Exergy analysis for quasi two-stage compression heat pump system coupled with ejector

Ejectors are simple mechanical components, can utilize high pressure energy from liquid in the quasi two-stage compression heat pump system coupled with scroll compressor, and the performance of the heat pump system can be further improved. According to thermal analysis model based on the first and second law of thermodynamics, the heat pump prototype has been developed and comprehensively tested, the influence of ejector on the heat pump system was exergetically analyzed using experimental data of the prototype. The results show that, compressor has the greatest exergy loss, amounts to about 77% of the total exergy; ejector can recover the fluid pressure exergy in supplementary circuit compared with the throttling element in the quasi two-stage compression heat pump system, decreases the exergy loss of compressor; and the exergetic efficiency can be improved about 3-5%, while the exergy output remains nearly constant.     

Exergy analysis of absorber using water/lithium bromide solution

It is necessary to understand the heat and mass transfer processes and determine the variation of the exergy destruction in the absorber for improving the performance. In this study, the exergy analysis of a coil absorber using water/lithium bromide solution pair is carried out. By using the developed simulation, the effects of variation of parameters affecting the performance of the absorber on the exergy destruction are investigated. The results show that the exergy destruction increases with increasing coolant flow rate, inlet concentration of solution, absorber vapor pressure, total coil turn and dead state temperature but decreases with increasing inlet temperatures of coolant and vapor. The dead state and vapor temperatures do not affect more when compared to other parameters. The variation of the solution flow rate produce an optimum point of absorber performance.     

Heat transfer and thermal management of electric vehicle batteries with phase change materials

This paper examines a passive thermal management system for electric vehicle batteries, consisting of encapsulated phase change material (PCM) which melts during a process to absorb the heat generated by a battery. A new configuration for the thermal management system, using double series PCM shells, is analyzed with finite volume simulations. A combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and second law analysis is used to evaluate and compare the new system against the single PCM shells. Using a finite volume method, heat transfer in the battery pack is examined and the results are used to analyse the exergy losses. The simulations provide design guidelines for the thermal management system to minimize the size and cost of the system. The thermal conductivity and melting temperature are studied as two important parameters in the configuration of the shells. Heat transfer from the surroundings to the PCM shell in a non-insulated case is found to be infeasible. For a single PCM system, the exergy efficiency is below 50%. For the second case for other combinations, the exergy efficiencies ranged from 30–40%. The second shell content did not have significant influence on the exergy efficiencies. The double PCM shell system showed higher exergy efficiencies than the single PCM shell system (except a case for type PCM-1). With respect to the reference environment, it is found that in all cases the exergy efficiencies decreased, when the dead-state temperatures rises, and the destroyed exergy content increases gradually. For the double shell systems for all dead-state temperatures, the efficiencies were very similar. Except for a dead-state temperature of 302 K, with the other temperatures, the exergy efficiencies for different combinations are well over 50%. The range of exergy efficiencies vary widely between 15 and 85% for a single shell system, and between 30–80% for double shell systems.     

Extraction of exergy from solar collectors under time-varying conditions

Maximization of energy delivery is the fundamental problem in solar collector thermal design. This paper examines the trade-off between the storage and the immediate use of solar exergy, with the objective of maximising the long-term exergy output from a solar collector installation. It is demonstrated that a trade-off exists, and that for maximum exergy output the collector and the collector-user interaction must conform to a well-defined pattern. It is also shown that the practice of operating collectors at constant temperature, regardless of time of day, is responsible for a sizeable and steady exergy loss     

Thermodynamic and heat transfer analysis of heat recovery from engine test cell by Organic Rankine Cycle

During manufacture of engines, evaluation of engine performance is essential. This is accomplished in test cells. During the test, a significant portion of heat energy released by the fuel is wasted. In this study, in order to recover these heat losses, Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is recommended. The study has been conducted assuming the diesel oil to be composed of a single hydrocarbon such as C₁₂H₂₆. The composition of exhaust gases (products of combustion) have been computed (and not determined experimentally) from the stoichiometric equation representing the combustion reaction. The test cell heat losses are recovered in three separate heat exchangers (preheater, evaporator and superheater). These heat exchangers are separately designed, and the whole system is analyzed from energy and exergy viewpoints. Finally, a parametric study is performed to investigate the effect of different variables on the system performance characteristics such as the ORC net power, heat exchangers effectiveness, the first law efficiency, exergy destruction and heat transfer surfaces. The results of the study show that by utilizing ORC, heat recovery equivalent to 8.85 % of the engine power is possible. The evaporator has the highest exergy destruction rate, while the pump has the lowest among the system components. Heat transfer surfaces are calculated to be 173.6, 58.7, and 11.87 m² for the preheater, evaporator and superheater, respectively.     

Natural convection due to solar radiation over a non-absorbing plate with and without heat losses

Natural convection over a non-reflecting, non-absorbing, ideally transparent semi-infinite vertical flat plate due to absorption of incident radiation (solar radiation) is considered. The absorbed radiation acts as a distributed source which initiates buoyancy-driven flow and convection in the absorbing layer. The plate when heated by the absorbing fluid loses heat to the surroundings from its external side. Solution of the governing equations of the flow under these circumstances is non-similar because of both the heat source term in the energy equation and the temperature boundary condition at the plate. A local non-similar technique is used to obtain solutions for a wide range of the dimensionless distance along the plate and of the dimensionless loss coefficient to the surroundings. The results show that the temperature distribution has a maximum temperature in the depth of the fluid rather than on the plate. A new definition for a local heat transfer coefficient between the plate and the absorbing fluid is introduced which is based on the local maximum temperature rise in the fluid. A formula to calculate this heat transfer coefficient is given for the anticipated range of the loss coefficient.     

Heat transfer studies of the oblique impingement of round jets upon a curved surface

 The effect of jet inclination of the local heat transfer under an obliquely impinging round air jet striking on isothermal circular cylinder is experimentally investigated. The circumferential heat transfer distribution as well as axial Nusselt number is measured. The considered parameters are jet Reynolds number in range of 3800–40,000, and jet inclination angle, ranging from 90 to 20. The experiments are carried out for nozzle sizes, d=3, 5 and 7 mm, and separation distance from 7 to 30 of the nozzle diameter. The output results indicated that the point of maximum heat transfer along the x-axis is shifted upstream and the local heat transfer distribution changed as a function of jet inclination. The magnitude of the shift was found to be significantly higher than that observe for a flat plate. The increasing inclination caused increasing asymmetry around the point of maximum heat transfer, with the upstream side of heat transfer profile dropping off more rapidly than the downstream side. Correlations of both the magnitude and shift of maximum heat transfer point are presented. The surface average heat transfer rate is calculated and compared with the normal impingement. Received on 5 June 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Effect of regeneration on the thermo-ecological performance analysis and optimization of irreversible air refrigerators

A thermo-ecological performance analysis of an irreversible regenerative air refrigerator cycle exchanging heat with thermal reservoirs is presented. In the analysis, the external irreversibility effects due to heat transfer across finite temperature differences and the heat leak loss between the external heat reservoirs while the internal irreversibilities are due to the non-isentropic compression and expansion processes and the regenerative loss are taken into account. The effects of regeneration and heat sources temperature ratio are given special emphasis and investigated in detail. A comparative performance analysis considering the objective functions of an ecological coefficient of performance, exergetic efficiency and coefficient of performance is also carried out. The maximum of the objective functions and the corresponding optimal conditions have been derived analytically. The obtained results may provide a general theoretical tool for the thermo-ecological design of regenerative air refrigerators.     

Numerical study on heat transfer and resistance characteristics of supercritical water inside internally-ribbed tube

The effects of structural parameters for internally-ribbed tube on heat transfer and flow characteristics of supercritical water were studied numerically. The results show that the heat transfer and pressure loss increases with the increase of mass flow or heat flux. The Heat transfer and resistance coefficients of supercritical water increase with the spiral rising angle decrease or rib height increase, while rib width has a weak influence on heat transfer and pressure drop.     

Steam chugging in a boiling water reactor pressure-suppression system

Results of a transient analysis predicting the general characteristics of steam chugging compare well with the results of two large scale experiments: GKM II, test 21 and GKSS, test 16. Predicted fundamental periods of chugging are within 5 and 16 per cent of the respective experimental values. The results of the analysis include effects of air in the drywell, momentum loss and heat transfer in the condensation pipe, direct contact condensation heat transfer at the gas-water interface and momentum and heat transfer in the wetwell water pool. Bubble shape is calculated in two-dimensional cylindrical coordinates.Required inputs to the analysis include the geometry, initial conditions and constants to determine both the steam inlet mass flowrate to the drywell as a function of time and conduction heat transfer through the wall of the condensation pipe. There are no arbitrary free parameters which must be specified to predict specific experiments. Rather, the analysis is based on fundamental physical phenomena, experimental coefficients documented for general heat transfer and fluid mechanics characteristics and standard analytical techniques.The random nature of steam chugging observed in some experiments is partially explained by predicted regimes of chugging and changes in the maximum extent of a bubble below the condensation pipe exit during each regime.     

水流损失和热补偿共同作用对增强型地热系统(EGS)产能影响的研究

基于青海共和盆地-3705m地热田实测数据,结合流固耦合传热理论并运用Comsol软件,建立了离散型裂隙岩体流体传热模型。考虑水流损失和热补偿共同作用,模拟得到了开采过程中上、下岩层(盖层和垫层)为绝热不渗透、传热不渗透、渗透传热时,储层(上、下岩层和压裂层)温度场的变化特征,分析了产出流量、水流损失、产出温度、产热速率的变化规律。研究结果表明:采热过程中产出流量始终小于注入流量;产出流量增幅速率先增大后减小,最后趋于稳定,前3a产出流量增幅超过总增幅量的3/4;忽略水流损失,将高估产热速率,采热初期甚至达到考虑水流损失时产热速率的3倍以上;考虑水流损失,产热速率呈先快速上升再趋于稳定后逐渐下降的趋势,最优开采时间为3a^11a;研究上、下岩层对产出温度的影响,仅考虑传热,采热寿命延长5.43%,同时考虑渗流传热时,采热寿命延长2.71%;采热前9a,水流损失占主导作用,即流入上、下岩层水流损失对产热速率的影响高于热补偿效应,开采10a后,热补偿效应占主导作用;同时考虑水流损失和热补偿效应得到的产热速率变化规律与实际工程更为符合,建议选择低渗透能力的上、下岩层延长增强型地热系统(EGS)运行时间。     

Effect of Discrete Heating on Natural Convection in a Rectangular Porous Enclosure

The main objective of this article is to study the effect of discrete heating on free convection heat transfer in a rectangular porous enclosure containing a heat-generating substance. The left wall of the enclosure has two discrete heat sources and the right wall is isothermally cooled at a lower temperature. The top and bottom walls, and the unheated portions of the left wall are adiabatic. The vorticity–stream function formulation of the governing equations is numerically solved using an implicit finite difference method. The effects of aspect ratio, Darcy number, heat source length, and modified Rayleigh number on the flow and heat transfer are analyzed. The numerical results reveal that the rate of heat transfer increases as the modified Rayleigh number and the Darcy number increases, but decreases on increasing the aspect ratio. The average heat transfer rate is found to be higher at the bottom heater than at the top heater in almost all considered parameter cases except for ε = 0.5. Also, the maximum temperature takes place generally at the top heater except for the case ε = 0.5, where the maximum temperature is found at the bottom heater. Further, the numerical results reveal that the maximum temperature decreases with the modified Rayleigh number and increases with the aspect ratio.     

Investigation of heat transfer of nanofluids in turbulent flow in a cylindrical channel

Turbulent flow of nanofluids based on the distilled water with aluminum and silicon oxide particles of different sizes in a cylindrical channel is studied. The results of the measurements of the heat transfer coefficient and the pressure difference are presented. The maximum volume concentration of the particles was not greater than two percents. The dependence of the heat transfer coefficient on the nanoparticle concentration and their sizes and material is studied. It is shown that a considerable increase in the nanofluid heat transfer coefficient, compared with the corresponding value for water, may generally be expected. At the same time, the heat transfer coefficient of a nanofluid depends on the nanoparticle size and material; because of this, under certain conditions the nanofluid heat transfer coefficient can turn out to be lower than that of the baseline fluid. Situations, when this can occur, are established. It is for the first time experimentally shown that the nanofluid viscosity coefficient depends not only on the nanoparticle size but also on its material.     

Laminar forced convection in two-dimensional impacting tee junctions

This study presents numerical predictions of the laminar fluid-flow and heat-transfer characteristics in planar (two-dimensional) impacting tee junctions. The applicable Navier-Stokes equations and the energy equation were solved for airflow at two inlet Reynolds numbers (Re₁) and a wide range of the mass split ratio (β). The results include wall shear stress distributions, streamlines showing the number, location, and size of the re-circulation zones, the pressure loss coefficient, wall heat flux distributions, isotherms, and the overall rate of heat transfer. These results indicate that two re-circulation zones always form on the inside-bend wall of the tee at all values of β and Re₁. Two more re-circulation zones may form on the impacting wall of the tee depending on the values of β and Re₁. It was also found that the pressure loss coefficient reaches a minimum and the overall rate of heat transfer reaches a maximum at even mass split (β = 0.5).     

Model investigations of convective heat transfer and pressure loss in diagonal membrane heating surfaces

 The paper presents the results of an investigation concerning heat transfer and pressure loss in air crossflow of diagonally shaped membrane heating surfaces. The heat and mass transfer analogy by means of naphthalene sublimation technique is used in order to evaluate mean Nusselt number values in such tube banks. The effect of tube bank arrangement on heat transfer coefficients and flow resistance is discussed. Convective heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics of diagonally shaped membrane tube banks, plain tube banks and ordinary membrane tube banks are compared. Received on 15 June 2000 / Published online: 29 November 2001     

Natural convection over a vertical flat plate due to absorption of thermal radiation

Heat transfer by simultaneous free convection and radiation in a participating fluid has received some attention during the past few years. However most of the previous work has been focussed on gases. The present work investigates the problem of combined radiation and natural convection in liquids. Analysis are given for an optically thick cold fluid layer adjacent to a non-emitting and non-reflecting radiation-transmitting plate. The external surface of the plate is subjected to heat loss to surroundings. The governing differential equations are transformed to a dimensionless form where the solution becomes dependent on the following parameters: the plate absorpitivity,α _p; the dimensionless distance along the plate,ζ; the fluid Prandtl number,Pr; and dimensionless heat loss coefficient to surrounding,N _c. A local non-similar technique is adopted to obtain solutions atPr=6.5 and at a wide range ofα _p,ζ, andN _c. The results showed that both velocity and temperature are non-similar and they are greatly affected by the value ofα _p whenζ is small. At large values of f the effect ofα _p diminishes and for a plate without heat loss the velocity becomes similar, i.e. independent of C The heat loss from the external surface of the plate causes the maximum temperature of the fluid to depart far from the plate. The results also showed that for plates without heat loss the local heat transfer coefficient from the plate depends on the local Grashof number to the power 0.185.     

Thermodynamic optimization of finned crossflow heat exchangers for aircraft environmental control systems

This paper shows that the main geometric features of a flow component can be deduced from the thermodynamic optimization of the global performance of the largest flow system that incorporates the component. This approach represents a departure from the usual approach, where a flow component is optimized in isolation. The example chosen is the counterflow heat exchanger of the environmental control system (ECS) used on modern aircraft. The heat exchanger is fitted with a diffuser and a nozzle for the ram air, and the ECS runs on the boot strap air cycle, employing an additional compressor and turbine. Two heat transfer surface types are considered, finned and smooth parallel plates. Numerical results are reported for the external geometric aspect ratios of the heat exchanger, and for the plate-to-plate spacing of the smooth-plates model. It is shown that the optimized geometry for the core with finned surfaces is nearly the same as the optimized geometry for the core with smooth plates. Several of the optimized geometric features are robust with respect to changes in external parameters that vary from one application to the next. The method illustrated in this paper – the thermodynamic (constructal) optimization of flow geometry – is applicable to any system that runs on the basis of a limited amount of fuel (exergy) installed onboard, e.g., automobiles, ships, portable tools.     

Numerical simulation of natural convection in a vertical annulus with a localized heat source

The present numerical investigation deals with the size and location effects of a single isoflux discrete heater on the buoyancy induced convection in a cylindrical annulus. A discrete heater is placed at the inner wall, while the top and bottom walls as well as the unheated portions of the inner wall are kept adiabatic, and the outer wall is maintained at a lower temperature. The influence of location and size of the discrete heater on the convective flow and the corresponding heat transfer are obtained for a wide range of physical parameters. The predicted numerical results reveal that the placement of heater near the middle portion of inner wall yields a maximum heat transfer and minimum hot spots rather than placing the heater near the top and bottom portions of the inner wall. We found that the location of heater affects the rates of flow circulation and heat transfer in a complex fashion. The rate of heat transfer is an increasing function of radii ratio of the annulus. Further, we found that the rate of heat transfer and maximum temperature in the annular cavity are significantly modified by the heater length and location.     

Convective heat transfer and pressure loss in rectangular ducts with drop-shaped pin fins

It has been experimentally researched that convective heat transfer and pressure loss characteristics in rectangular channels with staggered arrays of drop-shaped pin fins in crossflow of air. The effects of arrangements of pin fins on heat transfer and resistance are discussed and the row-by-row variations of the mean Nusselt numbers are presented. By means of the heat/mass transfer analogy and the naphthalene sublimation technique, the heat transfer coefficients on pin fins and on endwall (base plate) of the channel have been achieved respectively. The total mean heat transfer coefficients of pin fin channels are calculated and the resistance coefficients are also investigated. The experimental results show that heat transfer of a channel with drop-shaped pin fins is higher than that with circular pin fins while the resistance of the former is much lower than that of the latter in the Reynolds number range from 900 to 9000. Received on 20 January 1997     

Double diffusive convection of anomalous density fluids in a porous cavity

A numerical study has been performed to analyze the combined effect of temperature and species gradients on the buoyancy-driven natural convection flow of cold water near its density extremum contained in a porous cavity. The governing equations are descretized using the finite volume method. The results of the investigation are presented in the form of steady-state streamlines, velocity vectors, isotherms, and isoconcentrationlines. The results are discussed for different porosities, Darcy numbers, and Grashof numbers. The heat and mass transfer rates calculated are found to behave nonlinearly with hot wall temperature. The heat and mass transfer are increased with increasing Darcy number and porosity. It is found that the convective heat and mass transfer rate are greatly affected by the presence of density maximum.