Experimental Study on the Impingement Characteristics of Self-Excited Oscillation Supercritical CO2 Jets Produced by Organ-Pipe Nozzles

Supercritical carbon dioxide (SCO2) jets are a promising method to assist drilling, enhance oil–gas production, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To further improve the drilling efficiency of SCO2 jet-assisted drilling, organ-pipe nozzles were applied to generate a self-excited oscillation SCO2 jet (SEOSJ). The impact pressure oscillation and rock erosion capability of SEOSJs under both supercritical and gaseous CO2 (GCO2) ambient conditions were experimentally investigated. It was found that the impact pressure oscillation characteristics of SEOSJs produced by organ-pipe nozzles are dramatically affected by the oscillation chamber length. The optimum range of the dimensionless chamber length to generate the highest impact pressure peak and the strongest pressure oscillation is within 7–9. The dimensionless pressure peak and the pressure ratio decreases gradually with increasing pressure difference, whereas the pressure oscillation intensity increases with increasing pressure difference and the increasing rate decreases gradually. The dominant frequency was observed to decrease monotonically with increasing chamber length but increases with the increase of pressure difference. Moreover, the comparison of impingement characteristics of SEOSJs under different ambient conditions showed that the values of dimensionless peak impact pressure are similar under the two ambient conditions, and the SEOSJ achieves higher pressure oscillation intensity and dominant frequency in SCO2 at the same pressure difference. The rock breaking ability of the SEOSJ is closely related to its axial impact pressure. The erosion depth and mass loss of sandstone caused by the organ-pipe nozzle with the best impact pressure performance is higher than those produced by other nozzles. The SEOSJ results in a deeper and narrower crater in SCO2 than in GCO2 under the same pressure difference. The reported results provide guidance for SEOSJ applications and the design of an organ-pipe nozzle used for jet-assisted drilling.

Numerical Investigation on the Performance of Two-Throat Nozzle Ejectors with Different Mixing Chamber Structural Parameters

In this study, the effects of the mixing chamber diameter (Dm), mixing chamber length (Lm) and pre-mixing chamber converging angle (θpm) were numerically investigated for a two-throat nozzle ejector to be utilized in a CO2 refrigeration cycle. The developed simulated method was validated by actual experimental data of a CO2 ejector in heat pump water heater system from the published literature. The main results revealed that the two-throat nozzle ejectors can obtain better performance with Dm in the range of 8–9 mm, Lm in the range of 64–82 mm and θpm at approximately 60°, respectively. Deviation from its optimal value could lead to a poor operational performance. Therefore, the mixing chamber structural parameters should be designed at the scope around its optimal value to guarantee the two-throat nozzle ejector performance. The following research can be developed around the two-throat nozzle geometries to strengthen the ejector performance.

Influence of Chamber Geometrical Parameters on Suppressing Explosion Propagation

In this article, the effect of a chamber’s geometrical parameters on suppressing gas explosion propagation was studied. Three rectangular chambers were used in the study, with a constant length of 0.5 m, a constant height of 0.2 m, and a variable width of 0.3 m, 0.5 m, and 0.8 m; each chamber was installed in a pipeline system for experimental research. The experimental results showed that when the chamber length and height were fixed at 0.5 m and 0.2 m, respectively, the suppression effect of the chamber on the explosion shockwave improves with the increase in the chamber width; when the chamber width increases to 0.8 m, the chamber has suppressive effect on explosion shockwave propagation. It was also found that the suppression effect of the chambers on the explosion flame improves with the increase in the chamber width; when the width of the chamber is 0.5 m, the chamber effectively suppresses explosion flames. Based on the experimental results, a numerical model was established to simulate the suppression effect of five types of chambers with a length, width, and height of 0.5 m × 0.3 m × 0.2 m, 0.3 m × 0.5 m × 0.2 m, 0.5 m × 0.5 m × 0.2 m, 0.5 m × 0.8 m × 0.2 m, and 0.8 m × 0.5 m × 0.2 m, respectively. The numerical simulation results indicated that when the chamber length and height are constant at 0.5 m and 0.2 m, respectively, the suppressive effect of the chamber on the shockwave improves as the chamber width increases; when the chamber width increases to 0.8 m, the shockwave overpressure at the chamber outlet is attenuated by 10.61%, indicating that the chamber suppresses the propagation of explosion shockwave, which is consistent with the experimental results obtained in the study. It was also found that when the chamber width and height were constant at 0.5 m and 0.2 m, respectively, as the chamber length increases, the overpressure increases first and then weakens. When the chamber length increases to 0.8 m, the overpressure at the chamber outlet is attenuated by −14.16%, indicating that the chamber is not able to suppress the propagation of explosion shockwave. Finally, a numerical simulation of the propagation process of a methane-air mixture and explosion flames in different chambers was performed to analyse the effect of chamber geometrical parameters on explosion suppression effect.

Numerical investigation into effect of the rubble mound inside perforated caisson breakwaters under random sea states

The paper reports a numerical investigation into the effect of rubble mounds inside perforated caisson breakwaters (PCBs), in which a line-shaped mass source wavemaker is proposed for generating random waves. A series of experiments are employed to validate the numerical model, and good agreements are observed in the comparison of the experimental and numerical results. With the use of the validated numerical model, the numerical investigation is performed, in which the attention is mainly paid to two parameters: the slope angle and porosity of the inner rubble mound. The result shows that, as the slope angle of the inner rubble mound increases, the reflection coefficient is observed to decrease first and then increase, and compared to the experiment, both the positive and negative hydrodynamic pressure acting on the solid rear wall of PCBs is weakened. On the other hand, although a larger inner rubble mound porosity is beneficial to diminish the reflection coefficient, the reduction is not obvious especially when the front wall porosity is small. Furthermore, as the increase of front wall porosity and relative wave absorption chamber length (the ratio of wave absorption chamber length to significant wavelength), the effect of the slope angle and porosity of the inner rubble mound becomes more significant because more waves could enter the wave absorption chamber. The relative wave absorption chamber length considered in the present study ranges from 0.06 to 0.21, and the recommended slope angle is approximately 45 degrees.

Tuning acoustic performance of multi-chamber hybrid mufflers

In this paper, we investigate the functional acoustic performance of multi-chamber mufflers using a numerical approach. The wave propagation governing in expansion chamber domains is first introduced and solved by the finite element method. Our numerical results of selected muffler configurations are compared with the reference predictions model and experiments in order to validate the present procedure. Then, the influence of the geometry characteristics of typical and hybrid configurations of multi-chambered mufflers (number of sub-chambers, micro-perforated tube structure) on their sound transmission loss is studied. The obtained results indicate that the structure of the considered muffler has a strong effect on their acoustical performance, and the location and the high level of resonances of the sound transmission loss behavior are strongly related to the number of sub-chambers as well as micro-perforated tube characteristics. By tuning geometrical parameters (e.g., having a small perforation ratio), we enable to design mufflers having a higher sound transmission loss (up to 110 dB) at low frequencies (~ 195 Hz) but a constraint space (e.g., acoustic chamber length of 300 mm).

Performance of an U-Shaped Oscillating Water Column Wave Energy Converter Device under Oblique Incident Waves

The present study deals with the performance of an U-shaped oscillating water column device under the action of oblique incident waves. To solve the associated boundary value problem, the dual boundary element method (DBEM) is used. Various physical parameters associated with the U-shaped OWC device, such as the radiation susceptance and conductance coefficients, and the hydrodynamic efficiency, are analyzed for a wide range of wave and structural parameters. The study reveals that the resonance in the efficiency curve occurs for smaller values of wavenumber with an increase in chamber length, submergence depth of the front wall and opening duct, and width of the opening duct. It is observed that with appropriate combinations of the angle of incidence and incident wavenumber, more than 90% efficiency in the U-shaped OWC device can be achieved.