A droplet entrainment model was applied to characterize the flow pattern transition in the countercurrent horizontal flow with liquid nitrogen (LN 2 ) and vapor nitrogen (VN 2 ). A two-fluid three-field model consisting of liquid film, gas, and droplet was implemented based on the Eulerian-Eulerian model in ANSYS Fluent ® . In the droplet entrainment model, the condition and position of the droplet generation were realized by calculating the velocity gradient in the normal direction of the interface towards the gas core. The droplet entrainment and deposition rates were also included and validated according to the available data of water/air in the literature. Three flow patterns, including stratified-wavy flow, churn flow, and pseudo-slug flow, were identified in simulation results with LN 2 /VN 2 . Furthermore, ligament breakup was found to be the main droplet entrainment mechanism in the churn and pseudo-slug flow, and there can be a high probability of the occurrence of bubble burst as well. Compared with water/air, the droplets are more easily to be entrained in LN 2 /VN 2 due to the smaller viscosity and surface tension according to the results of droplet mass flow rate. Pressure drop signals of the three flow patterns were also obtained and analyzed.

Fluidized beds are used in a wide range of applications in gasification, combustion, and process engineering. Multiphase flow in such applications involves numerous uncertain parameters. Uncertainty quantification provides uncertainty in syngas yield and efficiency of coal/biomass gasification in a power plant. Techniques such as sensitivity analysis are useful in identifying parameters that have the most influence on the quantities of interest. Also, it helps to decrease the computational cost of the uncertainty quantification and optimize the reactor. We carried out a nondeterministic analysis of flow in a biomass reactor. The flow in the reactor is simulated with National Energy Technology Laboratory’s open source multiphase fluid dynamics suite MFiX. It does not possess tools for uncertainty quantification. Therefore, we developed a C++ wrapper to integrate an uncertainty quantification toolkit developed at Sandia National Laboratory with MFiX. The wrapper exchanges uncertain input parameters and critical output parameters among Dakota and MFiX. We quantify uncertainty in key output parameters via a sampling method. In addition, sensitivity analysis is carried out for all eight uncertain input parameters namely particle-particle restitution coefficient, angle of internal friction, coefficient of friction between two-phases, velocity of the fluidizing agent at the inlet, velocity of the biomass particles at the inlet, diameter of the biomass particles, viscosity of the fluidizing agent, and the percentage of nitrogen/oxygen in the fluidizing agent.

In ultrasonic cleaning, violent cavitation bubble dynamics causes material damage to cleaning surfaces, which is called cavitation erosion. The control of the dissolved gas concentration in cleaning liquid is effective to avoid cavitation erosion. The dissolved oxygen (DO) concentration is easily measured by a commercial DO meter, but the dissolved nitrogen (DN) concentration in water where multiple gas species are dissolved cannot be accurately measured with a commercially available DN meter. Therefore, it is important to construct a new method of measurement of DN concentration. In this study, we visualize the diffusion driven dissolution of bubble in air-saturated water and degassed water. The Epstein-Plesset theory considering multiple gas species is derived and compared with the experimental result where the DN concentration is treated as a fitting parameter in order to estimate the unknown DN concentration. Results indicates that the DN concentration can be measured by comparison between the theory and the relatively slow dissolution of bubble.

A numerical implementation of a large number of Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) models based on two-, three-, four-equation, and Reynolds stress turbulence models (using either the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate or the turbulent lengthscale) in an Eulerian, finite-difference shock-capturing code is described. The code uses third-order weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO) reconstruction of the advective fluxes, and second- or fourth-order central difference derivatives for the computation of spatial gradients. A third-order TVD Runge–Kutta time-evolution scheme is used to evolve the fields in time. Improved closures for the turbulence production terms, compressibility corrections, mixture transport coefficients, and a consistent initialization methodology for the turbulent fields are briefly summarized. The code framework allows for systematic comparisons of detailed predictions from a variety of turbulence models of increasing complexity. Applications of the code with selected K–ε based models are illustrated for each of the three instabilities. Simulations of Rayleigh–Taylor unstable flows for Atwood numbers 0.1–0.9 are shown to be consistent with previous implicit LES (ILES) results and with the expectation of increased asymmetry in the mixing layer characteristics with increasing stratification. Simulations of reshocked Richtmyer–Meshkov turbulent mixing corresponding to experiments with light-to-heavy transition in air/sulfur hexafluoride and incident shock Mach number Ma s = 1.50, and heavy-to-light transition in sulfur hexafluoride/air with Ma s = 1.45 are shown to be in generally good agreement with both pre- and post-reshock mixing layer widths. Finally, simulations of the seven Brown–Roshko Kelvin–Helmholtz experiments with various velocity and density ratios using nitrogen, helium, and air are shown to give mixing layer predictions in good agreement with data. The results indicate that the numerical algorithms and turbulence models are suitable for simulating these classes of inhomogeneous turbulent flows.

The interactions between dispersed oil droplets and gas bubbles was experimentally studied in this work. An experimental set-up was built in the Multiphase Flow Research Center (NUEM) in the Federal University of Technology – Paraná (UTFPR) to conduct a fundamental evaluation of the interactions between sessile gas bubbles and oil droplets employing side-view flow visualization. Tap water was used as the continuous phase, whereas pure nitrogen and colored vegetable oil were employed as the dispersed phases. The bubble-droplet attachment consisted in the encapsulation of the bubble by the droplet, presenting phenomenological similarities to droplet-droplet coalescence. The contact between the dispersed phases induces the formation of a connecting bridge, which grows rapidly with time, with the height of the bridge being comparable to the size of the droplet after 57.0 ms. The inherent asymmetry of the phenomenon induced a significant horizontal displacement of the bubble towards the droplet, whose position remained unaltered. The evaluation of the bridge meniscus corroborated to this observation, since the contact angle on the droplet side decayed faster with time in comparison to the contact angle on the bubble side. The hydrodynamics of the rising aggregate is also evaluated, by the obtainment of its size, three-dimensional trajectory and terminal velocity. The stable aggregates formed presented an increase factor of 150 to 180%, based on the terminal velocity of the individual droplet. The radius of the bubble was found to be the major influence on the hydrodynamics of the aggregate, allowing the definition of a critical bubble radius based on trajectory instabilities.

As deep space exploration continues to be the goal of NASA’s human spaceflight program, verification of the performance of spaceflight hardware becomes increasingly critical. Suitable test methods for verifying the leak rate of sealing systems are identified in program qualification testing requirements. One acceptable method for verifying the air leak rate of gas pressure seals is the tracer gas leak detector method. In this method, a tracer gas (commonly helium) leaks past the test seal and is transported to the leak detector where the leak rate is quantified. To predict the air leak rate, a conversion factor of helium-to-air is applied depending on the magnitude of the helium flow rate. The conversion factor is based on either the molecular mass ratio or the ratio of the dynamic viscosities. The current work was aimed at validating this approach for permeation-level leak rates using a series of tests with a silicone elastomer O-ring. An established pressure decay method with constant differential pressure was used to evaluate both the air and helium leak rates of the O-ring under similar temperature and pressure conditions. The results from the pressure decay tests showed, for the elastomer O-ring, that neither the molecular flow nor the viscous flow helium-to-air conversion factors were applicable. Leak rate tests were also performed using nitrogen and argon as the test gas. Molecular mass and viscosity based helium-to-test gas conversion factors were applied, but did not correctly predict the measured leak rates of either gas. To further this study, the effect of pressure boundary conditions was investigated. Often, pressure decay leak rate tests are performed at a differential pressure of 101.3 kPa with atmospheric pressure on the downstream side of the test seal. In space applications, the differential pressure is similar, but with vacuum as the downstream pressure. The same O-ring was tested at four unique differential pressures ranging from 34.5 to 137.9 kPa. Up to six combinations of upstream and downstream pressures for each differential pressure were compared. For a given differential pressure, the various combinations of upstream and downstream dry air pressures did not significantly affect the leak rate. As expected, the leak rate of the O-ring increased with increasing differential pressure. The results suggested that the current leak test pressure conditions, used to verify spacecraft sealing systems with elastomer seals, produce accurate values even though the boundary conditions do not model the space application.

Energetic valorization of thermoplastic wastes (High-density polyethylene (PE) and Polypropylene (PP)) to produce fuel using pyrolysis process is presented in this paper. HDPE and PP pyrolysis experiments were carried out in a lab-scale batch reactor under an inert atmosphere. Nitrogen gas was used as carrier before and during the experiments. The temperature was varied from 293 K to approximately 773 K. The viscosities of HDPE, PP and the mixture 50% HDPE & 50 % PP pyrolysis liquids are respectively equal to 1.08 cP, 0.67 cP and 0.8 cP. Its densities are respectively equals to 0.735, 0.751 and 0.759 (at 20 °C–30 °C). The high calorific value (the heating Value) is respectively equals to 45.235 ± 0.641 MJ/kg, 46.151 ± 1.33 MJ/kg and 45.393 ± 0.87 MJ/kg. The liquids obtained have approximately the same Kerosene (Coal Oil) high calorific value (46 MJ/kg). The flash points are respectively equal to 32 °C, 31 °C and lesser than 25 °C for the mixture. They are lesser than coal oil and Diesel values which are equal to 38 °C for Kerosene and between 38 °C and 58 °C for Diesel. The mixture of two polymers decreases the viscosity values comparing to coal oil (1.7 cP) and Diesel (3.35 cP).

As one of the improvements of the conventional cavitation models, a new cavitation model named “Multi-Process Cavitation Model”, which takes various elementary processes in cavitation such as bubble expansion/shrinkage with bubble-bubble interaction, evaporation/condensation, inception/collapse, coalescence and break-up into account, has been recently constructed. In this paper, we validated this cavitation model with a CFD solver around a hydrofoil of NACA0015 in cold water, together with the validation around a hydrofoil of NACA16-012 in liquid nitrogen as one of the cryogenic fluids. As a result, in the case of cold water, the prediction accuracy of the lift coefficient was improved compared with some typical conventional models. It was confirmed that one of the reasons why the present model improves the prediction accuracy of the lift coefficient is we take apparent “inception delay” into account based on the typical size distribution of pre-existing bubble nuclei. On the other hand, in the case of liquid nitrogen, the temperature decrease due to thermodynamic effect was predicted at least qualitatively, but its quantitative accuracy was not ensured. Related to the fair prediction in the case of liquid nitrogen, one of the problems in the application of the present cavitation model would be that the typical size distribution of bubble nuclei in inception has not been understood experimentally and theoretically in the case of cryogenic fluids, and more appropriate modeling of the inception in cryogenic fluids is one of the important near future works.

Ebullated bed reactor technology is found in the oil and gas industry as part of the hydrocracking process, within which heavy oils are cracked under elevated temperatures and pressures to produce increased fractions of refinable petroleum products. A unique feature of these types of reactors is the presence of an internal gas/liquid separation and liquid recycle line, through which 60 to 90% of the net liquid flow through the column is recycled to maintain fluidized conditions within the internal catalyst bed. The separation efficiency within these systems has a significant impact on overall unit profitability, whereby high levels of gas recirculation results in lower liquid throughput and increased potential of over-cracking of product gases and production of light ends [1]. These units typically operate at gas holdups above 30%, with even small reductions in gas entrainment potentially leading to significant increases in profitability. Due to the severe conditions present within operating units (several MPa pressures, >300°C), pilot-scale experimental systems exploring fluid flow phenomena have typically employed nitrogen and kerosene as analogous fluids[2]. Even within these systems, the ability to visualize flow patterns and parametrically evaluate the effects of separator modifications on gas recirculation has been limited. In an effort to provide strategic focus for future process improvements, Dalhousie University has been collaborating with Ottawa University and Syncrude Canada Ltd. to develop 3D CFD-based simulations of older generation designs to explore fundamental flow characteristics and sensitivity of gas-liquid separation efficiency to changes in geometry and process conditions. This work explores the sensitivity of gas separation efficiency to operational parameters (bubble size, processing rate, gas holdup), geometric design (two generations of separator designs), and computational model choices (drag correlations and packing limiters). Of particular note is the sensitivity of the predicted performance to drag models, for which there is limited empirical validation under the high gas fraction conditions present in this industrial unit, and the sensitivity to packing limiters, which reflect foam formation (an issue observed within operating units). The trends predicted within this work show significant similarities to current operational trends observed in commercial ebullated bed reactors, and provide a basis for predicting the effects of operational changes on the overall performance of these units.

Capillary tubes have been used in household refrigerators and other cooling systems for several decades. Complicated geometry, inevitable manufacturing variations, and complex two-phase phenomena have been major prohibitory factors in the development of reliable and efficient modeling tools to analyze the flow properties inside capillary tubes. Friction factor correlations as are available in the open literature (as examined by the authors) unanimously fail to give accurate analysis of the refrigerant flow. The delicate operation of a capillary tube makes experimentation cumbersome, time and cost intensive, and prone to errors. The present study introduces a method to utilize the data from a standard Nitrogen flow test for a given capillary tube to develop a model specific to that tube which can predict the refrigerant flow properties through the tube at any desired spatial resolution, inlet state, and flow rate. Thereby, exploratory studies and capillary tube modifications for the purpose of system optimization can be greatly simplified.

Cavitation is physically “a vaporization of liquid” which needs latent heat for phase change. A cavity grows in the liquid, so the latent heat of vaporization can only be supplied by the liquid surrounding the cavity. Thus, the liquid close to the interface region of the cavity is cooled down. In general, cryogenic liquids are very thermosensitive. For liquid hydrogen and oxygen used in rocket propulsion, the temperature in the cavity, i.e., the vapor pressure in the cavity, is lower than those of the liquid bulk. Thanks to this thermal effect, cavitation in cryogenic liquids is less developed than that in water at room temperature. This thermal effect on cavitation is beneficial in that it improves cavitation performance and alleviates cavitation instability in space inducers. In previous works, we investigated the relationship between the thermodynamic effect and the cavitation instabilities, e.g., rotating cavitation and cavitation surge, with a focus on the cavity length as an indication of cavitation. In the present work, first, aspects of cavitation in the inducer were observed by direct optical visualization in liquid nitrogen. Second, joint experiments in liquid nitrogen and cold water were conducted on a cavitaing inducer. In nitrogen experiments, operating conditions, i.e., rotational speed and liquid temperature, were varied to determine the cavitation scaling law. Through these experimental results, characteristic times, namely, the transit time for bubble growth and the characteristic thermal time introduced from the thermal property, were investigated as a cavitation thermodynamic parameter. It was found out that the adjustment of cavitation number has a good correlation with the ratio of the transit time and the characteristic thermal time.

The application of electric field has been demonstrated as an effective way to enhance pool boiling heat transfer. In past studies, adiabatic experiments were often conducted to simulate the dynamics of nucleate bubbles in the presence of an electric field, where gas bubbles were injected from an orifice, to avoid complexities involved in the nucleate boiling experiments. While adiabatic studies yield useful information of the bubble dynamics, further studies about bubble dynamics during nucleate boiling heat transfer are still necessary for a full understanding of the effects of applied electric field on the liquid-vapor phase change heat transfer. In this paper, the dynamics of a single boiling bubble in a direct current (DC) electric field was studied experimentally employing R113 as the working fluid. The life cycle of the boiling bubble was visualized using high-speed photography and was compared with that of an injected nitrogen bubble. Under the same electric field, a more appreciable elongation along the field direction was observed for the boiling bubble. A modified relationship between the bubble deformation and the electrical Weber number was proposed for the boiling bubble. As the electric field strength increases, it was found that, although the growth time of the boiling bubble increases, the waiting period decreases. However, it was also found that, the change of the whole life cycle with electric field strength increasing is relevant to the wall temperature. In this work, the wall temperature measured in the vicinity of the nucleation site upon the bubble departure decreases when the electric field is applied.

Cavitation is bubbling phenomena caused by local pressure reduction or strong energy concentration in liquids. Cavitation is widely observed in fluid machinery and it causes vibration, noise, erosion, and loss of efficiency. In addition, cavitation occurs in laser treatment and causes the ruin of human tissues. There are a lot of researches on cavitation phenomena in room temperature liquids. It is known that laser-induced bubble generates pressure waves, and the bubble oscillates and collapses eventually. Recently, it is reported that cavitation occurs in cryogenic liquid such as rocket propellant. However, there are few researches about cavitation in cryogenic liquid. Generally, the thermo-physical properties such as surface tension and viscosity of cryogenic liquid are different from those of room temperature water, and cavitation in cryogenic liquid occurs near boiling temperature (low subcooling region). In our experiment, single bubble was generated by focused laser, and its behavior and pressure wave were visualized. The focusing point of the laser was also settled near a wall in the liquids by designated distance. Interacting behavior of laser-induced bubble with the wall was also investigated. We chose liquid nitrogen (LN 2 ) as cryogenic liquid for safety. LN 2 was pressurized in order to increase the degree of subcooling. These experiments show difference of oscillation periods between bubble in water at room temperature and in liquid nitrogen. In addition, there is difference of oscillating behavior of LN 2 bubbles in low and high subcooling regions. We discuss influence of the degree of subcooling and stand-off distance. It is found that shapes of deformation and oscillation period of bubble are influenced by these parameters.

An interface tracking method for predicting bubble dissolution process is proposed. A non-diffusive scheme for advecting species concentrations is adopted to accurately compute the volume change due to mass transfer. The applicability of the proposed method is examined through several benchmark tests, i.e. mass transfer from a static bubble and that from free rising bubbles. Predicted species concentration distributions and mass transfer coefficients agree well with theoretical and empirical models. Dissolution of single carbon dioxide bubbles in a vertical pipe filled with water is also simulated. The bubbles consist only of carbon dioxide, and nitrogen and oxygen are initially dissolved in water. The volume change due to dissolution of carbon dioxide from the bubbles and evaporation of nitrogen and oxygen from water are well predicted.

The application of electric field has been demonstrated as an effective way to enhance pool boiling heat transfer. In past studies, adiabatic experiments were often conducted to simulate the dynamics of nucleate bubbles in the presence of an electric field, where gas bubbles were injected from an orifice, to avoid complexities involved in the nucleate boiling experiments. While adiabatic studies yield useful information of the bubble dynamics, further studies about bubble dynamics during nucleate boiling heat transfer are still necessary for a full understanding of the effects of applied electric field on the liquid-vapor phase change heat transfer. In this paper, the dynamics of a single boiling bubble in a direct current (DC) electric field was studied experimentally employing R113 as the working fluid. The life cycle of the boiling bubble was visualized using high-speed photography and was compared with that of an injected nitrogen bubble. Under the same electric field, a more appreciable elongation along the field direction was observed for the boiling bubble. A modified relationship between the bubble deformation and the electrical Weber number was proposed for the boiling bubble. As the electric field strength increases, it was found that, although the growth time of the boiling bubble increases, the waiting period decreases. However, it was also found that, the change of the whole life cycle with electric field strength increasing is relevant to the wall temperature. In this work, the wall temperature measured in the vicinity of the nucleation site upon the bubble departure decreases when the electric field is applied.

Gas-liquid two-phase flows in a horizontal rectangular microchannel with return bends have been investigated. The width and the depth of the microchannel are 240 μm and 230 μm, respectively. T-junction type gas-liquid mixer was used to introduce gas and liquid in the channel. In order to know the effects of liquid properties, distilled water, pure ethanol, 49wt% ethanol aqueous solution and HFE7200 were used as the test liquids, while nitrogen gas as the test gas. The flow pattern, the bubble velocity, the bubble length and the liquid slug length were measured, and the void fraction was determined as the ratio of the gas superficial velocity to the bubble velocity. The bubble velocity at a downstream position from the bend is faster than that at an upstream position, and thus the void fraction is smaller at a downstream position. The bubble velocity data were well correlated with the well-known drift flux model with Kawahara et al.’s distribution parameter correlation. The bubble length data at the upstream and the downstream positions are also correlated with the scaling law proposed by Garstecki et al., irrespective of the test liquids. The liquid slug length data are correlated with an exponential function of the void fraction. The ratio of the bubble length to the bubble pitch is also well correlated with a linear function of the homogeneous void fraction.

An optical measurement system and video camera were used to investigate gas-liquid two-phase flow characteristics in wetting and poorly wetting circular microchannels of 100 μm diameter. By examining the optical sensor signals from which void fraction and the lengths and velocities of gas slugs and liquid slugs were measured, the effects of wetting on the adiabatic two-phase flow characteristics of nitrogen gas and water were investigated. The data were obtained using a T-junction with the same internal diameter as the microchannel, but the T-junction itself was well wetting in both experiments. Besides the flat nose and tail of gas slugs at low gas and liquid flow rates, poorly wetting microchannel showed higher void fraction and friction pressure drop compared to the well wetting microchannel. The poorly wetting microchannel also showed the presence of short and low moving liquid slugs which were absent in well-wetting microchannel.

The thermodynamic effect which affects the cavitation performance of a cavitating centrifugal pump was investigated experimentally using liquid nitrogen. To measure the pump cavitation performance, a test setup which could carry out experiments using both liquid nitrogen and cold water was constructed. The test setup consisted of a suction tank, a test pump, a mass flow meter, a ball valve and pipes. Vacuum-insulated pipes were used. The test pump was a centrifugal type magnetic pump, and two impellers, which differed in cavitation performance, were used in experiments. Cavitation performance using liquid nitrogen or cold water could be obtained from the measurement of the pump suction and delivery pressure, the pump suction and delivery temperature, and the discharge flow rate. And an improvement in pump cavitation performance could be seen when comparing the experimental results from using liquid nitrogen with those from using cold water. The experimental results indicated that cavitation performance using liquid nitrogen was better than that using cold water. This improvement in cavitation performance was thought to be due to the thermodynamic effect of cavitation. And the estimated temperature depression due to the thermodynamic effect decreased with a decreasing flow coefficient. Moreover, it was shown that the estimated temperature depression due to the thermodynamic effect on the low cavitation performance impeller was larger than that on the high cavitation performance impeller at the same flow coefficient.

Numerical simulations of a transient flow of helium injected into an established background flow of nitrogen were carried out to identify the dominant features of the transient mixing process between these two dissimilar gases. The geometry of interest is composed of two helium slots on either side of a central nitrogen channel feeding into a ‘two-dimensional’ mixing chamber. Simulations were accomplished on both two- and three-dimensional grids using an unsteady DES approach. Results are compared with experimental measurements of species distributions. Unsteady 2-D solutions give a reasonable qualitative picture of the transient mixing process in the middle of the chamber and enable cost-effective parametric analyses and grid refinement studies. The 2-D solutions also provide quantitative estimates of representative characteristic times to guide the 3-D calculations. The 3-D solutions give a reasonable approximation to span-wise events.

Nanowires vibrating at resonance in a gas can serve as sensitive detectors of mass (< 10 −18 grams), of use to molecular diagnosis of disease. They can also serve as sensitive detectors of damping force in an ambient gas environment. The Q-factor of resonance spectra, quantifies the sharpness of the peak and is a measure of the ratio of inertial to dissipative (damping) forces. Q-factor data enable quantification of the gas damping force in different regimes of rarefied gas dynamics. Measurements were made with silicon and rhodium nanowires of comparable size, in pure dry nitrogen, with pressure increasing from high vacuum (10 −10 atm) to one atmospheric pressure. The data show that, for the silicon nanowires, the Q-factor begins to decrease from its high-vacuum value at a lower pressure and reaches a lower minimum value at one atmosphere, compared to the rhodium nanowires. We show that nanowire structural properties, namely the elastic modulus and intrinsic damping, are responsible for these differing sensitivities to a similar gas damping force range. The results show an important coupling of fluid and structural interaction for rarefied gas dynamics at nanoscale. For practical sensing applications in an ambient gas, this coupling indicates that silicon nanowires are better suited for gas damping force sensing, while rhodium nanowires would fare better as mass sensors for molecular diagnosis.