Experimental Investigations on Latent Heat Storage Unit using Paraffin Wax as Phase Change Material

Thermal performance of a latent heat storage unit is evaluated experimentally. The latent heat thermal energy storage system analyzed in this work is a shell-and-tube type of heat exchanger using paraffin wax (melting point between 58°C and 60°C) as the phase change material. The temperature distribution in the phase change material is measured with time. The influence of mass flow rate and inlet temperature of the heat transfer fluid on heat fraction is examined for both the melting and solidification processes. The mass flow rate of heat transfer fluid (water) is varied in the range of 0.0167 kg/s to 0.0833 kg/s (1 kg/min to 5 kg/min), and the fluid inlet temperature is varied between 75°C and 85°C. The experimental results indicate that the total melting time of the phase change material increases as the mass flow rate and inlet temperature of heat transfer fluid decrease. The fluid inlet temperature influences the heat fraction considerably as compared to the mass flow rate of heat transfer fluid during the melting process of the phase change material.     

围绕变壁温水平圆柱热源接触熔化的理论分析

研究围绕变壁温热源的接触熔化,建立表面温度随角度变化的水平圆柱热源接触熔化模型.对紧密接触熔化区的液体传热与运动状态进行分析,运用Nusselt液膜理论建立熔化控制方程,并采用理论求解,得到稳定熔化时的熔化速度解析解,所得结果包含了文献关于定壁温热源熔化的分析结果.通过分析不同温度分布下发生接触熔化的熔化速度、液膜厚度和压力分布情况,得到温度分布对熔化影响的规律.     

Experimental study on the heat transfer characteristics of a new type flat micro heat pipe heat exchanger with latent heat thermal energy storage

An experimental energy storage system has been designed using a new type flat micro heat pipe heat exchanger that incorporates a moderate-temperature phase change material paraffin with a melting point of 58°C. The basic structure, working principles, and design concept are discussed. The heat transfer process during the charging and discharging of the heat exchanger under various operating conditions has been experimentally investigated. Results show that the performance of the new type flat micro heat pipe was steady and efficient during charging and discharging. The average thermal storage power and absorption efficiency have been determined to be approximately 537 W and 92.5%, respectively.     

Mathematical simulation of melting inside a square cavity with a local heat source

Numerical simulation of transient melting regimes inside an enclosure in the presence of a local heat source has been carried out. Mathematical model formulated in terms of dimensionless variables such as stream function, vorticity, and temperature has been numerically solved by finite difference method. Effects of the Rayleigh number 4·10⁵ ≤ Ra ≤ 5·10⁷, Stefan number 2.21 ≤ Ste ≤ 5.53, and dimensionless time on velocity and temperature fields as well as on the local Nusselt number along the heat source surface have been analyzed in detail. The transient effects of the considered process at high values of the Rayleigh number have been identified.     

热管式相变蓄热换热器储/放能过程中传热特性的实验研究

将热管作为换热元件应用于相变蓄热系统中,研制了一套热管式相变蓄热换热器。采用石蜡作为蓄热材料,对其储、放能过程即内部石蜡的融化与凝固过程进行了实验研究。测定了储、放能过程中不同时刻换热器内石蜡的温度分布; 改变供、取热流体参数,分析了供/取热流体的入口温度与流量对换热器储/放能过程的影响;分析了储、放能过程中能量随时间的变化情况。结果表明,热管在本换热器内极好地发挥了换热元件的作用,换热器运行状况良好,各项功能均能较好地实现。     

Experimental Study of Vibration Effects on Heat Transfer during Solidification of Paraffin in a Spherical Shell

Two effects that have been observed when metals and metal alloys are vibrated during solidification are a decrease in dendritic spacing, which directly affects density, and faster cooling rates and associated solidification times. Because these two effects happen simultaneously during solidification, it is challenging to determine the one effect independently from the other. Most previous studies were on metals and metal alloys. In these studies, the one effect, i.e., the decrease in dendritic spacing, might influence the other, i.e., the faster cooling rates, and vice versa. The direct link between vibration and heat transfer has not yet been studied independently. The purpose of this study was to experimentally investigate the effect of vibration only on heat transfer and thus solidification rate. Experiments were conducted on paraffin wax, because it had a clearly defined macroscopic crystal structure consisting of mostly large straight-chain hydrocarbons. The advantage of the large straight-chain hydrocarbons was that the dendritic spacing was not affected by the cooling rate. Experiments were done with paraffin wax inside hollow plastic spheres of 40 mm diameter with 1 mm wall thickness. The paraffin wax was initially in a liquid state at a uniform temperature of 60°C and then submerged into a thermal bath at a uniform constant temperature of 15°C, which was approximately 20°C below the mean solidification temperature of the wax. Experiments were conducted in approximately 300 samples, with and without vibration at frequencies varying from 10–300 Hz. The first set of experiments was conducted to determine the solidification times. In the second set of experiments, the mass of wax solidified was determined at discrete time steps, with and without vibration. The results showed that paraffin wax had vibration independent of solid density contrary to other materials, e.g., metals and metal alloys. Enhancement of heat transfer resulted in quicker solidification times and possible control over the heat transfer rate. The increase in heat transfer leading to faster solidifcation times was observed to first occur as frequency increased and then to decrease.     

Influence of electronic and geometric properties on melting of sodium clusters

Systematics of the melting transition for sodium clusters with 40-355 atoms has been studied with both ab initio and semiclassical molecular dynamics simulations. The melting temperatures obtained with an ab initio method for Na₅₅ ⁺ and Na₉₃ ⁺ correlate well with the experimental results. The semiclassically determined melting temperatures show similarities with the experimentally determined ones in the size region from 55 to 93 and near size 142, and the latent heat in the size region from 55 to 139, but not elsewhere in the size region studied. This indicates that the nonmonotonical melting behavior observed experimentally cannot be fully explained by geometrical effects. The semiclassically determined melting temperature and the latent heat correlate quite well, indicating that they respond similarly to changes in cluster geometry and size. Similarly, the binding energy per atom seems to correlate with the melting temperature and the latent heat of fusion.Received: 30 October 2003, Published online: 20 January 2004PACS: 36.40.Ei Phase transitions in clusters     

竖直盘管直接蒸发内融冰式冰蓄冷空调融冰机理

以竖直盘管直接蒸发内融冰式冰蓄冷空调蓄冰槽内的传热过程为基础,利用热阻网络法和能量平衡建立了融冰过程的数学模型,对其融冰机理进行了理论分析。计算结果表明,融冰过程中蓄冰槽盘管出口的制冷剂温度随时间逐渐升高,但在后期存在一个因冰柱碎裂上浮导致自然对流瞬时得到强化从而引起的短时间轻微下降现象。另外,蓄冰槽内的传热系数经历了先骤然降低,然后维持稳定,最后又快速上升的过程。该现象与盘管外由于冰融化所形成的水环直径有关,水环直径越大,释放冷量的速度就越小。通过与实验数据的对比,验证了计算模型的合理性和准确性。     

Regenerative adsorption heat pumps: Optimization of the design

The optimization of the design of a zeolite-water adsorption heat pump is presented, using a recently published model. Attention has been focused on the optimization of the energy fluxes between the machine components and the user. A modification of the system is proposed to achieve a constant heat flux from the external heat exchanger. The influence of several parameters, including the global bed heat transfer coefficient, on the performance of the system was analyzed.It was shown that by optimizing the design of the heat pump system, good improvements in performance can be achieved. A constant power of 18.6 kW released during 70% of the cycle time with a COP of 1.4 can be obtained with a two reactor regenerative system using 152 kg of zeolite in total. On the way to more efficient and economic regenerative systems, future research attention should be focused on improving the heat transfer inside the machine.     

A keyhole volumetric model for weld pool analysis in Nd:YAG pulsed laser welding

This study presents a new model for analyzing the temperature distribution and weld pool shape in Nd:YAG pulsed laser welding. In the proposed approach, a surface flux heat transfer model is applied in the low laser energy intensity region of the weld, while a keyhole heat transfer model based on a volumetric heat source is applied in the high laser energy intensity region of the weld. The correlation between the intensity of the laser input energy and the geometric parameters of the volumetric heat source is derived experimentally. A series of MARC finite element simulations based on the proposed single pulse model are performed to investigate the shape and size of the weld pool given different laser energy intensities. A good agreement is observed between the simulation results and the experimental results obtained under equivalent single pulse welding conditions. Thus, the basic validity of the proposed model is confirmed.     

铜银合金比热的分子动力学模拟

本文采用嵌入原子模型对铜银合金的比热进行了分子动力学模拟，得到了铜银合金从深过冷态到熔点以上温度范围内的比热以及比热随温度的变化规律，并从内聚能的角度分析了铜银合金比热与温度的关系。与已有的铜镍合金的比热随温度变化规律的报道不同，本文的模拟结果和理论分析表明铜银合金的比热在 ８００ Ｋ～１９００ Ｋ的温度范围内基本为一恒值，其过冷液态下的比热可由熔点以上的比热外推得到。     

Measurement error in laser interferometry caused by free convective boundary layers on optical windows

When convective heat transfer measurements are made using a laser interferometer, optical windows are often used to separate the test fluid inside the experimental model from the ambient air. In the present study, the measurement error caused by the thermal boundary layers that form on the exterior surfaces of the optical windows has been analyzed. A convenient analytical expression for the error in the fringe gradient has been derived, using the two-dimensional similarity solution for laminar free convective flow. For typical experimental conditions this source of bias error was found to be generally small, except near the leading edge of the thermal boundary layer. Based on the results, it is recommended that the measurement region be at least five centimeters away from the leading edge of these external thermal boundary layers.     

超临界R134a水平圆管内冷却换热模拟研究

采用增强壁面函数的标准k-ε模型对超临界R134a水平圆管内冷却换热进行了模拟研究.分析了管内不同截面上流体温度、速度和湍动能的分布情况及对应关系。研究了质量流量和浮升力对换热系数的影响。结果表明,流体速度随着温度的降低而减小,并且最大速度处对应着最高温度和最小湍动能.换热系数随着质量流量的增加而增大,其峰值出现在准临界温度附近。浮升力在似液体区的影响较大,对流体换热起到增强的效果。     

Numerical investigation of temperature effects in materials irradiated by high-energy heavy ions in the framework of heat conduction equation for electrons and lattice

A system of equations for electron gas and lattice around and along the trajectory of a heavy uranium ion with an energy of 700 MeV in nickel at constant heat capacity and heat conduction taken at room temperature is solved numerically in an axially symmetric cylindrical coordinate system. On the basis of the lattice temperature obtained as a function of radius around the ion trajectory and depth, a conclusion is made that the ionization energy losses of a uranium ion in nickel are sufficient for melting and evaporating the material from the surface. The maximum radius and depth of the region in which melting and evaporation take place are estimated.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of natural convection of magnetic fluids in a cubic cavity

In this article, natural convections of a magnetic fluid in a cubic cavity under a uniform magnetic field are investigated experimentally and numerically. Results obtained from experiments and numerical simulations reveal that the magnetic field and magnetization are influenced by temperature. There exist relative larger magnetization and magnetic forces in the regions near the upper wall and center inside the cavity than in the region near the bottom and side walls. A weak flow roll occurs inside cavity under the magnetic force, and it brings the low temperature fluid downward in the center region, and streams the high temperature fluid upward along the regions near the sidewalls. With the magnetic field imposed, the heat transfer inside the cavity is enhanced significantly compared to that without the magnetic field, and increasing the strength of the magnetic field the heat transfer is increased further.     

A generic model for the ionic contribution to the equation of state

Abstract

We describe an extended standard model that yields the thermodynamics of the ionic contribution for general materials, from the low temperature solid region, through melting, to the ideal gas limit. We use the Debye model for the solid. Melting is determined by the Lindemann formula with standard rules of thumb used to determine density and energy discontinuities. The model interpolates through the liquid regime to the ideal gas assuming that the specific heat drops monotonically from about 3R at melting, to 9R/4 at five times melting, and continuing to 3R/2 at high temperatures. The area under the specific heat curve is constrained in the model to reproduce the correct high temperature entropy. Thus, for a compound the extra contribution from the entropy of mixing forces into the model, in a crude way, the extra specific heat due to dissociation.     

Numerical analysis of thermogravitational turbulent convection in a closed rectangular region with radiation source of energy

The mathematical modeling of the conjugate heat transfer in a closed rectangular region has been carried out under the conditions of the radiation supply of energy. The temperature and stream function fields obtained by the modeling illustrate a substantially unsteady nature of the conjugate heat exchange process under study. An analysis of temperature distributions in typical cross sections of the solution domain has shown a considerable inhomogeneity of the temperature field. It is found that an increase in the Rayleigh number leads to substantial modifications of the temperature and stream function fields. The influence of the distribution of radiation fluxes over the internal interfaces on the temperature fields and the airflow character is shown. The influence of the turbulization on the heat transfer intensity near the interfaces between media has been estimated. Comparisons of the obtained numerical results with experimental data have shown their good agreement.