Stability of a fluid in a horizontal saturated porous layer: effect of non-linear concentration profile, initial, and boundary conditions

Carbon dioxide injected into saline aquifers dissolves in the resident brines increasing their density, which might lead to convective mixing. Understanding the factors that drive convection in aquifers is important for assessing geological CO₂ storage sites. A hydrodynamic stability analysis is performed for non-linear, transient concentration fields in a saturated, homogenous, porous medium under various boundary conditions. The onset of convection is predicted using linear stability analysis based on the amplification of the initial perturbations. The difficulty with such stability analysis is the choice of the initial conditions used to define the imposed perturbations. We use different noises to find the fastest growing noise as initial conditions for the stability analysis. The stability equations are solved using a Galerkin technique. The resulting coupled ordinary differential equations are integrated numerically using a fourth-order Runge–Kutta method. The upper and lower bounds of convection instabilities are obtained. We find that at high Rayleigh numbers, based on the fastest growing noise for all boundary conditions, both the instability time and the initial wavelength of the convective instabilities are independent of the porous layer thickness. The current analysis provides approximations that help in screening suitable candidates for homogenous geological CO₂ sequestration sites.     

Near-critical CO2 liquid--vapor flow in a sub-microchannel. Part II: Flow regimes

The mean-field free-energy LBM is used to investigate the liquid--vapor flow regimes in a two-dimensional 200 nm channel with near-critical CO₂ at temperature 25 ^oC and pressure 6.434 MPa as the working fluid. Flow regimes over vapor qualities ranging from 0.01x0.90, Weber numbers O(10⁻²)WeO(10³), and capillary numbers O(10⁻²)CaO(10) are investigated. Three major types of flow regimes are encountered -- dispersed flow, bubble/plug flow, and liquid strip flow, each of which encompasses variations of the basic flow regime. The three major flow regimes with all their variations can be further classified into two major categories – regular and irregular. Irregular flow regimes are characterized by a distorted interface, including distorted bubble/slug flow, intermittent strip flow, wavy strip flow, and wispy-strip flow. Flows in which the interface is ordered and symmetric such as bubble/plug and strip flows are classified as regular flow regimes. It is found that the transition from regular to irregular flow regimes occurs at Weber number between 500 and 1000, independent of the vapor quality. Although no experiments exist at the same conditions, comparison of the predicted transition between regular and irregular regimes shows the same qualitative trends as experiments found in the literature.     

Evaporation heat transfer coefficient in single circular small tubes for flow natural refrigerants of C3H8, NH3, and CO2

An experimental study of evaporation heat transfer coefficients for single circular small tubes was conducted for the flow of C₃H₈, NH₃, and CO₂ under various flow conditions. The test matrix encompasses the entire quality range from 0.0 to 1.0, mass fluxes from 50 to 600 kg m⁻² s⁻¹, heat fluxes from 5 to 70 kW m⁻², and saturation temperatures from 0 to 10 °C. The test section was made of circular stainless steel tubes with inner diameters of 1.5 mm and 3.0 mm, and a length of 2000 mm in a horizontal orientation. The test section was uniformly heated by applying electric power directly to the tubes. The effects of mass flux, heat flux, saturation temperature, and inner tube diameter on the heat transfer coefficient are reported. Among the working refrigerants considered in this study, CO₂ has the highest heat transfer coefficient. Laminar flow was observed in the evaporative small tubes, and was considered in the modification of boiling heat transfer coefficients and pressure drop correlations.     

Experimental investigation of heat transfer in vertical upward and downward supercritical CO2 flow in a circular tube

An experimental investigation of turbulent heat transfer in vertical upward and downward supercritical CO₂ flow was conducted in a circular tube with an inner diameter of 4.5 mm. The experiments were performed for bulk fluid temperatures from 29 to 115 °C, pressures from 74.6 to 102.6 bar, local wall heat fluxes from 38 to 234 kW/m², and mass fluxes from 208 to 874 kg/m² s. At a moderate wall heat flux and low mass flux, the wall temperature had a noticeable peak value for vertical upward flow, but increased monotonically along the flow direction without a peak value for downward flow. The ratios of the experimental Nusselt number to the value obtained from a reference correlation were compared with Bo^* and q⁺ distributions to observe the buoyancy and flow-acceleration effects on heat transfer. In the experimental range of this study, the flow acceleration predominantly affected the heat-transfer phenomena. Based on an analysis of the shear-stress distribution in the turbulent boundary layer and the significant variation of the specific heat across the turbulent boundary layer, a new heat-transfer correlation for vertical upward and downward flow of supercritical pressurized fluid was developed; this correlation agreed with various experimental datasets within ±30%.     

超临界CO2气爆非均质煤体破裂规律模拟研究

为揭示超临界CO2气爆含割理裂隙非均质煤体的致裂规律,开发了识别实际煤体图像获取其割理裂隙几何信息的M atlab程序,将几何信息与煤体非均质物性参数关联并导入Abaqus中,实现了非均质煤体有限元表征,并采用SPH与FEM联合求解的方法模拟超临界CO2气爆非均质煤体的致裂过程,得到了弱面倾角、弱面到爆孔中心距离及初应力的变化对煤体气爆致裂效果的影响规律.模拟结果表明,初应力对主裂缝的萌生和扩展具有导向作用,气爆裂缝沿最大初应力方向扩展;弱面倾角相同时,弱面离爆孔越近,穿过弱面的裂缝尺度和密度越大,弱面离爆孔较远时,弱面完全阻断了裂缝的扩展;弱面到爆孔中心距离相同时,弱面倾角越大,弱面对裂缝扩展的阻碍作用越大,穿过弱面的裂缝尺度和密度越小,应力波透射率越小.现场气爆增透煤体时,应考虑割理裂隙和地应力特征合理布置气爆孔位置及爆破参数.     

Manipulation of polymer foam structure based on CO2-induced changes in polymer fundamental properties

Foaming of polymers with CO2 has attracted increasing attention in polymer processing studies. Some of the fundamental properties of polymer/CO2 systems is discussed in this short review, including solubility and diffusivity of CO2 in the polymer, polymer crystallization, interfacial tension between the polymer and the gas, and rheology of the CO2/polymers melt. These properties understandably affect the foaming process, and the structures of the foam products. Meanwhile, these properties can be changed via manipulation of CO2 in polymer. The proposed idea is to manipulate the foaming process and the foam structure by CO2-induced changes in these properties. Two cases from the authors＇ laboratory are presented for elucidating how to use the changes to manipulate the foaming process.     

有限氧化物粉末润滑下Ti_3SiC_2自配副在空气中的摩擦系数-温度特性

以传统固体润滑剂石墨和MoS2为基准,考察了PbO、ZnO、NiO和TiO2等氧化物粉末有限润滑下Ti3SiC2自配副在空气中从室温到800℃的摩擦系数-温度特性.结果表明:石墨和MoS2可大幅降低Ti3SiC2自配副的摩擦系数,但石墨的使用温度范围较窄且最高使用温度较低(200℃以下);MoS2使用温度虽较宽,但在500℃以上会发生氧化失效.与石墨和二硫化钼的摩擦系数相比,虽然氧化物粉末的润滑性较差,但在不同温度范围具有固体润滑作用.从室温至600℃范围内PbO粉末润滑性最好;700℃以上,TiO2和NiO具有一定减摩作用.石墨、MoS2和氧化物粉末的润滑机理与粉末的成膜性、膜的剪切和膜的化学稳定性有关.