MIXED CONVECTION FROM A MULTIBLOCK HEATER IN A CHANNEL WITH IMPOSED THERMAL MODULATION

Enhancement of mixed-convection heat transfer in a multiblock heater arrangement in a channel is studied. At the most upstream heated block, a time-periodic heat generation is present, while the heat generation is constant in other heater blocks. The explicit effect of using thermal modulation (time-periodic heat generation) at the upstream heater is examined by acquiring comprehensive numerical solutions. The heat transfer enhancement is pronounced at the heaters at far downstream, and the augmentation is maximized when resonance is realized. The resonance frequency is close to the natural frequency of the system, which scales with the time for the main stream to travel through the interblock region. Plots are illustrated to demonstrate the formations of a pair of circulations downstream of the most upstream heater, which leads to identifying the natural frequency. The increase in the overall pressure drop is calculated. The benefit of heat transfer augmentation, as opposed to the increased pressure drop, is assessed to justify the use of thermal modulation in the upstream heater.     

Analysis of horizontal mantle heat exchangers in solar water heating systems

The characteristics of horizontal mantle heat exchangers are investigated for application in thermosyphon solar water heaters. An experimental model of a horizontal mantle heat exchanger was used to evaluate the flow patterns in the annular passageways and the heat transfer into the inner tank. Flow visualisation was used to investigate the flow structure, and the heat transfer was measured for isothermal inner tank conditions. A numerical model of the flow and heat transfer in the annular passageway was developed and used to evaluate the heat flux distribution over the surface of the inner tank. The numerical results indicate that configurations of mantle heat exchangers used in current solar water heater applications degrade thermal stratification in the inner tank. The effects of inlet flow rate, temperature and connecting port location are quantified.     

Thermal behavior of a porous electric heater

The performance of a proposed porous electric heater is investigated. The porous heater exchanges heat with the working fluid through its large volumetric surface area. As a result, it produces lower surface temperature as compared with the conventional heater for the same imposed heating power. Two mathematical models are presented to describe the thermal behavior of both heaters. Axial diffusion is included in the governing equation of the solid conventional heater. The predictions of both models are compared at different operating conditions where it is found that porous heaters have much better thermal performance than the conventional heaters.     

Combined convection heat transfer in a porous lid-driven enclosure due to heater with finite length

A numerical work is performed to analyze combined convection heat transfer and fluid flow in a partially heated porous lid-driven enclosure. The top wall of enclosure moves from left to right with constant velocity and temperature. Heater with finite length is located on the fixed wall where its center of location changes along the walls. The finite volume-based finite-difference method is applied for numerical experiments. Parameters effective on flow and thermal fields are Richardson number, Darcy number, center of heater and heater length. The results are shown that the best heat transfer is formed when the heater is located on the left vertical wall.     

Three-Dimensional Study of Natural Convection in a Horizontal Channel With Discrete Heaters on One of Its Vertical Walls

Three-dimensional natural convection in a horizontal channel with an array of discrete flush-mounted heaters on one of its vertical walls is numerically studied. Effects of thermal conductivities of substrate and heaters and convection on outer sides of the channel walls on heat transfer are examined. The substrate affects heat transfer in a wider range of thermal conductivities than do the heaters. At lower heater thermal conductivities a higher heat portion is transferred by direct convection from the heaters to the adjacent coolant. However, higher substrate conductivity is associated with higher heat portion transferred through the substrate. The innermost heater column is found to become the hottest heater column due to the lower coolant accessibility. The heat transfer in the channel is strongly influenced by convection on the outer sides of the channel walls. Correlations are presented for dimensionless temperature maximum and average Nusselt number.     

Shear-driven flows of locally heated liquid films

This paper considers the flow of a liquid film sheared by gas flow in a channel with a heater placed at the bottom wall. A one-sided 2D model is considered for weakly heated films. The heat and mass transfer problem is also investigated in the framework of a two-sided model. The exact solution to the problem of heat transfer is obtained for a linear velocity profile. The double effect of Marangoni forces is demonstrated by the formation of a liquid bump in the vicinity of the heater’s upper edge and film thinning in the vicinity of the lower edge. The criterion determining the occurrence of “ripples” on the film surface upstream from the bump is found. Numerical analysis reveals that evaporation dramatically changes the temperature distribution, and hence, thermocapillary forces on the gas–liquid interface. All transport phenomena (convection to liquid and gas, evaporation) are found to be important for relatively thin films, and the thermal entry length is a determining factor for heaters of finite length. The thermal entry length depends on film thickness, which can be regulated by gas flow rate or channel height. The influence of the convective heat transfer mechanism is much more prominent for relatively high values of the liquid Reynolds number. The liquid–gas interface Biot number is shown to be a sectional-hyperbolic function of a longitudinal axis variable. Some qualitative and quantitative comparisons with experimental results are presented.     

Enhancement of Heat Transfer with Porous/Solid Insert for Laminar Flow of a Participating Gas in a 3-D Square Duct

In recent years, porous or solid insert has been used in a duct for enhancing heat transfer in high temperature thermal equipment, where both convective and radiative heat transfer play a major role. In the present work, the study of heat transfer enhancement is carried out for flow through a square duct with a porous or a solid insert. Most of the analyses are carried out for a porous insert. The hydrodynamically developing flow field is solved using the Navier–Stokes equation and the Darcy–Brinkman model is considered for solving the flow in the porous region. The radiative heat transfer is included in the analysis by coupling the radiative transfer equation to the energy equation. The fluid considered is CO₂ with temperature dependent thermophysical properties. Both the fluid and the porous medium are considered as gray participating medium. The increase in heat transfer is analyzed by comparing the bulk mean temperature, Nusselt number, and radiative heat flux for different porous size and orientation, Reyonlds number, and Darcy number.     

The Performance of Porous Electric Heaters

The performance of a proposed porous electric heater is investigated. The porous heater exchanges heat with the working fluid through its large volumetric surface area. As a result, it produces lower surface temperature as compared with the conventional heater for the same imposed heating power. Two mathematical models are presented to describe the thermal behavior of both heaters and the predictions of both models are compared at different operating conditions.     

Numerical Investigation of Saturated Flow Boiling in Microchannels by the Lattice Boltzmann Method

Bubble formation in saturated flow boiling in 2D microchannels, generated from a microheater under constant wall heat flux or constant wall temperature conditions, is studied numerically based on a newly developed lattice Boltzmann model for liquid-vapor phase change. Simulations are carried out to study effects of inlet velocity, contact angle, and heater size on saturated flow boiling of water under constant wall heat flux conditions. Important information, such as effects of static contact angle on nucleation time and nucleation temperature, which was unable to be obtained by other numerical simulation methods, is obtained. Furthermore, effects of inlet velocity, contact angle, and superheat on nucleate boiling heat transfer in steady flow boiling of water under constant wall temperature conditions are also presented. It is found that the nucleate boiling heat transfer at the microheater is higher if the heater surface is more hydrophilic, because the superheated vapor at the hydrophilic wall has a thinner thermal boundary layer and a larger thermal conductivity.     

An analytical model to predict the thermal performance of a novel parallel flow packed bed solar air heater

A design of a parallel flow solar air heater with packed material in its upper channel and capable of providing a higher heat flux compared to the conventional non-porous bed double flow systems is presented. An analytical model describing the various temperatures and heat transfer characteristics of such a parallel flow packed bed solar air heater (PFPBSAH) has been developed and employed to study the effects of the mass flow rate and varying porosities of the packed material on its thermal performance. The model employs an iterative solution procedure to solve the governing energy balance equations describing the complex heat and mass exchanges involved. To validate the proposed analytical model, comparisons between theoretical and experimental results showed that good agreement is achieved with reasonable accuracy. Also, PFPBSAH is found to perform more efficiently than the conventional non-porous double flow solar air heaters with 10–20% increase in its thermal efficiency. Furthermore, the effect of the fraction of mass flow rate in the upper or lower flow channel of PFPBSAH device on its performance, has also investigated theoretically. The fraction of the mass flow rate in the respective channels of the PFPBSAH is shown to be dominant parameter in determining the effective thermal efficiency of the heater.     

High efficiency solar air heater

This article presents an analysis for a novel type of solar air heater. The main idea is to minimize heat losses from the front cover of the collector and to maximize heat extraction from the absorber. This can be done by forcing air to flow over the front glass cover (preheat the air) before passing through the absorber. Hence, this design needs an extra cover to form a counter-flow heat exchanger. Porous media forms an extensive area for heat transfer, where the volumetric heat transfer coefficient is very high. Hence, using a porous absorber will enhance heat transfer from the absorber to the airstream. In the design of this type of collector, which combines double air passage and porous media, care should be taken to minimize pressure drop. However, the thermal efficiency of this type of collector is significantly higher than the thermal efficiency of conventional air heaters. The thermal efficiency of the suggested collector exceeds 75% under normal operating conditions. The pressure drop is not so significant if high porous medium is used and careful design of U-return section is considered.     

Natural convection heat transfer from a horizontal cylinder to mercury under magnetic field

This paper presents the experimental data of natural convection heat transfer from a horizontal cylindrical heater immersed in mercury pool under the two applied magnetic fields of which directions are perpendicular and parallel to the direction of gravity, respectively. The presence of both magnetic fields causes increase in heater surface temperature and liquid temperature surrounding the heater and also increase in thermal boundary layer thickness, at the fixed surface heat flux. From these results, it is expected that the magnetic field affects the inception of boiling. Variation of local heat-transfer coefficient along the periphery of the heater is also discussed.     

An optimum performance of flat-type solar air heater with porous absorber

This investigation is concerned with the design and performance of a flat-type solar air heater in which air flows perpendicularly from the transparent cover to a porous absorber plate. The design phase involved a stability analysis to determine the critical distance (maximum allowable distance) between the absober and transparent cover, for suppressing convection currents, at various environmental and operating conditions. These results are useful to designers of solar collectors of the proposed type. In addition, the thermal performance of this solar heater at its optimum design conditions was computed for a wide range of system parameters illustrating the contribution of conduction and radiative modes of heat transfer. The results indicate that the best operating efficiency can be obtained when running the collector with a mass flow rate of m > 40 kg/m².h. Furthermore, the collector thermal performance is superior than channel type solar air heaters operating under similar conditions and much simpler than honeycomb porous bed solar air heaters.     

Thermal analysis of a 2-D heat recovery system using porous media including lattice Boltzmann simulation of fluid flow

The present work deals with the fluid flow simulation and thermal analysis of a two-dimensional heat recovery system using porous media. A basic high-temperature flow system is considered in which a high-temperature non-radiating gas flows through a random porous matrix. The porous medium, in addition to its convective heat exchange with the gas, may absorb, emit and scatter thermal radiation. It is desirable to have large amount of radiative heat flux from the porous segment in the upstream direction (towards the thermal system). The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to simulate fluid flow in the porous medium. The gas and solid phases are considered in non-local thermal equilibrium, and separate energy equations are applied to these phases. Convection, conduction and radiation heat transfers take place simultaneously in solid phase, but in the gas flow, heat transfer occurs by conduction and convection. In order to analyze the thermal characteristics of the heat recovery system, volume-averaged velocities through the porous matrix obtained by LBM are used in the gas energy equation and then the coupled energy equations for gas and porous medium are numerically solved using finite difference method. For computing of radiative heat flux in the porous medium, discrete ordinates method is used to solve the radiative transfer equation. Finally the effect of various parameters on the performance of porous heat recovery system is studied.     

Numerical investigation of pulsating flow around a discrete heater in a channel

In this study, the forced convection heat transfer around a discrete heater located in a channel subjected to laminar pulsating air flow is numerically investigated. Simulations are conducted for six different frequencies and three different amplitudes, while the Reynolds number (Re = 125) and Prandtl number (Pr = 0.71) remain constant for all cases. The impact of the important governing parameters such as the Womersley number (Wo) and the amplitude of flow pulsation (A_o) on heat transfer rate from discrete heaters is examined in detail. The instant velocity and temperature profiles are obtained to determine of the role of dimensionless parameters for pulsating flow. The numerical results show that thermal transport from the heater is greatly affected by the frequency and amplitude of the flow pulsation. The results given are dimensionless parameters.     

基于MATLAB的快速式汽-水换热器传热与流动特性研究

采用传热有效度-传热单元数(ε-NTU)的方法建立快速式汽-水换热器传热与流动特性的数学模型,利用MATLAB的SIMULINK建立相应的仿真模型,对快速式汽-水换热器的传热与流动特性进行模拟分析,得到了换热器出口混合水温度和压降随换热器的冷水质量流量及混合阀的冷、热水混合比的变化关系,并进一步分析了温度调节混合阀的调节特性。     

Experimental study on titanium heat exchanger used in a gas fired water heater for latent heat recovery

In general, latent heat recovery is usually accompanied by the corrosion of the heat exchanger, which is caused by the strongly acidic condensate when the temperature of the flue gas is lowered below the acid dew point. The present study has been conducted to investigate the heat and mass transfer characteristics in a titanium heat exchanger with excellent corrosion resistance used for waste heat recovery with the condensation arranged in a gas fired water heater. In addition, the thermal efficiency of the gas fired water heater was evaluated based on the net calorific value at the maximum rated output during latent heat recovery from the exhaust flue gas. Parametric studies were conducted for the flue gas flow rate, inlet temperature and mass flow rate of the supplied water, respectively. Different arrangements of the tubes of the heat exchanger including in-line and staggered configurations were investigated. The experimental results indicate that the thermal efficiency of the gas fired water heater with a latent heat recovery (LHR) heat exchanger was enhanced by about 10% compared with conventional instantaneous water heaters, i.e., water heaters without heat recovery. In addition, in terms of the Nusselt number and the Sherwood number, the heat and mass transfer performance of the staggered tube bank type were approximately 50% and 10% higher than that on the in-line tube bank type when the Reynolds number of the flue gas was 10³.     

Enhanced boiling heat transfer simulation from structured surfaces: Semi-analytical model

A semi-analytical model of the bubble dynamics is proposed based on the experimental results reported in the literature on boiling from porous enhanced surfaces. The model considers the ‘flooded mode’ regime of enhancement boiling and is validated for data covering a range of tunnel and pore dimensions. The dynamic model accounts for the temporal evaporation rate variation inside tunnels to arrive at the latent heat flux due to internal evaporation and frequency of bubble formation. The population density is predicted using an empirical formulation, and in turn used to estimate the total heat flux from the porous enhanced surface. The model predicts the heat flux for pool boiling from structured surfaces within ±30% of the experimental data. The model is subsequently used in the prediction of the thermal performance of a novel two-phase heat spreader that employs porous structured surfaces for enhancing boiling heat transfer.     

Boiling heat transfer on large diamond and SiC heaters: The influence of thermal wall properties

Pool boiling experiments were performed on large synthetic diamond and SiC substrates with integrated heating and temperature sensor elements. The boiling fluid was pure water at atmospheric pressure. The two heating substrates were identical with regard to geometry and design, and were mainly comparable in terms of surface roughness and static contact angle. This enabled the influence of the thermal heating wall properties on the resulting heat transfer to be investigated directly. The extraordinarily high value of the thermal conductivity of the synthetic diamond heater led systematically to higher mean heat transfer rates within the nucleate boiling regime compared to the SiC material. Strong thermal fluctuations due to the growth and detachment of vapor bubbles were recorded for both heaters. Indications for the existence of a local heat flux reversal from the liquid to the wall have been found by means of re-condensation phenomena and direct temperature measurements during boiling.     

Local Heat Transfer Coefficients of a High-Frequency Synthetic Jet during Impingement Cooling over Flat Surfaces

It has been shown that synthetic jets can enhance heat transfer in air-cooling during natural convection heat transfer. Those meso scale devices are expected to be one of the methods of choice for cooling confined space, low heat-generating electronics. The present study focuses on the local and global heat transfer coefficients of a high-frequency meso scale synthetic jet. The experiments have been completed with synthetic jets, which are 12.5 mm in diameter and 2 mm thick with a square orifice of 1 mm. A synthetic jet has been driven at the resonance frequency of 4500 Hz, and voltage was between 30 V and 50 V. Earlier studies have focused on understanding the effect of voltage and driving frequency on the average heat transfer effect, while the current study aims for determining local heat transfer. A microscopic infrared thermal imaging technique was used to acquire local temperature distributions, and the data were analyzed for local convective and radiative heat transfer coefficients. Four square heaters (each with a different size) have been studied in the current study to determine the effect of the characteristic length as well. Heat transfer enhancements over the specific heater sizes are presented, and it is found to be between 4 and 10 times of natural convection.