Structural optimization and experimental investigation of supersonic ejectors for boosting low pressure natural gas

The supersonic ejector was introduced into boosting the production of low pressure natural gas wells. The energy of high pressure gas wells, which was usually wasted through choke valves, was used as its power supply to boost the low gas production. The operating performance of natural gas ejectors was determined not only by the operating parameters but also by the structural parameters. This study focused on the structural optimization and operating performance of natural gas ejectors. The optimal structural parameters were obtained by numerical simulation when the maximum pressure ratio was obtained, and the numerical results were validated by experimental investigation. The numerical results showed that the optimal diameter ratio of mixing tube to primary nozzle throat was 1.6, the optimal length to diameter ratio of mixing tube was 4.0 and the optimal inclination angle of mixing chamber was 28°. The entrainment ratios and pressure ratios from the numerical simulation agreed well with the field experimental data, with the maximum value of pressure ratio up to 60%. The operating performance of the supersonic ejector was also investigated by the field experiment, and the results showed that the induced gas flowrate and entrainment ratio showed nonlinear characteristics with peak values when the motive pressure ranged from 8 MPa to 13 MPa. These experimental results have proved the optimized structural parameters of the supersonic ejector. The investigation will help to the further application in boosting natural gas production of supersonic ejector.     

Performance improvement of absorption heat transformer

In this study, a mathematical model of absorption heat transformer (AHT) operating with the aqua/ammonia was developed to simulate the performance of these systems coupled to a solar pond in order to increase the temperature of the useful heat produced by solar ponds and used a special ejector located at the absorber inlet. By the use of the ejector, the obtained absorber pressure becomes higher than the evaporator pressure and thus the system works with triple-pressure-level. The ejector has two functions: (i) aids pressure recovery from the evaporator and (ii) upgrades the mixing process and the pre-absorption by the weak solution of the ammonia coming from the evaporator. The other advantage of the system with ejector is increased absorber temperature. Therefore, pressure recovery and pre-absorption in the ejector improves the efficiency of the AHT. Under the same circumstances, when compared to an AHT with and without an ejector, the system's COP and exergetic coefficient of performance (ECOP) were improved by 14% and 30%, respectively and the circulation ratio (f) was reduced by 57% at the maximum efficiency condition. Due to the reduced circulation ratio, the system dimensions can be reduced; consequently, this decreases overall cost. The maximum upgrading of the solar pond's temperature by the AHT was obtained at 57.5 °C and gross temperature lift at 97.5 °C with coefficients of performance of about 0.5. The maximum temperature of the useful heat produced by the AHT was 150 °C. In addition, exergy losses for each component in the system were calculated at different working temperatures and the results of both systems with and without an ejector were compared. Exergy analysis emphasised that both the losses and irreversibilities have an impact on the system performance and exergy analysis can be used to identify the less efficient components of the system. Exergy analyses also showed that the exergy loss of the absorber of AHT with ejector was higher than those of other components.     

Phase change characteristics and their effect on the performance of hydrogen recirculation ejectors for PEMFC systems

The working fluid of the hydrogen recirculation ejector in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) systems is humid hydrogen containing water vapour. However, previous studies on the hydrogen recirculation ejector using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were based on the single-phase flow model without considering the phase change of water vapour. In this study, the characteristics of the phase change and its effect on the ejector performance are analysed according to a two-phase CFD model. The model is established based on a non-equilibrium condensation phase change. The results show that the average deviation of the entrainment ratio predicted by a single-phase flow model is 25.8% compared with experiments involving a hydrogen recirculation ejector, which is higher than the 15.1% predicted by the two-phase flow model. It can be determined that droplet nucleation occurs at the junction of the primary and secondary flow, with the maximum nucleation rate reaching 4.0 × 10²⁰ m^?3s^?1 at a primary flow pressure of 5.0 bar. The higher temperature, lower velocity, and higher pressure of the gas phase can be found in the mixing region due to condensation, resulting in a lower entrainment performance. The nucleation rate, droplet number, and liquid mass fraction increase remarkably with an increasing primary flow pressure. This study provides a meaningful reference for understanding phase change characteristics and two-phase flow behaviour in hydrogen recirculation ejectors for PEMFC systems.     

匹配新能源电能并网的压缩空气储能站性能研究

  [目的]  压缩空气储能系统在电能释放环节依托节流降压阀进行调压的方法,存在较大的空气压力能损失,降低了压缩空气储能系统的能量转换效率。  [方法]  引入喷射调压理论,通过高压流体对低压流体的自动卷吸作用获得中压流体的方法来完成调压过程,减少由节流降压阀引起的压力能损失。在研究过程中,分别构建了融合“节流阀调压”、“固定式匹配器调压”以及“可调式匹配器调压”三种不同调压方式的压缩空气储能系统并进行了性能比较分析。  [结果]  研究结果表明:“固定式匹配器调压”方法与“可调式匹配器调压”方法通过压力能回收,使得首台膨胀机可做功气流总量分别增加了2%与4.1%,储能系统的能量转换效率也由节流阀调压储能系统的59.26%分别提升至59.60%与59.97%。  [结论]  性能优化后的压缩空气储能系统能够服务于新能源电能并网需求,通过储能站与新能源电能发电站形成联合体的方式,促进新能源电能的消纳。     

Fuel ejector design and simulation model for anodic recirculation SOFC system

In this paper, a new modeling technique for fuel ejectors with high entrainment ratio, low pressure increment and over heated working gases in an anodic recirculation solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system is presented. By utilizing the thermodynamic, fluid dynamic principles and chemical constraints inside ejectors and employing a two-dimensional function to compute fluid velocity, the developed model involves no more than nine algebraic equations and this is very simple compared to all existing models. The detailed procedures for fuel ejector design and simulation are provided and its effectiveness is verified through simulation and compared with testing results. It shows that the proposed model is more accurate than presently available models, and therefore can be better used for ejector design and performance simulations. The ejector performances for both situations of stand-alone and integrated into the SOFC system are also studied.     

自然工质两级喷射器组合中间压力分配

建立了两级喷射制冷系统和两级喷射器组合的性能分析模型。以水、氨、R290、R600a为工质,研究了两级喷射器组合中间压力分配比与喷射系数的关系,当第一级和第二级喷射器的喷射系数相近时出现使总喷射系数最大的中间压力最佳分配比。探讨了不同工况下最佳分配比与总压缩比和膨胀比之间的关系。膨胀比一定时,最佳分配比随总压缩比的增大先增大,然后减小,最后又逐渐增大;膨胀比对最佳分配比也有一定影响,但与总压缩比的取值区间相关联。绝热指数是影响最佳分配比的重要因素,对处于相同最佳分配比工况的不同工质,绝热指数越大则所需的总压缩比也越大。提出了两级喷射器组合中各级喷射器结构选择方法。     

Optimal design of a novel nested-nozzle ejector for PEMFC's hydrogen supply and recirculation system

The ejector-based hydrogen supply and recirculation system (HSRS) for a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) system has the advantages of compact size and zero power consumption, compared with the HSRS using a recirculation pump. However, the conventional ejector with a single venturi nozzle can only function within a narrow power range of the PEMFC system due to its restricted primary inlet pressure. This study proposed a novel ejector design with nested nozzles to solve this problem. The key geometric parameters, including the nozzle diameters of a large nozzle (BN), a small nozzle (SN), and the axial distance between two nozzles, were optimized using CFD simulations to obtain the maximum entrainment capability. The BN mode is responsible for the stack's higher load operations, while the SN mode supports the lower power operations. Additionally, a bypass was used parallel to the nested-nozzle ejector in the HSRS to extend the ejector operating range further. The consistent CFD simulation and testing results of the nested-nozzle ejector showed effective hydrogen entrainment capability between 9% and 100% of power output for a 150 kW PEMFC stack. Moreover, the new nested-nozzle ejector HSRS showed much-reduced anode inlet pressure fluctuation compared to the HSRS using two conventional ejectors.     

Numerical Investigation of Two-Phase Flow in Natural Gas Ejector

Increasing production and recovery from the mature oil and gas fields often requires a boosting system when the gas pressure is lower than that demanded by the transportation or process system. The supersonic ejector, considered to be a cost-effective way to boost the production of a low-pressure gas well, was introduced into the industrial field. However, the exploitation of natural gas often accompanies with water. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique was employed to investigate the two-phase effect (water droplets) on the performance of natural gas ejector for the motive pressure ranging from 11.0 MPa to 13.0 MPa, induced pressure from 3.0 MPa to 5.0 MPa, and backpressure from 5.1 MPa to 5.6 MPa, while the injected water flow rate was less than 0.03 kg s^?1. The numerical results show that the entrainment ratio of the two-phase operation was higher than that of the single-phase operation with the variation of backpressure. Meanwhile, the entrainment ratio increased with the increase of injected water flow rate into the primary flow. When the water was injected into the secondary flow, the entrainment ratio decreased as the injected water flow rate increased, but the critical backpressure remained unchanged.     

高压气体引射器的试验研究和仿真

以一个高压气体引射器试验台为基础，开展了一系列高压引射试验，研究高背压条件下引射器的工作特性。同时，利用计算流体力学方法对引射器引射，混合过程进行了详细的研究。系列试验表明引射系数对引射气流的压力变化不敏感，但高背压的确对引射气流和被引射气流在混合管内的混合，扩散和流动产生影响。数值仿真克服了试验设备的限制，并显示了引射流动的详细情况。数值仿真结果表明：在一定的工况下，总存在一个最佳面积比和最佳相对位置以对应最大引射系数(即使引射器达到最大工作效率)，而其物理表现为引射器喉管壁面压力最低。正是它们之间的内在关系决定了气体引射器的工作特性。     

Numerical studies on ejector structure optimization and performance prediction based on a novel pressure drop model for proton exchange membrane fuel cell anode

The performance of hydrogen ejectors can be affected by the working conditions of the fuel cell system especially associating with the working pressure and pressure drop of the anode. However, the pressure drop characteristics model of the anode is correlated to the fuel cell parameters. In this work, a porous jump boundary is used as a pressure drop characteristics model of the anode which is weakly relevant to the parameters of fuel cells by employing the pressure drop characteristic curve of fuel cells. Based on the model, the influence of the condition parameters on the property of the ejector can be predicted. According to our results, the entrainment performance of the ejector can be influenced by anode inlet temperature, relative humidity, and differential pressure. Also, it is helpful for the design and prediction of the ejector in different fuel cell systems depend on the pressure drop.     

Optimal technical analysis of vacuum ejector for passive hydrogen recovery

In this study, the numerical analysis and experimental measurements are conducted on the internal flow field and temperature distribution of ejectors with different throat diameters. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to simulate different ejectors and investigate the effects of Mach number, pressure, and temperature distributions. The hydrogen Entrainment Ratio (ER) of ejectors is also measured for proton exchange membrane fuel cell applications. The experimental measurements and simulations of the hydrogen Entrainment Ratio of the ejectors showed that the recovery efficiencies are 59%, 53%, and 33% for the pipe diameters of 0.5, 0.7, and 1.0 mm at the inlet pressures of 340 kPa, respectively. In different area ratios, the larger area ratio of the nozzle leads to greater difference between the diameter of the throat and the diameter of the throat outlet. This causes a smaller recovery rate. In the internal flow field of the ejector, higher recovery rate can be achieved by using the closer location of the positive shock wave to the nozzle outlet.     

Determination of optimum ejector operating pressures for anodic recirculation in SOFC systems

In this study, a numerical analysis of an ejector for micro combined heat and power system based on 18 kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) using methane as fuel is presented. An ejector design, which reflects the real system conditions in the view of the flow characteristics, is provided and the ejector performance is numerically investigated for various methane pressure to exhaust pressure ratios and methane inlet temperatures. The results show that the fuel inlet temperature and the pressure ratio of the methane to exhaust significantly affect the steam to carbon ratio (STCR) and entrainment ratio. The higher pressure ratio and methane temperature allow a high entrainment ratio and STCR, but as pressure ratio and methane temperature increase, STCR and entrainment ratio remain unchanged after a specific value. 1140 different scenarios related with the inlet and outlet pressures of the ejector and methane temperature are created to determine the optimum operating conditions. The simulations show that the optimum methane inlet pressure is 7 bar and exhaust pressure is 1.159 bar for the ejector geometry of the interest. The entrainment ratio and STCR are determined as 2.05 and 0.92, respectively at this optimum scenario.     

Experimental and Numerical Analysis on the Internal Flow of Supersonic Ejector Under Different Working Modes

Supersonic ejectors involve very complex phenomena such as interaction between supersonic and subsonic flows, shock trains, instabilities, which strongly influences the performance of supersonic ejector. In this study, the static pressure distribution along the ejector wall and Mach number distribution along the axis are used to investigate the internal flow field of supersonic ejector. Results indicate that when the back pressure is much less than the critical back pressure, there are two series of shock trains, and the change of the back pressure will not affect the flow field before the effective area section, so the entrainment ratio would remain constant. The second shock train moves further upstream and is combined with the first shock train to form a single shock train as the back pressure rises. When the back pressure is greater than the critical back pressure, the position of the shock train, the static pressure at its upstream and the entrainment ratio, will be affected. The “effective area section” in the mixing tube is obtained. The effective area section position moves downstream with the increase of the primary flow pressure, while it moves upstream with the increase of the secondary flow pressure. The entrainment ratio shows inversely proportional relationship with the effective section position. Besides, the first shock train length increases with the increase of primary flow pressure or secondary flow pressure. The critical back pressure represents direct proportional relationship to the first shock train length.     

Customized design for the ejector to recirculate a humidified hydrogen fuel in a submarine PEMFC

The customized design of an anode recirculation system that uses an ejector based on the humidified hydrogen is proposed for a submarine PEMFC. Generally, the ejector is useful to enhance its system performance and to easily be operated and maintained since it does not require any parasitic power and has very simple structure. However, the existing commercial ejectors do not meet the practical operating requirements of the PEMFC system with the humidified hydrogen recirculation since the included water raises the ejector performance reduction and accompanying operating limits. The subsonic flow ejector designed by the proposed approach has met the desired entrainment ratio through the whole operating range of the target system as well as it allows the additional advantages to improve the system efficiency and simplicity and to overcome the conventional operating limits.     

Simplified ejector model for control and optimization

In this paper, a simple yet effective ejector model for a real time control and optimization of an ejector system is proposed. Firstly, a fundamental model for calculation of ejector entrainment ratio at critical working conditions is derived by one-dimensional analysis and the shock circle model. Then, based on thermodynamic principles and the lumped parameter method, the fundamental ejector model is simplified to result in a hybrid ejector model. The model is very simple, which only requires two or three parameters and measurement of two variables to determine the ejector performance. Furthermore, the procedures for on line identification of the model parameters using linear and non-linear least squares methods are also presented. Compared with existing ejector models, the solution of the proposed model is much easier without coupled equations and iterative computations. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed model is validated by published experimental data. Results show that the model is accurate and robust and gives a better match to the real performances of ejectors over the entire operating range than the existing models. This model is expected to have wide applications in real time control and optimization of ejector systems.     

Optimization Study of a Coanda Ejector

The Coanda effect has long been employed in the aerospace applications to improve the performances of variousdevices.This effect is the ability of a flow to follow a curved contour without separation and has well been util-ized in ejectors where a high speed jet of fluid emerges from a nozzle in the ejector body, follows a curved sur-face and drags the secondary flow into the ejector.In Coanda ejectors,the secondary flow is dragged in the ejec-tor due to the primary flow momentum. The transfer of momentum from the primary flow to the secondary flowtakes place through turbulent mixing and viscous effects.The secondary flow is then dragged by turbulent shearforce of the ejector while being mixed with the primary flow by the persistence of a large turbulent intensitythroughout the ejector.The performance of a Coanda ejector is studied mainly based on how well it drags thesecondary flow and the amount of mixing between the two flows at the ejector exit.The aim of the present studyis to investigate the influence of various geometric parameters and pressure ratios on the Coanda ejector per-formance.The effect of various factors,such as,the pressure ratio, primary nozzle and ejector configurations onthe system performance has been evaluated based on a performance parameter defined elsewhere.The perform-ance of the Coanda ejector strongly depends on the primary nozzle configuration and the pressure ratio.The mix-ing layer growth plays a major role in optimizing the performance of the Coanda ejector as it decides the ratio ofsecondary mass flow rate to primary mass flow rate and the mixing length.     

蒸汽喷射器流动参数与性能的数值分析

通过二维流动数值计算，分析了以水蒸气为工质的喷射器内工作流体压力、引射流体压力及出口压力对喷射系数的影响；探讨了各工作参数变化对喷射系数产生影响的原因，以及激波产生的条件、激波的位置、强度，产生引射流体雍塞的条件等。结果表明：喷射器存在临界的出口压力pd，当喷射器出口压力大于pd时，喷射器的喷射系数随出口压力升高而降低；当喷射器出口压力小于pd时，喷射器的喷射系数将保持不变。在计算模拟的制冷工况范围内，工作流体压力升高，引起喷射系数降低，pd升高；而引射流体压力升高时，喷射系数与pd都升高。     

斯特林发动机小空间燃气引射特性仿真研究

采用FLUENT软件对应用于斯特林发动机小空间燃烧室的不同类型的引射器的引射特性进行了计算研究.研究结果表明:在一次流体总质量流量和喷嘴总流通面积相同的条件下,多孔式喷嘴引射器的速度、温度及浓度分布均匀性明显优于中心、环形式喷嘴引射器,喷孔数量越多均匀性越好;多孔式喷嘴引射器的引射系数明显大于中心、环形式喷嘴引射器,喷孔数量越多引射系数越大.     

Experimental investigations on ejector refrigeration system with ammonia

A vapor ejector refrigeration system has been designed and developed to operate with ammonia. In this paper, performance of ejector refrigeration system has been experimentally studied with three different area ratio ejectors by varying operational parameters namely generator, condenser and evaporator temperatures. Effect of non-dimensional parameters like compression ratio, expansion ratio and area ratio on the system performance is studied. Entrainment ratio and coefficient of performance of the system increase with increase in ejector area ratio and expansion ratio and they increase with decrease in compression ratio.     

新型可调式喷射器性能的计算与分析

提出在喷射器喷嘴内插入喷针来调节喷射器工作参数的方案,建立了可调武喷射器性能计算模型,分析了喷嘴截面积变化对喷射系数、气体压力、气体流量等参数的影响。结果表明,通过对喷射器喉口面积的调节,可以实现把出口流量控制在一个稳定的区域内,从而减小喷射器入口参数对出口参数以至整个系统的影响。可调式喷嘴可拓宽喷射器的有效工作范围。