Continuous ice formation in a tube by using water–oil emulsion for dynamic-type ice-making cold thermal energy storage

A dynamic-type of ice-making cold thermal energy storage system using water–oil emusion with silane-coupler agent was investigated. In order to establish a suitable method by which slurry ice can be formed continuously in a tube without ice adhesion to the cooling wall, the effects of the tube materials of the heat exchanger, heat exchanger types and phase change materials on ice formation process were investigated. Experiments of ice formation were operated under various cooling conditions of flow rate of the mixture and temperature of cooling brine. It was found that using a fluoroplastics tube prevented ice from adhering to the tube under a wide range of the cooling conditions. By making thickness of the tube thinner and increasing heat transfer coefficient on the outside of the tube, performance of heat exchanger as an ice-making equipment was improved. The range of the suitable cooling conditions by using the water–oil emulsion as a phase change material was wider than that by using ethylene glycol aqueous solution.     

Continuous ice slurry formation by using W/O emulsion with higher water content

A W/O (water-in-oil) emulsion was made from a water–lamp oil mixture with higher water content and a small amount of an additive of amino group-modified silicone oil, and the emulsion could be changed into an ice slurry by cooling with stirring. By using a new continuous ice formation system proposed by one of the authors of this paper, the ice slurry could be formed continuously and stably in an ice formation vessel made of stainless steel. From the experimental results, the conditions were clarified for realizing continuous ice formation for 10 h without ice adhesion to the cooling wall. Moreover, in order to propagate supercooling dissolution of the emulsion effectively and to decrease viscosity in the ice slurry, voltages were applied to the emulsion and ice slurry formed, respectively, and it was clarified that the voltage impression was effective for both.     

Formation of high performance ice slurry by W/O emulsion in ice storage (effective method to propagate supercooling dissolution)

This study focused ice slurry formation in an ice storage system using W/O emulsions with 70 and 80% water contents. Emulsions consisted of a silicone oil–water mixture with a small amount of amino-group-modified silicone oil additive. Ice slurry was formed by cooling the emulsion without ice adhesion to the cooling wall, as water in the emulsion did not directly contact the cooling wall. As the structure of W/O emulsion slowed the propagation rate of supercooling dissolution, voltage and ultrasonic wave were applied to the W/O emulsion to propagate dissolution more quickly and decrease maximum supercooling degree, respectively. Thus, the effects of voltage and ultrasonic wave applications on propagation rate were clarified.     

Continuous ice slurry formation using a functional fluid for ice storage

A functional fluid composed of an oil–water mixture with an additive is transformed into an ice slurry by cooling while stirring. This paper describes a new continuous ice slurry formation method. Experiments were carried out by varying conditions such as the supply time of functional fluid, the stirrer torque, brine temperature and degree of supercooling. As a result, the characteristics of the ice formation and recovery processes were clarified. It was found that the ice particles gradually became uniform in size and spherical, and grew to 3.5 mm in diameter during about 10 h. The factors influencing the size of formed ice particles were discussed because the larger ice particles were expected to melt more rapidly. The ice particle size was found to increase with decreasing degree of supercooling and cooling rate, and with increasing stirrer wing diameter.     

Ice formation process by cooling water–oil emulsion with stirring in a vessel

An emulsion, which was a mixture of silanol-aqueous solution and silicone oil, was investigated as a heat storage material for a dynamic type ice storage system. The emulsion was poured into a vessel, which was immersed into a constant temperature bath at a low temperature, and frozen with stirring. Using stainless steel vessels coated with PFA resin and PTFE vessels with different thickness, the experiments were carried out under various conditions of temperature. Measuring the temperature history in the vessel, overall heat transfer coefficients before the start of freezing and during the ice formation were obtained. The effects of the material of the cooling surface and the thermal resistance of the wall on the ice formation process were clarified. If the heat flux of the wall was less than a critical value, slurry ice was formed without adhesion to the cooling surface. The results obtained under the same condition of the thermal resistance proved that it was effective against ice adhesion to coat PFA resin inside the vessel. It was found by the experiments in which the PTFE vessels were used that the critical value of the heat flux was nearly constant regardless of the thermal resistance.     

Superheating of ice slurry in melting heat exchangers

One of the main components of an ice slurry system is the melting heat exchanger, in which ice slurry absorbs heat resulting in the melting of ice crystals. Design calculations of melting heat exchangers are mainly based on heat transfer and pressure drop data, but recent experimental studies have shown that superheating of ice slurry should also be considered. This paper presents ice slurry melting experiments with a tube-in-tube heat transfer coil. The experimental results indicate that operating conditions such as ice slurry velocity, heat flux, solute concentration, ice fraction, and ice crystal size determine the degree of superheating. The various influences are explained by considering the melting process as a two-stage process consisting of the heat transfer between wall and liquid and the combined heat and mass transfer between liquid and crystals. Bigger ice crystals and higher solute concentrations decrease the rate of the second stage and therefore increase the degree of superheating.     

Development of W/O emulsion to form harmless ice slurry to human being

In order to form ice slurry in ice storage, W/O emulsion was made from water–oil mixture with a small amount of surfactant. And, it was proved that ice slurry could be formed even in a metal vessel, which is expected to improve ice formation rate, without ice adhesion to a cooling vessel wall because of a structural feature of the emulsion. In this paper, authors proposed application of ice slurry to cold storage of foods. In order to apply ice slurry to cold storage of foods, a new harmless ice slurry to human being was formed by cooling a new W/O emulsion made from tap water–edible oil mixture with a small amount of edible emulsifier. And, the fundamental characteristics and availability of new W/O emulsion-ice slurry formed were clarified. Finally, it was concluded that new harmless ice slurry to human being could be fully applied to cold storage of foods.     

Non-uniform melting in packed beds of fine ice slurry

The melting process of packed beds of ice slurry consisting of aqueous solution and ice particles with a mean diameter of 0.2 mm, so-called liquid ice, was studied. The packed ice layer was melted with aqueous solution sprayed on top of it directly and indirectly. Experiments of the melting process were done by changing the mass of ice, the inlet temperature and the flow rate. The time history of the outlet temperature of the bed was measured and the melting phenomenon was observed. During the melting, it was found that passages through the ice layer were formed and the aqueous solution sprayed on the top of the ice layer hardly permeated the ice layer, but flowed through the passages. Assuming that the flow rate of the solution through the passages was known, the melting process was analyzed. In the case of direct spraying, the effects on the outlet temperature and the formation of passage were clarified by changing the initial mass of ice, the flow rate and the inlet temperature. When the solution was sprayed on top of the ice layer directly (direct spraying), the outlet temperature was kept constant because the heat exchange was enhanced by the mixing effects of spraying. On the contrary, when an obstacle was placed on top of the ice layer (indirect spraying), the outlet temperature was higher than that in the case of direct spraying and was not kept constant.     

Study on continuous ice slurry formation using functional fluid for ice storage – Discussion of optimal operating conditions

A functional fluid was made by adding a small amount of additive to a water–silicone-oil mixture with 90 vol% water content, and the functional fluid was transformed into an ice slurry by cooling while stirring. The new ice formation system, which authors proposed for ice storage based on the results of previous studies, demonstrated that the ice slurry could be formed continuously for 10 h. In the current paper, experiments were carried out, varying operating conditions, and an optimal operating condition was determined to improve performance of the present system still more. From the experimental results, the conditions necessary to increase the amount of recovery ice were clarified. The time-dependencies of the shape and size of formed ice particles were also shown. Moreover, the reason why the freezing temperature of the functional fluid rose due to repetition of ice formation was clarified, and its measure was discussed. The present study then found that it was possible to form and recover a larger amount of ice than in previous attempts, given the rise in freezing temperature.     

Experimental investigation of ice slurry heat transfer in horizontal tube

Heat transfer of ice slurry flow based on ethanol–water mixture in a circular horizontal tube has been experimentally investigated. The secondary fluid was prepared by mixing ethanol and water to obtain initial alcohol concentration of 10.3% (initial freezing temperature -4.4 °C). The heat transfer tests were conducted to cover laminar and slightly turbulent flow with ice mass fraction varying from 0% to 22% depending on test performed. Measured heat transfer coefficients of ice slurry are found to be higher than those for single phase fluid, especially for laminar flow conditions and high ice mass fractions where the heat transfer is increased with a factor 2 in comparison to the single phase flow. In addition, experimentally determined heat transfer coefficients of ice slurry flow were compared to the analytical results, based on the correlation by Sieder and Tate for laminar single phase regime, by Dittus–Boelter for turbulent single phase regime and empirical correlation by Christensen and Kauffeld derived for laminar/turbulent ice slurry flow in circular horizontal tubes. It was found that the classical correlation proposed by Sieder and Tate for laminar forced convection in smooth straight circular ducts cannot be used for heat transfer prediction of ice slurry flow since it strongly underestimates measured values, while, for the turbulent flow regime the simple Dittus–Boelter relation predicts the heat transfer coefficient of ice slurry flow with high accuracy but only up to an ice mass fraction of 10% and Re_cf > 2300 regardless of imposed heat flux. For higher ice mass fractions and regardless of the flow regime, the correlation proposed by Christensen and Kauffeld gives good agreement with experimental results.     

Prediction of ice slurry performance in a corrugated tube heat exchanger

Ice slurry performance in a concentric corrugated tube heat exchanger is experimentally studied in this work in order to compare experimental results to theoretical prediction obtained using the correlations proposed in previous papers. Once the validity of those correlations is verified, the behaviour of the studied heat exchanger is analyzed for different ice slurry flow conditions and compared to the results obtained when a heterogeneous storage is used and only carrier fluid flows through the heat exchanger. According to the performance evaluation criterion used – variation in heat transfer rate for equal pressure drop and surface area – the most remarkable conclusion obtained is that slurry improves the behaviour of the heat exchanger studied for all the cases analyzed, although the increase in heat transfer rate is always lower than 15%, being in most cases lower than 5%.     

Heat transfer characteristics of the ice slurry at melting process in a tube flow

The heat transfer characteristics were experimentally investigated for ice slurry made from 6.5% ethylene glycol–water solution flow in a 13.84 mm internal diameter, 1500 mm long horizontal copper tube. The ice slurry was heated by hot water circulated at the annulus gap of the test section. Experiments of the melting process were conducted with changing the ice slurry mass flux and the ice fraction from 800 to 3500 kg/m² s and 0–25%, respectively. During the experiment, it was found that the measured heat transfer rates increase with the mass flow rate and ice fraction; however, the effect of ice fraction appears not to be significant at high mass flow rate. At the region of low mass flow rates, a sharp increase in the heat transfer coefficient was observed when the ice fraction was more than 10%.     

Experimental investigation of a novel multifunction heat pipe solid sorption icemaker for fishing boats using CaCl2/activated carbon compound–ammonia

The performance of a solid sorption icemaker is investigated. CaCl₂/activated carbon was used as compound adsorbent and ammonia was employed as adsorbate. The influence of operating conditions (cooling water temperature, mass recovery and heat pipe heat recovery, etc.) on the mass of ice, SCP (specific cooling power) and COP (coefficient of performance) was experimentally assessed. At the desorption temperature of 126 °C, cooling water temperature of 22 °C, ice produced temperature of −7.5 °C, 40 s of mass recovery and 2 min of heat pipe heat recovery, the mass of ice, SCP and COP values are 17.6 kg/h, 369.1 W/kg and 0.2, respectively.     

A quantitative evaluation of the production performance of ice slurry by the oscillatory moving cooled wall method

Ice slurry has recently been utilized for a variety of engineering fields such as thermal energy storage and high-density energy transportation. In this paper, as a production method of ice slurry, the oscillatory rotating cooled tube method was proposed. A vertical cooled tube was installed in a test vessel that was filled with ethylene glycol solution being forced to move within an aqueous binary solution to produce the ice slurry. Production performance of ice slurry by the present method was determined under a variety of conditions, such as initial concentration of solution, angular acceleration and rotation angle for the oscillation motion of the cooled tube. The production performance was evaluated analytically by constructing a numerical model. The analysis was made to determine the separation condition of ice layer from the cooled tube surface at first, then the production rate of ice slurry was assessed. It was found from the present study that the ice slurry was produced continuously under the appropriate operating conditions in which the separation of ice layer was caused by oscillating motion of the cooled tube.     

Ice storage system using water–oil mixture Discussion about influence of additive on ice formation process

Ice storage is one technique for effective use of thermal energy. So, many studies on slush ice as a thermal storage material have been done. We have also been studying a suspension (slush ice) made from an oil-water mixture by cooling and stirring. From our study results, it was found that an additive having both an amino group (-NH₂) and a silanol group (-SiOH) was essential to form a suspension with high IPF without adhesion of ice to the cooling wall. Moreover, ice particles formed in the suspension were dispersed and granular, and did not stick to each other. In the present paper, we carried out experiments to clarify the characteristics of the suspension formation process. From a thermal analysis of the substance formed in the suspension by difference scanning calorimeter (DSC), it was found that the substance was not ice but a compound of ice and additive. Then, at a very small depression of freezing point (about 7°C) all water in the mixture could be frozen by using the additive.     

Performance evaluation of a CO2 heat pump system for fuel cell vehicles considering the heat exchanger arrangements

A novel CO₂ heat pump system was provided for use in fuel cell vehicles, when considering the heat exchanger arrangements. This cycle which had an inverter-controlled, electricity-driven compressor was applied to the automotive heat pump system for both cooling and heating. The cooling and heating loops consisted of a semi-hermetic compressor, supercritical pressure microchannel heat exchangers (a gas cooler and a cabin heater), a microchannel evaporator, an internal heat exchanger, an expansion valve and an accumulator. The performance characteristics of the CO₂ heat pump system for fuel cell vehicles were analyzed by experiments. Results for steady and transient state performance were provided for various operating conditions. Furthermore, experiments to examine the arrangements of a radiator and an outdoor heat exchanger were carried out by changing their positions for both cooling and heating conditions. The arrangements of the radiator and the outdoor heat exchanger were tested to quantify cooling/heating effectiveness and mutual interference. The improvement of heating capacity and coefficient of performance (COP) of the CO₂ heat pump system was up to 54% and 22%, respectively, when using preheated air through the radiator instead of cold ambient air. However, the cooling capacity quite decreased by 40–60% and the COP fairly decreased by 43–65%, for the new radiator-front arrangement.     

Effects of liquid refrigerant injection on the performance of a refrigeration system with an accumulator heat exchanger

Liquid refrigerant injection technique can be a very effective method for controlling subcooling and the compressor discharge temperature of a refrigeration system at high ambient temperatures. In this study, the effects of liquid refrigerant injection on the performance of a refrigeration system with an accumulator heat exchanger were investigated by varying the liquid injection rate at the conditions of constant expansion valve opening in the evaporator and constant total flow rate. During the tests, the ambient temperature was maintained at 43 °C. With the increase of the liquid injection rate, the subcooling at the inner heat exchanger outlet increased and the superheat at the accumulator outlet decreased. However, unacceptable results such as the increase of the compressor discharge pressure and decrease of the system performance were also observed depending on the control method applied. To obtain high system performance and reliability, optimum control methods for liquid injection in the accumulator heat exchanger are suggested. The liquid injection technique for the refrigeration system with an accumulator heat exchanger was found to be an effective method for controlling adequate subcooling and the compressor discharge temperature of the refrigeration system at high ambient temperatures.     

Local and global heat transfer coefficients of a stabilised ice slurry in laminar and transitional flows

The thermal behaviour of a new two-phase secondary refrigerant has been analysed. The “stabilised ice slurry” is a suspension in a low viscosity oil of ultraporous polymeric particles filled with water. In order to determine the convective heat transfer coefficient of this secondary refrigerant with water–ice phase change, an experimental set-up was built. It allows determining the local heat transfer coefficients inside two heat exchangers, having rectangular sections (80 × 8 mm²) of 1 m length, by mean of fluxmeters located along the working section. The slurry is first cooled and frozen in one of the exchangers, then heated and melted in the other exchanger. The results obtained for laminar or transitional flows shows that the heat transfer coefficients of the ice slurry are obviously higher than the heat transfer coefficients obtained with the single-phase fluid (oil). Correlations giving the local and global Nusselt numbers, depending on the Graetz or Reynolds numbers and on the particle mass fraction, have been established.     

The effect of heat transfer additive and surface roughness of micro-scale hatched tubes on absorption performance

The objectives of this paper are to investigate the effect of heat transfer additive and surface roughness of micro-scale hatched tubes on the absorption performance and to provide a guideline for the absorber design. Two different micro-scale hatched tubes and a bare tube are tested to quantify the effect of the surface roughness on the absorption performance. The roughness of the micro-scale hatched tubes ranges 0.39–6.97 μm. The working fluid is H₂O/LiBr solution with inlet concentration of 55, 58 and 61 wt.% of LiBr. Normal Octanol is used as the heat transfer additive with the concentration of 400 ppm. The absorber heat exchanger consists of 24 horizontal tubes in a column, liquid distributor at the liquid inlet and the liquid reservoir at the bottom of the absorber. The effect of heat transfer additive on the heat transfer rate is found to be more significant in the bare tube than that in the micro-scale hatched tubes. It is found that the absorption performance for the micro-hatched tube with heat transfer additive becomes up to 4.5 times higher than that for the bare tube without heat transfer additive. It is concluded that the heat transfer enhancement by the heat transfer additive is more significant than that by the micro-scale surface treatment.     

汽车空调暖风机热交换器的优化设计

提高汽车空调性能的主要方式是提高热交换器的换热效率. 由于汽车内部空间的限制,不能单纯依靠增加热交换器体积的方法来提高热效率,因此对热交换器结构优化设计将具有现实意义. 利用Flnent求解和正交设计的方法对汽车暖风机热交换器进行优化设计. Fluent软件可以模拟热交换器的流动和传热过程,正交设计的方法可以建立回归方程,因此可以得到出口温度的数学模型,该模型定量地描述了翅片间距、翅片高度及水管间距对换热效率的影响,优化汽车暖风热交换器的结构,最后通过试验证明了优化设计结果的准确性.优化热交换器的结构参数：翅片间距为1.1 mm,翅片高度为6.9 mm,管距为5.2 mm.根据Fluent模拟仿真得到出口温度的回归方程：Y=307.308+2.333X₁ +0.677X₂+0,561X₃-2.501X₁²,影响出口温度的因素依次为翅片间距、翅片高度和水管间距.Fluent模拟仿真和正交试验设计相结合的方法有助于产品结构分析和优化设计.