Effect of the Number of Nozzles of Swirl Flow Generator Utilized in Flat Plate Solar Collector: An Entropic Analysis

The numerical model of the pipes of a flat plate solar collector (FPSC) with several nozzles has been investigated in the present study. Indeed, the effect of the number of nozzles of the swirl generator on the entropic characteristics has been evaluated. The nozzles were applied for improving the performance of FPSC. For evaluating the proposed system based on the entropy concept, the effect of injection angle and mass flow rate has been considered. The selected injection angles were 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°. Also, the total mass flow rates entered from all of the nozzles were 0.2 kg/s, 1 kg/s, and 2 kg/s. The effect of said variables on frictional and thermal entropy generations was analyzed; then, the overall energetic-entropic performance of the system was predicted using several dimensionless parameters including NE, NS, Nu ∗ , and heat transfer improvement (HTI). Moreover, Witte-Shamsundar efficiency ( η W − S ) was applied to pinpoint the efficiency of the system. The highest value of HTI and η W − S was 1.7 and 0.9 that achieved by “single-nozzle; A90-D50-N12.5-M0.2” and “quad-nozzle; A30-D50-N12.5-M2,” respectively.

Thermal Performance Enhancement Using Absorber Tube with Inner Helical Axial Fins in a Parabolic Trough Solar Collector

In the present work, a parabolic trough solar (PTC) collector with inner helical axial fins as swirl generator or turbulator is considered and analyzed numerically. The three-dimensional numerical simulations have been done by finite volume method (FVM) using a commercial CFD code, ANSYS FLUENT 18.2. The spatial discretization of mass, momentum, energy equations, and turbulence kinetic energy has been obtained by a second-order upwind scheme. To compute gradients, Green-Gauss cell-based method has been employed. This work consists of two sections where, first, four various geometries are appraised, and in the following, the selected schematic of the collector from the previous part is selected, and four various pitches of inner helical fins including 250, 500, 750 and 1000 mm are studied. All the numerical results are obtained by utilizing the FVM. Results show that the thermal performance improvement by 23.1% could be achieved by using one of the proposed innovative parabolic trough solar collectors compare to the simple one. Additionally, the minimum and maximum thermal performance improvement (compare to the case without fins) belong to the case with P = 250 mm by 14.1% and, to the case with P = 1000 mm by 21.53%, respectively.

Assessment of Mini-Tablets Coating Uniformity as a Function of Fluid Bed Coater Inlet Conditions

This study concerned the quality of mini-tablets’ coating uniformity obtained by either the bottom spray chamber with a classical Wurster distributor (CW) or a swirl distributor (SW). Mini-tablets with a diameter of 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 mm were coated with hypromellose using two different inlet air distributors as well as inlet airflow rates (130 and 156 m3/h). Tartrazine was used as a colorant in the coating layer and the coating uniformity was assessed by spectrophotometric analysis of solutions obtained after disintegration of the mini-tablets (n = 100). Higher uniformity of coating material distribution among the mini-tablets was observed in the case of SW distributor, even for the biggest mini-tablets (d = 3.0 mm), with an RSD no larger than 5.0%. Additionally, coating thickness was evaluated by colorimetric analysis (n = 1000), using a scanner method, and expressed as a hue value. A high correlation (R = 0.993) between inter-tablet variability of hue and UV-Vis results was obtained. Mini-tablets were successfully coated in a fluid bed system using both a classical Wurster distributor as well as a swirl generator. However, regardless of the mini-tablets’ diameter, better film uniformity was achieved in the case of a distributor with a swirl generator.

Aerodynamic Effects of an Incoming Vortex on Turbines With Different Tip Geometries

Experimental and numerical methods were used to investigate the aerodynamic effects of a near-casing streamwise incoming vortex flow on the tip leakage flow of different tip geometries in an unshrouded high-pressure turbine. A flat tip, a cavity tip, and a suction side winglet tip were investigated with the quasi-steady method first. A swirl generator was used to produce the incoming vortex in a linear cascade. In the flat tip case, the incoming vortex interacts with the tip leakage flow and the two vortices gradually mix together. The tip leakage loss is reduced due to the streamwise momentum supplement within the tip leakage vortex core. For the cavity tip, the tip leakage vortex appears at a location relatively downstream in the blade passage compared with the flat tip and no evident vortex interaction is observed. The incoming vortex causes extra viscous dissipation within the blade passage and increases the aerodynamic loss for the cavity tip. For the winglet tip, the extension of the suction side winglet tends to push the incoming vortex and the tip leakage vortex move and mix together, thus reducing the loss. Then, the effects of periodic unsteady vortex transportations were investigated by conducting unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) simulations. The incoming vortex is stretched as it transports downstream. The unsteady incoming vortex is easier to interact with the tip leakage vortex for the winglet tip. As a result, the winglet tip is the most efficient tip design with unsteady incoming flow among the three tips and achieves a 3.7% reduction of mixed-out loss coefficient compared with the flat tip, larger than 2.8% reduction in the uniform inlet condition. The detailed loss mechanism is discussed in this paper.

Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis of Parabolic Trough Collectors Using Straight Conical Strip Inserts with Nanofluids

In this study, we numerically investigated the effect of swirl inserts with and without nanofluids over a range of Reynolds numbers for parabolic trough collectors with non-uniform heating. Three approaches were utilized to enhance the thermal-hydraulic performance—the variation of geometrical properties of a single canonical insert to find the optimized shape; the use of nanofluids and analysis of the effect of both the aforementioned approaches; the use of swirl generators and nanofluids together. Results revealed that using the straight conical strips alone enhanced the Nusselt number by 47.13%. However, the use of nanofluids along with the swirl generators increased the Nusselt number by 57.48%. These improvements reduced the thermal losses by 22.3% for swirl generators with nanofluids, as opposed to a reduction of only 15.7% with nanofluids alone. The investigation of different swirl generator designs showed various levels of improvements in terms of the overall thermal efficiency and thermal exergy efficiency. The larger swirl generator (H30mm-θ30°-N4) with 6% SiO2 nanofluids was found to be the optimum configuration, which improved the overall collector efficiency and thermal exergy by 14.62% and 14.47%, respectively.

Thermo-hydraulic performance evaluation of heat exchanger tube with vortex generator inserts

This work is undertaken as a scientific experiment to test a new design of a turbulent generator. The current research experiments the influence of novel vortex generator (VG )inserts on heat transfers within a tube under a uniform heat flux. A copper tube with a 45 mm inner diameter and 1,350 mm length is used along with a solid disc injector (swirl generator) that comprises ten crescent holes with equal circumferential distribution angles around the disk canter. Subsequently, a swirl flow is generated by deviating the stream flow 45 degrees causing it to spin in the direction of the axial flow. Flow directors are on 45? angles toward the axial direction for each of the crescent holes. This study is an example of flow degradation. Reynolds numbers (Re). range from 6000 to 13500. Therefore, fluid flow is treated as a turbulent system. All experiments done with air are regarded as a power fluid; the Prandtl number is fixed at about 0.71. Thermo-hydraulic performance of heat exchanger is analyzed. The average heat transfer Nusselt number is calculated and discussed. The experiment found out that Nusselt number (Nu) increases with an increase in Re. as well as the number of swirl generators. At four vortex generators (VGs), the maximum augmentation in heat transfer is around 4.3 times greater than the plain tube and friction factor is about 1.28 with 5 VG insets. The results indicate a promising heat exchanger enhancement in the local petroleum industries.

The Effects of Multiple Swirl Generator Inlets Circumferential Distribution to a Liquid Fuelled Ultra-High Swirl Flameless Combustion Characteristics

This paper presents the experimental results of a simple cylindrical shaped, liquid fuelled flameless combustor which utilizes ultra-high swirl flow in the combustion process. 4 different swirl generator inlet configurations were tested in this work. Ethanol fuel were used during flameless mode. The experiments were conducted at equivalence ratio (F=1), with the flow rate of fuel set at 4.48*104 kg/s, and flow rate of air at 3.854*103 kg/s. The results revealed that by using all 12 tangential air inlets (swirl generator injectors), the swirl strength was reduced through evenly distributing the position of the injectors circumferentially. As a result, the combustor successfully suppressed the emission of NOx and CO to zero ppm for both gasses. It was also reported that flameless mode was established in all configurations, regardless of the swirl strength.

Aerodynamic Effects of an Incoming Vortex on Turbines With Different Tip Geometries

Experimental and numerical methods were used to investigate the aerodynamic effects of a near-casing streamwise incoming vortex flow on the tip leakage flow of different tip geometries in an unshrouded high pressure turbine. A flat tip, a cavity tip and a suction-side winglet tip were investigated with quasi-steady method first. A swirl generator was used to produce the incoming vortex in a linear cascade. In the flat tip case, the incoming vortex interacts with the tip leakage flow and the two vortices gradually mix together. The tip leakage loss is reduced due to the streamwise momentum supplement within the tip leakage vortex core. For the cavity tip, the tip leakage vortex appears at a location relatively downstream in the blade passage compared to the flat tip and no evident vortex interaction is observed. The incoming vortex causes extra viscous dissipation within the blade passage and increases the aerodynamic loss for the cavity tip. For the winglet tip, the extension of the suction side winglet tends to push the incoming vortex and the tip leakage vortex move and mix together, thus reducing the loss. Then the effects of periodic unsteady vortex transportations were investigated by conducting unsteady Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations. The incoming vortex is stretched as it transports downstream. The unsteady incoming vortex is easier to interact with the tip leakage vortex for the winglet tip. As a result, the winglet tip is the most efficient tip design with unsteady incoming flow among the three tips, and achieves 3.7% reduction of mixed-out loss coefficient compared to the flat tip, larger than 2.8% reduction in the uniform inlet condition. The detailed loss mechanism is discussed in the paper.