Generation and Propagation of Thermally Induced Acoustic Waves in Supercritical Fluids: Numerical and Experimental Results

The behavior of thermally induced acoustic waves generated by the rapid heating of a bounding solid wall in a closed cylindrical chamber filled with supercritical carbon dioxide is investigated numerically and experimentally. A time-dependent one-dimensional problem is considered for the numerical simulations where the supercritical fluid is contained between two parallel plates. The NIST Reference Database 12 is used to obtain the property relations for supercritical carbon dioxide. The thermally induced pressure (acoustic) waves undergo repeated reflections at the two confining walls and gradually dissipate. The numerically predicted temperature of the bulk supercritical fluid is found to increase homogeneously (the so called piston effect) within the domain. The details of generation, propagation and dissipation of thermally induced acoustic waves in supercritical fluids are presented under different heating rates. In the experiments, a resistance-capacitance circuit is used to generate a rapid temperature increase in a thin metal foil located at one end of a closed cylindrical chamber. The time-dependent pressure variation in the chamber and the temperature history at the foil are recorded by a fast response measurement system. Both the experimental and numerical studies predict similar pressure wave shapes and profiles due to rapid heating of a wall.