Navier—Stokes Computations of the Supersonic Ejector—Diffuser System with a Second Throat

The supersonic ejector-diffuser system with a second throat was simulated using CFD.An explicit finite volume scheme was applied to solve two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with standard κ-εturbulence model.The vacuum performance of the supersonic ejector-diffuser system was investigated by changing the ejector throat area ration and the operating pressure ratio.Two convergent-divergent nozzles with design Mach number of 2.11 and 3.41 were selected to give the supersonic operation of the ejector-diffuser system.The presence of a second throat strongly affected the shock wave structure inside the mixing tube as well as the spreading of the under-expanded jet discharging from the primary nozzle.There were optimum values of the operating pressure ratio and ejector throat area ratio for the vacuum performance of the system to maximize.     

Numerical Simulation of the Supersonic Flows in the Second Throat Ejector —Diffuser Systems

INTRODUCTIONThe ejector system is a device which employs ahigh-velocity primary motive fluid to enirain and accelerate a slower moving secondary fluid. The resulting kinetic energy of the mixture is subsequently usedfor self-compression to a higher pressure, thus performing the function of a compressor. The ejectorsystem has lOng been applied to jet pumps, vacuumpumps, high-altitude simulators, V/STOLs, etc[lrv4],because of the major advantages of its structural simplicity and reliabili…     

Computational Analysis of a Variable Ejector Flow

The present study addresses a variable ejector which can improve the ejector efficiency and control the re-circulation ratio under a fixed operating pressure ratio. The variable ejector is a facility to obtain specific recirculation ratio under a given operating pressure ratio by varying the ejector throat area ratio. The numerical simulations are carried out to provide an understanding of the flow characteristics inside the variable ejector. The sonic and supersonic nozzles are adopted as primary driving nozzles in the ejector system, and a movable cone cylinder, inserted into a conventional ejector-diffuser system, is used to change the ejector throat area ratio. The numerical simulations are based on a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the compressible, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The results show that the variable ejector can control the recirculation ratio at a fixed operating pressure ratio.     

Experimental investigation on starting process of supersonic single-stage air ejector

This paper deals with experimental study of flow field of starting process in two-dimensional, single-stage supersonic ejector on different air total pressure. Schlieren pictures of flow field were taken, static pressure distribu-tions on side wall were measured. The obtained results show that, on critical pressure, the starting main shock waves in ejector oscillated back and forth between the second throat and the middle section of the mixing chamber, it causes the pressure in the second half of the mixing chamber acutely fluctuated .When the working pressure of the active flow is higher than the critical starting pressure, ejector starts normally and the inner flow-field of the mixing chamber keeps stable and the shock waves in the second throat have a certain degree of oscillation . After ejector starts, the operating pressure of the active flow may be lower than the starting pressure .     

Numerical analysis of Chevron nozzle effects on performance of the supersonic ejector-diffuser system

The supersonic nozzle is the most important device of an ejector-diffuser system.The best operation condition and optimal structure of supersonic nozzle are hardly known due to the complicated turbulent mixing,compressibility effects and even flow unsteadiness which are generated around the nozzle extent.In the present study,the primary stream nozzle was redesigned using convergent nozzle to activate the shear actions between the primary and secondary streams,by means of longitudinal vortices generated between the Chevron lobes.Exactly same geometrical model of ejector-diffuser system was created to validate the results of experimental data.The operation characteristics of the ejector system were compared between Chevron nozzle and conventional convergent nozzle for the primary stream.A CFD method has been applied to simulate the supersonic flows and shock waves inside the ejector.It is observed that the flow structure and shock system were changed and primary numerical analysis results show that the Chevron nozzle achieve a positive effect on the supersonic ejector-diffuser system performance.The ejector with Chevron nozzle can entrain more secondary stream with less primary stream mass flow rate.     

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.     

Supersonic Flow Structure in the Entrance Part of a Mixing Chamber of 2D Model Ejector

The paper deals with experimental and numerical results of investigation into supersonic and transonic flow past a two-dimensional model ejector. Results of optical measurements show a flow structure and flow parameter development in the entrance part of the mixing chamber of the ejector. Numerical results are obtained by means of both the straight solution of shock waves in supersonic flow field using classical relations of parameters of shock waves and the Fluent 6 program. Results of numerical solutions are compared with experimental pictures of flow fields. Flow structure development in the mixing chamber is analysed in detail.     

喷嘴可调式蒸汽喷射器的性能计算

基于气体动力学函数法,建立了的喷嘴可调式蒸汽喷射器的变工况性能计算模型。应用该模型得到了喷射器压缩蒸汽压力变化时,不同喷嘴喉口面积下喷射器性能的变化规律,为研究喷嘴可调式喷射器的变工况性能提供依据。结果表明:减小喷嘴喉口面积,喷射器的最佳工作点具有较高的喷射系数,同时该点的压缩蒸汽压力、压缩蒸汽温度较低;喷射器压缩蒸汽流量随喷嘴喉口面积减小而降低。     

Performance improvement of the vapour compression refrigeration cycle by a two‐phase constant area ejector

The performance of a vapour compression system that uses an ejector as an expansion device was investigated. In the analysis, a two‐phase constant area ejector flow model was used. R134a was selected as the refrigerant. According to the obtained results, for any operating temperature there are different optimum values of pressure drop in the suction chamber, ejector area ratio, ejector outlet pressure and cooling coefficient of performance (COP). As the difference between condenser and evaporator temperatures increases, the improvement ratio in COP rises whereas ejector area ratio drops. The minimum COP improvement ratio in the investigated field was 10.1%, while its maximum was 22.34%. Even in the case of an off‐design operation, the performance of a system with ejector is higher than that of the basic system. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

R141b气液两相喷射器性能研究

考虑实际流体性质、混合室阻力和喉部激波现象,采用等压混合模型,根据质量守恒、动量守恒和能量守恒建立中心进气两相喷射器一维模型。以R141b为工质,研究在不同入口参数和混合室截面积变化比(混合室喉部截面积与混合室入口截面积之比)下喷射器的升压特性以及入口参数和混合室截面积变化比对喷射器出口压力和喷射系数的影响。结果表明:在一定工况下,入口主蒸汽压力每增加0.5 MPa,喷射器出口压力提高约0.002 MPa;入口引射液体压力每增加0.1 MPa,出口压力约升高0.6 MPa。相对于入口主蒸汽参数的变化,入口引射液体参数变化对喷射器的升压特性影响更大。另外,随着混合室截面变化比的增大,升压效果下降。在入口引射液体参数为0.1 MPa/299 K和0.2 MPa/321 K的条件下,混合室截面积比分别增至0.6和0.4时,出口处蒸汽不能完全凝结。研究结果适用于大部分工质,为喷射器的设计和运行提供理论指导。     

Transonic instability in entrance part of mixing chamber of high-speed ejector

Introduction The research of flow structure in the entrance part of the mixing chamber of two-dimensional supersonic ejector[1,2] shows, how this structure depends both on stagnation pressure ratio of streams p01/p02[3] and on back pressure ratio pb/p02 [4]. It was found out that the structure of shock waves is not stable, but it oscillates less or more. For the high back pressure ratio a terminal shock wave is in the mixing chamber and due to this shock wave the mixing processes change quali…     

The effect of reflector with sound-absorbing material on supersonic jet noise

This paper describes an experimental work to investigate the effect of a reflector on supersonic jet noise radiated from a convergent-divergent nozzle with a design Mach number 2.0. In the present study, a metal reflector and reflectors made of three different sound-absorbing materials (grass wool and polyurethane foam) were employed, and the reflector size was varied. Acoustic measurement is carried out to obtain the acoustic characteristics such as frequency, amplitude of screech tone and overall sound pressure level (OASPL). A high-quality schlieren optical system is used to visualize the detailed structure of supersonic jet. The results obtained show that the acoustic characteristics of supersonic jet noise are strongly dependent upon the jet pressure ratio and the reflector size. It is also found that the reflector with sound-absorbing material reduces the screech tone amplitude by about 5-13dB and the overall sound pressure levels by about 2-5dB, compared with those of the metal reflector.     

Flow Patterns and Thermal Drag in Supersonic Duct Flow with Heating

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Modeling the design and performance characteristics of solar steam-jet cooling for comfort air conditioning

A detailed mathematical model describing the performance of low-pressure low-temperature solar steam-jet cooling cycles for comfort air conditioning is presented in this paper. The model is based on the analysis of the cycle performance together with the supersonic flow conditions in the convergent divergent nozzle and the preceding supersonic and subsonic diffusers. The sets of simultaneous equations resulting from the model together with a subroutine providing numerical values of the thermodynamic properties of steam formulated a computer simulation program. The simulation program analyzes the performance of the solar steam-jet cooling system under different design and operating conditions. A set of design charts for the solar steam-jet cooling cycle and for the selection of the ejector dimensions were constructed. Finally, conclusions on the design considerations and limitations as well as the off design performance are discussed.     

Application of profiled ejector in chemical lasers

Recently, the use of profiled ejectors based on constant rate of momentum change [I.W. Eames, Applied Thermal Engineering 22 (2002) 121] along the mixing chamber has been proposed for enhancing the recovery ratio across an ejector stage by minimizing shock losses for application in ejector based refrigeration system. Such ejectors can achieve pressure recovery ratio in excess of 150, thus making the system a compact one. Chemical lasers in general and chemical oxygen-iodine laser (COIL) in particular fall in the high power lasers category and find numerous applications in defense and industry. However, these lasers have not been exploited fully because these require pressure recovery systems for their operation and as such the practical systems are extremely voluminous and bulky. The profiled ejectors find direct applications in these lasers and thus can make the system extremely compact. The conventional supersonic COIL systems operate at a typical stagnation pressure of nearly 20 torr and a cavity static pressure of approximately 3 torr, which are amongst the lowest in the class of chemical lasers. Thus, a low-pressure operation of the laser system demands a high capacity vacuum system. Alternatively, efficient ejector based pressure recovery system has been utilized for achieving direct atmospheric exhaust of the lasing medium. However, a minimum of two-stage conventional supersonic ejectors need to be employed for the operation of the laser system. Multiple stages of the ejector are essential on account of the stagnation pressure loss occurring across a normal shock at the exit of the mixing chamber in each ejector stage. The present study presents a general treatment on the design of a profiled ejector for the case of dissimilar motive and suction fluids that are typical of these lasers. Also, determinations for the increase in recovery ratio for various conditions of entrainment ratio over the conventional ejectors have also been presented. Finally, a computational study using McCormack’s method for Euler system of equations has been carried out to numerically validate the analytical studies for a peripheral air ejector system suitable for a 500 W class COIL employing a flow rate of 3 gm/s with an entrainment ratio of 0.025. It has been concluded that a single-stage profiled ejector is sufficient to achieve atmospheric pressure recovery even in the low-pressure systems.     

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.     

A novel thermally driven rotor-vane/pressure-exchange ejector refrigeration system with environmental benefits and energy efficiency

The latest results of an ongoing coordinated experimental and computational program on the design and performance of a novel supersonic rotor-vane/pressure-exchange ejector for thermally driven ejector refrigeration systems are presented. For the supersonic rotor-vane/pressure-exchange ejector, careful management of the entropy rise through the oblique shocks and boundary layers is required for obtaining an advance in ejector performance. Since the invention of this new ejector is quite recent, understanding its aerodynamics, with the consequent optimization of performance, is in the formative stage. This paper shows how the supersonic aerodynamics is managed to provide the desirable flow induction characteristics through computational study and, in parallel, experimental results including flow visualization showing actual behavior with different-shaped rotor vanes. The importance of the existence of the tail part with a long expansion ramp, the sharp leading edge such as knife-edge, the proper height of leading edges, for the overall shape of rotor vane, were observed. Also the larger spin-angle rotor vane produces better flow induction and mixing between primary flow and secondary flow.     

Geometric optimization of an ejector for a 4 kW SOFC system with anode off-gas recycle

One of the important energy saving tools used in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system is the anode off-gas recycling (AGR) via an ejector which allows the recirculation of the unused fuels in the anode exhaust gas including hot steam which is essential for the elimination of the carbon deposition and the initiation of the reactions in the reformer. In an ejector system developed for the SOFCs, the steam to carbon ratio (STCR) and entrainment ratio are the crucial parameters for the determination of the ejector performance. These parameters can be engineered by modifying the geometric dimensions and operation conditions. This study focuses on the determination of the maximum STCR value and entrainment ratio via numerical geometric analyses for a micro combined heat and power (μ-CHP) system based on 4 kW SOFC, utilizing methane. A detailed numerical procedure for designing an ejector is provided and the ejector performance is investigated for different critical dimensions (throat diameter, nozzle exit angle and nozzle position etc.). The results show that the nozzle position and the nozzle exit angle significantly affect STCR and the entrainment ratio. When the nozzle position increases and nozzle exit angle decreases, the entrainment ratio and STCR is found to increase. The entrainment ratio and STCR are determined as around 7.3 and 2.7, respectively for a specific design created in the study.