An experimental study on flow patterns and heat transfer characteristics during cryogenic chilldown in a vertical pipe

In the present paper, the experimental results of a cryogenic chilldown process are reported. The physical phenomena involve unsteady two-phase vapor–liquid flow and intense boiling heat transfer of the cryogenic fluid that is coupled with the transient heat conduction inside pipe walls. The objective for the present study is to compare the chilldown rates and flow patterns between the upward flow and downward flow in a vertical pipe. Liquid nitrogen is employed as the working fluid and the test section is a vertical straight segment of a Pyrex glass pipe with an inner diameter of 8 mm. The effects of mass flow rate on the flow patterns, heat transfer characteristics and interface movement were determined through experiments performed under several different mass flow rates. Through flow visualization, measurement and analysis on the flow patterns and temperature variations, a physical explanation of the vertical chilldown is given. By observing the process and analyzing the results, it is concluded that pipe chilldown in a vertical flow is similar to that in microgravity to some extent.     

Two-Phase Flow and Heat Transfer During Chilldown of a Simulated Flexible Metal Hose Using Liquid Nitrogen

For many industrial, medical and space technologies, cryogenic fluids play irreplaceable roles. When any cryogenic system is initially started, it must go through a transient chill down period prior to normal operation. Chilldown is the process of introducing the cryogenic liquid into the system, and allowing the system components to cool down to several hundred degrees below the ambient temperature. The chilldown process is an important initial stage before a system begins functioning. The objective of this paper is to investigate the chilldown process associated with a flexible hose that was simulated by a channel with saw-teeth inner wall surface structure in the current study. We have investigated the fundamental physics of the two-phase flow and quenching heat transfer during cryogenic chilldown inside the simulated flexible hose through flow visualization, data measurement and analysis. The flow pattern developed inside the channel was recorded by a high speed camera for flow pattern investigation. The experimental results indicate that the chilldown process that is composed of unsteady vapor-liquid two-phase flow and phase-change heat transfer is modified by the inner wall surface wavy structure. Based on the measurement of the channel wall temperature, the teeth structure and the associated cavities generally reduce the heat transfer efficiency compared to the straight hose. Furthermore, based on the measured data, a complete series of correlations on the heat transfer coefficient for each heat transfer regime was developed and reported.     

用于环形正负电子对撞机探测器超导磁体的小型氦虹吸回路实验与数值模拟研究

在探测器超导磁体的低温系统预研中,搭建了小型的氦虹吸冷却回路实验系统,进行了气-液两相沸腾和传热特性实验研究,并利用VOF多相流模型模拟计算了氦的热虹吸自然冷却循环过程和过热烧干过程。在相同条件下,模拟计算结果与实验数据进行了比较,模拟计算得到的的温度分布、璧面过热度与实验测量数据符合度较好。     

An experimental and numerical study of He II two-phase flow in the TESLA test facility

We report on measurements of the liquid level and temperature corresponding to different local heat loads at several sections of the He II two-phase flow channel in the TESLA (Tera-eV Energy Superconducting Linear Accelerator) Test Facility phase I (TTF1) during its operation. The measurements show that under normal operating conditions saturation between He II and its vapor can be maintained even in the transient process of heat transfer. A computer code for He II stratified two-phase flow analysis has been developed for the numerical simulation of the He II and vapor flow in the configuration of the cryogenic cooling channel in TTF1. Comparison with the measurement shows the prediction by the code agrees well with the experimental results. The code also predicts the maximum heat load under which the two-phase tube in TTF1 would locally dry out. In its application, the code is helpful to evaluate the impact on the flow behaviour resulting from changes to the TTF1 configuration.     

ISS experiments for the clarification of boiling and two-phase flow in microgravity and for the development of high-performance space cold plates

Inflow boiling, gravity effects on the distribution of both phases are observed in a heated tube and heat transfer coefficients due to two-phase forced convection is deteriorated in microgravity. In narrow channels between heated and unheated plates, the increase in subcooling enlarges a size of flattened bubble and reduces the frequency of detachment under microgravity conditions resulting the emphasis of heat transfer deterioration. To clarify reasons for the unknown behaviors of interfacial distribution and corresponding characteristics in heat transfer not easily be clarified through the experiments on ground, the opportunity on the experiments utilizing long-term microgravity duration realized in ISS is required. The experiments on microgravity boiling and two-phase flow are proposed by the collaboration of researchers in five countries. A common test loop is designed to conduct multiple experiments by the interchangeable structures of test sections; a transparent heated tube for the visualized flow boiling, a stainless tube for the measurement of CHF data, a copper surface for the heat transfer data of nucleate boiling with superimposed liquid flows in a duct, a glass heated plate with multiple array of small temperature sensors and transparent heaters for the clarification of mechanisms in nucleate boiling heat transfer, and one or two models of cold plates for practical applications. A direction of researches in the present discipline is proposed based on the existing experimental results and on the idea developed by the present authors.     

Three-dimensional analysis for liquid hydrogen in a cryogenic storage tank with heat pipe–pump system

This paper presents a study on fluid flow and heat transfer of liquid hydrogen in a zero boil-off cryogenic storage tank in a microgravity environment. The storage tank is equipped with an active cooling system consisting of a heat pipe and a pump–nozzle unit. The pump collects cryogen at its inlet and discharges it through its nozzle onto the evaporator section of the heat pipe in order to prevent the cryogen from boiling off due to the heat leaking through the tank wall from the surroundings. A three-dimensional (3-D) finite element model is employed in a set of numerical simulations to solve for velocity and temperature fields of liquid hydrogen in steady state. Complex structures of 3-D velocity and temperature distributions determined from the model are presented. Simulations with an axisymmetric model were also performed for comparison. Parametric study results from both models predict that as the speed of the cryogenic fluid discharged from the nozzle increases, the mean or bulk cryogenic fluid speed increases linearly and the maximum temperature within the cryogenic fluid decreases.     

Experiments on dry-out during flow boiling in a round minichannel

Temperature measurements during flow boiling of R134a in a 0.96 mm single circular channel are reported in order to provide a criterion for the determination of the critical conditions in the channel. The flow boiling heat transfer is obtained by using a secondary fluid; the wall temperature displays larger fluctuations in the zone where dryout occurs. These temperature fluctuations in the wall denote the presence of a liquid film drying up at the wall with some kind of an oscillating process. These temperature fluctuations never appear during condensation tests, neither are present during flow boiling at low vapour qualities. The fluctuations also disappear in the post-critical condition zone. Experimental values of dryout quality measured with the above method are reported in this paper at mass velocity ranging between 300 and 600 kg m^?2s^?1. In the practical applications of flow boiling, the dryout quality is a key parameter in the two-phase systems for cooling of devices, both for ground and microgravity applications. The test conditions reported here refer to relatively high mass velocities, and are obtained at earth gravity. Nevertheless, since the critical heat flux differences between the two gravity environments decrease with increasing velocity, the present data may also be used for inertia dominated systems at low g.     

Performance analysis of no-vent fill process for liquid hydrogen tank in terrestrial and on-orbit environments

Two finite difference computer models, aiming at the process predictions of no-vent fill in normal gravity and microgravity environments respectively, are developed to investigate the filling performance in a liquid hydrogen (LH₂) tank. In the normal gravity case model, the tank/fluid system is divided into five control volume including ullage, bulk liquid, gas–liquid interface, ullage-adjacent wall, and liquid-adjacent wall. In the microgravity case model, vapor–liquid thermal equilibrium state is maintained throughout the process, and only two nodes representing fluid and wall regions are applied. To capture the liquid–wall heat transfer accurately, a series of heat transfer mechanisms are considered and modeled successively, including film boiling, transition boiling, nucleate boiling and liquid natural convection. The two models are validated by comparing their prediction with experimental data, which shows good agreement. Then the two models are used to investigate the performance of no-vent fill in different conditions and several conclusions are obtained. It shows that in the normal gravity environment the no-vent fill experiences a continuous pressure rise during the whole process and the maximum pressure occurs at the end of the operation, while the maximum pressure of the microgravity case occurs at the beginning stage of the process. Moreover, it seems that increasing inlet mass flux has an apparent influence on the pressure evolution of no-vent fill process in normal gravity but a little influence in microgravity. The larger initial wall temperature brings about more significant liquid evaporation during the filling operation, and then causes higher pressure evolution, no matter the filling process occurs under normal gravity or microgravity conditions. Reducing inlet liquid temperature can improve the filling performance in normal gravity, but cannot significantly reduce the maximum pressure in microgravity. The presented work benefits the understanding of the no-vent fill performance and may guide the design of on-orbit no-vent fill system.     

Experimental Study of Subcooled Flow Boiling Heat Transfer on a Smooth Surface in Short-Term Microgravity

The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of subcooled air-dissolved FC-72 on a smooth surface (chip S) were studied in microgravity by utilizing the drop tower facility in Beijing. The heater, with dimensions of 40 × 10 × 0.5 mm³ (length × width × thickness), was combined with two silicon chips with the dimensions of 20 × 10 × 0.5 mm³. High-speed visualization was used to supplement observation in the heat transfer and vapor-liquid two-phase flow characteristics. In the low and moderate heat fluxes region, the flow boiling of chip S at inlet velocity V =?0.5 m/s shows almost the same regulations as that in pool boiling. All the wall temperatures at different positions along the heater in microgravity are slightly lower than that in normal gravity, which indicates slight heat transfer enhancement. However, in the high heat flux region, the pool boiling of chip S shows much evident deterioration of heat transfer compared with that of flow boiling in microgravity. Moreover, the bubbles of flow boiling in microgravity become larger than that in normal gravity due to the lack of buoyancy Although the difference of the void fraction in x-y plain becomes larger with increasing heat flux under different gravity levels, it shows nearly no effect on heat transfer performance except for critical heat flux (CHF). Once the void fraction in y-z plain at the end of the heater equals 1, the vapor blanket will be formed quickly and transmit from downstream to upstream along the heater, and CHF occurs. Thus, the height of channel is an important parameter to determine CHF in microgravity at a fixed velocity. The flow boiling of chip S at inlet velocity V =?0.5 m/s shows higher CHF than that of pool boiling because of the inertia force, and the CHF under microgravity is about 78–92% of that in normal gravity.     

Flow boiling heat transfer coefficients at cryogenic temperatures for multi-component refrigerant mixtures of nitrogen–hydrocarbons

The recuperative heat exchanger governs the overall performance of the mixed refrigerant Joule–Thomson cryocooler. In these heat exchangers, the non-azeotropic refrigerant mixture of nitrogen–hydrocarbons undergoes boiling and condensation simultaneously at cryogenic temperature. Hence, the design of such heat exchanger is crucial. However, due to lack of empirical correlations to predict two-phase heat transfer coefficients of multi-component mixtures at low temperature, the design of such heat exchanger is difficult.The present study aims to assess the existing methods for prediction of flow boiling heat transfer coefficients. Many correlations are evaluated against available experimental data of flow boiling of refrigerant mixtures. Silver-Bell-Ghaly correlation and Granryd correlation are found to be more suitable to estimate local heat transfer coefficients. A modified Granryd correlation is recommended for further use.     

The measurement of thermodynamic performance in cryogenic two-phase turbo-expander

Liquid fraction measurement in cryogenic two-phase flow is a complex issue, especially for an industrial cryogenic system. In this paper, a simple thermal method is proposed for measuring the liquid fraction in cryogenic two-phase turbo-expander by an electric heating unit in experimental study. The liquid fraction of the cryogenic two-phase flow is determined through the heat balance built at the outlet of the turbo-expander (inlet of heating unit) and the outlet of the heating unit. Liquid fractions from 1.16% to 5.02% are obtained from five two-phase expansion cases. Under the same turbo-expander inlet pressure and rotating speed, five superheated expansion cases are tested to evaluate the wetness loss in two-phase expansion. The results show that the proposed method is successful in measuring the liquid fraction of cryogenic two-phase expansion for turbo-expander in an industrial air separation plant. The experimental isentropic efficiency ratio and the tested Baumann factor decrease with the increasing mean wetness. Based on prediction of Baumann rule, the cryogenic turbo-expander with low liquid fraction in two-phase expansion cases suffers from more severe wetness loss than that with the higher liquid fraction.     

Flow boiling of ammonia and hydrocarbons: A state-of-the-art review

A comprehensive review of flow boiling heat transfer, two-phase pressure drops and flow patterns of ammonia and hydrocarbons applied in air-conditioning, refrigeration and heat pump systems is presented in this paper. First, experimental studies of flow boiling of ammonia and hydrocarbons are addressed. Then, the prediction methods for flow boiling heat transfer, two-phase pressure drops and flow patterns are described. Next, comparisons of four flow boiling heat transfer and four two-phase pressure drop methods to the experimental data in smooth tubes derived from the available studies are presented. In addition, comparison of flow patterns to a flow map is presented. Based on the comparisons and analysis, recommendations on these methods are given. Furthermore, research needs on flow boiling and two-phase flow of ammonia and hydrocarbons have been identified. It is suggested that more experimental data be obtained through well conducted experiments and new prediction methods or modified ones based on the available methods be made for ammonia and hydrocarbons. In addition, the effect of oil on ammonia and hydrocarbon flow boiling and two-phase flow should be studied in order to have conclusive evidence of its effect.     

Impact of selected parameters on refrigerant flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop in minichannels

This paper presents results concerning flow boiling heat transfer in a rectangular minichannel 1 mm deep, 40 mm wide and 360 mm long. The refrigerant flowing in the minichannel, Fluorinert FC-72, was heated by a thin foil microstructured on the side in contact with the fluid. Two types of microstructured surfaces were used: one with evenly distributed microcavities and the other with non-uniformly distributed minicavities. Liquid crystal thermography was applied to determine the temperature of the smooth side of the foil. The paper analyses mainly the impact of the microstructured heating surface and orientation of the minichanel on the heat transfer coefficient and two phase pressure drop. This required calculating the local values of heat transfer coefficient and measuring the pressure drop for different positions of the minichannel with enhanced heating wall. Moreover, the effects of selected thermal and flow parameters (mass flux density and inlet pressure), the geometric parameters, and the type of cooling liquid on the nucleate boiling heat transfer is studied. From the measurement results it is evident that applying a microstructured surface caused an increase in the heat transfer coefficient, which was approximately twice as high as that reported for the smooth surface. The highest values of the coefficient were observed for position 90° (the vertical minichannel) and position 0° (the horizontal minichannel), whereas the lowest were reported for position 180° (the horizontal minichannel). The experimental data concerning the two-phase flow pressure drop was compared with the calculation results obtained by applying nine correlations known from the literature. It is reported that most of the correlations can be used to predict the two-phase flow pressure drop gradient within an acceptable error limit (±30%) only for positions 90° and 135° (the vertical and inclined minichannels, respectively). The lowest agreement between the experimental data and the theoretical predictions was reported for the horizontal positions of the minichannel.     

Liquid nitrogen injection into water: Pressure build-up and heat transfer

This paper is concerned about the expansion of a small amount of liquid nitrogen injected into a relatively large pool of water and the heat transfer behaviour during the process. Both the transient pressure and temperature profiles are experimentally measured and analysed. The results show that the pressure and the rate of pressure rise increase approximately linearly with increasing injection pressure and reach, respectively, to 284 kPa and 500 kPa/s at a liquid nitrogen injection velocity of ∼0.85 m/s. The temperature varies little during the injection process due to relatively small amount of liquid nitrogen injected. A comparison of the experimental results with related work on surface boiling of cryogen suggests that the heat transfer of direct mixing be much stronger than boiling on smooth surfaces and flow boiling through smooth pipes, but comparable to the boiling on very rough surfaces and flow boiling in pipes with porous inserts. A comparison with the results generated by injecting a small amount of water into liquid cryogens shows that a higher pressure increase rate could be achieved if operating conditions are optimised to induce fragmentation. Implications of the results to cryogenic engine work output and ways to improve the performance of cryogenic engines are also discussed.     

Effect of Gravity on Film Boiling Heat Transfer and Rewetting Temperature during Quenching

This paper describes the experimental strategy developed to improve the modeling of liquid-vapor flows during the chill down of rocket engines by cryogenic fluid in microgravity. A similarity analysis is performed to determine the relevant dimensionless numbers for the design of an experiment similar to engine flows. A literature review on reduced gravity quenching experiments, and on rewetting temperature and film boiling heat transfer shows the lack of validated models for microgravity. Experimental results obtained with the quenching of a glass tube by FC72 during parabolic flight are presented. Especially the impact of gravity and subcooling on rewetting temperature and film boiling heat transfer is investigated. Results show an increase in rewetting temperature, and a decrease in film boiling heat transfer under reduced gravity in agreement with the literature. The comparison of 0 g flow pattern with corresponding tests on ground points out a behavior at 0 g closest to 1 g upflow than 1 g downflow.     

Effect of gravity on pool boiling heat transfer on thermal spray coating

This study deals with heat transfer enhancement surface manufactured by thermal spraying. Two thermal spraying methods using copper as a coating material, wire flame spraying (WFS) and vacuum plasma spraying (VPS), were applied to the outside of copper cylinder with 20 mm OD. The surface structure by WFS was denser than that by VPS. The effect of gravity on boiling heat transfer coeffcient and wall superheat at the onset of boiling were experimentally evaluated under micro- and hyper-gravity condition during a parabolic trajectory flight of an airplane. Pool boiling experiments in saturated liquid of HCFC123 were carried out for heat fluxes between 1.0 and 160 kW/m² and saturated temperature of 30 °C. As a result, the surface by VPS produced higher heat transfer coefficient and lower superheat at the onset of boiling under microgravity. For the smooth surface, the effect of gravity on boiling heat transfer coefficient was a little. For the coating, a large difference in heat transfer coefficient to gravity was observed in the moderate heat flux range. The heat transfer coefficinet decreased as gravity changed from the normal to hypergravity, and was improved as gravity changed from the hyperto microgravity. The difference in heat transfer coefficient between the normal and microgravity was a little. Heat transfer enhancement factor was kept over the experimental range of heat flux. It can be said that boiling behavior on thermal spray coating might be influenced by flow convection velocity.     

Confined jet impingement of liquid nitrogen onto different heat transfer surfaces

Jet impingement of liquid nitrogen owns many applications in the cryogenic cooling aspects, such as, cooling of high-power chips in the electronic devices and cryoprobes in the cryosurgery. In the present study, we systematically investigated the confined jet impingement of liquid nitrogen from a tube of about 2.0 mm in diameter onto the heat transfer surfaces of about 5.0 mm in basement diameter with different heat transfer surface geometries and conditions, i.e., flat surface, hemispherical surface and flat surface with a needle. The effects of many influential factors, such as, the geometry of the heat transfer surface, jet velocity, distance between the nozzle exit and heat transfer surface, heat transfer surface condition, and some other, on the heat transfer were investigated. The heat transfer correlations were also proposed by using the experimental data, and it was found that the heat transfer mechanism of liquid impingement in the confined space was dominated by the convective evaporation rather than the nucleate boiling in the present case. The critical heat flux (CHF) of the confined jet impingement was measured and the visualization of the corresponding flow patterns of the confined jet impingement of liquid nitrogen was also conducted simultaneously to understand the heat transfer phenomena.     

An experimental study of heat transfer characteristics of a two-phase nitrogen thermosyphon over a large dynamic range operation

Heat transport characteristics of a cryogenic two-phase nitrogen thermosyphon have been experimentally investigated in this study. The thermal resistance and the maximum heat transfer rate were mainly investigated over a wide dynamic range from near the triple point to the critical point. The experimental data suggests that the nominal thermal resistance does not have pressure dependence in the high pressure and high temperature region. The present experimental result is well explained by the theoretical prediction. From the experimental result of the operating limit of the thermosyphon, it is found that the maximum heat transfer rate is governed by the interaction between the vapor flow and the returning liquid film flow along the wall in the evaporator section, even near the critical point.     

Investigation of helium injection cooling to liquid oxygen propellant chamber

Sub-cooling of cryogenic propellant by helium injection is one of the most effective methods for suppressing bulk boiling and keeping sub-cooled liquid oxygen before rocket launch. In order to design the cooling system, understanding of the limitations of heat and mass transfer is required. In this paper, an analytical model for the helium injection system is presented. This model’s main feature is the representation of bubbling system using finite-rate heat transfer and instantaneous mass transfer concept. With this simplified approach, the effect of helium injection to liquid oxygen system under several circumstances is examined. Experimental results along with simulations of single bubble rising in liquid oxygen and bubbling system are presented with various helium injection flow rates, helium temperatures, and injection methods. The overall cooling effect for rocket application is also discussed.     

Investigation of helium injection cooling to liquid oxygen under pressurized condition

Sub-cooling of cryogenic propellant by helium injection is one of the most effective methods for suppressing bulk boiling and keeping sub-cooled liquid oxygen before rocket launch. Compared with the helium injection cooling under atmospheric condition, helium injection cooling under pressurized condition has advantage that it can greatly reduce re-warming time of the sub-cooled liquid oxygen. Helium injection cooling under pressurized condition is characterized by cooling of initially sub-cooled cryogenic liquid, which is significantly different from that of the atmospheric condition where liquid oxygen usually exists at saturated condition. In this paper, we discuss the characteristics of helium injection cooling under pressurized condition, with the associated physical understanding of the process. Experimental results are presented along the simulations of variously combined system parameters based on the finite heat transfer and instantaneous diffusion mass transfer model. A non-dimensional parameter for identifying the cooling regime is conceived. The critical values of the non-dimensional parameters and injected helium temperatures are also estimated.