the root mean square error of 13.44% using the heat balance method with average error of −1.34%.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Jaewoo Shim ◽  
Joo-Yong Park ◽  
Ji-Su Lee ◽  
Dong Kook Kim

In this study a method to predict CHF (Critical Heat Flux) in vertical round tubes with cosine heat flux distribution was examined. For this purpose a uniform correlation, based on local condition hypothesis, was developed from 9,366 CHF data points of uniform heat flux heaters. The CHF data points used were collected from 13 different sources had the following parameter ranges: 1.01 ≤ P (pressure) ≤ 206.79 bar, 9.92 ≤ G (mass flux) ≤ 18,619.39 kg/m2s, 0.00102 ≤ D (diameter) ≤ 0.04468 m, 0.0254 ≤ L (length) ≤ 4.966 m, 0.11 ≤ qc (CHF) ≤ 21.42 MW/m2, and −0.87 ≤ X (exit qualities) ≤ 1.58. The result of this work showed that the uniform CHF correlation could be used to predict CHF accurately in a non-uniform heat flux heater for wide flow conditions. Furthermore, the location, where CHF occurs in non-uniform heat flux distribution, can also be determined accurately with the local variables: the system pressure (P), tube diameter (D), mass flux of water (G), and true mass flux of vapor (GXt). The new correlation predicted CHF with cosine heat flux, 297 data points from 5 different published sources, within the root mean square error of 12.42% and average error of 1.06% using the heat balance method.


Author(s):  
Zeyuan Cheng ◽  
Zhi Tao ◽  
Jianqin Zhu ◽  
Haiwang Li ◽  
Longyun Wang

The present study pays attention to the pressure effect and geometric effect on heat transfer deterioration onset to supercritical hydrocarbon fuel. Numerical simulation about heat transfer deterioration of hydrocarbon fuel flowing upward in vertical round tubes with various diameter at supercritical pressure was performed. In the simulation, a four-species surrogate model of RP-3 based on the generalized corresponding states law was used and LS low-Reynolds number eddy viscosity turbulence model was selected. For the boundary conditions, inlet temperature was 623K, pressure ranged from 3 to 4MPa, tube diameter varied from 3 to 9mm, and wall heat flux to mass flux ratio changed from 0.07 to 3.18kJ/kg. Comparative analyses between the predicted results and the experimental data revealed the accuracy of thermophysical property model and numerical method. The results indicated that the operating pressure and tube diameter have significant effect to the heat transfer deterioration onset of supercritical hydrocarbon fuel: heat transfer deterioration aggravates and heat transfer deterioration onset moves upstream when the diameter increases. With the increase of operating pressure, heat transfer deterioration becomes weak and the heat transfer deterioration onset moves downstream. Based on current results, several existing correlations of the heat transfer deterioration onset were reviewed and assessed, showing different prediction performance. A new correlation of the threshold value for the ratio between heat flux and mass flux for determining the boundary for heat transfer deterioration under various tube diameter and operating pressure was obtained. The effect of length to diameter ratio on safety margin was discussed. The present study provides the optimization design of regenerative cooling on reducing heat transfer deterioration.


Author(s):  
Valaparla Ranjith Kumar ◽  
Karthik Balasubramanian ◽  
K Kiran Kumar

In this study, hydrothermal characteristics in a circular wavy microchannel (CWMC) design under laminar flow conditions with uniform heat flux is numerically studied. Parametric studies in an innovative CWMC design were carried out at various wave amplitudes, wavelengths and aspect ratios. Three dimensional numerical study was performed in the Reynolds number (Re) range from 100 to 300 with uniform heat flux (50 W/cm2) applied at bottom of the channel, treating copper as channel material and water as working fluid. The obtained results were compared to sinusoidal wavy microchannel (SWMC).The results showed that heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics were significantly influenced by wave amplitude, wavelength and aspect ratio. Velocity vectors and contours were presented to understand the heat transfer and fluid flow characteristics. Stream-wise local Nusselt number, overall performance factor, span-wise velocity and temperature variation are also presented. It is concluded that CWMC with higher wave amplitude, smaller wave length and smaller aspect ratio gives higher heat transfer augmentation with corresponding pressure drop penalty.


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