Comparison of DSMC and CFD Models of Heat Transfer in a Rarefied Two-Dimensional Geometry

Author(s):  
Dilesh Maharjan ◽  
Mustafa Hadj-Nacer ◽  
Miles Greiner ◽  
Stefan K. Stefanov

During vacuum drying of used nuclear fuel (UNF) canisters, helium pressure is reduced to as low as 67 Pa to promote evaporation and removal of remaining water after draining process. At such low pressure, and considering the dimensions of the system, helium is mildly rarefied, which induces a thermal-resistance temperature-jump at gas–solid interfaces that contributes to the increase of cladding temperature. It is important to maintain the temperature of the cladding below roughly 400 °C to avoid radial hydride formation, which may cause cladding embrittlement during transportation and long-term storage. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is an accurate method to predict heat transfer and temperature under rarefied condition. However, it is not convenient for complex geometry like a UNF canister. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations are more convenient to apply but their accuracy for rarefied condition are not well established. This work seeks to validate the use of CFD simulations to model heat transfer through rarefied gas in simple two-dimensional geometry by comparing the results to the more accurate DSMC method. The geometry consists of a circular fuel rod centered inside a square cross-section enclosure filled with rarefied helium. The validated CFD model will be used later to accurately estimate the temperature of an UNF canister subjected to vacuum drying condition.

2016 ◽  
Vol 138 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadim A. Diab ◽  
Issam A. Lakkis

This paper presents direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) numerical investigation of the dynamic behavior of a gas film in a microbeam. The microbeam undergoes large amplitude harmonic motion between its equilibrium position and the fixed substrate underneath. Unlike previous work in literature, the beam undergoes large displacements throughout the film gap thickness and the behavior of the gas film along with its impact on the moving microstructure (force exerted by gas on the beam's front and back faces) is discussed. Since the gas film thickness is of the order of few microns (i.e., 0.01 < Kn < 1), the rarefied gas exists in the noncontinuum regime and, as such, the DSMC method is used to simulate the fluid behavior. The impact of the squeeze film on the beam is investigated over a range of frequencies and velocity amplitudes, corresponding to ranges of dimensionless flow parameters such as the Reynolds, Strouhal, and Mach numbers on the gas film behavior. Moreover, the behavior of compressibility pressure waves as a function of these dimensionless groups is discussed for different simulation case studies.


Author(s):  
Quanhua Sun ◽  
Feng Li ◽  
Jing Fan ◽  
Chunpei Cai

The micro-scale gas flows are usually low-speed flows and exhibit rarefied gas effects. It is challenging to simulate these flows because traditional CFD method is unable to capture the rarefied gas effects and the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is very inefficient for low-speed flows. In this study we combine two techniques to improve the efficiency of the DSMC method. The information preservation technique is used to reduce the statistical noise and the cell-size relaxed technique is employed to increase the effective cell size. The new cell-size relaxed IP method is found capable of simulating micro-scale gas flows as shown by the 2D lid-driven cavity flows.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumit Chamling Rai ◽  
Jayesh Sanwal ◽  
K Ram Chandra Murthy

The present work investigates the effects of rarefaction on gas flow patterns in a lid-driven cavity using the simulation package dsmcFoam, on the OpenFOAM platform. Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is a simulation technique which caters to the regime in between the computationally intensive molecular dynamics solvers, as well as the often inaccurate NS based solvers (applied to the rarefied gas simulations). It was proposed by G.A. Bird which employs the stochastic modelling of particle motion.Simulations are performed and results are verified for the flow of a rarefied gas Argon) for different lid velocities within the domain. The results are presented as streamlines, contours of velocity, pressure and temperature, along with velocities in X and Y directions. They have been found to be in good agreement with the previous experimental and numerical observations. Our simulations show that these eddies are much harder to observe in the rarefied domain, and cannot be observed upto velocities as high as 200m/s in a cavity with aspect ratio 1.


2015 ◽  
Vol 26 (08) ◽  
pp. 1550087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojtaba Balaj ◽  
Hassan Akhlaghi ◽  
Ehsan Roohi

In this paper, we investigate the effects of convective heat transfer on the argon gas flow through micro/nanochannels subject to uniform wall heat flux (UWH) boundary condition using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. Both the hot wall (q wall > 0) and the cold wall (q wall < 0) cases are considered. We consider the effect of wall heat flux on the centerline pressure, velocity profile and mass flow rate through the channel in the slip regime. The effects of rarefaction, property variations and compressibility are considered. We show that UWH boundary condition leads to the thermal transpiration. Our investigations showed that this thermal transpiration enhances the heat transfer rate at the walls in the case of hot walls and decreases it where the walls are being cooled. We also show that the deviation of the centerline pressure distribution from the linear distribution depends on the direction of the wall heat flux.


Author(s):  
Hadi Ghezel Sofloo ◽  
Alireza Shams ◽  
Reza Ebrahimi

This paper deals with simulation of transport phenomena in micro and nano pores. The number of cavities and the cavity radius were estimated by using Henry’s law for adsorption of Argon onto ZSM-5 and NaX zeolites. This work showed both of zeolites have pores with average size less than 1 nm. Then with using micro-nano channel assumption instead of micro-nano pores, gas flow and heat transfer were investigated. Subsonic nonideal gas flow and heat transfer for different Knudsen number are investigated numerically using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method modified with a consistent Boltzamnn algorithm. The collision rate is also modified based on the Enskog theory for dense gas. It is shown that nonideal gas effect becomes significant when the gas becomes so dense that the ideal gas assumption breaks down. The results also show that the nonideal gas effect is dependent not only on the gas density, but also the channel size. A higher gas density and a smaller channel size lead to a more significant nonideal gas effect. The nonideal gas effect also causes lower skin friction coefficients and different heat transfer flux distributions at the wall surface.


Author(s):  
Nadim A. Diab ◽  
Issam A. Lakkis

This paper investigates the behavior of a gas film in a micro RF switch. A Two-dimensional numerical study of the flow field is performed as the micro-beam oscillates harmonically between its equilibrium position and the fixed substrate underneath. Unlike previous work in literature, the beam undergoes large displacements throughout the film gap thickness and the behavior of the gas film along with its impact on the moving RF switch (force exerted by gas on the beam’s front and back faces) are discussed. Since the gas film thickness is of the order of few microns (i.e. 0.01<Kn<1), the rarefied gas exists in the non-continuum regime and, as such, the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is used to simulate the fluid behavior. The impact of the squeeze film on the beam is investigated over a range of frequencies, velocity amplitudes, and for different film gases, corresponding to ranges of dimensionless flow parameters such as the Reynolds (Re), Strouhal (St) and Mach (Ma) numbers on the gas film behavior.


2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seckin Gokaltun ◽  
Michael C. Sukop ◽  
George S. Dulikravich

Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) and direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method are used for analysis of moderate Knudsen number phenomena. Simulation results are presented for pressure-driven isothermal rarefied channel flow at various pressure ratios. Analytical equations for non-linear pressure distribution and velocity profiles along the channel axis are used to verify the present LBM and DSMC results. We conclude that the LBM method can be used as an alternative model to DSMC simulations.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jayesh Sanwal ◽  
Deepak Nabapure ◽  
Sreeram Rajesh ◽  
K Ram Chandra Murthy

The present study is to investigate the behavior of a monoatomic gas enclosed in a cavity with both the top and bottom walls imparting motion to the fluid. The problem is studied for single and double-sided lid-driven flow for various wall velocities as well as parallel and anti-parallel wall motions. These types of flow have many industrial applications such as drying and melt spinning. In contrast to the single-sided flows the vortex patterns obtained in the double-sided flows are different and hence it merits a thorough examination, which is studied in this paper using the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The DSMC method proposed by G.A. Bird is based on the kinetic theory in which the molecular motion is modeled stochastically. The computational model has been implemented in OpenFOAM software using the solver named dsmcFoam. Various flow features have been examined such as eddies and vortices.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document