scholarly journals Numerical Study on Melting Heat Transfer in Dendritic Heat Exchangers

Energies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 2504 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xinmei Luo ◽  
Shengming Liao

The dendritic fin was introduced to improve the solid-liquid phase change in heat exchangers. A theoretical model of melting phase change in dendritic heat exchangers was developed and numerically simulated. The solid-liquid phase interface, liquid phase rate and dynamic temperature change in dendritic heat exchanger during melting process are investigated and compared with radial-fin heat exchanger. The results indicate that the dendritic fin is able to enhance the solid-liquid phase change in heat exchanger for latent thermal storage. The presence of dendritic fin leads to the formation of multiple independent PCM zones, so the heat can be quickly diffused from one point to across the surface along the metal fins, thereby making the PCM far away from heat sources melt earlier and faster. In addition, the dendritic structure makes the PCM temperature distribution more uniform over the entire zone inside heat exchangers due to high-efficient heat flow distribution of dendritic fins. As a result, the time required for the complete melting of the PCM in dendritic heat exchanger is shorter than that of the radial-fin heat exchanger.

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 78
Author(s):  
F. C. Spengler ◽  
B. Oliveira ◽  
R. C. Oliveski ◽  
L. A. O. Rocha

The thermal heat storage it’s an effective way to suit the energy availability with the demand schedule. It can be stored in the means of sensible or latent heat, the latter applying a material denominated Phase Change Material (PCM), which is provided as organic compounds, hydrated salts, paraffins, among others. The latent heat storage systems offer several advantages, like the practically isothermal process of loading and unloading and the high energy density. However, the low thermal conductivity makes the cycle prolonged on these systems, restricting its applicability. Applying computational fluid dynamics, the behavior of the PCM melting process was studied in cylindrical cavities with horizontal and vertical fins, aiming the optimization of the fin geometry. In this way the fin area was kept constant, varying its aspect ratio. The numerical model was validated with results from the literature and it’s composed of the continuity, momentum and energy equations increased by the phase change model. Qualitative and quantitative results are presented, referring to mesh independence, contours of velocity, net fraction and temperature at different moments of the process. The results of the study indicate that the position of the fin in the heat exchanger influences the melting process, although the vertical fins have a faster total melting process, horizontal fins can reach larger partial liquid fractions in less time in the heat exchanger. Such as the position of the fin, the increase of its length propitiates the reduction of the melting time, evidencing the optimal aspect ratio.


Author(s):  
Xin Li ◽  
Ikken Sato ◽  
Akifumi Yamaji ◽  
Guangtao Duan

Molten corium-concrete interaction (MCCI) is an important ex-vessel phenomenon that could happen during the late phase of a hypothetical severe accident in a light water reactor. When the molten corium, which is generally comprised of UO2, ZrO2 and metals such as zircalloy and stainless steel, is discharged into a dry reactor cavity, a stratified molten pool configuration with two immiscible oxidic and metallic phases can be expected to form and lead to MCCI. Compared to a homogenous oxidic molten pool configuration, the metallic phase in the stratified molten pool might influence the crust formation on the corium-concrete interface and consequently cause different concrete ablation behavior to evaluate MCCI progression concerning containment failure. In terms of this issue, past experimental studies, such as COMET-L, VULCANO VBS and MOCKA test series, have been carried out to investigate the influence of such oxidic and metallic stratified pool configuration on MCCI. The experimental results have shown that the metallic phase can have a significant impact on the axial and radial ablation kinetics that could influence the ablation patterns of reactor pit. As regards numerical studies, past numerical modeling of MCCI was generally based on Eulerian methods and simplified empirical approach to simulate solid/liquid phase change and evolving of corium/crust/concrete interface. Such modeling might be efficient but have shown deficiencies and inadequacies due to its Eulerian and empirical nature, which has suggested a necessity to seek for a more mechanistic approach for modeling of MCCI. In this sense, Moving Particle Semi-implicit (MPS) method is considered suitable for MCCI analysis for its advantages of tracking interfaces and modeling phase change accurately as a Lagrangian particle method. In the present study, a three-dimensional (3-D) numerical study has been performed to simulate COMET-L3 test carried out by KIT with a stratified molten pool configuration of simulant materials with improved MPS method. Solid/liquid phase change was simulated with types of solid and liquid particles with thermal and physical properties including temperature and solid fraction, which enabled tracking of the solid/liquid status of each particle to achieve accurate free surface and corium/crust/concrete interface capturing. The heat transfer between corium/crust/concrete was modeled with heat conduction between particles. Moreover, the potential influence of the siliceous aggregates was also investigated by setting up two different case studies since there was previous study indicating that siliceous aggregates in siliceous concrete might contribute to different axial and radial concrete ablation rates. The simulation results have indicated that metal melt as corium in MCCI can have completely different characteristics regarding concrete ablation pattern from that of oxidic corium, which needs to be taken into consideration when assessing the containment melt-through time in severe accident management.


2013 ◽  
Vol 749 ◽  
pp. 13-27
Author(s):  
Zhuo Wang ◽  
Zhi Wei Zhang ◽  
Da Yong Li ◽  
Ying Hong Peng

Parallel flow microchannel heat exchangers have been increasingly applied in HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) field due to their characteristics, such as high efficient heat transfer performance, compact form and low cost. Production rationalization of the heat exchanger is required for realization of a competitive, light-weight and easy-to-assemble product. The heat exchanger is usually bent to L-shape so as to decrease the volume of air conditioner. To correspond with design changes for multi-generation use and to achieve good forming quality, a dieless forming technique is developed to offer flexible manufacturing. Using this method, heat exchangers can be formed with variable bending radius conveniently, which can reduce the mold cost and obtain high productivity. Meanwhile, product defects such as fin damage can also be reduced because there is no physical contact against tools in the bending portion. In the present study, the forming principle of dieless bending process is first stated by theoretical analysis. Then to verify the proposed forming mechanism, a NC dieless bending machine is manufactured to implement the bending experiment. Finally, based on the verified FE model, the bending process for the 2-piece heat exchanger has been improved. As a result, the dieless bending process has been successfully developed and can be applied to produce square-shape heat exchanger with variable bending radius.


2018 ◽  
Vol 30 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 239-245
Author(s):  
Raghavendra Rohith Kasibhatla ◽  
Andreas Konig-Haagen ◽  
Dieter Brüggemann

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