ANALYSIS OF TRANSPORT PHENOMENA DURING THE CONVECTIVE DRYING IN SUPERHEATED STEAM

This work focused on high-temperature convective drying (superheated steam drying). The process has been investigated both experimentally and numerically. The experimental analysis was carried out in an aerodynamic return-flow wind-tunnel, with very small cylinders of cellular concrete. For the local analysis, the samples were fitted with thermocouples and pressure sensors. The mean moisture content of the cylinders was measured by simple weighing while the temperature and pressure readings were being taken. Global and. local analysis of heat and mass transfer in small cylinders in superheated steam were carried out. The systematical study for several sizes and aerothermal conditions show a similar behavior for moisture content, pressure and temperature values. A numerical model for high temperature drying, using the finite elements method, in a 2-D configuration, was implemented and validated.     

Nucleate Boiling on a Single Site: Contact Angle Analysis for a Quasi-2D Growing Vapour Bubble

Heat transfer prediction under boiling condition is still unresolved. In this paper, a basic study on bubble growth is carried out. Recent works show that contact line region plays an important role for heat and mass transfer in nucleate boiling regime. Three dimension experimental set-up lead to a mirage effect which disturbs measurements. To overcome this problem, a new quasi two dimensional experimental set-up is designed. This Hele–Shaw like configuration allows measuring the contact angle and contact line displacement during the bubble growth. A noticeable behavior of the contact angle is observed, and the influence of the sub-cooling level on the bubble growth rate and the contact angle value is studied.     

Experimental study of unsteady convective boiling in heated minichannels

Convective boiling in narrow channels may under specific conditions display an unsteady behavior. An experimental set-up has been elaborated to investigate heat and mass transfer and to analyze two-phase flow instabilities in rectangular microchannels with a hydraulic diameter of 889 μm. Depending on the operating conditions two types of behavior are observed: a steady state characterized by pressure drop fluctuations with low amplitudes (from 0.5 to 5 kPa/m) and no characteristic frequency; a non-stationary state of two-phase flow. The pressure signals exhibit fluctuations with high amplitudes (from 20 to 100 kPa/m) and frequencies ranging from 3.6 to 6.6 Hz. Steady and unsteady thermo-hydraulic behaviors depending on the two control parameters (heat flux and mass velocity) are analyzed and given in this paper.     

Practical scaling considerations for dense gas fluidized beds interacting with the air-supply system

The present study addresses the problem of the scale-up/down of dense gas fluidized beds that may interact with their air-supply system (restricted here to the plenum and the distributor). An abundant literature about scaling issues yielded various sets of dimensionless numbers to be matched in order to ensure the invariance of the bed dynamics at different scales. All these sets embed the first indispensable requirement that is the geometrical similarity between scaled beds. Despite its self-evident character, this letter highlights important and new considerations about the applicability of this requirement for the design of the distributor and the plenum. For the distributor, it is shown that the geometrical similarity introduced by some authors is not always relevant and should only be used under particular conditions. For the scaling of the plenum, to our knowledge, nothing is mentioned in the literature. The present work shows that the ‘by-default’ geometrical scaling of the plenum is completely irrelevant. A practical rule to determine the plenum size at different scales is given so that similarity of the dynamic interaction between the bed and its air-supply system is ensured.     

Similarity in dense gas-solid fluidized bed, influence of the distributor and the air-plenum

Similitude parameters that govern the dynamics of dense gas-fluidized beds in possible interaction with the air-supply system (distributor and plenum) are found by nondimensionalizing both differential equations that rule the bed dynamics and the coupling with the upstream fluid inlet conditions. In addition to classical dimensionless groups, two new parameters θ_p and θ_d are evidenced. It is shown that their match, along with the other numbers, is required to ensure dynamic similarity for scaled systems. Their influence on the bed dynamics is also investigated and we propose (θ_p,θ_d) maps that illustrate the existence of a coupling zone with an associated frequency modification.     

Experimental Study of Boiling Heat Transfer on Multiple and Single Nucleation Sites Using a Boiling-Meter

The general objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of heat transfer in a nucleate boiling regime. The aim is to determine the heat transfer characteristics under controlled operating conditions (thermodynamics of the fluid, noncondensable gas, surface state). Experimental investigations have been carried out in natural convection and nucleate boiling regimes. An experimental device was realized to perform boiling experiments using a boiling-meter, allowing investigations for different orientations of the wall. The boiling-meter is designed to investigate boiling for single and multiple nucleation sites. The purpose of this paper is to detail the experimental setup as well as the boiling-meter. This device allows the determination of the temporal heat transfer characteristics evolutions. In particular, this new device allows bringing to light the phenomenon of nucleation, growth, and detachment of generated vapor bubbles on a single artificial nucleate site, as well as for multiple natural nucleation sites. First results of the influence of the orientation of the heating wall for multiple and single nucleation sites on heat transfer are presented and analyzed.     

Convective Boiling Between 2D Plates: Microgravity Influence on Bubble Growth and Detachment

The experiment detailed in this paper presents results obtained on the nucleation, growth and detachment of HFE-7100 confined vapour bubbles. Bubbles are created on an artificial nucleation site between two-dimensional plates under terrestrial and microgravity conditions. The experiments are performed by varying the shear flow by changing the convective mass flow rate, and varying the bubble nucleation rate by changing the heat flux supplied. The experiments are performed under normal (1 g) and reduced gravity (μg). The distance between the plates is equal to 1 mm. The results of these experiments are related to the detachment diameters of bubbles on the single artificial nucleation site and to the associated effects on the heat transfer by the confinement influence. The experimental device allows the observation of the flow using both visible video camera and infrared video camera. Here, we present the results obtained concerning the influence of gravity on the bubble detachment diameter and the images of 2D bubbles obtained in microgravity by means of an infrared camera. The following parameters: nucleation site surface temperature, bubble detachment diameter and bubble nucleation frequency evidence modifications due to microgravity.     

Flow boiling in microgravity condition investigation using inverse techniques

The objective is to provide a method to obtain local heat transfer coefficients in small channels when flow boiling occurs. The experimental device has been developed to perform investigations in parabolic flights campaigns on board A300-ZéroG. Simultaneously flow visualization and thermo-hydraulic measurements are carried out to investigate the two phase flow and heat transfer in minichannels. The experiments are conducted with HFE-7100 in several operating conditions for three hydraulic diameters. The investigations concern flow pattern and the associated heat transfer coefficient during convective for several gravity levels. We mainly on the thermal measurements which consists in inversing experimental temperature measurements (thermocouples) to derive the local surface temperature and heat flux. For the investigated operating conditions, the heat transfer coefficient is found to vary along the flow axis especially at the channel entrance zone.     

Experimental Investigation of Pendant and Sessile Drops in Microgravity

The experiments regarding the contact angle behavior of pendant and sessile evaporating drops were carried out in microgravity environment. All the experiments were performed in the Drop Tower of Beijing, which could supply about 3.6 s of microgravity (free-fall) time. In the experiments, firstly, drops were injected to create before microgravity. The wettability at different surfaces, contact angles dependance on the surface temperature, contact angle variety in sessile and pendant drops were measured. Different influence of the surface temperature on the contact angle of the drops were found for different substrates. To verify the feasibility of drops creation in microgravity and obtain effective techniques for the forthcoming satellite experiments, we tried to inject liquid to create bigger drop as soon as the drop entering microgravity condition. The contact angle behaviors during injection in microgravity were also obtained.     

Analysis of heat transfer with liquid-vapor phase change in a forced-flow fluid moving through porous media

This study focuses on the experimental analysis of transient-regime heat transfer with liquidvapor phase change in a fluid as it flows through a porous media composed of small bronze spheres. Three distinct zones can be observed: liquid, two-phase and superheated vapor. The boundaries between these zones are determined using temperature and pressure fields. An N-shaped profile is observed for the temperature values along the main flow axis. The first local maximum value on the temperature curve corresponds to the boundary between the liquid zone and the two-phase zone. When a local minimum temperature exists, it corresponds to the boundary between the two-phase and the vapor zones. A finite element numerical simulation is used to predict the saturation field, which is numerically determined from the boundaries of the two-phase zone and of the experimental temperature field. The liquid and vapor pressure fields are then deduced for all three phase zones of the porous medium.