Performance of Forced Convection Heat Transfer in Porous Media Based on Gibson–Ashby Constitutive Model

A novel simulation model is developed for predicting the performance of forced convection heat transfer in the porous metal foam. Based on the physical geometry of the Gibson-Ashby constitutive model, the theoretical model proposed is able to predict the mechanical behaviors and thermal physical properties of porous materials simultaneously. The theoretical predictions of the overall heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop were compared with available experimental data for two different porous foam tubes. The first tube has a porous diameter of 0.6mm and porosity of 0.402, and the other tube has a diameter of 1.6mm and porosity of 0.462. The results show that the relative deviation of the flow pressure drop between the prediction and the experimental data are in the range from 5% to10% while the relative deviation of the overall heat transfer coefficient is about 20%. These deviations are acceptable for applications in engineering. So the feasibility of the Gibson-Ashby constitutive model to be used to predict the performance of flow resistance and convective heat transfer in porous foam ducts is satisfactorily validated.     

Experimental and numerical investigation of two-phase pressure drop in vertical cross-flow over a horizontal tube bundle

Experimental pressure drop data for vertical two-phase air–water flow across horizontal tubes is presented for gas mass fractions in the range 0.0005–0.6 and mass fluxes in the range 25–700 kg/m² s. The square in-line tube bundle had one column containing ten tubes and two columns of half tubes attached to the walls. The tubes had a diameter of 38 mm and a pitch to diameter ratio of 1.32. This data and air–water and R113 vapour–liquid data available in the literature are compared with the predictions from two kettle reboiler models, the one-dimensional model and a one-dimensional formulation of the two-fluid model. The one-dimensional model was implemented with three separate void fraction correlations and one two-phase friction multiplier correlation. The results show that the two-fluid model predicts air–water void fraction data well but R113 data poorly with pressure drop predictions for both being unsatisfactory. The one-dimensional model is shown to predict pressure drop and void fraction data reasonably well, provided a careful choice is made for the void fraction correlation.     

A synthesis of fluid and thermal transport models for metal foam heat exchangers

Metal foam heat exchangers have considerable advantages in thermal management and heat recovery over several commercially available heat exchangers. In this work, the effects of micro structural metal foam properties, such as porosity, pore and fiber diameters, tortuosity, pore density, and relative density, on the heat exchanger performance are discussed. The pertinent correlations in the literature for flow and thermal transport in metal foam heat exchangers are categorized and investigated. Three main categories are synthesized. In the first category, the correlations for pressure drop and heat transfer coefficient based on the microstructural properties of the metal foam are given. In the second category, the correlations are specialized for metal foam tube heat exchangers. In the third category, correlations are specialized for metal foam channel heat exchangers. To investigate the performance of the foam filled heat exchangers in comparison with the plain ones, the required pumping power to overcome the pressure drop and heat transfer rate of foam filled and plain heat exchangers are studied and compared. A performance factor is introduced which includes the effects of both heat transfer rate and pressure drop after inclusion of the metal foam. The results indicate that the performance will be improved substantially when a metal foam is inserted in the tube/channel.     

Update on Condensation Heat Transfer and Pressure Drop inside Minichannels

The present paper reviews published experimental work focusing on condensation flow regimes, heat transfer, and pressure drop in minichannels. New experimental data are available with high (R410A), medium (R134a), and low (R236ea) pressure refrigerants in minichannels of different cross-section geometries and with hydraulic diameters ranging from 0.4 to 3 mm. Because of the influence of flow regimes on heat transfer and pressure drop, a literature review is presented to discuss flow regimes transitions. The available experimental frictional pressure gradients and heat transfer coefficients are compared with semi-empirical and theoretical models developed for conventional channels and models specifically created for minichannels. Starting from the results of the comparison between experimental data and models, the paper will discuss and evaluate the opportunity for a new heat transfer model for condensation in minichannels; the new model attempts to take into account the effect of the entrainment rate of droplets from the liquid film.     

The effect on pressure drop across horizontal pipe and control valve for air/palm oil two-phase flow

Studies on operating characteristics of control valves with two-phase flow have not been given much attention in the literature despite its industrial importance during design and selection as well as during plant operation. However, literature shows considerable work with two-phase flow through pipes and different geometrical shapes of flow ducts. The present work attempts to study experimentally the effect of two-phase flow on pressure drop across the control valve for different volume fractions of the fluids. A typical fluid system of palm oil (liquid phase) and air (gas phase) has been used for the studies. The pressure drop in a horizontal straight pipe upstream of the valve is also considered to test the correlations from the literature on two-phase pressure drop. The same is extended to represent the pressure drop across the valve. The operating characteristics are obtained from the pressure drop relationship and valve opening. It is found that Lockhart-Martini (L-M) parameter and the quality (fraction of liquid) are found to correlate well with the two-phase multiplier defined based on pressure drop with gas phase. The installed characteristics of the valve for varying pressure drop and quality is presented.     

Prediction of pressure drop in a packed bed dehumidifier operating with liquid desiccant

In this paper a more rigorous model, which is valid for both structured and random packing columns, is used for predicting the irrigated pressure drop in a desiccant–air contact system. Calcium chloride solution is considered as the desiccant. Four different random packing materials and three different structured packing materials are considered in the present study. The effects of random packing shape and the type of structured packing on the hydraulic performance are studied. The model has been validated for a wide range of operating values available in the literature. It is found that the structured packing has the lower pressure drop and higher capacity compared with random packings. Among the random packing materials considered in the present study, Intalox saddles can provide the least irrigated pressure drop and among the structured packing materials the sheet-type Mellapak 250 Y has the lowest pressure drop.     

Numerical Simulations of Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer through Aluminum and Copper Metal Foam Heat Exchanger – A Comparative Study

Abstract

This article discusses about a numerical simulation of a metal foam heat exchanger system carried out by a commercial software. A metal foam layer is attached to the bottom of the heat exchanger to absorb heat from the exhaust hot gas leaving the system. Two types of metal foams with two different pores per inch (PPI) values are considered for heat transfer enhancement. Similarly, two different materials Aluminum and copper, that poses high thermal conductivity, metal foams are considered for the present numerical simulations. The heat exchanger system is simulated over a range of 6–30?m/s fluid velocity. The proposed simulations are compared with theoretical and experimental data available in the literature. The goal is to improve the thermal performance of the heat exchanger by decreasing the pressure drop and maximizing the heat transfer rate. Finally, it has been noticed that the velocity of the fluid decreases as PPI increases at the expense of its pressure drop. The copper metal foam gives a maximum increase of 4–10% heat transfer rate compared to aluminum metal foams for a fluid velocity of 30?m/s.     

Heat transfer during air flow in aluminum foams

This paper presents experimental heat transfer coefficients measured during air flow heating in seven different aluminum open-cell foam samples with different number of pores per inch (PPI), porosity and foam core height under a wide range of air mass velocity. Three imposed heat fluxes are considered for each foam sample: 25.0, 32.5 and 40.0 kW m^?2. The collected heat transfer data are analyzed to obtain the global heat transfer coefficient and the normalized mean wall temperature. A model from the open literature has been selected and compared with the experimental database. A new simple heat transfer model, based on the present data, for the global heat transfer coefficient and the foam-finned surface area efficiency estimations has then been developed and compared against the experimental measurements.     

A comparison on the dynamical performance of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with traditional serpentine and an open pore cellular foam material flow channel

Minimising the pressure drop in flow channels, ensuring high efficiency and utilisation of open pore cellular foam (OPCF) material in place of a traditional serpentine channel are investigated in this work. The paper establishes novel mathematical model that takes into account the effect of pressure drop in the flow channel and compares the dynamics of a porous flow channel with those of the traditional serpentine flow channel. The performance of a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell with porous foam flow channel is analysed under static and transient conditions. The fuel cell mass transport equations are used in the model that also takes into account the effect of varying the current on the stack temperature. The membrane water content and IV-curves are analysed and simulation results are presented based on the mathematical models of the proposed system using the MATLAB®/Simulink® environments. The effect of varying pore diameter, porosity, and the flow velocity on pressure drop are also investigated using sensitivity analysis. Due to the lower pressure drop provided by the uniform distribution of reactants in OPCF channel, an improvement of approximately 55% is observed in current density when compared with that of the serpentine channel under the same operating conditions. The investigation further concluded that a higher pore diameter can have a lower drop in pressure provided the flow velocity of the reactant does not exceed 6 m/s.     

CFD modeling for slurry flow through a horizontal pipe bend at different Prandtl number

The present work shows the slurry flow characteristics of bottom ash particulates having density 2219 kg/m³ at different Prandtl number through horizontal pipe bend. The simulation is carried out by adopting Eulerian two-phase model in conjunction with RNG k-ε turbulence model using available commercial software ANSYS Fluent. The transportation of solid particulates has the settling behaviour in the slurry pipeline and that leads to the sedimentation and blockage of the pipeline resulting more power and pressure drop in the pipeline. Therefore, it is important to know the transport capability of the solid particulates at different Prandtl fluids to minimise the pressure loss. The fluid properties at four Prandtl numbers i.e., 1.34, 2.14, 3.42 and 5.83 are used to carry the bottom ash concentration ranging from 40 to 60% (by weight) at mean flow-velocity ranging from 1 to 5 ms^?1. The obtained computational results for pressure drop are validated with the published data in the literature and found in good agreement. The findings show that the pressure drop rises with escalation in flow velocity and Prandtl number for chosen efflux concentration range. The bottom ash particulates flowing at higher Prandtl fluid experiences less pressure drop through bend cross section in comparison to bottom ash particulates flowing at low Prandtl fluid. Finally, the contours of granular pressure, granular temperature and wall shear stress are predicted and discussed in details through the bend cross section to understand the complex slurry flow for chosen Prandtl numbers.     

Numerical study of cell morphology effects on convective heat transfer in reticulated ceramics

Understanding the influence of foam morphology on the heat transport mechanism is an essential task for the design engineers. The assessment of foam thermal properties was performed using experimental techniques or simulation approaches such as Finite Elements analysis and/or computational fluid dynamics and was, up to now, mainly focused on describing the influence of some average parameters, such as cell size and porosity. Recent numerical analysis have instead demonstrated that local cell morphological structures can strongly influence thermal conduction in ceramic foams. Therefore, in the present work, the effect of morphological characteristics, namely ligament radius, cell inclination angle and ligament tapering, on the convective heat transfer of ceramic foams were studied. The approach used is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and foam geometries were schematically represented with tetrakaydecahedra geometries. The numerical simulations, performed with ANSYS/Fluent on different tetrakaydecahedra geometries, aimed at evaluating pressure drop and heat exchange through the foam. A heat exchanger efficiency parameter was defined and then evaluated for the different foam geometries at several air flow velocities. Results show the influence of the different morphological parameters and, in particular, that the heat exchanger efficiency of the foams decreases when increasing the air flow velocity.     

Experimental and numerical study on the flow characteristics in curved rectangular microchannels

In this paper, the flow characteristics in curved rectangular microchannels with different aspect ratios and curvature ratios for Re numbers ranging from 80 to 876 are investigated. The obtained experimental results are compared with simulated values based on classical Navier–Stokes equations and available correlation in the literature. An empirical equation based on experimental data is proposed to provide a better prediction of the frictional pressure drop in the curved rectangular microchannels.     

Non-newtonian pressure drop and critical reynolds number through rectangular duct

Results of an experimental study on non-Newtonian flow in rectangular duct are presented. The critical Reynolds numbers were measured using a flow visualization technique for flow of distilled water and CMC solutions as the working fluids. Also axial static pressure measurements in the different locations of the duct were made for Newtonian and purely viscous non-Newtonian fluids. Results indicate that as the pseudoplasticity of the solution increases the critical Reynolds number increases while the dimensionless pressure drop decreases. The results of pressure drop obtained by the present investigation are in very good agreement with available correlations in the literature.     

Experimental study of convective condensation in an inclined smooth tube. Part II: Inclination effect on pressure drops and void fractions

This article is the second part of a two-part paper, dealing with an experimental study of convective condensation of R134a at a saturation temperature of 40 °C in an 8.38 mm inner diameter smooth tube in inclined orientations. The first part concentrates on the flow pattern and the heat transfer coefficients. This second part presents the pressures drops in the test condenser for different mass fluxes and different vapour qualities for the whole range of inclination angles (downwards and upwards). Pressures drops in a horizontal orientation were compared with correlations available in literature. In a vertical orientation, the experimental results were compared with pressure drop correlations associated with void fraction correlations available in literature. A good agreement was found for vertical upward flows but no correlation predicted correctly the measurements for downward flows. An apparent gravitational pressure drop and an apparent void fraction were defined in order to study the inclination effect on the flow. For upward flows, it seems as if the void fraction and the frictional pressure drop are independent of the inclination angle. Apparent void fractions were successfully compared with correlations in literature. This was not the case for downward flows. The experimental results for stratified downward flows were also successfully compared with the model of Taitel and Dukler.     

Application of metal foams in air-cooled condensers for geothermal power plants: An optimization study

Optimized design of metal foam heat exchangers, as replacements for finned-tubes in air-cooled condensers of a geothermal power plant, is presented here. Two different optimization techniques, based on first and second law (of thermodynamics) are reported. While the former aims at the highest heat transfer rate with as low pressure drop as possible, the latter minimizes the generated entropy in the thermodynamic system. Interestingly, the two methods lead to the same optimal design. The new design has been compared to the conventional air-cooled condenser designed and optimized by using the commercially available software ASPEN. It is shown that while the heat transfer rate increases significantly (by an order of magnitude) compared to the finned-tube for the same main flow obstruction height, the pressure drop increase is within an acceptable range. Further comparison between the two systems are carried out, making use of Mahjoob and Vafai's performance factor developed specifically for metal foam heat exchangers.     

An air filter pressure loss model for fan energy calculation in air handling units

Air filters consume a significant part of the fan power in air handling systems. Due to lack of suitable models, the fan energy associated with the filter pressure drop is often estimated based on average airflow and average pressure drop across the filter. Since the pressure drop varies nonlinearly with airflow and the filter resistance varies with dirt build‐up, current methods often produce erroneous results. This paper presents a new air filter pressure loss model that has been developed and verified using experimental data. The model projects the pressure losses across the filter for both constant and variable airflows. The inputs to the model are the airflow rate, the time of use, the initial design and final pressure losses at the design flow rate, and the coefficient of a power law regression of pressure loss as a function of airflow rate. The air filter pressure loss model may be implemented in hourly building energy simulation programs that perform hourly simulation at the air handling unit level. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Two-dimensional flow modelling of a thin slice kettle reboiler

The two-fluid model is applied to a thin sliced kettle reboiler. The tube bundle is treated as a porous medium in which the drag coefficient and tube-wall force are deduced from the empirically-based, one-dimensional model. Methods available in the open literature are used in the two-phase pool surrounding the tube bundle. The predictions are verified by comparing them with experimental data and models available in the open literature.The boundary condition applied at the free surface of the pool is found to be crucial in determining the flow pattern within it. When only liquid re-enters through the boundary an all-liquid pool results. Comparison with the experimental evidence suggests that this boundary condition corresponds to bubbly flow within the tube bundle. Allowing a predominantly vapour re-entry produces a two-phase pool that is consistent with intermittent flow in the tube bundle. When the appropriate boundary condition is applied, the two-fluid model predictions are shown to reproduce the visual records and pressure drop measurements reasonably accurately.     

Numerical study of water management in the air flow channel of a PEM fuel cell cathode

The water management in the air flow channel of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell cathode is numerically investigated using the FLUENT software package. By enabling the volume of fraction (VOF) model, the air–water two-phase flow can be simulated under different operating conditions. The effects of channel surface hydrophilicity, channel geometry, and air inlet velocity on water behavior, water content inside the channel, and two-phase pressure drop are discussed in detail. The results of the quasi-steady-state simulations show that: (1) the hydrophilicity of reactant flow channel surface is critical for water management in order to facilitate water transport along channel surfaces or edges; (2) hydrophilic surfaces also increase pressure drop due to liquid water spreading; (3) a sharp corner channel design could benefit water management because it facilitates water accumulation and provides paths for water transport along channel surface opposite to gas diffusion layer; (4) the two-phase pressure drop inside the air flow channel increases almost linearly with increasing air inlet velocity.     

Viscous flow in variable cross-section microchannels of arbitrary shapes

This paper outlines a novel approximate model for determining the pressure drop of laminar, single-phase flow in slowly-varying microchannels of arbitrary cross-section based on the solution of a channel of elliptical cross-section. A new nondimensional parameter is introduced as a criterion to identify the significance of frictional and inertial effects. This criterion is a function of the Reynolds number and geometrical parameters of the cross-section; i.e., perimeter, area, cross-sectional polar moment of inertia, and channel length. It is shown that for the general case of arbitrary cross-section, the cross-sectional perimeter is a more suitable length scale. An experimental investigation is conducted to verify the present model; 5 sets of rectangular microchannels with converging–diverging linear wall profiles are fabricated and tested. The collected pressure drop data are shown to be in good agreement with the proposed model. Furthermore, the presented model is compared with the numerical and experimental data available in the literature for a hyperbolic contraction with rectangular cross-section.     

Developing a new 2D model for heat transfer and foam degradation in EPS lost foam casting (LFC) process

In this study, a 2D model is developed for heat transfer, foam degradation and gas diffusion at the interfaces of the liquid metal, foam pattern and gaseous gap in between, for EPS lost foam casting process. In this model based on mass and energy balance between gas and molten metal, radiation and conduction between foam and molten metal and convection between gas and molten metal are considered, both metal and foam surfaces are tracked and gap volume and pressure are calculated. A combination of energy balance and geometric correlations is used to define receding foam surface during mold filling. Gas flow in the gap is considered as wedge flow and Nusselt number for a laminar incompressible wedge flow is used for it. To apply our model to an example case, SOLA-VOF algorithm was used to simulate the flow of molten metal with free boundaries. Model results are compared with some data reported in the literature which show acceptable agreement. It is found that besides radiation in the gaseous area between foam and molten metal, conduction also plays an important role in foam degradation and control of molten metal velocity. This model can acceptably predict the effect of some parameters like foam density, coating permeability and foam degradation temperature.