Experimental Study on Axial Temperature Profile of Jet Fire of Oil-Filled Equipment in Substation

With the widespread use of substations around the world, oil jet fire accidents from transformer oil-filled equipment in substations caused by faults have occurred from time to time. In this paper, a series of transformer oil jet fire experiments are carried out by changing the external heat source (30 cm and 40 cm) and the inner diameter of the container (5 cm, 8 cm and 10 cm) to study the axial centerline temperature distribution of the transformer oil jet fire plume of the transformer oil-filled equipment in the substation. The experiment uses K-type thermocouple, electronic balance and CCD to measure and assess the temperature distribution of the axial centerline of the fire plume of the transformer oil jet. The result demonstrates that the axial centerline temperature of the fire plume increases with the external heat release rate and the inner diameter of the container. In addition, a novel axial temperature distribution prediction model of the transformer oil jet fire plume is established. This model can effectively predict the oil jet fire plume temperature of transformer oil- filling equipment in substations, and provide help for substation fire control.

Synthesis of crystalline and amorphous, particle-agglomerated 3-D nanostructures of Al and Si oxides by femtosecond laser and the prediction of these particle sizes

We report a single step technique of synthesizing particle-agglomerated, amorphous 3-D nanostructures of Al and Si oxides on powder-fused aluminosilicate ceramic plates and a simple novel method of wafer-foil ablation to fabricate crystalline nanostructures of Al and Si oxides at ambient conditions. We also propose a particle size prediction mechanism to regulate the size of vapor-condensed agglomerated nanoparticles in these structures. Size characterization studies performed on the agglomerated nanoparticles of fabricated 3-D structures showed that the size distributions vary with the fluence-to-threshold ratio. The variation in laser parameters leads to varying plume temperature, pressure, amount of supersaturation, nucleation rate, and the growth rate of particles in the plume. The novel wafer-foil ablation technique could promote the possibilities of fabricating oxide nanostructures with varying Al/Si ratio, and the crystallinity of these structures enhances possible applications. The fabricated nanostructures of Al and Si oxides could have great potentials to be used in the fabrication of low power-consuming complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits and in Mn catalysts to enhance the efficiency of oxidation on ethylbenzene to acetophenone in the super-critical carbon dioxide.

Synthesis of crystalline and amorphous, particle-agglomerated 3-D nanostructures of Al and Si oxides by femtosecond laser and the prediction of these particle sizes

We report a single step technique of synthesizing particle-agglomerated, amorphous 3-D nanostructures of Al and Si oxides on powder-fused aluminosilicate ceramic plates and a simple novel method of wafer-foil ablation to fabricate crystalline nanostructures of Al and Si oxides at ambient conditions. We also propose a particle size prediction mechanism to regulate the size of vapor-condensed agglomerated nanoparticles in these structures. Size characterization studies performed on the agglomerated nanoparticles of fabricated 3-D structures showed that the size distributions vary with the fluence-to-threshold ratio. The variation in laser parameters leads to varying plume temperature, pressure, amount of supersaturation, nucleation rate, and the growth rate of particles in the plume. The novel wafer-foil ablation technique could promote the possibilities of fabricating oxide nanostructures with varying Al/Si ratio, and the crystallinity of these structures enhances possible applications. The fabricated nanostructures of Al and Si oxides could have great potentials to be used in the fabrication of low power-consuming complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor circuits and in Mn catalysts to enhance the efficiency of oxidation on ethylbenzene to acetophenone in the super-critical carbon dioxide.

Characterizing the vertical concentration profiles of ship plumes with a microscale model - is it all Gaussian?

<p>Accurate modeling of ship emissions is a topic of increasing interest due to the ever-growing global fleet and its emission of air pollutants. With the increasing calculation power of modern computers, numerical grid models can nowadays be used to analyze effects of shipping emissions from global to local scales. However, modeling entire ports and larger domains still requires a good representation for the vertical concentration profile of single ship plumes. As the shape of the plume strongly varies depending on parameters like plume temperature, ship-induced turbulence and meteorological conditions, the plume dilution does not always appear to be represented by a simple Gaussian distribution. In this work, the microscale model MITRAS is used to calculate vertical concentration profiles of ship plumes under varying technical and meteorological scenarios. The resulting curves are fitted with different mathematical curves (e.g. Gaussian, Polynomial and Gamma distribution) by a least square minimization approach and the best representations for individual scenarios are discussed.</p>

Design and analysis of a cooling system for a supersonic exhaust diffuser

High-altitude test facilities are usually used to evaluate the performance of space mission engines. The supersonic exhaust diffuser, a main part of high-altitude test facility, provides the required test cell vacuum conditions by self-pumping the nozzle exhaust gases to the atmosphere. However, the plume temperature is often much higher than the temperature the diffuser structure is able to withstand, usually above 2500 K. In this study, an efficient cooling system is designed and analyzed to resolve the thermal problem. A water spray cooling technique is preferred among various existing techniques. Here, a new algorithm is developed for a spray cooling system for a supersonic exhaust diffuser. This algorithm uses a series of experimental and geometrical relationships to resize the governing parameters and remove the required heat flux from the diffuser surface. The efficiency of the newly designed cooling system is evaluated via numerical simulations. The utilized numerical technique is based on the discrete-phase method. Various computational studies are accomplished to enhance the accuracy of numerical prediction and validation. The present numerical study is validated using experimental results. The results show that the realizable k-ɛ method is superior compared to other Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models.

Thermodynamics of Pyrocumulus: A Conceptual Study

In favorable atmospheric conditions, fires can produce pyrocumulonimbus cloud (pyroCb) in the form of deep convective columns resembling conventional thunderstorms, which may be accompanied by strong inflow, dangerous downbursts, and lightning strikes that can produce dangerous changes in fire behavior. PyroCb formation conditions are not well understood and are difficult to forecast. This paper presents a theoretical study of the thermodynamics of fire plumes to better understand the influence of a range of factors on plume condensation. Plume gases are considered to be undiluted at the fire source and approach 100% dilution at the plume top (neutral buoyancy). Plume condensation height changes are considered for this full range of dilution and for a given set of factors that include environmental temperature and humidity, fire temperature, and fire-moisture-to-heat ratios. The condensation heights are calculated and plotted as saturation point (SP) curves on thermodynamic diagrams. The position and slope of the SP curves provide insight into how plume condensation is affected by the environment thermodynamics and ratios of fire heat to moisture production. Plume temperature traces from large-eddy model simulations added to the diagrams provide additional insight into plume condensation heights and plume buoyancy at condensation. SP curves added to a mixed layer lifting condensation level on standard thermodynamic diagrams can be used to identify the minimum plume condensation height and buoyancy required for deep, moist, free convection to develop, which will aid pyroCb prediction.