A pressurized solar reactor for effecting the thermochemical gasification of carbonaceous particles driven by concentrated solar energy is modeled by means of a reacting two-phase flow. The governing mass, momentum, and energy conservation equations are formulated and solved numerically by finite-volume computational fluid dynamics coupled to a Monte-Carlo radiation solver for a non-gray absorbing, emitting, and scattering participating medium. Implemented are Langmuir-Hinshelwood kinetic rate expressions and size-dependent properties for charcoal particles undergoing shrinkage as gasification progresses. Validation is accomplished by comparing the numerically calculated data with the experimentally measured temperatures in the range 1283-1546 K, chemical conversions in the range 32-94%, and syngas product H2:CO and CO2:CO molar ratios obtained from testing a 3 kW solar reactor prototype with up to 3718 suns concentrated radiation. The simulation model is applied to identify the predominant heat transfer mechanisms and to analyze the effect of the solar rector's geometry and operational parameters (namely: carbon feeding rate, inert gas flow rate, solar concentration ratio, and total pressure) on the solar reactor's performance indicators given by the carbon molar conversion and the solar-to-fuel energy efficiency. Under optimal conditions, these can reach 94% and 40%, respectively.

In this work, fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of three-dimensional (3D) wall jets exiting from a circular and square opening are presented based on experimental investigations. Two hydraulic diameters, namely, 2.5 and 7.5 mm and a Reynolds number range of 5000–20,000 have been considered. Mean velocity and turbulence intensity distribution in the walljet are quantified using a hot wire anemometry. Measurements are done both along the streamwise and spanwise directions. Transient infrared thermography is used for mapping the temperatures over the surface, and the heat transfer coefficients are estimated using a semi-infinite approximation methodology. Results show that, for circular jets, the effect of the jet diameter on the local and the spanwise-averaged Nusselt number is most pronounced near the jet exit. Further, it is also observed that circular jets have an edge over square jets. A correlation with a high correlation coefficient of 0.95 has been developed for spanwise average Nusselt number as a function of the Reynolds number and the dimensionless streamwise distance.

This paper presents the construction of a conservative radiation hydrodynamics algorithm in two-dimensional (2D) spherical geometry. First, we discretize the radiation transport equation (RTE) in that geometry. The discretization preserves the conservation of photons by integrating the original RTE in 2D spherical coordinates over both angular and spatial control volumes. Some numerical results are provided to verify the discretization for both optically thin and thick circumstances. Second, we formulate the staggered Lagrangian hydrodynamics in that geometry. The formulation preserves the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy by integrating the original hydrodynamic equations in 2D spherical coordinates over their respective control volumes. The original edge-centered artificial viscosity in 2D cylindrical geometry is also extended to be capable of capturing shock waves in 2D spherical geometry. Several 2D benchmark cases are provided to verify the scheme. The subsequent construction of the conservative radiation hydrodynamics algorithm is accomplished by the combination of the staggered Lagrangian hydrodynamics scheme and the solution of the RTE in 2D spherical geometry. Several 2D problems are calculated to verify our radiation hydrodynamics algorithm at the end.

In a recent contribution, the authors show that the uncertainty in heat transfer results obtained using the Monte Carlo ray-trace (MCRT) method is related to the median of the radiation distribution factor probability density function (PDF). The value of this discovery would be significantly enhanced if the median could be known a priori without first computing the distribution factors. This would allow the user to determine the number of rays required to achieve the desired accuracy of a subsequent heat transfer analysis. The current contribution presents a correlation for the median of the distribution factor PDF as a function of emissivity and the number of surface elements defining an enclosure. The correlation involves a single parameter whose value is unique for a given enclosure geometry. We find that the radiation behavior of a given enclosure can be classified on a scale ranging from reflection-dominated to geometry-dominated. The correlation is shown to work well for reflection-dominated enclosures but less well for geometry-dominated enclosures.

This study investigates the effects of blowing ratio, density ratio, and spanwise pitch on the flat plate film cooling from two rows of compound angled cylindrical holes. Two arrangements of two-row compound angled cylindrical holes are tested: (a) the first row and the second row are oriented in staggered and same compound angled direction ( β = +45 deg for the first row and +45 deg for the second row); (b) the first row and the second row are oriented in inline and opposite direction ( β = +45 deg for the first row and −45 deg for the second row). The cooling hole is 4 mm in diameter with an inclined angle of 30 deg. The streamwise row-to-row spacing is fixed at 3d, and the spanwise hole-to-hole (p) is varying from 4d, 6d to 8d for both designs. The film cooling effectiveness measurements were performed in a low-speed wind tunnel in which the turbulence intensity is kept at 6%. There are 36 cases for each design including four blowing ratios (M = 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0), three density ratios (DR = 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0), and three hole-to-hole spacing (p/d = 4, 6, and 8). The detailed film cooling effectiveness distributions were obtained by using the steady-state pressure-sensitive paint (PSP) technique. The spanwise-averaged cooling effectiveness are compared over the range of flow parameters. Some interesting observations are discovered including blowing ratio effect strongly depending on geometric design; staggered arrangement of the hole with same orientation does not yield better effectiveness at higher blowing ratio. Currently, film cooling effectiveness correlation of two-row compound angled cylindrical holes is not available, so this study developed the correlations for the inline arrangement of holes with opposing angles and the staggered arrangement of holes with same angles. The results and correlations are expected to provide useful information for the two-row flat plate film cooling analysis.

Due to the microscopic roughness of contacting materials, an additional thermal resistance arises from the constriction and spreading of heat near contact spots. Predictive models for contact resistance typically consider abutting semi-infinite cylinders subjected to an adiabatic boundary condition along their outer radius. At the nominal plane of contact, an isothermal and circular contact spot is surrounded by an adiabatic annulus and the far-field boundary condition is one of constant heat flux. However, cylinders with flat bases do not mimic the geometry of contacts. To remedy this, we perturb the geometry of the problem such that, in cross section, the circular contact is surrounded by an adiabatic arc. When the curvature of this arc is small, we employ a series solution for the leading-order (flat base) problem. Then, Green's second identity is used to compute the increase in spreading resistance in a single cylinder, and thus the contact resistance for abutting ones, without fully resolving the temperature field. Complementary numerical results for contact resistance span the full range of contact fraction and protrusion angle of the arc. The results suggest as much as a 10–15% increase in contact resistance for realistic contact fraction and asperity slopes. When the protrusion angle is negative, the decrease in spreading resistance for a single cylinder is also provided.

Numerical and thermodynamic analyses have been undertaken in this study to examine energy and exergy efficiencies of in-line tube banks for unsteady cross-flow. Pitch ratio (PR) and the number of in-line tubes are varied for Reynolds numbers of 500 and 10,000, and artificial heat leakages are modeled as a source term. Numerical results are compared with published values, and good agreements are obtained regarding Nusselt number and pressure drop. Whereas the energy efficiency varied between 72% and 99%, the exergy efficiency ranged from 40% to 70%. It was found that while viscous dissipation has a low effect on energy and exergy efficiencies for the lower Reynolds number, it has a significant effect for the higher Reynolds number. On the other hand, heat leakage had a greater effect on exergy efficiency compared to energy efficiency, especially for the lower Reynolds number case. Overall, this study verified how heat leakage could play a vital role on efficiency for low-inlet temperature heat recovery systems.

Vortex generator as secondary flow enhancement technique has captured the attention of many researchers recently to augment the performance of the fin-and-tube heat exchanger (FTHE). There are various vortex generator parameters that influence the thermal and hydraulic performance in the FTHE such as the geometry and arrangement. In this study, the effect of different vortex generator geometries and arrangements was investigated using numerical simulation method. There are three vortex generator geometries studied including rectangular winglet (RWVG), delta winglet (DWVG), and trapezoidal winglet (TWVG). The vortex generators were placed behind tubes either in common flow down (CFD) or common flow up (CFU) arrangement. The introduction of vortex generators behind tubes resulted in heat transfer augmentation but comes together with higher pressure drop penalty. Further analysis on the thermal performance has found that TWVG in CFU arrangement almost obtained similar thermal performance factor with respect to the baseline case at Reynolds number 500 and 600. However, the thermal performance factor for TWVG in CFU arrangement decreases as the Reynolds number further increased. For other vortex generator cases, lesser thermal performance factor was found as compared to the baseline case.

There is a substantial and growing body of literature which solves Laplace's equation governing the velocity field for a linear-shear flow of liquid in the unwetted (Cassie) state over a superhydrophobic surface. Usually, no-slip and shear-free boundary conditions are applied at liquid–solid interfaces and liquid–gas ones (menisci), respectively. When the menisci are curved, the liquid is said to flow over a “bubble mattress.” We show that the dimensionless apparent hydrodynamic slip length available from studies of such surfaces is equivalent to (i) the dimensionless spreading resistance for a flat, isothermal heat source flanked by arc-shaped adiabatic boundaries and (ii) the dimensionless thermal contact resistance between symmetric mating surfaces with flat contacts flanked by arc-shaped adiabatic boundaries. This is important because real surfaces are rough rather than smooth. Furthermore, we demonstrate that this observation provides a significant source of new and explicit results on spreading and contact resistances. Significantly, the results presented accommodate arbitrary solid-to-solid contact fraction and arc geometry in the contact resistance problem for the first time. We also provide formulae for the case when each period window includes a finite number of no-slip (or isothermal) and shear free (or adiabatic) regions and extend them to the case when the latter are weakly curved. Finally, we discuss other areas of mathematical physics to which our results are directly relevant.

The accuracy of computational fluid dynamic (CFD)-based heat transfer predictions have been examined of relevance to liquid cooling of IC engines at high engine loads where some nucleate boiling occurs. Predictions based on (i) the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solution and (ii) large eddy simulation (LES) have been generated. The purpose of these simulations is to establish the role of turbulence modeling on the accuracy and efficiency of heat transfer predictions for engine-like thermal conditions where published experimental data are available. A multiphase mixture modeling approach, with a volume-of-fluid interface-capturing method, has been employed. To predict heat transfer in the boiling regime, the empirical boiling correlation of Rohsenow is used for both RANS and LES. The rate of vapor-mass generation at the wall surface is determined from the heat flux associated with the evaporation phase change. Predictions via CFD are compared with published experimental data showing that LES gives only slightly more accurate temperature predictions compared to RANS but at substantially higher computational cost.

This study aims to evaluate adiabatic and conjugate effusion cooling effectiveness of combustion chamber liner plate of gas turbines. Validation of the adiabatic model was done by comparing computational fluid dynamics (CFD) result with the experimental results obtained using the subsonic cascade tunnel facility available at Heat Transfer Lab of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL). Computational simulation of the conjugate model is validated against published numerical results. Numerical simulation for the adiabatic cooling effectiveness is carried out for a 1:3 scaled up flat plate test geometry, while the actual flat plate geometry is considered for the conjugate cooling effectiveness analysis. The test plate has 11 rows of cooling holes, and the holes are arranged in staggered manner with each row containing eight holes. For both adiabatic and conjugate cases, the same mainstream conditions are maintained with the inlet temperature of 329 K, velocity of 20 m/s, density ratio 1.3. The coolant to mainstream blowing ratios (BRs) are maintained at 0.4, 1.15, and 1.6. The coolant temperature is 253 K with the flow rates are according to the BRs. Cooling effectiveness is obtained by using CFD simulation with ANSYS fluent package. From the comparison of adiabatic and conjugate results, it is found that conjugate model is giving superior cooling protection than the adiabatic model and effusion cooling effectiveness increases with increase in BR. Investigations on comparison of angle of injection holes show that, 30 deg model give maximum effusion cooling effectiveness as compared to 45 deg and 60 deg models.

We numerically compute Nusselt numbers for laminar, hydrodynamically, and thermally fully developed Poiseuille flow of liquid in the Cassie state through a parallel plate-geometry microchannel symmetrically textured by a periodic array of isoflux ridges oriented parallel to the flow. Our computations are performed using an efficient, multiple domain, Chebyshev collocation (spectral) method. The Nusselt numbers are a function of the solid fraction of the ridges, channel height to ridge pitch ratio, and protrusion angle of menisci. Significantly, our results span the entire range of these geometrical parameters. We quantify the accuracy of two asymptotic results for Nusselt numbers corresponding to small meniscus curvature, by direct comparison against the present results. The first comparison is with the exact solution of the dual series equations resulting from a small boundary perturbation (Kirk et al., 2017, “Nusselt Numbers for Poiseuille Flow Over Isoflux Parallel Ridges Accounting for Meniscus Curvature,” J. Fluid Mech., 811 , pp. 315–349). The second comparison is with the asymptotic limit of this solution for large channel height to ridge pitch ratio.

Experiments were performed to investigate the local development of roughness and its effect on mass transfer in an S-shaped bend at Reynolds number of 200,000. The tests were performed over four consecutive time periods using a 203-mm-diameter test section with a dissolving gypsum lining to water in a closed flow loop at a Schmidt number of 1200. The surface roughness and the mass transfer over the test periods were measured using X-ray computed tomography (CT) scans of the surface. Two regions of high mass transfer are found: along the intrados of the first and second bends. The surface roughness in these two regions, characterized by the height-to-spacing ratio, grows more rapidly than in the upstream pipe. There is an increase in the mass transfer with time, which corresponds well with the local increase in the height-to-spacing ratio of the roughness. The two regions of high mass transfer enhancement in the bend can be attributed to both a roughness effect and a flow effect due to the bend geometry. The geometry effect was determined by normalizing the local mass transfer with that in a straight pipe with equivalent surface roughness. The mass transfer enhancement due to the geometry effect was found to be relatively constant for the two high mass transfer regions, with a value of approximately 1.5.

The widely used gas turbine combustor double-walled cooling scheme relies on very small pedestals. In a combustor it is impractical for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to resolve each pedestal individually as that would require a very large amount of grid points and consequent excessive computation time. These pedestals can be omitted from the mesh and their effects captured on the fluid via a pedestal subgrid-scale (SGS) model. The aim is to apply the SGS approach, which takes into account the effects on pressure, velocity, turbulence, and heat transfer, in an unstructured CFD code. The flow inside a two-dimensional (2D) plain duct is simulated to validate the pedestal SGS model, and the results for pressure, velocity, and heat transfer are in good agreement with the measured data. The conjugate heat transfer inside a three-dimensional (3D) duct is also studied to calibrate the heat source term of the SGS model due to the pedestals. The resolved flow in the combustor pedestal tile geometry is numerically investigated using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) in order to first assess the viability of the RANS and LES to predict the impinging flow and second to provide more validation data for the development of the SGS pedestal correlations. It is found that the complexity of such a flow, with high levels of curvature, impingement, and heat transfer, poses a challenge to the standard RANS models. The LES provides more details of the impinging flow features. The pedestal model is then applied to the complete tile to replace the pedestals. The results are close to both the fully resolved CFD and the measurements. To improve the flow features in the impingement zone, the first two rows were resolved with the mesh and combined with the SGS modeling for the rest of the tile; this gave optimum results of pressure, velocity, and turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) distribution inside the pedestal cooling tile.

Liquid microjets are emerging as candidate primary or secondary heat exchangers for the thermal management of next generation photonic integrated circuits (PICs). However, the thermal and hydrodynamic behavior of confined, low Reynolds number liquid slot jets is not yet comprehensively understood. This investigation experimentally examined jet outlet modifications—in the form of tabs and chevrons—as techniques for passive control and enhancement of single-phase convective heat transfer. The investigation was carried out for slot jets in the laminar flow regime, with a Reynolds number range, based on the slot jet hydraulic diameter, of 100–500. A slot jet with an aspect ratio of 4 and a fixed confinement height to hydraulic diameter ratio ( H / D h ) of 1 was considered. The local surface heat transfer and velocity field characteristics were measured using infrared (IR) thermography and particle image velocimetry (PIV) techniques. It was found that increases in area-averaged Nusselt number of up to 29% compared to the baseline case could be achieved without incurring additional hydrodynamic losses. It was also determined that the location and magnitude of Nusselt number and velocity peaks within the slot jet stagnation region could be passively controlled and enhanced through the application of outlet tabs of varying geometries and locations.

The increasing demand for designing effective cooling solutions in high power density electronic components has resulted in exploring advanced thermal management strategies. Over the past decade, phase-change cooling has received widespread recognition due to its ability to dissipate large heat fluxes while maintaining low temperature differences. In this paper, a radial flow boiling configuration through a central inlet was studied. This configuration is particularly suited for chip cooling application. Two heat transfer surfaces with (a) radial microchannels, and (b) offset strip fins were fabricated and their flow boiling performance with distilled water was obtained. Furthermore, the effect of the liquid flow rate on the boiling performance and enhancement mechanisms was also investigated in this study. At a flow rate of 240 mL/min, a maximum heat flux of 369 W/cm 2 at a wall superheat of 49 °C and a pressure drop of 59 kPa was achieved with the radial microchannels, while the offset strip fins achieved a maximum heat flux of 618 W/cm 2 at a wall superheat of 20 °C. Increasing the flow rate to 320 mL/min resulted in a heat flux of 897 W/cm 2 demonstrating the potential of using a radial configuration for enhancing the boiling performance. The increase in flow cross-sectional area was shown to be responsible for the reduced pressure drop when compared to straight microchannel configurations. The high-speed imaging incorporated in each test provided valuable insight and understanding into the flow patterns and underlying mechanism in these geometries. With the ease of implementation, highly stable flow, and further optimization possibilities with different microchannel and taper configurations, the radial geometry is expected to provide significant performance enhancement well beyond a critical heat flux (CHF) of 1 kW/cm 2 .

In this study, a new coupled surface shape design (SSD) methodology named direct design method is presented for the solution of problems containing different types of convection heat transfer in which a specific distribution of either heat flux or temperature is given instead of the shape of a boundary. In the proposed method, the governing equation, without using any mathematical transformation for the physical domains, is manipulated so that the grid generation, solving fluid flow, and heat transfer as well as shape updating can all be carried out simultaneously. Five different inverse shape design problems containing different types of convection heat transfer are solved by the proposed method. All the problems are also solved using the ball-spine algorithm (BSA), which is a recently developed de-coupled algorithm, for the sake of comparison. In all problems, the effects of using different under-relaxation parameters are investigated and the capability of both approaches is compared with each other. The results show that the proposed coupled method can solve the problems better than the BSA in the sense that the direct design method converges sooner than the BSA when the same under-relaxation parameter is used for both methods. Also, it is shown that the computational cost of solving a SSD problem using the direct design method is slightly greater than solving an analysis problem.

Microchannel heat exchangers offer the potential for high heat transfer coefficients; however, implementation challenges must be addressed to realize this potential. Maldistribution of phases among the microchannels and the changing phase velocities associated with phase change present design challenges. Flow maldistribution and oscillatory instabilities can affect transfer rates and pressure drops. In condensers, evaporators, absorbers, and desorbers, changing phase velocities can change prevailing flow regimes from favorable to unfavorable. Geometries with serpentine passages containing pin fins can be configured to maintain favorable flow regimes throughout the component for phase-change heat and mass transfer applications. Due to the possibility of continuous redistribution of the flow across the pin fins along the flow direction, maldistribution can also be reduced. These features enable high heat transfer coefficients, thereby achieving considerable compactness. The characteristics of two-phase flow through a serpentine passage with micro-pin fin arrays with diameter 350 μ m and height 406 μ m are investigated. An air–water mixture is used to represent two-phase flow through the serpentine test section, and flow features are investigated using high-speed photography. Improved flow distribution is observed in the serpentine geometry. Distinct flow regimes, different from those observed in microchannels, are also established. Void fraction and interfacial area along the length of the serpentine passages are compared with the corresponding values for microchannels. A model developed for the two-phase frictional pressure drops across this serpentine micro-pin fin geometry predicts experimental values with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 7.16%.

The efficiency of conventional heat exchangers is restricted by many factors, such as effectiveness of convective heat transfer and the cost of their operation. The current research deals with these issues by developing a novel method for building a lower-cost yet more efficient heat sink. This method involves using a specially designed curved microchannel to utilize the enhanced fluid mixing characteristics of Dean vortices and thus transferring heat efficiently. Numerical models have been employed to investigate the heat transfer enhancement of curved channels over straight equivalents, with the aim of optimizing the heat exchanger design based on the parameters of maximizing heat transfer while minimizing pressure drop and unit cost. A range of cross-sectional geometries for the curved channels was compared, showing significantly higher Nusselt numbers than equivalent straight channels throughout and finding superior performance factors for square, circular, and symmetrical trapezoidal profiles. Due to the difficulty and expense in manufacturing circular microchannels, the relatively simple to fabricate square and symmetrical trapezoidal channels are put forward as the most advantageous designs. The variation of Nusselt number over the length of the channel for a range of different curvatures (and hence Dean numbers) is also examined, showing significantly higher heat transfer occurring in strongly curved channels, especially in areas where the generated Dean vortices are strongest. The variation in Nusselt number was found to form the shape of an “arc.” In this way, a relationship between the Dean number and the Nusselt number is characterized and discussed, leading to suggestions regarding optimal microfluidic heat transfer design.

Estimation of thermal properties or diffusion properties from transient data requires that a model is available that is physically meaningful and suitably precise. The model must also produce numerical values rapidly enough to accommodate iterative regression, inverse methods, or other estimation procedures during which the model is evaluated again and again. Bodies of infinite extent are a particular challenge from this perspective. Even for exact analytical solutions, because the solution often has the form of an improper integral that must be evaluated numerically, lengthy computer-evaluation time is a challenge. The subject of this paper is improving the computer evaluation time for exact solutions for infinite and semi-infinite bodies in the cylindrical coordinate system. The motivating applications for the present work include the line-source method for obtaining thermal properties, the estimation of thermal properties by the laser-flash method, and the estimation of aquifer properties or petroleum-field properties from well-test measurements. In this paper, the computer evaluation time is improved by replacing the integral-containing solution by a suitable finite-body series solution. The precision of the series solution may be controlled to a high level and the required computer time may be minimized, by a suitable choice of the extent of the finite body. The key finding of this paper is that the resulting series may be accurately evaluated with a fixed number of terms at any value of time, which removes a long-standing difficulty with series solution in general. The method is demonstrated for the one-dimensional case of a large body with a cylindrical hole and is extended to two-dimensional geometries of practical interest. The computer-evaluation time for the finite-body solutions are shown to be hundreds or thousands of time faster than the infinite-body solutions, depending on the geometry.