Thermal destratification of cryogenic liquid storage tanks by continuous bubbling of gases

This paper focuses on thermal destratification and pressurisation inside thermally stratified storage tanks by continuous gas bubbling. The primary purpose of doing these studies is to better understand the effect of bubble dynamics on thermal destratification and quantify the extent of destratification. The volume of fluid and interface compression method of OpenFOAM CFD code is utilised for the present analysis. Different values of inlet gas velocities (V_g), orifice diameters (d_o), and arrangement of the orifices in triangular and square fashion with different pitches (p/d_o) are considered. In addition, the effect of gravitational forces (g/g_e) on thermal destratification is also reported. For all these cases, the effectiveness of thermal destratification is quantified in terms of a newly defined parameter, the destratification index (I_d). For V_g = 1 m/s, the I_d value is maximum compared to lower V_g values. It is seen that when the gas velocity increased from 0.3 m/s to 1.0 m/s, the average effectiveness in thermal destratification (I_davg) and pressure at the ullage increased by 44.38% and by 64.81%, respectively. The I_davg and pressure at ullage increased by 96.29% and 14.91%, respectively, when the g/g_e ratio changed from 0.3 to 3. Compared to the triangular arrangement with p/d_o = 10, the calculated I_davg increased by 30.67% when gas inlets were arranged with a square pitch of 10. For p/d_o = 4, 6 and 8, the increments in I_davg are of the order of 12.86%, 19.43% and 21.92%, respectively, for gas inlets arranged in a square fashion as compared to the triangular arrangement. It is found that continuous bubbling with gas inlets arranged in square pitch p/d_o = 10 gives higher effectiveness in thermal destratification. Thus, by these studies, one can develop a thermal destratification mechanism with continuous bubbling for optimum performance. Also, these studies give an overall idea of sparger design for getting the correct gas flow rate for thermal destratification within the cryogenic liquid storage tanks.     

Experimental study and numerical modeling of mixing by air injection in yield stress fluids using the OpenFOAM software

Mixing by gas injection is an operation used in industrial processes such as wastewater treatment, metallurgy, or methanization in which pressurized gas is injected into a fluid in order to reduce concentrations and temperatures gradients. This study demonstrates how the CFD toolbox OpenFOAM can be used to simulate such flows. Experimental measurements and observations have been performed on a pilot-scale reactor where pressurized air is injected in a yield stress fluid. The volume of fluid method and an adaptive mesh with refinement at the interface have been used to track the gas inclusions. The numerical model accuracy has been assessed by comparing experimental and numerical results related to the bubble's frequency, dimensions, and rising velocities as well as the fluid recirculation, yielded, and unyielded regions in the tank. The influence of injection parameters such as the injection flow rate and the fluid rheological parameters has been quantified.     

Modeling and simulation of mixing in water-in-oil emulsion flow through a valve-like element using a population balance model

Emulsion flows are very common in natural processes as well as in several engineering areas, such as in the process of desalting crude oil that occurs in refineries. This kind of flow is described as a polydispersed multiphase flow. In this work, we evaluated the behavior of water-in-oil emulsion flowing through a duct with an element used to mimic the effect of a globe valve. An Eulerian multi-fluid approach was employed by solving the population balance equation coupled with computational fluid dynamics. Coalescence and breakage models recently developed were extended to this inhomogeneous model. A bivariate population balance problem was also solved to demonstrate the mixing caused by the valve-like element. The simulated results showed good agreement with the available experimental data for the Sauter and DeBroukere mean diameters.     

Numerical investigations on flashback dynamics of premixed methane-hydrogen-air laminar flames

Injecting hydrogen into the natural gas network to reduce CO₂ emissions in the EU residential sector is considered a critical element of the zero CO₂ emissions target for 2050. Burning natural gas and hydrogen mixtures has potential risks, the main one being the flame flashback phenomenon that could occur in home appliances using premixed laminar burners. In the present study, two-dimensional transient computations of laminar CH₄ + air and CH₄ + H₂ + air flames are performed with the open-source CFD code OpenFOAM. A finite rate chemistry based solver is used to compute reaction rates and the laminar reacting flow. Starting from a flame stabilized at the rim of a cylindrical tube burner, the inlet bulk velocity of the premixture is gradually reduced to observe flashback. The results of the present work concern the effects of wall temperature and hydrogen addition on the flashback propensity of laminar premixed methane-hydrogen-air flames. Complete sequences of flame dynamics with gradual increases of premixture velocity are investigated. At the flame flashback velocities, strong oscillations at the flame leading edge emerge, causing broken flame symmetry and finally flame flashback. The numerical results reveal that flashback tendency increase with increasing wall temperature and hydrogen addition rate.     

Effect of obstacles on the detonation diffraction and subsequent re-initiation

The DCRFoam solver (density-based compressible solver) built on the OpenFOAM platform is used to simulate the reflection and diffraction processes that occur when detonation waves collide with various objects. Static stoichiometric hydrogen–oxygen mixtures diluted with 70% Ar are used to form stable detonation waves with large cells, with initial conditions of 6.67 kPa pressure and 298 K temperature. The diameters of the cylindrical obstacle range from 6 mm to 22 mm, with x = 230 mm, x = 244 mm, and x = 257 mm being the chosen position. Cylindrical, square, triangular, and inverted triangular obstacles are used, and the quenched detonation re-initiation processes behind them are investigated. In the detonation diffraction process, four triple points exist at the same time due to the effect of cylindrical obstacles of smaller diameters. The re-initiation distance of the detonation wave increases with the increase of cylindrical obstacle diameter. Both the Mach reflection angle and the decoupled angle decrease as the diameter increases. When the location of the cylindrical obstacles is changed, the detonation wave dashes into the obstacles with its different front structures, it is easier to realize the detonation re-initiation when the weak incident shock at the front of a detonation wave strikes the obstacles, and the re-initiation distance decreases by 17.1% when compared with the longest re-initiation distance. The detonation re-initiation distance is shortest under the action of cylindrical obstacles, however the quenched detonation cannot be re-initiated when the inverted triangle and square obstacles are used. The suppression effects of inverted triangle and square obstacles on detonation waves are more evident.     

Pressure distribution in small hydrodynamic journal bearings considering cavitation: a numerical approach based on the open‐source CFD code OpenFOAM®

Hydrodynamic journal bearings are traditionally designed using the half‐Sommerfeld theory. This consists in a semi‐analytical solution of the continuity and momentum conservation equations substituting negative pressures with the ambient pressure. This hypothesis provides acceptable results, but a better understanding of the phenomena considering the effective pressure distribution including 3D and cavitation effects can be achieved only by using numerical methods. For this reason, some different solvers and cavitation models were applied to different geometries for which literature provides experimental data. Once the numerical model was validated, a parametric analysis was performed in order to better understand the influence of the rotational speed and the relative eccentricity on the attitude angle, the reaction forces, the pressure distribution and the power losses of a small journal bearing. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The evaluation of the diffuse interface method for phase change simulations using OpenFOAM

In the present study, a new solver named phaseChangeHeatFoam is implemented on the OpenFOAM cfd package to simulate boiling and condensation. The solver is capturing the interface between two immiscible phases with a color function volume of fluid (CF‐VOF) method. The two fluids (vapor and liquid) are assumed Newtonian and incompressible. The surface tension is modeled with continuous surface force (CSF) which is improved with a Lafaurie filter to suppress the spurious current. The mass flux across the interface in the phase change process is determined by either Lee or Tanasawa mass transfer models. Additionally, the slight variation of saturation temperature with local pressure is considered with the simplified Clausius–Clapeyron relation. The coupled velocity pressure equation is solved using the PIMPLE algorithm. The new solver is validated and examined with (i) Stefan problem, (ii) two‐dimensional film boiling, (iii) the film condensation on a horizontal plate, (iv) the laminar film condensation over a vertical plate, and (v) bubble condensation in subcooled boiling. The present study shows the capability of a diffuse interface method in accurate simulation of the phase change process and it is expected to be instructive for further numerical studies in this area.     

Numerical investigation of thermoacoustic refrigerator at weak and large amplitudes considering cooling effect

In this paper, OpenFOAM package is used for the first time to simulate the thermoacoustic refrigerator. For simulating oscillating inlet pressure, we implemented cosine boundary condition into the OpenFOAM. The governing equations are the unsteady compressible Navier–Stokes equations and the equation of state. The computational domain consists of one plate of the stack, heat exchangers, and resonator. The main result of this paper includes the analysis of the position of the cold heat exchanger versus the displacement of the pressure node at large amplitude for successful operation of the refrigerator. In addition, the effect of the input power on the successful operation of the apparatus has been investigated. It is observed that for higher temperature difference between heat exchangers, the time of steady state solution is longer. We show that to analyze and optimize the thermoacoustic devices, both heat exchangers should be considered, coefficient of performance (COP) should be checked, and the successful operation of the refrigerator should be evaluated.     

基于OpenFOAM的过冷流动沸腾数值模拟

过冷流动沸腾现象被广泛应用于工业生产和动力系统中，对该现象的准确预测是两相流CFD模拟的重要研究方向。本文详细阐述了该模拟过程中的欧拉两流体模型及相关辅助模型，基于开源CFD平台OpenFOAM，模拟了4.5 MPa下竖直圆管内的过冷流动沸腾，得到了截面空泡份额、液相平均温度及壁面温度沿轴向的分布。计算结果与实验值符合良好，说明了模型的有效性和程序的正确性。本文可为在OpenFOAM中添加新的模型及开发新的求解器以模拟过冷流动沸腾问题提供参考。