Radiative heat flux characteristics of methane flames in oxy-fuel atmospheres

Oxy-fuel combustion is a promising alternative for power generation with CO₂ capture, where the fuel is burned in an atmosphere enriched with oxygen and CO₂ is used as a diluent. This type of combustion is characterised by uncommon characteristics in terms of thermal heat transfer budget as compared to air supported systems. The study presents experimental results of radiative heat flux along the flame axis and radiant fractions of non-premixed jet methane flames developing in oxy-fuel environments with oxygen concentrations ranging from 35% to 70%, as well as in air. The flames investigated have inlet Reynolds numbers from 468 to 2340. The data collected have highlighted the effects of the flame structure and thermo-chemical properties of oxy-fuel combustion on the heat flux radiated by the flames. It was first observed that peak heat flux increases considerably with oxygen concentration. More generally the radiant fraction increases with both increasing Reynolds number in the laminar regime and oxygen concentration. It was found that despite a difference in flame temperature, the radiative characteristics of the flames (heat flux distributions and radiant fraction) in air were similar to those with 35% O₂ in CO₂. The radiative properties of flames in oxy-fuel atmosphere with CO₂ as diluents appear to be dominated by the flame temperature.     

Radiative heat transfer augmentation of natural gas flames in radiant tube burners with porous ceramic inserts

Experiments were conducted using porous ceramic inserts to enhance the radiative heat transfer from natural gas flames in a straight-through radiant tube burner. The performance of the radiant tube burner with partially stabilized zirconia and silicon carbide inserts is compared to a baseline case of no inserts at three levels of combustion air preheat. Spectral intensities, temperatures within the radiant tube burner, tube wall temperatures, and exhaust temperatures were measured to determine the effectiveness of the enhanced heat transfer due to the inserts. Exhaust emission constituents were also measured to determine the effect that the inserts have on exhaust products. NO_x emissions are reduced by up to 30% with the inserts. The silicon carbide inserts have higher spectral intensities and total radiative energy transfer than partially stabilized zirconia inserts. Both inserts have enhanced radiant heat transfer compared to the no-insert configuration, with the radiative enhancement due to inserts as great as five times that of the no-insert configuration. The net result is increased tube wall temperatures and decreased exhaust temperatures with the ceramic inserts.     

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%.     

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.     

Evaporator critical heat flux in the double-wall artery heat pipe

The fact that heat is transferred into a heat pipe through the liquid-saturated evaporator wick gives rise to the so-called boiling limit on the heat pipe capacity. The composite nature of the double-wall artery heat pipe (DWAHP) wick structure makes the prediction of the evaporator superheat (Δ T_crit) and the critical radial heat flux (q_r) very difficult. The effective thermal conductivity of the wick, the effective radius of critical nucleation cavity, and the nucleation superheat, which are important parameters for double-wall wick evaporator heat transfer, have been evaluated based on the available theoretical models. Empirical correlations are used to corroborate the experimental results of the 2 m DWAHP. A heat choke mounted on the evaporator made it possible to measure the evaporator external temperatures, which were not measured in the previous tests. The high values of the measured evaporator wall temperatures are explainable with the assumption of a thin layer of vapor blanket at the inner heating surface. It has been observed that partial saturation of the wick (lean evaporator) causes the capillary limit to drop even though it may be good for efficient convective heat transfer through the wick. The 2 m long copper-water heat pipe had a peak performance of 1850 W at 23 W/cm² with a horizontal orientation.     

Hydraulic and heat transfer study of SiO2/water nanofluids in horizontal tubes with imposed wall temperature boundary conditions

The convective heat transfer of SiO₂/water colloidal suspensions (5-34 wt.%) is investigated experimentally in a flow loop with a horizontal tube test section whose wall temperature is imposed. Experiments were performed at different inlet temperatures (20, 50, 70 °C) in cooling and/or heating conditions at various flow rates (200 < Re < 10,000). The Reynolds and Nusselt numbers were deduced by using thermal conductivity and viscosity values measured with the same temperature conditions as those in the tests. Results indicate that the heat transfer coefficient values are increased from 10% to 60% compared to those of pure water. They also show that the general trend of standard correlations is respected. The problem of suspension stability at the highest temperatures is discussed. In order to evaluate the benefits provided by the enhanced properties of the nanofluids studied, an energetic performance evaluation criterion (PEC) is defined. This PEC decreases as the nanoparticle concentration is increased. This process is also discussed in this paper.     

3D Numerical heat transfer and fluid flow analysis in plate-fin and tube heat exchangers with electrohydrodynamic enhancement

Three-dimensional laminar fluid flow and heat transfer over a four-row plate-fin and tube heat exchanger with electrohydrodynamic (EHD) wire electrodes are studied numerically. The effects of different electrode arrangements (square and diagonal), tube pitch arrangements (in-line and staggered) and applied voltage (V_E=0–16 kV) are investigated in detail for the Reynolds number range (based on the fin spacing and frontal velocity) ranging from 100 to 1,000. It is found that the EHD enhancement is more effective for lower Re and higher applied voltage. The case of staggered tube pitch with square wire electrode arrangement gives the best heat transfer augmentation. For V_E=16 kV and Re = 100, this study identifies a maximum improvement of 218% in the average Nusselt number and a reduction in fin area of 56% as compared that without EHD enhancement.     

A tube-by-tube reduction method for simultaneous heat and mass transfer characteristics for plain fin-and-tube heat exchangers in dehumidifying conditions

This study proposed a new method, namely a tube-by-tube reduction method to analyze the performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers having plain fin configuration under dehumidifying conditions. The mass transfer coefficients which seldom reported in the open literature, are also presented. For fully wet conditions, it is found that the reduced results for both sensible heat transfer performance and the mass transfer performance by the present method are insensitive to change of inlet humidity. Unlike those tested in fully dry condition, the sensible heat transfer performance under dehumidification is comparatively independent of fin pitch. The ratio of the heat transfer characteristic to mass transfer characteristic (h_c,o/h_d,o C_p,a) is in the range of 0.6~1.0, and the ratio is insensitive to change of fin spacing at low Reynolds number. However, a slight drop of the ratio of (h_c,o/h_d,o C_p,a) is seen with the decrease of fin spacing when the Reynolds number is sufficient high. This is associated with the more pronounced influence due to condensate removal by the vapor shear. Correlations are proposed to describe the heat and mass performance for the present plate fin configurations. These correlations can describe 89% of the Chilton Colburn j-factor of the heat transfer (j_h) within 15% and can correlate 81% of the Chilton Colburn j-factor of the mass transfer (j_m) within 20%.     

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent heat transfer in annuli: Effect of heat flux ratio

Fully developed turbulent flow and heat transfer in a concentric annular duct is investigated for the first time by using a direct numerical simulation (DNS) with isoflux conditions imposed at both walls. The Reynolds number based on the half-width between inner and outer walls, δ=(r₂-r₁)/2, and the laminar maximum velocity is Re_δ=3500. A Prandtl number Pr=0.71 and a radius ratio r^*=0.1 were retained. The main objective of this work is to examine the effect of the heat flux density ratio, q^*=q₁/q₂, on different thermal statistics (mean temperature profiles, root mean square (rms) of temperature fluctuations, turbulent heat fluxes, heat transfer, etc.). To validate the present DNS calculations, predictions of the flow and thermal fields with q^*=1 are compared to results recently reported in the archival literature. A good agreement with available DNS data is shown. The effect of heat flux ratio q^* on turbulent thermal statistics in annular duct with arbitrarily prescribed heat flux is discussed then. This investigation highlights that heat flux ratio has a marked influence on the thermal field. When q^* varies from 0 to 0.01, the rms of temperature fluctuations and the turbulent heat fluxes are more intense near the outer wall while changes in q^* from 1 to 100, lead to opposite trends.     

Numerical approximation of the heat transfer between domains separated by thin walls

In this paper, we analyse the numerical approximation of the heat transfer problem between two subdomains that we will consider filled with a fluid and separated by a thin solid wall. First of all, we state the problem in the whole domain with discontinuous physical properties. As an alternative and under certain assumptions on the separating walls, a classical Robin boundary condition between the fluid domains is obtained, thus eliminating the solid wall, and according to which the heat flux is proportional to the temperature difference between the two subdomains. Apart from discussing the relation between both approaches, we consider their numerical approximation, considering different alternatives for the first case, that is, the case in which temperatures are also computed in the solid wall. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Convective heat transfer characteristics of high-pressure gas in heat exchanger with membrane helical coils and membrane serpentine tubes

Since the heat transfer performance of syngas cooler affects the efficiency of the power generating system with integrated coal gasification combined cycle (IGCC) directly, it is important to obtain the heat transfer characteristics of high-pressure syngas in the cooler. Heat transfer in convection cooling section of pressurized coal gasifier with the membrane helical coils and membrane serpentine tubes under high pressure is experimentally investigated. High pressure single gas (He or N₂) and their mixture (He + N₂) gas serve as the test media in the test pressure range from 0.5 MPa to 3.0 MPa. The results show that the convection heat transfer coefficient of high pressure gas is influenced by the working pressure, gas composition and symmetry of flow around the coil, of which the working pressure is the most significant factor. The average convection heat transfer coefficients for various gases in heat exchangers are systematically analyzed, and the correlations between Nu and Re for two kinds of membrane heat exchangers are obtained. The heat transfer coefficient of heat exchanger with membrane helical coils is greater than that of the membrane serpentine-tube heat exchanger under the same conditions. The heat transfer coefficient increment of the membrane helical-coil heat exchanger is greater than that of the membrane serpentine-tube heat exchanger with the increase of gas pressure and velocity.     

Crown incident radiant heat flux measurements in an industrial,regenerative, gas-fired,flat-glass furnace

Crown incident radiant heat flux measurements performed during both firing and non-firing cycles are reported, for the first time, in the combustion space of a regenerative, side-port, 455 metric ton/day, gas-fired, flat-glass furnace. Measurements were acquired through six crown access holes along the furnace axial centerline. Video and visual observations of the glass surface were also made through access ports in the furnace. A three-dimensional numerical model of the turbulent mixing, reaction, and heat transfer processes is also used to predict radiant heat flux to the crown. The measured crown incident radiant heat flux profile during firing cycles rises from 425 kW/m² close to the batch feeder to a peak of 710 kW/m² near the center of the combustion space, followed by a drop to approximately 575 kW/m² near the furnace working end. Numerical model results are in relatively good agreement with measured results. During non-firing reversal cycles, measured flux levels at the crown rise from 320 kW/m² near the batch feeder, to a maximum of 565 kW/m² closest to the spring zone. Increases in crown incident radiant heat flux due to combustion are quantified, with nominal increases of 105 kW/m² in regions closest to the batch feeder and approximately 155 kW/m² in the center of the combustion space. Lower increases from combustion (85 and 12 kW/m²) are exhibited in locations closest to the furnace working end. During the 20–25 s non-firing reversal period, the incident heat flux to the crown typically decreased between 20 and 50 kW/m² at each measured location. Variation of heat flux to the crown during 15-min firing cycles is typically 3–6% of the total incident heat flux, with a maximum typically occurring one-third of the way into the cycle (5–6 min) and declining during the remaining two-thirds of the period.     

Inertia dominated flow and heat transfer in liquid drop spreading on a hot substrate

The present work deals with computational modeling of the fluid flow and heat transfer taking place in the process of impact of a cold liquid drop (T_d = 20-25 °C) onto a dry heated substrate characterized by different thermophysical properties. The computational model, based on the volume-of-fluid method for the free-surface capturing, is validated by simulating the configurations accounting for the conjugate heat transfer. The simulations were performed in a range of impact Reynolds numbers (Re = 2000-4500), Weber numbers (We = 27-110) and substrate temperatures (T_s = 100-120 °C). The considered temperature range of the drop-surface, i.e. liquid-solid system does not account for the phase change, that is boiling and evaporation. The model performances are assessed by contrasting the results to the reference database originating from the experimental and complementary numerical investigations by Pasandideh-Fard et al. [Pasandideh-Fard, M., Aziz, S., Chandra, S., Mostaghimi, J., 2001. Cooling effectiveness of a water drop impinging on a hot surface. International Journal of Heat and Fluid Flow, 22, 201-210] and Healy et al. [Healy, W., Hartley, J., Abdel-Khalik, S., 2001. On the validity of the adiabatic spreading assumption in droplet impact cooling. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 44, 3869-3881]. In addition, the thermal field obtained is analyzed along with the corresponding asymptotic analytical solution proposed by Roisman [Roisman, I.V., 2010. Fast forced liquid film spreading on a substrate: flow, heat transfer and phase transition. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 656, 189-204]. Contrary to some previous numerical studies, the present computational model accounts for the air flow surrounding the liquid drop. This model feature enables a small air bubble to be resolved in the region of the impact point. The reported results agree reasonably well with experimental and theoretical findings with respect to the drop spreading pattern and associated heat flux and temperature distribution.     

Particle size effect on heat transfer performance in an oscillating heat pipe

The effect of Al₂O₃ particles on the heat transfer performance of an oscillating heat pipe (OHP) was investigated experimentally. Water was used as the base fluid for the OHP. Four size particles with average diameters of 50 nm, 80 nm, 2.2 μm, and 20 μm were studied, respectively. Experimental results show that the Al₂O₃ particles added in the OHP significantly affect the heat transfer performance and it depends on the particle size. When the OHP was charged with water and 80 nm Al₂O₃ particles, the OHP can achieve the best heat transfer performance among four particles investigated herein. In addition, it is found that all particles added in the OHP can improve the startup performance of the OHP even with 20 μm Al₂O₃ particles.     

Forced convective flow and heat transfer of upward cocurrent air–water slug flow in vertical plain and swirl tubes

This experimental study comparatively examined the two-phase flow structures, pressured drops and heat transfer performances for the cocurrent air–water slug flows in the vertical tubes with and without the spiky twisted tape insert. The two-phase flow structures in the plain and swirl tubes were imaged using the computerized high frame-rate videography with the Taylor bubble velocity measured. Superficial liquid Reynolds number (Re_L) and air-to-water mass flow ratio (AW), which were respectively in the ranges of 4000–10000 and 0.003–0.02 were selected as the controlling parameters to specify the flow condition and derive the heat transfer correlations. Tube-wise averaged void fraction and Taylor bubble velocity were well correlated by the modified drift flux models for both plain and swirl tubes at the slug flow condition. A set of selected data obtained from the plain and swirl tubes was comparatively examined to highlight the impacts of the spiky twisted tape on the air–water interfacial structure and the pressure drop and heat transfer performances. Empirical heat transfer correlations that permitted the evaluation of individual and interdependent Re_L and AW impacts on heat transfer in the developed flow regions of the plain and swirl tubes at the slug flow condition were derived.     

Flow boiling heat transfer of R134a in the multiport minichannel heat exchangers

The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of R134a in the multiport minichannel heat exchangers are presented. The heat exchanger was designed as the counter flow tube-in-tube heat exchanger with refrigerant flowing in the inner tube and hot water in the gap between the outer and inner tubes. Two inner tubes were made from extruded multiport aluminium with the internal hydraulic diameter of 1.1 mm for 14 numbers of channels and 1.2 mm for eight numbers of channels. The outer surface areas of two inner test sections are 5979 mm² and 6171 m², while the inner surface areas are 13,545 mm² and 8856 mm² for 14 and eight numbers of channels, respectively. The outer tube of heat exchanger was made from circular acrylic tube with an internal hydraulic diameter of 25.4 mm. The experiments were performed at the heat fluxes between 15 and 65 kW/m², mass flux of refrigerant between 300 and 800 kg/m² s and saturation pressure ranging from 4 to 6 bar. For instance the boiling curve, average heat transfer coefficients are discussed. The comparison results of two test sections with different the number of channels are investigated. The results are also compared with nine existing correlations. The new correlation for predicting the heat transfer coefficient was also proposed.     

Experimental investigation of flow boiling characteristics in a cross-linked microchannel heat sink

This paper experimentally investigates flow boiling characteristics in a cross-linked microchannel heat sink at low mass fluxes and high heat fluxes. The heat sink consists of 45 straight microchannels each with a hydraulic diameter of 248 μm and heated length of 16 mm. Three cross-links, of width 500 μm, are introduced in the present microchannel heat sink to achieve better temperature uniformity and to avoid flow mal-distribution. Flow visualization, flow instability, two-phase pressure drop, and two-phase heat transfer measurements are conducted using the dielectric coolant FC-72 over a range of heat flux from 7.2 to 104.2 kW/m², mass flux from 99 to 290 kg/m² s, and exit quality from 0.01 to 0.71. Thermochromic liquid crystals are used in the present study as full-field surface temperature sensors to map the temperature distribution on the heat sink surface. Flow visualization studies indicate that the observed flow regime is primarily slug. Visual observations of flow patterns in the cross-links demonstrate that bubbles nucleate and grow rapidly on the surface of the cross-links and in the tangential direction at the microchannels’ entrance due to the effect of circulations generated in those regions. The two-phase pressure drop strongly increases with the exit quality, at x_e,o < 0.3, and the two-phase frictional pressure drop increases by a factor of 1.6–2 compared to the straight microchannel heat sink. The flow boiling heat transfer coefficient increases with increasing exit quality at a constant mass flux, which is caused by the dominance of the nucleation boiling mechanism in the cross-link region.     

The variation of heat transfer in a two‐sided lid‐driven differentially heated square cavity with nanofluids containing carbon nanotubes for physical properties of fluid dependent on temperature

The behavior of nanofluids containing cylindrical nanoparticles are investigated numerically inside a two‐sided lid‐driven differentially heated square cavity to gain insight into the convective recirculation and flow processes induced by a nanofluid. The physical properties of the base fluid such as viscosity, thermal conductivity and thermal expansion coefficient are, respectively, assumed to be temperature independent (taking the mean temperature of the left and right walls) and temperature dependent. A model is developed to analyze the behavior of nanofluids taking into account the nanoparticle volume fraction whereas the transport equations are solved numerically with finite volume approach using SIMPLEC algorithm. The left and right moving walls are maintained at different constant temperatures while the upper and bottom walls are thermally insulated. The directions of the moving walls were considered in a way that the force and natural convections aid each other. The governing parameter Richardson number was 0.1<Ri<50.0 but due to space constraints only the results for 0.1<Ri<10.0 from fluid flow are presented. It was found that the temperature dependency of physical properties at different Richardson numbers and nanoparticle volume fractions affects the fluid flow and heat transfer in the cavities. Finally, comparisons between the behaviors of the average Nusselt number at the left wall for two cases are presented. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Forced convection from an isolated heat source in a channel with porous medium

A numerical study is made of flow and heat transfer characteristics of forced convection in a channel that is partially filled with a porous medium. The flow geometry models convective cooling process in a printed circuit board system with a porous insert.The channel walls are assumed to be adiabatic. Comprehensive numerical solutions are acquired to the governing Navier-Stokes equations, using the Brinkman-Forchheimer-extended Darcy model for the regions of porous media. Details of flow and thermal fields are examined over ranges of the principal parameters; i.e., the Reynolds number Re, the Darcy number Da (≡K/H²), the thickness of the porous substrate S, and the ratio of thermal conductivities R_k (≡k_eff/k). Two types of the location of the porous block are considered. The maximum temperature at the heat source and the associated pressure drop are presented for varying Re, Da, S, and R_k. The results illustrate that as S increases or Da decreases, the fluid flow rate increases. Also, as R_k increases for fixed Da, heat transfer rates are augmented. Explicit influences of Re on the flow and heat transport characteristics are also scrutinized. Assessment is made of the utility of using a porous insert by cross comparing the gain in heat transport against the increase in pressure drop.