Prospects for Boiling of Subcooled Dielectric Liquids for Supercomputer Cooling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zeigarnik, Yu. A.; Vasil'ev, N. V.; Druzhinin, E. A.; Kalmykov, I. V.; Kosoi, A. S.; Khodakov, K. A.

2018-02-01

It is shown experimentally that using forced-convection boiling of dielectric coolants of the Novec 649 Refrigerant subcooled relative to the saturation temperature makes possible removing heat flow rates up to 100 W/cm2 from modern supercomputer chip interface. This fact creates prerequisites for the application of dielectric liquids in cooling systems of modern supercomputers with increased requirements for their operating reliability.

Critical heat flux in subcooled flow boiling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hall, David Douglas

The critical heat flux (CHF) phenomenon was investigated for water flow in tubes with particular emphasis on the development of methods for predicting CHF in the subcooled flow boiling regime. The Purdue University Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Laboratory (PU-BTPFL) CHF database for water flow in a uniformly heated tube was compiled from the world literature dating back to 1949 and represents the largest CHF database ever assembled with 32,544 data points from over 100 sources. The superiority of this database was proven via a detailed examination of previous databases. The PU-BTPFL CHF database is an invaluable tool for the development of CHF correlations and mechanistic models that are superior to existing ones developed with smaller, less comprehensive CHF databases. In response to the many inaccurate and inordinately complex correlations, two nondimensional, subcooled CHF correlations were formulated, containing only five adjustable constants and whose unique functional forms were determined without using a statistical analysis but rather using the parametric trends observed in less than 10% of the subcooled CHF data. The correlation based on inlet conditions (diameter, heated length, mass velocity, pressure, inlet quality) was by far the most accurate of all known subcooled CHF correlations, having mean absolute and root-mean-square (RMS) errors of 10.3% and 14.3%, respectively. The outlet (local) conditions correlation was the most accurate correlation based on local CHF conditions (diameter, mass velocity, pressure, outlet quality) and may be used with a nonuniform axial heat flux. Both correlations proved more accurate than a recent CHF look-up table commonly employed in nuclear reactor thermal hydraulic computer codes. An interfacial lift-off, subcooled CHF model was developed from a consideration of the instability of the vapor-liquid interface and the fraction of heat required for liquid-vapor conversion as opposed to that for bulk liquid heating. Severe vapor effusion in an upstream wetting front lifts the vapor-liquid interface off the surface, triggering CHF. Since the model is entirely based on physical observations, it has the potential to accurately predict CHF for other fluids and flow geometries which are beyond the conditions for which it was validated.

Condensation on a noncollapsing vapor bubble in a subcooled liquid

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baumeister, K. J.; Simoneau, R. J.

1979-01-01

An experimental procedure is presented by which an estimate can be made of the condensation coefficient on a noncollapsing stationary vapor bubble in subcooled liquid nitrogen. Film boiling from a thin wire was used to generate vapor bubbles which remain fixed to the wire at their base. A balance was established between the evaporation in the thin annular region along the wire and the condensation in the vapor bubbles.

Assessment of correlations and models for the prediction of CHF in water subcooled flow boiling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Celata, G. P.; Cumo, M.; Mariani, A.

1994-01-01

The present paper provides an analysis of available correlations and models for the prediction of Critical Heat Flux (CHF) in subcooled flow boiling in the range of interest of fusion reactors thermal-hydraulic conditions, i.e. high inlet liquid subcooling and velocity and small channel diameter and length. The aim of the study was to establish the limits of validity of present predictive tools (most of them were proposed with reference to light water reactors (LWR) thermal-hydraulic studies) in the above conditions. The reference dataset represents almost all available data (1865 data points) covering wide ranges of operating conditions in the frame of present interest (0.1 less than p less than 8.4 MPa; 0.3 less than D less than 25.4 mm; 0.1 less than L less than 0.61 m; 2 less than G less than 90.0 Mg/sq m/s; 90 less than delta T(sub sub,in) less than 230 K). Among the tens of predictive tools available in literature four correlations (Levy, Westinghouse, modified-Tong and Tong-75) and three models (Weisman and Ileslamlou, Lee and Mudawar and Katto) were selected. The modified-Tong correlation and the Katto model seem to be reliable predictive tools for the calculation of the CHF in subcooled flow boiling.

Rate correlation for condensation of pure vapor on turbulent, subcooled liquid

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brown, J. Steven; Khoo, Boo Cheong; Sonin, Ain A.

1990-01-01

An empirical correlation is presented for the condensation of pure vapor on a subcooled, turbulent liquid with a shear-free interface. The correlation expresses the dependence of the condensation rate on fluid properties, on the liquid-side turbulence (which is imposed from below), and on the effects of buoyancy in the interfacial thermal layer. The correlation is derived from experiments with steam and water, but under conditions which simulate typical cryogenic fluids.

Review of subcooled flow boiling critical heat flux (CHF) and its application to fusion energy system components part II: microconvective, experimental and correlational aspects

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boyd, R.D.

This paper reviews the present understanding of critical heat flux (CHF) in subcooled flow boiling and outlines research directions which will permit the accommodation of higher heat fluxes. This survey, which covers the last 30 years, is concerned only with CHF in the subcooled flow boiling regime and unless otherwise noted, all references to CHF will be confined to that regime. This paper (Part II) summarizes microconvective, instability, experimental and correlational aspects of CHF. Section II covers microconvection and instabilities, section III covers representative experimental work, and section IV summarizes and compares selected CHF correlations. Section V documents previous flowmore » visualization work and section VI contains conclusions and recommendations concerning problem areas and suggested research directions essential to the HHFCDP, which involves extending steady state and transient CHF towards 30 kW/cm/sup 2/.« less

A formal approach for the prediction of the critical heat flux in subcooled water

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lombardi, C.

1995-09-01

The critical heat flux (CHF) in subcooled water at high mass fluxes are not yet satisfactory correlated. For this scope a formal approach is here followed, which is based on an extension of the parameters and the correlation used for the dryout prediction for medium high quality mixtures. The obtained correlation, in spite of its simplicity and its explicit form, yields satisfactory predictions, also when applied to more conventional CHF data at low-medium mass fluxes and high pressures. Further improvements are possible, if a more complete data bank will be available. The main and general open item is the definitionmore » of a criterion, depending only on independent parameters, such as mass flux, pressure, inlet subcooling and geometry, to predict whether the heat transfer crisis will result as a DNB or a dryout phenomenon.« less

Centaur Propellant Thermal Conditioning Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blatt, M. H.; Pleasant, R. L.; Erickson, R. C.

1976-01-01

A wicking investigation revealed that passive thermal conditioning was feasible and provided considerable weight advantage over active systems using throttled vent fluid in a Centaur D-1s launch vehicle. Experimental wicking correlations were obtained using empirical revisions to the analytical flow model. Thermal subcoolers were evaluated parametrically as a function of tank pressure and NPSP. Results showed that the RL10 category I engine was the best candidate for boost pump replacement and the option showing the lowest weight penalty employed passively cooled acquisition devices, thermal subcoolers, dry ducts between burns and pumping of subcooler coolant back into the tank. A mixing correlation was identified for sizing the thermodynamic vent system mixer. Worst case mixing requirements were determined by surveying Centaur D-1T, D-1S, IUS, and space tug vehicles. Vent system sizing was based upon worst case requirements. Thermodynamic vent system/mixer weights were determined for each vehicle.

Enthalpy restoration in geothermal energy processing system

DOEpatents

Matthews, Hugh B.

1983-01-01

A geothermal deep well energy extraction system is provided of the general type in which solute-bearing hot water is pumped to the earth's surface from a relatively low temperature geothermal source by transferring thermal energy from the hot water to a working fluid for driving a primary turbine-motor and a primary electrical generator at the earth's surface. The superheated expanded exhaust from the primary turbine motor is conducted to a bubble tank where it bubbles through a layer of sub-cooled working fluid that has been condensed. The superheat and latent heat from the expanded exhaust of the turbine transfers thermal energy to the sub-cooled condensate. The desuperheated exhaust is then conducted to the condenser where it is condensed and sub-cooled, whereupon it is conducted back to the bubble tank via a barometric storage tank. The novel condensing process of this invention makes it possible to exploit geothermal sources which might otherwise be non-exploitable.

Evolution of steam-water flow structure under subcooled water boiling at smooth and structured heating surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vasiliev, N. V.; Zeigarnik, Yu A.; Khodakov, K. A.

2017-11-01

Experimentally studying of subcooled water boiling in rectangular channel electrically heated from one side was conducted. Flat surfaces, both smooth and coated by microarc oxidation technology, were used as heating surfaces. The tests were conducted at atmospheric pressure in the range of mass flow rate from 650 to 1300 kg/(m2 s) and water subcooling relative to saturation temperature from 23 to 75 °C. Using high-speed filming a change in the two-phase flow structure and its statistic characteristics (nucleation sites density, vapor bubble distribution by size, etc.) were studied. With an increase in the heat flux density (with the mass flow rate and subcooling being the same) and amount and size of the vapor bubbles increased also. At a relatively high heat flux density, non-spherical vapor agglomerates appeared at the heating surface as a result of coalescence of small bubbles. They originated in chaotic manner in arbitrary points of the heating surface and then after random evolution in form and size collapsed. The agglomerate size reached several millimeters and their duration of life was several milliseconds. After formation of large vapor agglomerates, with a further small increase in heat flux density a burnout of the heating surface occurred. In most cases the same effect took place if the large agglomerates were retained for several minutes.

Development of cooling system for 66/6.9kV-20MVA REBCO superconducting transformers with Ne turbo-Brayton refrigerator and subcooled liquid nitrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iwakuma, M.; Adachi, K.; Yun, K.; Yoshida, K.; Sato, S.; Suzuki, Y.; Umeno, T.; Konno, M.; Hayashi, H.; Eguchi, T.; Izumi, T.; Shiohara, Y.

2015-12-01

We developed a turbo-Brayton refrigerator with Ne gas as a working fluid for a 3 ϕ- 66/6.9kV-2MVA superconducting transformer with coated conductors which was bath-cooled with subcooled LN2. The two-stage compressor and expansion turbine had non-contact magnetic bearings for a long maintenance interval. In the future, we intend to directly install a heat exchanger into the Glass-Fiber-Reinforced-Plastics cryostat of a transformer and make a heat exchange between the working fluid gas and subcooled LN2. In this paper we investigate the behaviour of subcooled LN2 in a test cryostat, in which heater coils were arranged side by side with a flat plate finned-tube heat exchanger. Here a He turbo-Brayton refrigerator was used as a substitute for a Ne turbo-Brayton one. The pressure at the surface of LN2 in the cryostat was one atmosphere. Just under the LN2 surface, a stationary layer of LN2 was created over the depth of 20 cm and temperature dropped from 77 K to 65 K with depth while, in the lower level than that, a natural convection flow of LN2 was formed and temperature was almost uniform over 1 m depth. The boundary plane between the stationary layer and the natural convection region was visible.

Experimental study of condensate subcooling with the use of a model of an air-cooled condenser

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sukhanov, V. A.; Bezukhov, A. P.; Bogov, I. A.; Dontsov, N. Y.; Volkovitsky, I. D.; Tolmachev, V. V.

2016-01-01

Water-supply deficit is now felt in many regions of the world. This hampers the construction of new steam-turbine and combined steam-and-gas thermal power plants. The use of dry cooling systems and, specifically, steam-turbine air-cooled condensers (ACCs) expands the choice of sites for the construction of such power plants. The significance of condensate subcooling Δ t as a parameter that negatively affects the engineering and economic performance of steam-turbine plants is thereby increased. The operation and design factors that influence the condensate subcooling in ACCs are revealed, and the research objective is, thus, formulated properly. The indicated research was conducted through physical modeling with the use of the Steam-Turbine Air-Cooled Condenser Unit specialized, multipurpose, laboratory bench. The design and the combined schematic and measurement diagram of this test bench are discussed. The experimental results are presented in the form of graphic dependences of the condensate subcooling value on cooling ratio m and relative weight content ɛ' of air in steam at the ACC inlet at different temperatures of cooling air t ca ' . The typical ranges of condensate subcooling variation (4 ≤ Δ t ≤ 6°C, 2 ≤ Δ t ≤ 4°C, and 0 ≤ Δ t ≤ 2°C) are identified based on the results of analysis of the attained Δ t levels in the ACC and numerous Δ t reduction estimates. The corresponding ranges of cooling ratio variation at different temperatures of cooling air at the ACC inlet are specified. The guidelines for choosing the adjusted ranges of cooling ratio variation with account of the results of experimental studies of the dependences of the absolute pressure of the steam-air mixture in the top header of the ACC and the heat flux density on the cooling ratio at different temperatures of cooling air at the ACC inlet are given.

Vapour phase motion in cryogenic systems containing superheated and subcooled liquids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kirichenko, Yu. A.; Chernyakov, P. S.; Seregin, V. E.

The development of vent pipelines, and venting storage tanks for cryogenic liquids requires the knowledge of the law of motion as well as regularities of vapour content variation in the liquid and heat dissipation by the vapour phase. This is a theoretical study of the effect of superheating (subcooling) of the liquid, relative acceleration and reduced pressure upon the size and velocity of noninteracting vapour bubbles, moving in the liquid, and upon their resistance and heat transfer coefficients.

Calculation of Physicochemical Properties for Short- and Medium-Chain Chlorinated Paraffins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Glüge, Juliane; Bogdal, Christian; Scheringer, Martin; Buser, Andreas M.; Hungerbühler, Konrad

2013-06-01

Short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins are potential PBT chemicals (persistent, bioaccumulative, toxic) and short-chain chlorinated paraffins are under review for inclusion in the UNEP Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants. Despite their high production volume of more than one million metric tonnes per year, only few data on their physicochemical properties are available. We calculated subcooled-liquid vapor pressure, subcooled-liquid solubility in water and octanol, Henry's law constant for water and octanol, as well as the octanol-water partition coefficient with the property calculation methods COSMOtherm, SPARC, and EPI Suite™, and compared the results to experimental data from the literature. For all properties, good or very good agreement between calculated and measured data was obtained for COSMOtherm; results from SPARC were in good agreement with the measured data except for subcooled-liquid water solubility, whereas EPI Suite™ showed the largest discrepancies for all properties. After critical evaluation of the three property calculation methods, a final set of recommended property data for short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins was derived. The calculated property data show interesting relationships with chlorine content and carbon chain length. Increasing chlorine content does not cause pronounced changes in water solubility and octanol-water partition coefficient (KOW) as long as it is below 55%. Increasing carbon chain length leads to strong increases in KOW and corresponding decreases in subcooled-liquid water solubility. The present data set can be used in further studies to assess the environmental fate and human exposure of this relevant compound class.

A Study of Nucleate Boiling with Forced Convection in Microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merte, Herman, Jr.

1999-01-01

The ultimate objective of basic studies of flow boiling in microgravity is to improve the understanding of the processes involved, as manifested by the ability to predict its behavior. This is not yet the case for boiling heat transfer even in earth gravity, despite the considerable research activity over the past 30 years. The elements that constitute the nucleate boiling process - nucleation, growth, motion, and collapse of the vapor bubbles (if the bulk liquid is subcooled) - are common to both pool and flow boiling. It is well known that the imposition of bulk liquid motion affects the vapor bubble behavior relative to pool boiling, but does not appear to significantly influence the heat transfer. Indeed, it has been recommended in the past that empirical correlations or experimental data of pool boiling be used for design purposes with forced convection nucleate boiling. It is anticipated that such will most certainly not be possible for boiling in microgravity, based on observations made with pool boiling in microgravity. In earth gravity buoyancy will act to remove the vapor bubbles from the vicinity of the heater surface regardless of how much the imposed bulk velocity is reduced, depending, of course, on the geometry of the system. Vapor bubbles have been observed to dramatically increase in size in pool boiling in microgravity, and the heat flux at which dryout took place was reduced considerably below what is generally termed the critical heat flux (CHF) in earth gravity, depending on the bulk liquid subcooling. However, at heat flux levels below dryout, the nucleate pool boiling process was enhanced considerably over that in earth gravity, in spite of the large vapor bubbles formed in microgravity and perhaps as a consequence. These large vapor bubbles tended to remain in the vicinity of the heater surface, and the enhanced heat transfer appeared to be associated with the presence of what variously has been referred to as a liquid microlayer between the bubble and the heater surface. The enhancement of the boiling process with low velocities in earth gravity for those orientations producing the formation of a liquid macrolayer described above, accompanied by "sliding" vapor bubbles, has been demonstrated. The enhancement was presented as a function of orientation, subcooling, and heated length, while a criterion for the heat transfer for mixed natural/forced convection nucleate boiling was given previously. A major unknown in the prediction and application of flow boiling heat transfer in microgravity is the upper limit of the heat flux for the onset of dryout (or critical heat flux - CHF), for given conditions of fluid-heater surfaces, including geometry, system pressure and bulk liquid subcooling. It is clearly understood that the behavior in microgravity will be no different than on earth with sufficiently high flow velocities, and would require no space experimentation. However, the boundary at which this takes place is still an unknown. Previous results of CHF measurements were presented for low velocity flow boiling at various orientations in earth gravity as a function of flow velocity and bulk liquid subcooling, along with preliminary measurements of bubble residence times on a flat heater surface. This showed promise as a parameter to be used in modeling the CHF, both in earth gravity and in microgravity. The objective of the work here is to draw attention to and show results of current modeling efforts for the CHF, with low velocities in earth gravity at different orientations and subcoolings. Many geometrical possibilities for a heater surface exist in flowing boiling, with boiling on the inner and outer surfaces of tubes perhaps being the most common. If the vapor bubble residence time on and departure size from the heater surface bear a relationship to the CHF, as results to be given indicate, it is important that visualization of and access to vapor bubble growth be conveniently available for research purposes. In addition, it is desirable to reduce the number of variables as much as possible in a fundamental study. These considerations dictated the use of a flat heater surface, which is rectangular in shape, 1.91 cm by 3.81 cm (0.75 x 1.5 inches), consisting either of a 400 Angstrom thick semi-transparent gold film sputtered on a quartz substrate which serves simultaneously as a heater and a resistance thermometer, or a copper substrate of the same size. The heater substrate is a disc which can be rotated so that the heated length in the flow direction can be changed from 1.91 to 3.81 cm (0.75 to 1.5 inches). The fluid is R-113, and the velocities can be varied between 0.5 cm/s and 60 cm/s. For a sufficiently low velocity the CHF can be modeled reasonably well at various orientations by the correlation for pool boiling corrected for the influence of bulk liquid subcooling, multiplied by the square root of q, the angle relative to horizontal. This arises from equating buoyancy and drag forces in the inverted positions where the vapor bubbles are held against the heater surface as they slide. A distortion of the measurements relative to pool boiling occurs as the flow velocity increases. In modeling this effect at different levels of subcooling it appeared appropriate to estimate the volumetric rate of vapor generation, using measurements of bubble frequency (or residence time), void fraction and average bubble boundary layer thickness. These were determined with the use of a platinum hot wire probe 0.025 mm in diameter by 1.3 mm long, applying a constant current to distinguish between contact with liquid or vapor. Two-dimensional spatial variations are obtained with a special mechanism to resolve displacements in increments of 0.025 mm. From such measurements it was determined that the fraction of the surface heat transfer resulting in evaporation varies inversely with the subcooling correction factor for the CHF. The measured inverse bubble residence time is normalized relative to that predicted for an infinite horizontal flat plate at the CHF, and is correlated well with the CHF normalized relative to that for pool boiling, for various orientation angles and subcooling levels. This correspondence is then combined with a normalizing factor for the energy flux leaving the heater surface at the CHF and the computed bubble radius at departure, determined from the balance between the outward velocity of the interface due to evaporation and the buoyance induced velocity of the center of mass of the bubble. The product of the CHF and the corresponding residence time was determined to be a constant for all orientations at a given bulk flow velocity and liquid subcooling, and must be determined empirically for each velocity and subcooling at present. It then becomes possible to predict the CHF for the different orientations, velocities, and subcoolings. These are compared with normalized measurements of the CHF for velocities ranging from 4 cm/s to 55 cm/s, subcoolings from 2.8 to 22.2 K, over orientations angles of 360 degrees.

Boiling Heat Transfer Mechanisms in Earth and Low Gravity: Boundary Condition and Heater Aspect Ratio Effects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Jungho

2004-01-01

Boiling is a complex phenomenon where hydrodynamics, heat transfer, mass transfer, and interfacial phenomena are tightly interwoven. An understanding of boiling and critical heat flux in microgravity environments is of importance to space based hardware and processes such as heat exchange, cryogenic fuel storage and transportation, electronic cooling, and material processing due to the large amounts of heat that can be removed with relatively little increase in temperature. Although research in this area has been performed in the past four decades, the mechanisms by which heat is removed from surfaces in microgravity are still unclear. Recently, time and space resolved heat transfer data were obtained in both earth and low gravity environments using an array of microheaters varying in size between 100 microns to 700 microns. These heaters were operated in both constant temperature as well as constant heat flux mode. Heat transfer under nucleating bubbles in earth gravity were directly measured using a microheater array with 100 m resolution operated in constant temperature mode with low and high subcooled bulk liquid along with images from below and from the side. The individual bubble departure diameter and energy transfer were larger with low subcooling but the departure frequency increased at high subcooling, resulting in higher overall heat transfer. The bubble growth for both subcoolings was primarily due to energy transfer from the superheated liquid layer relatively little was due to wall heat transfer during the bubble growth process. Oscillating bubbles and sliding bubbles were also observed in highly subcooled boiling. Transient conduction and/or microconvection was the dominant heat transfer mechanism in the above cases. A transient conduction model was developed and compared with the experimental data with good agreement. Data was also obtained with the heater array operated in a constant heat flux mode and measuring the temperature distribution across the array during boiling. The instantaneous heat transfer into the substrate was numerically determined and subtracted from the supplied heat to obtain the wall to liquid heat flux.

Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) On-Orbit Flight Report on the Propylene Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, Charles L.; Grob, Eric W.; McCarthy, Thomas V.; Nikitkin, Michael N.; Ancarrow, Walter C.

2003-01-01

The Geoscience Laser Altimetry System (GLAS) instrument which is the sole instrument on ICESat was launched on January 12, 2003. GLAS utilizes two actively controlled propylene Loop Heat Pipes (LHPs) as the core of its thermal system. The LHPs started quickly when the Dale Ohm starter heaters were powered and have as designed. The low control heater power and on-orbit tight temperature control appear independent of gravity effects when comparing ground testing to flight data. The use of coupling blocks was also unique to these LHPs. Their application reduced control heater power by reducing the subcooling from the radiator. The effectiveness in reducing subcooling of the coupler blocks decreased during flight from ground testing, but internal thermal isolation in the compensation chamber between the subcooled returning liquid increased in flight resulting in no net increase in control heater power versus ground measurements. Overall the application of LHPs in the thermal system for GLAS met instrument requirements and provided flexibility for the overall system as last minute requirements became known.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhao, Weihuan; France, David M.; Yu, Wenhua

At present, single-phase liquid, forced convection cooled heat sinks with fins are used to cool power electronics in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Although use of fins in the cooling channels increases heat transfer rates considerably, a second low-temperature radiator and associated pumping system are still required in HEVs. This additional cooling system adds weight and cost while decreasing the efficiency of HEVs. With the objective of eliminating this additional low-temperature radiator and pumping system in HEVs, an alternative cooling technology, subcooled boiling in the cooling channels, was investigated in the present study. Numerical heat transfer simulations were performed using subcooledmore » boiling in the power electronics cooling channels with the coolant supplied from the existing main engine cooling system. Results show that this subcooled boiling system is capable of removing 25% more heat from the power electronics than the conventional forced convection cooling technology, or it can reduce the junction temperature of the power electronics at the current heat removal rate. With the 25% increased heat transfer option, high heat fluxes up to 250 W/cm(2) (typical for wideband-gap semiconductor applications) are possible by using the subcooled boiling system.« less

A scaling law for the local CHF on the external bottom side of a fully submerged reactor vessel

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheung, F.B.; Haddad, K.H.; Liu, Y.C.

1997-02-01

A scaling law for estimating the local critical heat flux on the outer surface of a heated hemispherical vessel that is fully submerged in water has been developed from the results of an advanced hydrodynamic CHF model for pool boiling on a downward facing curved heating surface. The scaling law accounts for the effects of the size of the vessel, the level of liquid subcooling, the intrinsic properties of the fluid, and the spatial variation of the local critical heat flux along the heating surface. It is found that for vessels with diameters considerably larger than the characteristic size ofmore » the vapor masses, the size effect on the local critical heat flux is limited almost entirely to the effect of subcooling associated with the local liquid head. When the subcooling effect is accounted for separately, the local CHF limit is nearly independent of the vessel size. Based upon the scaling law developed in this work, it is possible to merge, within the experimental uncertainties, all the available local CHF data obtained for various vessel sizes under both saturated and subcooled boiling conditions into a single curve. Applications of the scaling law to commercial-size vessels have been made for various system pressures and water levels above the heated vessel. Over the range of conditions explored in this study, the local CHF limit is found to increase by a factor of two or more from the bottom center to the upper edge of the vessel. Meanwhile, the critical heat flux at a given angular position of the heated vessel is also found to increase appreciably with the system pressure and the water level.« less

Film Boiling Heat Transfer Properties of Liquid Hydrogen in Natural Convection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Horie, Y.; Shirai, Y.; Shiotsu, M.; Matsuzawa, T.; Yoneda, K.; Shigeta, H.; Tatsumoto, H.; Hata, K.; Naruo, Y.; Kobayashi, H.; Inatani, Y.

Film boiling heat transfer properties of LH2 for various pressures and subcooling conditions were measured by applying electric current to give an exponential heat input to a PtCo wire with a diameter of 1.2 mm submerged in LH2. The heated wire was set to be horizontal to the ground. The heat transfer coefficient in the film boiling region was higher for higher pressure and higher subcooling. The experimental results are compared with the equation of pool film boiling heat transfer. It is confirmed that the pool film boiling heat transfer coefficients in LH2 can be expressed by this equation.

Nucleate pool boiling in subcooled liquid under microgravity: Results of TEXUS experimental investigations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zell, M.; Straub, J.; Weinzierl, A.

1984-12-01

Experiments on subcooled nucleate pool boiling in microgravity were carried out to separate gravity driven effects on heat transfer within the boiling process. A ballistic trajectory by sounding rocket flight (TEXUS 5 and 10) achieved a gravity level of a/g = 0.0001 for 360 sec. For determination of geometrical effects on heat transport two different experimental configurations (platinum wire and flat plate) were employed. Boiling curves and bubble dynamics recorded by cinematography lead to gravity independent modelling of the boiling phenomena. The results ensure the applicability and high efficiency of nucleate pool boiling for heat exchangers in space laboratories.

Noise analysis of nucleate boiling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mcknight, R. D.; Ram, K. S.

1971-01-01

The techniques of noise analysis have been utilized to investigate nucleate pool boiling. A simple experimental setup has been developed for obtaining the power spectrum of a nucleate boiling system. These techniques were first used to study single bubbles, and a method of relating the two-dimensional projected size and the local velocity of the bubbles to the auto-correlation functions is presented. This method is much less time consuming than conventional methods of measurement and has no probes to disturb the system. These techniques can be used to determine the contribution of evaporation to total heat flux in nucleate boiling. Also, these techniques can be used to investigate the effect of various parameters upon the frequency response of nucleate boiling. The predominant frequencies of the power spectrum correspond to the frequencies of bubble generation. The effects of heat input, degree of subcooling, and liquid surface tension upon the power spectra of a boiling system are presented. It was found that the degree of subcooling has a more pronounced effect upon bubble size than does heat flux. Also the effect of lowering surface tension can be sufficient to reduce the effect of the degree of subcooling upon the size of the bubbles.

Forced Convection Heat Transfer of Subcooled Liquid Nitrogen in Horizontal Tube

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tatsumoto, H.; Shirai, Y.; Hata, K.; Kato, T.; Shiotsu, M.

2008-03-01

The knowledge of forced convection heat transfer of liquid hydrogen is important for the cooling design of a HTS superconducting magnet and a cold neutron moderator material. An experimental apparatus that could obtain forced flow without a pump was developed. As a first step of the study, the forced flow heat transfer of subcooled liquid nitrogen in a horizontal tube, instead of liquid hydrogen, was measured for the pressures ranging from 0.3 to 2.5 MPa. The inlet temperature was varied from 78 K to around its saturation temperature. The flow velocities were varied from 0.1 to 7 m/s. The heat transfer coefficients in the non-boiling region and the departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) heat fluxes were higher for higher flow velocity and higher subcooling. The measured values of Nu/Pr0.4 in the non-boiling region were proportional to Reynolds number (Re) to the power of 0.8. With a decrease in Re, Nu/Pr0.4 approached a constant value corresponding to that in a pool of liquid nitrogen. The correlation of DNB heat flux was derived that can describe the experimental data within ±15% difference.

Liquid over-feeding refrigeration system and method with integrated accumulator-expander-heat exchanger

DOEpatents

Mei, Viung C.; Chen, Fang C.

1997-01-01

A refrigeration system having a vapor compression cycle utilizing a liquid over-feeding operation with an integrated accumulator-expander-heat exchanger. Hot, high-pressure liquid refrigerant from the condenser passes through one or more lengths of capillary tubing substantially immersed in a pool liquid refrigerant in the accumulator-expander-heat exchanger for simultaneously sub-cooling and expanding the liquid refrigerant while vaporizing liquid refrigerant from the pool for the return thereof to the compressor as saturated vapor. The sub-cooling of the expanded liquid provides for the flow of liquid refrigerant into the evaporator for liquid over-feeding the evaporator and thereby increasing the efficiency of the evaporation cycle.

Liquid over-feeding refrigeration system and method with integrated accumulator-expander-heat exchanger

DOEpatents

Mei, V.C.; Chen, F.C.

1997-04-22

A refrigeration system is described having a vapor compression cycle utilizing a liquid over-feeding operation with an integrated accumulator-expander-heat exchanger. Hot, high-pressure liquid refrigerant from the condenser passes through one or more lengths of capillary tubing substantially immersed in a pool liquid refrigerant in the accumulator-expander-heat exchanger for simultaneously sub-cooling and expanding the liquid refrigerant while vaporizing liquid refrigerant from the pool for the return thereof to the compressor as saturated vapor. The sub-cooling of the expanded liquid provides for the flow of liquid refrigerant into the evaporator for liquid over-feeding the evaporator and thereby increasing the efficiency of the evaporation cycle. 4 figs.

Net vapor generation point in boiling flow of trichlorotrifluoroethane at high pressures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dougall, R. S.; Lippert, T. E.

1973-01-01

The conditions at which the void in subcooled boiling starts to undergo a rapid increase were studied experimentally. The experiments were performed in a 12.7 x 9.5 mm rectangular channel. Heating was from a 3.2 mm wide strip embedded in one wall. The pressure ranged from 9.45 to 20.7 bar, mass velocity from 600 to 7000 kg/sq m sec, and subcooling from 16 to 67 C. Photographs were used to determine when detached bubbles first appeared in the bulk flow. Measurements of bubble layer thickness along the wall were also made. Results showed that the point of net vapor generation is close to the occurrence of fully-developed boiling.

Thermocapillary flow with evaporation and condensation and its effect on liquid retention in low-G fluid acquisition devices

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, George R.

1994-01-01

The steady motion, thermal and free surface behavior of a volatile, wetting liquid in microgravity are studied using scaling and numerical techniques. The objective is to determine whether the thermocapillary and two-phase convection arising from thermodynamic nonequilibrium along the porous surfaces of spacecraft liquid acquisition devices could cause the retention failures observed with liquid hydrogen and heated vapor pressurant. Why these devices seem immune to retention loss when pressurized with heated helium or heated directly through the porous structure was also examined. Results show that highly wetting fluids exhibit large negative and positive dynamic pressure gradients towards the meniscus interline when superheated and subcooled, respectively. With superheating, the pressure variation and recoil force arising from liquid/vapor phase change exert the same influence on surface morphology and promote retention. With subcooling, however, the pressure distribution produces a suction that degrades mechanical equilibrium of the surface. This result indicates that thermocapillary-induced deformation arising from subcooling and condensation is the likely cause for retention loss. In addition, increasing the level of nonequilibrium by reducing accommodation coefficient suppresses deformation and explains why this failure mode does not occur in instances of direct screen heating or pressurization with a heated inert gas.

Effects of Engineered Wettability on the Efficiency of Dew Collection.

PubMed

Gerasopoulos, Konstantinos; Luedeman, William L; Ölçeroglu, Emre; McCarthy, Matthew; Benkoski, Jason J

2018-01-31

Surface wettability plays an important role in dew collection. Nucleation is faster on hydrophilic surfaces, while droplets slide more readily on hydrophobic surfaces. Plants and animals in coastal desert environments appear to overcome this trade-off through biphilic surfaces with patterned wettability. In this study, we investigate the effects of millimeter-scale wettability patterns, mimicking those of the Stenocara beetle, on the rate of water collection from humid air. The rate of water collection per unit area is measured as a function of subcooling (ΔT = 1, 7, and 27 °C) and angle of inclination (from 10° to 90°). It is then compared for superbiphilic, hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and surperhydrophobic surfaces. For large subcooling, neither wettability nor tilt angle has a significant effect because the rate of condensation is so great. For 1 °C subcooling and large angles, hydrophilic surfaces perform best because condensation is the rate-limiting step. For low angles of inclination, superhydrophobic samples are best because droplet sliding is the rate-limiting step. Superbiphilic surfaces, in contrast to their superior fog collecting capabilities, generally collected dew at the slowest rate due to their inherent contact angle hysteresis. Theoretical considerations suggest that this finding may apply more generally to surfaces with patterned wettability.

Performance of Upgraded Cooling System for Lhd Helical Coils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hamaguchi, S.; Imagawa, S.; Obana, T.; Yanagi, N.; Moriuchi, S.; Sekiguchi, H.; Oba, K.; Mito, T.; Motojima, O.; Okamura, T.; Semba, T.; Yoshinaga, S.; Wakisaka, H.

2008-03-01

Helical coils of the Large Helical Device (LHD) are large scale superconducting magnets for heliotron plasma experiments. The helical coils had been cooled by saturated helium at 4.4 K, 120 kPa until 2005. An upgrade of the cooling system was carried out in 2006 in order to improve the cryogenic stability of the helical coils and then it has been possible to supply the coils with subcooled helium at 3.2 K, 120 kPa. A designed mass flow of the supplied subcooled helium is 50 g/s. The subcooled helium is generated at a heat exchanger in a saturated helium bath. A series of two centrifugal cold compressors with gas foil bearing is utilized to lower the helium pressure in the bath. The supplied helium temperature is regulated by rotational speed of the cold compressors and power of a heater in the bath. The mass flow of the supplied helium is also controlled manually by a supply valve and its surplus is evaporated by ten heaters at the outlet above the coils. In the present study, the performance of the cooling system has been investigated and a stable operating method has also developed. As the result, it was confirmed that the performance of the upgraded cooling system satisfies the requirements.

Characterization of Single Phase and Two Phase Heat and Momentum Transport in a Spiraling Radial Inow Microchannel Heat Sink

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruiz, Maritza

Thermal management of systems under high heat fluxes on the order of hundreds of W/cm2 is important for the safety, performance and lifetime of devices, with innovative cooling technologies leading to improved performance of electronics or concentrating solar photovoltaics. A novel, spiraling radial inflow microchannel heat sink for high flux cooling applications, using a single phase or vaporizing coolant, has demonstrated enhanced heat transfer capabilities. The design of the heat sink provides an inward swirl flow between parallel, coaxial disks that form a microchannel of 1 cm radius and 300 micron channel height with a single inlet and a single outlet. The channel is heated on one side through a conducting copper surface, and is essentially adiabatic on the opposite side to simulate a heat sink scenario for electronics or concentrated photovoltaics cooling. Experimental results on the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in the heat sink, using single phase water as a working fluid, revealed heat transfer enhancements due to flow acceleration and induced secondary flows when compared to unidirectional laminar fully developed flow between parallel plates. Additionally, thermal gradients on the surface are small relative to the bulk fluid temperature gain, a beneficial feature for high heat flux cooling applications. Heat flux levels of 113 W/cm2 at a surface temperature of 77 deg C were reached with a ratio of pumping power to heat rate of 0.03%. Analytical models on single phase flow are used to explore the parametric trends of the flow rate and passage geometry on the streamlines and pressure drop through the device. Flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics were obtained for this heat sink using water at near atmospheric pressure as the working fluid for inlet subcooling levels ranging from 20 to 80 deg C and mean mass flux levels ranging from 184-716 kg/m. 2s. Flow enhancements similar to singlephase flow were expected, as well as enhancements due to increased buoyant forces on vapor bubbles resulting from centripetal acceleration in the flow which will tend to draw the vapor towards the outlet. This can also aid in the reduction of vapor obstruction of the flow. The flow was identified as transitioning through three regimes as the heat rate was increased: partial subcooled flow boiling, oscillating boiling and fully developed flow boiling. During partial subcooled flow boiling, both forced convective and nucleate boiling effects are important. During oscillating boiling, the system fluctuated between partial subcooled flow boiling and fully developed nucleate boiling. Temperature and pressure oscillations were significant in this regime and are likely due to bubble constriction of flow in the microchannel. This regime of boiling is generally undesirable due to the large oscillations in temperatures and pressure and design constraints should be established to avoid large oscillations from occurring. During fully developed flow boiling, water vapor rapidly leaves the surface and the flow does not sustain large oscillations. Reducing inlet subcooling levels was found to reduce the magnitude of oscillations in the oscillating boiling regime. Additionally, reduced inlet subcooling levels reduced the average surface temperature at the highest heat flux levels tested when heat transfer was dominated by nucleate boiling, yet increased the average surface temperatures at low heat flux levels when heat transfer was dominated by forced convection. Experiments demonstrated heat fluxes up to 301 W/cm. 2at an average surface temperature of 134 deg C under partial subcooled flow boiling conditions. At this peak heat flux, the system required a pumping power to heat rate ratio of 0.01%. This heat flux is 2.4 times the typical values for critical heat flux in pool boiling under similar conditions.

Analysis of Screen Channel LAD Bubble Point Tests in Liquid Methane at Elevated Temperature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartwig, Jason; McQuillen, John

2012-01-01

This paper examines the effect of varying the liquid temperature and pressure on the bubble point pressure for screen channel Liquid Acquisition Devices in cryogenic liquid methane using gaseous helium across a wide range of elevated pressures and temperatures. Testing of a 325 x 2300 Dutch Twill screen sample was conducted in the Cryogenic Components Lab 7 facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Test conditions ranged from 105 to 160K and 0.0965 - 1.78 MPa. Bubble point is shown to be a strong function of the liquid temperature and a weak function of the amount of subcooling at the LAD screen. The model predicts well for saturated liquid but under predicts the subcooled data.

Sliding bubbles on a hot horizontal wire in a subcooled bath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duchesne, Alexis; Dubois, Charles; Caps, Hervé

2015-11-01

When a wire is heated up to the boiling point in a liquid bath some bubbles will nucleate on the wire surface. Traditional nucleate boiling theory predicts that bubbles generate from active nucleate site, grow up and depart from the heating surface due to buoyancy and inertia. However, an alternative scenario is presented in the literature for a subcooled bath: bubbles slide along the horizontal wire before departing. New experiments were performed by using a constantan wire and different liquids, varying the injected power. Silicone oil, water and even liquid nitrogen were tested in order to vary wetting conditions, liquid viscosities and surface tensions. We explored the influence of the wire diameter and of the subcooled bath temperature. We observed, of course, sliding motion, but also a wide range of behaviors from bubbles clustering to film boiling. We noticed that bubbles could change moving sense, especially when encountering with another bubble. The bubble speed is carefully measured and can reach more than 100 mm/s for a millimetric bubble. We investigated the dependence of the speed on the different parameters and found that this speed is, for a given configuration, quite independent of the injected power. We understand these phenomena in terms of Marangoni effects. This project has been financially supported by ARC SuperCool contract of the University of Liège.

Flow boiling with enhancement devices for cold plate coolant channel design

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boyd, Ronald D., Sr.; Smith, Alvin

1990-01-01

The use of flow boiling for thermal energy transport is intended to provide an alternative for accommodating higher heat fluxes in commercial space systems. The objectives are to: (1) examine the variations in both the mean and local (axial and circumferential) heat transfer coefficients for a circular coolant channel with either smooth walls, spiral fins, or both spiral fins and a twisted tape; (2) examine the effects of channel diameter and subcooling; and (3) develop an improved reduction analysis and/or suggest possible heat transfer correlation of the present data. Freon-11 is the working fluid. Two-dimensional (circumferential and axial) wall temperature distributions were measured for coolant channels with the above noted internal geometries. The flow regimes which are being studied are: (1) single phase; (2) subcooled flow boiling; and (3) stratified flow boiling. The inside diameter of all test sections is near 1.0 cm. Cicumferentially averaged heat transfer coefficients at several axial locations were obtained for selected coolant channels for a mass velocity of 210 kg/sq m s, an exit pressure of 0.19 MPa (absolute), and an inlet subcooling of 20.8 C. Overall (averaged over the entire channel) heat transfer coefficients were compared for the above channel geometries. This comparison showed that the channel with large pitch spiral fins had higher heat transfer coefficients at all power levels.

Preliminary Study of a Piston Pump for Cryogenic Fluids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Biermann, Arnold E.; Kohl, Robert C.

1959-01-01

Preliminary data are presented covering the performance of a low-speed, five-cylinder piston pump designed for handling boiling hydrogen. This pump was designed for a flow of 55 gallons per minute at 240 rpm with a discharge pressure of 135 pounds per square inch. Tests were made using JP-4 fuel, liquid nitrogen, and liquid hydrogen. Pump delivery and endurance characteristics were satisfactory for the range of operation covered. In connection with the foregoing pump development, the cavitation characteristics of a preliminary visual model, glass-cylinder pump and of a simple reciprocating disk were studied. Subcooling of approximately 0.60 F was obtained from the cavitation produced by reciprocating a disk in boiling nitrogen and in boiling water. The subcooling obtained in a similar manner with liquid hydrogen was somewhat less.

Refrigeration system having standing wave compressor

DOEpatents

Lucas, Timothy S.

1992-01-01

A compression-evaporation refrigeration system, wherein gaseous compression of the refrigerant is provided by a standing wave compressor. The standing wave compressor is modified so as to provide a separate subcooling system for the refrigerant, so that efficiency losses due to flashing are reduced. Subcooling occurs when heat exchange is provided between the refrigerant and a heat pumping surface, which is exposed to the standing acoustic wave within the standing wave compressor. A variable capacity and variable discharge pressure for the standing wave compressor is provided. A control circuit simultaneously varies the capacity and discharge pressure in response to changing operating conditions, thereby maintaining the minimum discharge pressure needed for condensation to occur at any time. Thus, the power consumption of the standing wave compressor is reduced and system efficiency is improved.

Heat transfer enhancement at increasing water concentration in alcohol in the process of non-stationary film boiling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kanin, P. K.; Ryazantsev, V. A.; Lexin, M. A.; Zabirov, A. R.; Yagov, V. V.

2018-03-01

New experimental data on heat transfer in pool film boiling of subcooled ethanol-water mixtures at spherical surfaces are considered. The water solutions with ethanol mass fraction from 10 to 91% and temperature of liquid 50°C were examined. All the experiments were conducted under atmospheric pressure, using the stainless steel sphere of 39 mm in diameter as a cooled body. The sphere was heated up to 450-750°C, depending on ethanol concentration, and immersed into the experimental vessel with subcooled mixture. As it is expected, boiling heat transfer intensifies with ethanol concentration decrease, and duration of cooling decreases. It means that stable film boiling duration decreases, and earlier transition to intensive heat transfer regime occurs.

Predictions of Critical Heat Flux in Annular Pipes with TRACEv4.160 code

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Jasiulevicius, Audrius; Macian-Juan, Rafael

2006-07-01

This paper presents the assessment of TRACE (version v4.160) against the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) experiments in annular tubes performed at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, Sweden. The experimental database includes data for coolant mass fluxes between 250 and 2500 kg/m{sup 2}s and inlet subcooling of 10 and 40 K at a pressure of 70 bar. The work presented in this paper supplements the calculations of single round tube experiments carried out earlier and provides a broader scope of validated geometries. In addition to the Biasi and CISE-GE CHF correlations available in the code, a number ofmore » experimental points at low flow conditions are available for the annular geometry experiments, which also permitted the assessment of the Biasi/Zuber CHF correlation used in TRACE v4.160 for low flow conditions. Experiments with different axial power distribution were simulated and the effects of the axial power profile and the coolant inlet subcooling on the TRACE predictions were investigated. The results of this work show that the Biasi/Zuber correlation provides good estimation of the CHF at 70 bar, and, for the same conditions, the simulation of the annular experiments resulted in the calculation of lower CHF values compared to single-tube experiments. The analysis of the performance of the standard TRACE CHF correlations shows that the CISE-GE correlation yields critical qualities (quality at CHF) closer to the experimental values at 70 bar than the Biasi correlation for annular flow conditions. Regarding the power profile, the results of the TRACE calculations seem to be very sensitive to its shape, since, depending on the profile, different accuracies in the predictions were noted while other system conditions remained constant. The inlet coolant subcooling was also an important factor in the accuracy of TRACE CHF predictions. Thus, an increase in the inlet subcooling led to a clear improvement in the estimation of the critical quality with both Biasi and CISE-GE correlations. To complement the work, three additional CHF correlations were implemented in TRACE v4.160, namely the Bowring, Tong W-3 and Levitan-Lantsman CHF models, in order to assess the applicability of these correlations to simulate the CHF in annular tubes. The improvement of CHF predictions for low coolant mass flows (up to 1500 kg/m{sup 2}s) is noted when applying Bowring CHF correlation. However, the increase in the inlet subcooling increases the error in predicted critical quality with the Bowring correlation. The Levitan-Lantsman and Tong-W-3 correlations provide results similar to the Biasi model. Therefore, the most correct CHF predictions among the investigated correlations were obtained using CISE-GE model in the standard TRAC v4.160 code. (authors)« less

Summary of LO2/Ethanol OMS/RCS Technology and Advanced Development 99-2744

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Curtis, Leslie A.; Hurlbert, Eric A.

1999-01-01

NASA is pursuing non-toxic propellant technologies applicable to RLV and Space Shuttle orbital maneuvering system (OMS) and reaction control system (RCS). The primary objectives of making advancements in an OMS/RCS system are improved safety, reliability, and reduced operations and maintenance cost, while meeting basic operational and performance requirements. An OMS/RCS has a high degree of direct interaction with the vehicle and crew and requires subsystem and components that are compatible with integration into the vehicle with regard to external mold-line, power, and thermal control. In July 1997, a Phase I effort for the technology and advanced development of an upgrade of the space shuttle was conducted to define the system architecture, propellant tank, feed system, RCS thrusters, and OMS engine. Phase I of the project ran from July 1997 to October 1998. Phase II is currently being planned for the development and test of full-scale prototype of the system in 1999 and 2000. The choice of pressure-fed liquid oxygen (LO2) and ethanol is the result of numerous trade studies conducted from 1980 to 1996. Liquid oxygen and ethanol are clean burning, high-density propellants that provide a high degree of commonality with other spacecraft subsystems including life support, power, and thermal control, and with future human exploration and development of space missions. The key to this pressure-fed system is the use of subcooled liquid oxygen at 350 psia. In this approach, there is 80 degrees R of subcooling, which means that boil-off will not occur until the temperature has risen 80 R. The sub-cooling results naturally from loading propellants at 163 R, which is the saturation temperature at 14.7 psia, and then pressurizing to 350 psia on the launch pad. Thermal insulation and conditioning techniques are then used to limit the LO2 temperature to 185 R maximum, and maintain the sub-cooling. The other key is the wide temperature range of ethanol, -173 F to +300 F, which can provide heat to gasify liquid oxygen or provide a good coolant.

Characteristics of Subcooled Liquid Methane During Passage Through a Spray-Bar Joule-Thompson Thermodynamic Vent System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hastings, L. J.; Bolshinskiy, L. G.; Hedayat, A.; Schnell, A.

2011-01-01

NASA s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) conducted liquid methane (LCH4) testing in November 2006 using the multipurpose hydrogen test bed (MHTB) outfitted with a spray-bar thermodynamic vent system (TVS). The basic objective was to identify any unusual or unique thermodynamic characteristics associated with subcooled LCH4 that should be considered in the design of space-based TVSs. Thirteen days of testing were performed with total tank heat loads ranging from 720 W to 420 W at a fill level of approximately 90%. During an updated evaluation of the data, it was noted that as the fluid passed through the Joule Thompson expansion, thermodynamic conditions consistent with the pervasive presence of metastability were indicated. This paper describes the observed thermodynamic conditions that correspond with metastability and effects on TVS performance.

Pressure distribution in a converging-diverging nozzle during two-phase choked flow of subcooled nitrogen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Simoneau, R. J.

1975-01-01

Choked flow rates and axial pressure distributions were measured for subcooled nitrogen in a converging-diverging nozzle with a constant area section in the throat region. Stagnation pressures ranged from slightly above saturation to twice the thermodynamic critical pressure. Stagnation temperatures ranged from 0.75 to 1.03 times the thermodynamic critical temperature. The choking plane is at the divergence end of the constant area throat section. At high stagnation pressures the fluid stays liquid well into the constant area throat region; at near saturation stagnation pressures it appears that vaporization occurs at or before the entrance to the constant area throat region. The throat-to-stagnation pressure ratio data exhibits an anomalous flat region, and this anomaly is related to the two-phase process. The fluid is metastably all liquid below the saturation pressure.

Plate-fin Heat-exchangers for a 10 kW Brayton Cryocooler and a 1 km HTS Cable

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Ho-Myung; Gwak, Kyung Hyun; Jung, Seyong; Yang, Hyung Suk; Hwang, Si-Dole

Plate-fin heat exchangers (PFHX) are designed and fabricated for a cryogenic cooling system, serving for a 10 kW Brayton cryocooler and a 1 km HTS transmission cable under development in Korea. To achieve compactness and thermal efficiency at the same time, a recuperative HX for Brayton cycle and a sub-cooling HX of liquid nitrogen for HTS cable are designed as integrated parts. A key design feature is focused on the coldest part of sub-cooling HX, where the streams of liquid nitrogen and refrigerant (helium gas) are arranged as two-pass cross-flow so that the risk of freeze-out of liquid nitrogen can be reduced. Details of hardware PFHX design are presented and discussed towards its immediate application to the HTS cable system.

Flash crystallization kinetics of methane (sI) hydrate in a thermoelectrically-cooled microreactor.

PubMed

Chen, Weiqi; Pinho, Bruno; Hartman, Ryan L

2017-09-12

The crystallization kinetics of methane (sI) hydrate were investigated in a thermoelectrically-cooled microreactor with in situ Raman spectroscopy. Step-wise and precise control of the temperature allowed acquisition of reproducible data within minutes, while the nucleation of methane hydrates can take up to 24 h in traditional batch reactors. The propagation rates of methane hydrate (from 3.1-196.3 μm s -1 ) at the gas-liquid interface were measured for different Reynolds' numbers (0.7-68.9), pressures (30.0-80.9 bar), and sub-cooling temperatures (1.0-4.0 K). The precise measurement of the propagation rates and their subsequent analyses revealed a transition from mixed heat-transfer-crystallization-rate-limited to mixed heat-transfer-mass-transfer-crystallization-rate-limited kinetics. A theoretical model, based on heat transfer, mass transfer, and intrinsic crystallization kinetics, was derived for the first time to understand the non-linear relationship between the propagation rate and sub-cooling temperature. The molecular diffusivity of methane within a stagnant film (ahead of the propagation front) was discovered to follow Stokes-Einstein, while calculated Hatta (0.50-0.68), Lewis (128-207), and beta (0.79-116) numbers also confirmed that the diffusive flux influences crystal growth. Understanding methane hydrate crystal growth is important to the atmospheric, oceanic, and planetary sciences and to energy production, storage, and transportation. Our discoveries could someday advance the science of other multiphase, high-pressure, and sub-cooled crystallizations.

Pool boiling from rotating and stationary spheres in liquid nitrogen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuan, Winston M.; Schwartz, Sidney H.

1988-01-01

Results are presented for a preliminary experiment involving saturated pool boiling at 1 atm from rotating 2 and 3 in. diameter spheres which were immersed in liquid nitrogen (LN2). Additional results are presented for a stationary, 2 inch diameter sphere, quenched in LN2, which were obtained utilizing a more versatile and complete experimental apparatus that will eventually be used for additional rotating sphere experiments. The speed for the rotational tests was varied from 0 to 10,000 rpm. The stationary experiments parametrically varied pressure and subcooling levels from 0 to 600 psig and from 0 to 50 F, respectively. During the rotational tests, a high speed photographic analysis was undertaken to measure the thickness of the vapor film surrounding the sphere. The average Nusselt number over the cooling period was plotted against the rotational Reynolds number. Stationary sphere results included local boiling heat transfer coefficients at different latitudinal locations, for various pressure and subcooling levels.

Description of Liquid Nitrogen Experimental Test Facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jurns, John M.; Jacobs, Richard E.; Saiyed, Naseem H.

1991-01-01

The Liquid Nitrogen Test Facility is a unique test facility for ground-based liquid nitrogen experimentation. The test rig consists of an insulated tank of approximately 12.5 cubic ft in volume, which is supplied with liquid nitrogen from a 300 gal dewar via a vacuum jacketed piping system. The test tank is fitted with pressure and temperature measuring instrumentation, and with two view ports which allow visual observation of test conditions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, the initial test program is briefly described. The objective of the test program is to measure the condensation rate by injecting liquid nitrogen as a subcooled spray into the ullage of a tank 50 percent full of liquid nitrogen at saturated conditions. The condensation rate of the nitrogen vapor on the subcooled spray can be analytically modeled, and results validated and corrected by experimentally measuring the vapor condensation on liquid sprays.

Description of liquid nitrogen experimental test facility

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jurns, J. M.; Jacobs, R. E.; Saiyed, N. H.

1992-01-01

The Liquid Nitrogen Test Facility is a unique test facility for ground-based liquid nitrogen experimentation. The test rig consists of an insulated tank of approximately 12.5 cubic ft in volume, which is supplied with liquid nitrogen from a 300 gal dewar via a vacuum jacketed piping system. The test tank is fitted with pressure and temperature measuring instrumentation, and with two view ports which allow visual observation of test conditions. To demonstrate the capabilities of the facility, the initial test program is briefly described. The objective of the test program is to measure the condensation rate by injecting liquid nitrogen as a subcooled spray into the ullage of a tank 50 percent full of liquid nitrogen at saturated conditions. The condensation rate of the nitrogen vapor on the subcooled spray can be analytically modeled, and results validated and corrected by experimentally measuring the vapor condensation on liquid sprays.

Liquid Acquisition Device Testing with Sub-Cooled Liquid Oxygen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jurns, John M.; McQuillen, John B.

2008-01-01

When transferring propellant in space, it is most efficient to transfer single phase liquid from a propellant tank to an engine. In earth s gravity field or under acceleration, propellant transfer is fairly simple. However, in low gravity, withdrawing single-phase fluid becomes a challenge. A variety of propellant management devices (PMD) are used to ensure single-phase flow. One type of PMD, a liquid acquisition device (LAD) takes advantage of capillary flow and surface tension to acquire liquid. Previous experimental test programs conducted at NASA have collected LAD data for a number of cryogenic fluids, including: liquid nitrogen (LN2), liquid oxygen (LOX), liquid hydrogen (LH2), and liquid methane (LCH4). The present work reports on additional testing with sub-cooled LOX as part of NASA s continuing cryogenic LAD development program. Test results extend the range of LOX fluid conditions examined, and provide insight into factors affecting predicting LAD bubble point pressures.

Subcooled Liquid Oxygen Cryostat for Magneto-Archimedes Particle Separation by Density

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hilton, D. K.; Celik, D.; Van Sciver, S. W.

2008-03-01

An instrument for the separation of particles by density (sorting) is being developed that uses the magneto-archimedes effect in liquid oxygen. With liquid oxygen strongly paramagnetic, the magneto-archimedes effect is an extension of diamagnetic levitation in the sense of increasing the effective buoyancy of a particle. The instrument will be able to separate ensembles of particles from 100 μm to 100 nm in size, and vertically map or mechanically deliver the separated particles. The instrument requires a column of liquid oxygen that is nearly isothermal, free of thermal convection, subcooled to prevent nucleate boiling, and supported against the strong magnetic field used. Thus, the unique cryostat design that meets these requirements is described in the present article. It consists in part of a column of liquid nitrogen below for cooling the liquid oxygen, with the liquid oxygen pressurized by helium gas to prevent nucleate boiling.

Method and apparatus of cryogenic cooling for high temperature superconductor devices

DOEpatents

Yuan, Xing; Mine, Susumu

2005-02-15

A method and apparatus for providing cryogenic cooling to HTS devices, in particular those that are used in high-voltage electric power applications. The method involves pressurizing liquid cryogen to above one atmospheric pressure to improve its dielectric strength, while sub-cooling the liquid cryogen to below its saturation temperature in order to improve the performance of the HTS components of the device. An apparatus utilizing such a cooling method consists of a vessel that contains a pressurized gaseous cryogen region and a sub-cooled liquid cryogen bath, a liquid cryogen heating coupled with a gaseous cryogen venting scheme to maintain the pressure of the cryogen to a value in a range that corresponds to optimum dielectric strength of the liquid cryogen, and a cooling system that maintains the liquid cryogen at a temperature below its boiling point to improve the performance of HTS materials used in the device.

Wall Area of Influence and Growing Wall Heat Transfer due to Sliding Bubbles in Subcooled Boiling Flow

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yoo, Junsoo; Estrada-Perez, Carlos E.; Hassan, Yassin A.

A variety of dynamical features of sliding bubbles and their impact on wall heat transfer were observed at subcooled flow boiling conditions in a vertical square test channel. Among the wide range of parameters observed, we particularly focus in this paper on (i) the sliding bubbles’ effect on wall heat transfer (supplemantry discussion to the authors’ previous work in Yoo et al. (2016a,b)) and (ii) the wall area influenced by sliding bubbles in subcooled boiling flow. At first, this study reveals that the degree of wall heat transfer improvement due to sliding bubbles depended less on the wall superheat conditionmore » as the mass flux increased. Also, the sliding bubble trajectory was found to be one of the critical factors in order to properly describe the wall heat transfer associated with sliding bubbles. In particular, the wall area influenced by sliding bubbles depended strongly on both sliding bubble trajectory and sliding bubble size; the sliding bubble trajectory was also observed to be closely related to the sliding bubble size. Importantly, these results indicate the limitation of current approach in CFD analyses especially for the wall area of bubble influence. In addition, the analyses on the temporal fraction of bubbles’ residence (FR) along the heated wall show that the sliding bubbles typically travel through narrow path with high frequency while the opposite was observed downstream. That is, both FR and sliding bubble trajectory depended substantially on the distance from nucleation site, which is expected to be similar for the quenching heat transfer mode induced by sliding bubbles.« less

Controlling energy costs in refrigeration systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Vig, R.

1984-08-09

Altering the operating conditions of components in a refrigeration system can have a significant effect on energy consumption. The ramifications of superheating the gas at the evaporator, subcooling the liquid at the condenser, lowering the condensing pressure, and raising the suction temperature should be examined.

Stability analysis of BWR nuclear-coupled thermal-hyraulics using a simple model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Karve, A.A.; Rizwan-uddin; Dorning, J.J.

1995-09-01

A simple mathematical model is developed to describe the dynamics of the nuclear-coupled thermal-hydraulics in a boiling water reactor (BWR) core. The model, which incorporates the essential features of neutron kinetics, and single-phase and two-phase thermal-hydraulics, leads to simple dynamical system comprised of a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations (ODEs). The stability boundary is determined and plotted in the inlet-subcooling-number (enthalpy)/external-reactivity operating parameter plane. The eigenvalues of the Jacobian matrix of the dynamical system also are calculated at various steady-states (fixed points); the results are consistent with those of the direct stability analysis and indicate that a Hopf bifurcationmore » occurs as the stability boundary in the operating parameter plane is crossed. Numerical simulations of the time-dependent, nonlinear ODEs are carried out for selected points in the operating parameter plane to obtain the actual damped and growing oscillations in the neutron number density, the channel inlet flow velocity, and the other phase variables. These indicate that the Hopf bifurcation is subcritical, hence, density wave oscillations with growing amplitude could result from a finite perturbation of the system even where the steady-state is stable. The power-flow map, frequently used by reactor operators during start-up and shut-down operation of a BWR, is mapped to the inlet-subcooling-number/neutron-density (operating-parameter/phase-variable) plane, and then related to the stability boundaries for different fixed inlet velocities corresponding to selected points on the flow-control line. The stability boundaries for different fixed inlet subcooling numbers corresponding to those selected points, are plotted in the neutron-density/inlet-velocity phase variable plane and then the points on the flow-control line are related to their respective stability boundaries in this plane.« less

Temperature Distribution and Critical Current of Long HTS Cables Cooled with Subcooled Liquid Nitrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vyatkin, V. S.; Ivanov, Y. V.; Watanabe, H.; Chikumoto, N.; Yamaguchi, S.

2017-07-01

Cooling of the long HTS power transmission lines performs by pumping of subcooled liquid nitrogen (LN2) along the cable. The temperature of LN2 along the cable increases due to the heat losses of the cryostat and heat generation in the HTS cable. The experiment using test cable line in Ishikari shows that flow rate of 35 L/min retains increasing of LN2 temperature by 1 K per 1 km of length. The technology when the back flow of LN2 cools the radiation shield surrounding the cable pipe is also applied in Ishikari-2 project. In this case the ambient heat flow into cable pipe is 50 times less than that without radiation shield. Back flow of LN2 removes almost all heat coming from the environment. When transport current is close to the critical value the Joule heat of HTS cable is significant. This heat additionally increases the temperature of LN2 flowing along the HTS cable. Near the outlet the temperature of HTS cable is maximal and the local critical current is minimal. The current matching critical current criterion of average electrical field of E 0 = 10-4 V/m provides the voltage drop and significant Joule heat at the hot end of the cable. It can lead the damage of the cable. The present work contains analysis of temperature distribution along the cable and the way to achieve the fail-safe operation of long HTS cable cooled by subcooled LN2. We also performed extrapolation of obtained results for several times longer cable lines by decreasing the LN2 flow rate.

A Densified Liquid Methane Delivery System for the Altair Ascent Stage

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tomsik, Thomas M.; Johnson, Wesley L.; Smudde, Todd D.; Femminineo, Mark F.; Schnell, Andrew R.

2010-01-01

The Altair Lunar Lander is currently carrying options for both cryogenic and hypergolic ascent stage propulsion modules. The cryogenic option uses liquid methane and liquid oxygen to propel Altair from the lunar surface back to rendezvous with the Orion command module. Recent studies have determined that the liquid methane should be densified by subcooling it to 93 K in order to prevent over-pressurization of the propellant tanks during the 210 day stay on the lunar surface. A trade study has been conducted to determine the preferred method of producing; loading, and maintaining the subcooled, densified liquid methane onboard Altair from a ground operations perspective. The trade study took into account the limitations in mass for the launch vehicle and the mobile launch platform as well as the historical reliability of various components and their thermal efficiencies. Several unique problems were encountered, namely delivering a small amount of a cryogenic propellant to a flight tank that is positioned over 350 ft above the launch pad as well as generating the desired delivery temperature of the methane at 93 K which is only 2.3 K above the methane triple point of 90.7 K. Over 20 methods of subcooled liquid methane production and delivery along with the associated system architectures were investigated to determine the best solutions to the problem. The top four cryogenic processing solutions were selected for further evaluation and detailed thermal modeling. This paper describes the results of the preliminary trade analysis of the 20 plus methane densification methods considered. The results of the detailed analysis will be briefed to the Altair Project Office and their propulsion team as well as the Ground Operations Project Office before the down-select is made between cryogenic and hypergolic ascent stages in August 2010.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yoo, Jun Soo

The bubble departure diameter and bubble release frequency were obtained through the analysis of TAMU subcooled flow boiling experimental data. The numerous images of bubbles at departure were analyzed for each experimental condition to achieve the reliable statistics of the measured bubble parameters. The results are provided in this report with simple discussion.

New observations and insights into the morphology and growth kinetics of hydrate films.

PubMed

Li, Sheng-Li; Sun, Chang-Yu; Liu, Bei; Li, Zhi-Yun; Chen, Guang-Jin; Sum, Amadeu K

2014-02-19

The kinetics of film growth of hydrates of methane, ethane, and methane-ethane mixtures were studied by exposing a single gas bubble to water. The morphologies, lateral growth rates, and thicknesses of the hydrate films were measured for various gas compositions and degrees of subcooling. A variety of hydrate film textures was revealed. The kinetics of two-dimensional film growth was inferred from the lateral growth rate and initial thickness of the hydrate film. A clear relationship between the morphology and film growth kinetics was observed. The shape of the hydrate crystals was found to favour heat or mass transfer and favour further growth of the hydrate film. The quantitative results on the kinetics of film growth showed that for a given degree of subcooling, the initial film thicknesses of the double hydrates were larger than that of pure methane or ethane hydrate, whereas the thickest hydrate film and the lowest lateral growth rate occurred when the methane mole fraction was approximately 0.6.

New Observations and Insights into the Morphology and Growth Kinetics of Hydrate Films

PubMed Central

Li, Sheng-Li; Sun, Chang-Yu; Liu, Bei; Li, Zhi-Yun; Chen, Guang-Jin; Sum, Amadeu K.

2014-01-01

The kinetics of film growth of hydrates of methane, ethane, and methane-ethane mixtures were studied by exposing a single gas bubble to water. The morphologies, lateral growth rates, and thicknesses of the hydrate films were measured for various gas compositions and degrees of subcooling. A variety of hydrate film textures was revealed. The kinetics of two-dimensional film growth was inferred from the lateral growth rate and initial thickness of the hydrate film. A clear relationship between the morphology and film growth kinetics was observed. The shape of the hydrate crystals was found to favour heat or mass transfer and favour further growth of the hydrate film. The quantitative results on the kinetics of film growth showed that for a given degree of subcooling, the initial film thicknesses of the double hydrates were larger than that of pure methane or ethane hydrate, whereas the thickest hydrate film and the lowest lateral growth rate occurred when the methane mole fraction was approximately 0.6. PMID:24549241

Methods of Controlling the Loop Heat Pipe Operating Temperature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ku, Jentung

2008-01-01

The operating temperature of a loop heat pipe (LHP) is governed by the saturation temperature of its compensation chamber (CC); the latter is in turn determined by the balance among the heat leak from the evaporator to the CC, the amount of subcooling carried by the liquid returning to the CC, and the amount of heat exchanged between the CC and ambient. The LHP operating temperature can be controlled at a desired set point by actively controlling the CC temperature. The most common method is to cold bias the CC and use electric heater power to maintain the CC set point temperature. The required electric heater power can be large when the condenser sink is very cold. Several methods have been developed to reduce the control heater power, including coupling block, heat exchanger and separate subcooler, variable conductance heat pipe, by-pass valve with pressure regulator, secondary evaporator, and thermoelectric converter. The paper discusses the operating principles, advantages and disadvantages of each method.

Low gravity quenching of hot tubes with cryogens

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Antar, Basil N.; Collins, Frank G.; Kawaji, M.

1992-01-01

An experimental proceedure for examining flow boiling in low gravity environment is presented. The proceedure involves both ground based and KC-135 flight experiments. Two experimental apparati were employed, one for studying subcooled liquid boiling and another for examining saturated liquid boiling. For the saturated flow experiments, liquid nitrogen was used while freon 113 was used for the subcooled flow experiments. The boiling phenomenon was investigated in both cases using flow visualization techniques as well as tube wall temperature measurements. The flow field in both cases was established by injecting cold liquid in a heated tube whose temperature was set above the saturation values. The tubes were both vertically and horizontally supported with the liquid injected from the lower end of the tube. The results indicate substantial differences in the flow patterns established during boiling between the ground based, (1-g), experiments and the flight experiments, (low-g). These differences in the flow patterns will be discussed and some explanations will be offered.

Liquid Nitrogen Subcooler Pressure Vessel Engineering Note

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rucinski, R.; /Fermilab

1997-04-24

The normal operating pressure of this dewar is expected to be less than 15 psig. This vessel is open to atmospheric pressure thru a non-isolatable vent line. The backpressure in the vent line was calculated to be less than 1.5 psig at maximum anticipated flow rates.

Droplet Evaporator For High-Capacity Heat Transfer

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Valenzuela, Javier A.

1993-01-01

Proposed heat-exchange scheme boosts heat transfer per unit area. Key component is generator that fires uniform size droplets of subcooled liquid at hot plate. On impact, droplets spread out and evaporate almost instantly, removing heat from plate. In practice, many generator nozzles arrayed over evaporator plate.

On a phase transition for semitransparent materials in terms of the Stefan problem

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rubtsov, N. A.; Sleptsov, S. D.

2017-01-01

The paper deals with justification of the formula for the latent heat of phase transition of the first kind, taking into account superheating and subcooling of the formed two-phase system, in application to the solution of Stefan problem in semitransparent materials.

Experimental and numerical investigation of HyperVapotron heat transfer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Weihua; Deng, Haifei; Huang, Shenghong; Chu, Delin; Yang, Bin; Mei, Luoqin; Pan, Baoguo

2014-12-01

The divertor first wall and neutral beam injection (NBI) components of tokamak devices require high heat flux removal up to 20-30 MW m-2 for future fusion reactors. The water cooled HyperVapotron (HV) structure, which relies on internal grooves or fins and boiling heat transfer to maximize the heat transfer capability, is the most promising candidate. The HV devices, that are able to transfer large amounts of heat (1-20 MW m-2) efficiently, have therefore been developed specifically for this application. Until recently, there have been few attempts to observe the detailed bubble characteristics and vortex evolvement of coolant flowing inside their various parts and understand of the internal two-phase complex heat transfer mechanism behind the vapotron effect. This research builds the experimental facilities of HyperVapotron Loop-I (HVL-I) and Pressure Water HyperVapotron Loop-II (PWHL-II) to implement the subcooled boiling principle experiment in terms of typical flow parameters, geometrical parameters of test section and surface heat flux, which are similar to those of the ITER-like first wall and NBI components (EAST and MAST). The multiphase flow and heat transfer phenomena on the surface of grooves and triangular fins when the subcooled water flowed through were observed and measured with the planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) and high-speed photography (HSP) techniques. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was selected to reveal vortex formation, the flow structure that promotes the vapotron effect during subcooled boiling. The coolant flow data for contributing to the understanding of the vapotron phenomenon and the assessment of how the design and operational conditions that might affect the thermal performance of the devices were collected and analysed. The subcooled flow boiling model and methods of HV heat transfer adopted in the considered computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code were evaluated by comparing the calculated wall temperatures with the experimentally measured values. It was discovered that the bubble and vortex characteristics in the HV are clearly heavily dependent on the internal geometry, flow conditions and input heat flux. The evaporation latent heat is the primary heat transfer mechanism of HV flow under the condition of high heat flux, and the heat transfer through convection is very limited. The percentage of wall heat flux going into vapour production is almost 70%. These relationships between the flow phenomena and thermal performance of the HV device are essential to study the mechanisms for the flow structure alterations for design optimization and improvements of the ITER-like devices' water cooling structure and plasma facing components for future fusion reactors.

A Theoretical Study of Flow Structure and Radiation for Multiphase Turbulent Diffusion Flames

DTIC Science & Technology

1990-03-01

density function. According to the axial void fraction profile in Fig. 24, the flame length (the total penetration length) extends to x/d=150. By referring...temperature because of subcooling effect. Decreasing liquid temperature will increase condensation which in turn reduces the flame length as defined by

Forced Convection Boiling and Critical Heat Flux of Ethanol in Electrically Heated Tube Tests

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Meyer, Michael L.; Linne, Diane L.; Rousar, Donald C.

1998-01-01

Electrically heated tube tests were conducted to characterize the critical heat flux (transition from nucleate to film boiling) of subcritical ethanol flowing at conditions relevant to the design of a regeneratively cooled rocket engine thrust chamber. The coolant was SDA-3C alcohol (95% ethyl alcohol, 5% isopropyl alcohol by weight), and tests were conducted over the following ranges of conditions: pressure from 144 to 703 psia, flow velocities from 9.7 to 77 ft/s, coolant subcooling from 33 to 362 F, and critical heat fluxes up to 8.7 BTU/in(exp 2)/sec. For the data taken near 200 psia, critical heat flux was correlated as a function of the product of velocity and fluid subcooling to within +/- 20%. For data taken at higher pressures, an additional pressure term is needed to correlate the critical heat flux. It was also shown that at the higher test pressures and/or flow rates, exceeding the critical heat flux did not result in wall burnout. This result may significantly increase the engine heat flux design envelope for higher pressure conditions.

Assessment of the operating characteristics of the SSME LOX turbopump pump-end bearing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

New, L. S.; Tiller, B. K.

1984-01-01

A bearing/shaft model of the SSME LOX turbopump was developed using the SHABERTH bearing/shaft math modeling computer code. A previously developed bearing/shaft thermal model of the SSME LOX turbopump turbine and bearing was used in conjunction with SHABERTH to evaluate the thermomechanical operating characteristics of the LOX turbopump end bearings. Results show that for the two unmounted diametrical clearances evaluated (4.0 mils and 6.3 mils), the inboard pump end bearing supports about 81% of the isolator load for the small clearance and 77% of the isolator load for the larger clearance. Bearing clearance changes due to thermal effects were 40% for the 4.0 mil diametrical clearance case and 19% for the 6.3 mil clearance case evaluated. The thermal analysis included evaluation of bearing temperatures for a subcooled case and a saturated case. Results indicate that no drastic temperature change occurred between the two cases. Since the rolling element and race surfaces of the subcooled case were at temperatures sufficiently high enough to be vapor blanketed, exceeding saturation temperature at the bearing inlet did not increase surface temperatures greatly.

The influence of liquid/vapor phase change onto the Nusselt number

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popescu, Elena-Roxana; Colin, Catherine; Tanguy, Sebastien

2017-11-01

In spite of its significant interest in various fields, there is currently a very few information on how an external flow will modify the evaporation or the condensation of a liquid surface. Although most applications involve turbulent flows, the simpler configuration where a laminar superheated or subcooled vapor flow is shearing a saturated liquid interface has still never been solved. Based on a numerical approach, we propose to characterize the interaction between a laminar boundary layer of a superheated or subcooled vapor flow and a static liquid pool at saturation temperature. By performing a full set of simulations sweeping the parameters space, correlations are proposed for the first time on the Nusselt number depending on the dimensionless numbers that characterize both vaporization and condensation. As attended, the Nusselt number decreases or increases in the configurations involving respectively vaporization or condensation. More unexpected is the behaviour of the friction of the vapor flow on the liquid pool, for which we report that it is weakly affected by the phase change, despite the important variation of the local flow structure due to evaporation or condensation.

Analysis of water microdroplet condensation on silicon surfaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Honda, Takuya; Fujimoto, Kenya; Yoshimoto, Yuta; Mogi, Katsuo; Kinefuchi, Ikuya; Sugii, Yasuhiko; Takagi, Shu; Univ. of Tokyo Team; Tokyo Inst. of Tech. Team

2016-11-01

We observed the condensation process of water microdroplets on flat silicon (100) surfaces by means of the sequential visualization of the droplets using an environmental scanning electron microscope. As previously reported for nanostructured surfaces, the condensation process of water microdroplets on the flat silicon surfaces also exhibits two modes: the constant base (CB) area mode and the constant contact angle (CCA) mode. In the CB mode, the contact angle increases with time while the base diameter is constant. Subsequently, in the CCA mode, the base diameter increases with time while the contact angle remains constant. The dropwise condensation model regulated by subcooling temperature does not reproduce the experimental results. Because the subcooling temperature is not constant in the case of a slow condensation rate, this model is not applicable to the condensation of the long time scale ( several tens of minutes). The contact angle of water microdroplets ( several μm) tended to be smaller than the macro contact angle. Two hypotheses are proposed as the cause of small contact angles: electrowetting and the coalescence of sub- μm water droplets.

DNB heat flux in forced convection of liquid hydrogen for a wire set in central axis of vertically mounted flow channel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Matsumoto, T.; Shirai, Y.; Shiotsu, M.; Fujita, K.; Kainuma, T.; Tatsumoto, H.; Naruo, Y.; Kobayashi, H.; Nonaka, S.; Inatani, Y.

2017-12-01

Liquid hydrogen has excellent physical properties, high latent heat and low viscosity of liquid, as a coolant for superconductors like MgB2. The knowledge of Departure from Nucleate Boiling (DNB) heat flux of liquid hydrogen is necessary for designing and cooling analysis of high critical temperature superconducting devices. In this paper, DNB heat fluxes of liquid hydrogen were measured under saturated and subcooled conditions at absolute pressures of 400, 700 and 1100 kPa for various flow velocities. Two wire test heaters made by Pt-Co alloy with the length of 200 mm and the diameter of 0.7 mm were used. And these round heaters were set in central axis of a flow channel made of Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) with inner diameters of 8 mm and 12 mm. These test bodies were vertically mounted and liquid hydrogen flowed upward through the channel. From these experimental values, the correlations of DNB heat flux under saturated and subcooled conditions are presented in this paper.

Effects of Ultrasonic Vibration on Heat Transfer Characteristics of Lithium Bromide Aqueous Solution under the Reduced Pressure

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamashiro, Hikaru; Nakashima, Ryou

The effects of ultrasonic vibration on heat transfer characteristics of lithium bromide aqueous solution under the reduced pressures are studied experimentally. Pool boiling curves on horizontal smooth tube are obtained using distilled water and 50 % LiBr aqueous solution as test liquids. The system pressure p is varied from 12 to 101 kPa and the liquid subcooling ΔTsub ranges from 0 to 70 K. The frequency of ultrasonic vibration vi s set at 24 and 44 kHz, and the power input to the vibrator P is varied from 0 to 35 W. The wall superheat at the boiling incipience is found to decrease with increasing P, and the nucleate boiling curve shifts toward the lower wall temperature region. However, the effect of P is not found to be very significant in the high heat flux region, especially in the case of small liquid subcooling. Ultrasonic vibration is also found to improve the nucleate boiling heat transfer coefficient by up to a maximum of 3.5 times and to prevent crystallization of the solution and precipitation of additives.

Design of high-efficiency Joule-Thomson cycles for high-temperature superconductor power cable cooling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Lingxue; Lee, Cheonkyu; Baek, Seungwhan; Jeong, Sangkwon

2018-07-01

Liquid nitrogen (LN2) is commonly used as the coolant of a high temperature superconductor (HTS) power cable. The LN2 is continuously cooled by a subcooler to maintain an appropriate operating temperature of the cable. This paper proposes two Joule-Thomson (JT) refrigeration cycles for subcooling the LN2 coolant by using nitrogen itself as the working fluid. Additionally, an innovative HTS cooling cycle, of which the cable coolant and the refrigerant are unified and supplied from the same source, is suggested and analyzed in detail. Among these cycles, the highest COP is obtained in the JT cycle with a vacuum pump (Cycle A) which is 0.115 at 78 K, and the Carnot efficiency is 32.8%. The integrated HTS cooling cycle (Cycle C) can reach the maximum COP of 0.087, and the Carnot efficiency of 24.8%. Although Cycle C has a relatively low cycle efficiency when compared to that of the separated refrigeration cycle, it can be a good alternative in engineering applications, because the assembled hardware has few machinery components in a more compact configuration than the other cycles.

Thermodynamic Vent System Performance Testing with Subcooled Liquid Methane and Gaseous Helium Pressurant

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Flachbart, R. H.; Hastings, L. J.; Hedayat, A.; Nelson, S. L.; Tucker, S. P.

2007-01-01

Due to its high specific impulse and favorable thermal properties for storage, liquid methane (LCH4) is being considered as a candidate propellant for exploration architectures. In order to gain an -understanding of any unique considerations involving micro-gravity pressure control with LCH4, testing was conducted at the Marshall Space Flight Center using the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB) to evaluate the performance of a spray-bar thermodynamic vent system (TVS) with subcooled LCH4 and gaseous helium (GHe) pressurant. Thirteen days of testing were performed in November 2006, with total tank heat leak conditions of about 715 W and 420 W at a fill level of approximately 90%. The TVS system was used to subcool the LCH4 to a liquid saturation pressure of approximately 55.2 kPa before the tank was pressurized with GHe to a total pressure of 165.5 kPa. A total of 23 TVS cycles were completed. The TVS successfully controlled the ullage pressure within a prescribed control band but did not maintain a stable liquid saturation pressure. This was likely. due to a TVS design not optimized for this particular propellant and test conditions, and possibly due to a large artificially induced heat input directly into the liquid. The capability to reduce liquid saturation pressure as well as maintain it within a prescribed control band, demonstrated that the TVS could be used to seek and maintain a desired liquid inlet temperature for an engine (at a cost of propellant lost through the TVS vent). One special test was conducted at the conclusion of the planned test activities. Reduction of the tank ullage pressure by opening the Joule-Thomson valve (JT) without operating the pump was attempted. The JT remained open for over 9300 seconds, resulting in an ullage pressure reduction of 30 kPa. The special test demonstrated the feasibility of using the JT valve for limited ullage pressure reduction in the event of a pump failure.

Development of a 500 kVA-class oxide-superconducting power transformer operated at liquid-nitrogen temperature

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Funaki, K.; Iwakuma, M.; Kajikawa, K.; Takeo, M.; Suehiro, J.; Hara, M.; Yamafuji, K.; Konno, M.; Kasagawa, Y.; Okubo, K.; Yasukawa, Y.; Nose, S.; Ueyama, M.; Hayashi, K.; Sato, K.

We have designed and constructed a 500 kVA-class oxide-superconducting power transformer. The windings are cooled by liquid nitrogen or subcooled nitrogen in a G-FRP cryostat of 785 mm in diameter and 1210 mm in height, that has a room-temperature space for an iron core with the diameter of 314 mm. The primary and secondary windings are three-strand and six-strand parallel conductors of a Bi-2223 multifilamentary tape with silver sheath, respectively. The strand 0.22 mm thick and 3.5 mm wide has 61 filaments with no twisting. The ratio of superconductor is 0.284. In the parallel conductors, the strands are transposed five times in each layer for a uniform current distribution among them. It was proved that the transformer has the rated capacity of 500 kVA by means of two-h short-circuit test and half-h no-load test in liquid nitrogen of 77 K. The efficiency is estimated as 99.1% from a core loss of 2.3 kW and a thermal load of 2.2 kW in coolant. The latter is composed of AC losses in windings and heat leakage from the cryostat and current leads, and is multiplied by a refrigeration penalty of liquid nitrogen, 20. Load test was also performed up to 500 kVA. The transformer was furthermore operated in subcooled nitrogen at 66 K with no quenching up to a critical level, that is equivalent to 800 kVA. The efficiency estimated was improved to 99.3% in subcooled nitrogen. Measured a.c. loss in both windings are well explained by a theoretical prediction with the "critical state model". We also discuss prospective applications of the parallel conductors composed of advanced HTS multifilamentary tapes to a.c. windings with large current capacity.

Experiments on the effects of nanoparticles on subcooled nucleate pool boiling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kangude, Prasad; Bhatt, Dhairya; Srivastava, Atul

2018-05-01

The effect of nanoparticles on a single bubble-based nucleate pool boiling phenomenon under subcooled conditions has been studied. Water (as the base fluid) and two different concentrations of water-silica nanofluids (0.005% and 0.01% V/V) have been employed as the working fluids. The boiling experiments have been conducted in a specially designed chamber, wherein an ITO-coated heater substrate has been used to induce single bubble nucleation. Measurements have been performed in a completely non-intrusive manner using one of the refractive index-based diagnostics techniques, namely, rainbow schlieren deflectometry. Thus, the thermal gradients prevailing in the boiling chamber have directly been mapped as a two-dimensional distribution of hue values that are recorded in the form of rainbow schlieren images. The schlieren-based measurements clearly revealed the plausible influence of nanoparticles on the strength of temperature gradients prevailing in the boiling chamber. As compared to the base fluid, the experiments with dilute nanofluids showed that the suspended nanoparticles tend to diffuse (homogenize) the strength of temperature gradients, both in the vicinity of the heated substrate and in the thermal boundary layer enveloping the vapor bubble. An overall reduction in the bubble volume and dynamic contact angle was seen with increasing concentrations of dilute nanofluids. In addition, the vapor bubble was found to assume a more spherical shape at higher concentrations of dilute nanofluids in comparison to its shape with water-based experiments. Clear oscillations of the vapor bubble in the subcooled pool of liquids (water and/or nanofluids) were observed, the frequency of which was found to be significantly reduced as the nanoparticle concentration was increased from 0% (water) to 0.01% (V/V). A force balance analysis has been performed to elucidate the plausible mechanisms explaining the observed trends of the oscillation frequencies of the vapor bubble.

Low-thrust chemical propulsion system propellant expulsion and thermal conditioning study. Executive summary

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merino, F.; Wakabayashi, I.; Pleasant, R. L.; Hill, M.

1982-01-01

Preferred techniques for providing abort pressurization and engine feed system net positive suction pressure (NPSP) for low thrust chemical propulsion systems (LTPS) were determined. A representative LTPS vehicle configuration is presented. Analysis tasks include: propellant heating analysis; pressurant requirements for abort propellant dump; and comparative analysis of pressurization techniques and thermal subcoolers.

Enhancement of Boiling Heat Transfer in Di-Electric Fluids

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-09-01

working fluid of R-I13. Maddox and Mudawar [Ref. 8] studied the effect of subcooling and surface aug- mentation on values of Critical Heat Flux (CHF). They...Enhanced Surfaces to Dielectric Fluids," A SME Journal of Heat Transfer, v.104, pp.292-299, May 1982. 8. Maddox D.E., and Mudawar ,I., "Single and Two

Burnout in the horizontal tubes of a furnace waterwall panel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kamenetskii, B. Ya.

2009-08-01

An experimental study of heat transfer that occurs in tubes nonuniformly heated over the perimeter at low velocities of subcooled water flowing in them is presented. Experiments with unsteady supply of heat made it possible to determine heat fluxes under burnout conditions. Unusually low values of critical heat fluxes were obtained under such conditions.

Boiling Heat-Transfer Processes and Their Application in the Cooling of High Heat Flux Devices

DTIC Science & Technology

1993-06-01

1991, pp. 395-397. 385. Galloway, J. E. and Mudawar , 1. "Critical Heat Flux Enhancement by Means of Liquid Subcooling and Centrifugal Force Induced...Flow Boiling Heat Transfer for a Spirally Fluted Tube." Heat Tran~ler Engineering, Vol. 13, No.1, 1992, pp. 42-52. 390. Willingham, T. C. and Mudawar

Gas hydrate cool storage system

DOEpatents

Ternes, Mark P.; Kedl, Robert J.

1985-01-01

This invention is a process for formation of a gas hydrate to be used as a cool storage medium using a refrigerant in water. Mixing of the immiscible refrigerant and water is effected by addition of a surfactant and agitation. The difficult problem of subcooling during the process is overcome by using the surfactant and agitation and performance of the process significantly improves and approaches ideal.

COMPARISON OF THE OCTANOL-AIR PARTITION COEFFICIENT AND LIQUID-PHASE VAPOR PRESSURE AS DESCRIPTORS FOR PARTICLE/GAS PARTITIONING USING LABORATORY AND FIELD DATA FOR PCBS AND PCNS

EPA Science Inventory

The conventional Junge-Pankow adsorption model uses the sub-cooled liquid vapor pressure (pLo) as a correlation parameter for gas/particle interactions. An alternative is the octanol-air partition coefficient (Koa) absorption model. Log-log plots of the particle-gas partition c...

Effect of force fields on pool boiling flow patterns in normal and reduced gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

di Marco, P.; Grassi, W.

2009-05-01

This paper reports the observations of boiling flow patterns in FC-72, performed during a microgravity experiment, recently flown aboard of Foton-M2 satellite, in some instances with the additional aid of an electrostatic field to replace the buoyancy force. The heater consisted of a flat plate, 20 × 20 mm2, directly heated by direct current. Several levels of liquid subcooling (from 20 to 6 K) and heat fluxes up to 200 kW/m2 were tested. A complete counterpart test, carried out on ground before the mission, allowed direct comparison with terrestrial data. The void fraction in microgravity revealed much larger than in normal gravity condition: this may be attributed to increased bubble coalescence that hinders vapor condensation in the bulk of the subcooled fluid. In several cases, an oscillatory boiling behavior was detected, leading to periodical variation of average wall overheating of some degrees. The electric field confirmed to be very effective, even at low values of applied voltage, in reducing bubble size, thus improving their condensation rate in the bulk fluid, and in enhancing heat transfer performance, suppressing the boiling oscillations and preventing surface dryout.

Heat pump system with selective space cooling

DOEpatents

Pendergrass, J.C.

1997-05-13

A reversible heat pump provides multiple heating and cooling modes and includes a compressor, an evaporator and heat exchanger all interconnected and charged with refrigerant fluid. The heat exchanger includes tanks connected in series to the water supply and a condenser feed line with heat transfer sections connected in counterflow relationship. The heat pump has an accumulator and suction line for the refrigerant fluid upstream of the compressor. Sub-cool transfer tubes associated with the accumulator/suction line reclaim a portion of the heat from the heat exchanger. A reversing valve switches between heating/cooling modes. A first bypass is operative to direct the refrigerant fluid around the sub-cool transfer tubes in the space cooling only mode and during which an expansion valve is utilized upstream of the evaporator/indoor coil. A second bypass is provided around the expansion valve. A programmable microprocessor activates the first bypass in the cooling only mode and deactivates the second bypass, and vice-versa in the multiple heating modes for said heat exchanger. In the heating modes, the evaporator may include an auxiliary outdoor coil for direct supplemental heat dissipation into ambient air. In the multiple heating modes, the condensed refrigerant fluid is regulated by a flow control valve. 4 figs.

Heat pump system with selective space cooling

DOEpatents

Pendergrass, Joseph C.

1997-01-01

A reversible heat pump provides multiple heating and cooling modes and includes a compressor, an evaporator and heat exchanger all interconnected and charged with refrigerant fluid. The heat exchanger includes tanks connected in series to the water supply and a condenser feed line with heat transfer sections connected in counterflow relationship. The heat pump has an accumulator and suction line for the refrigerant fluid upstream of the compressor. Sub-cool transfer tubes associated with the accumulator/suction line reclaim a portion of the heat from the heat exchanger. A reversing valve switches between heating/cooling modes. A first bypass is operative to direct the refrigerant fluid around the sub-cool transfer tubes in the space cooling only mode and during which an expansion valve is utilized upstream of the evaporator/indoor coil. A second bypass is provided around the expansion valve. A programmable microprocessor activates the first bypass in the cooling only mode and deactivates the second bypass, and vice-versa in the multiple heating modes for said heat exchanger. In the heating modes, the evaporator may include an auxiliary outdoor coil for direct supplemental heat dissipation into ambient air. In the multiple heating modes, the condensed refrigerant fluid is regulated by a flow control valve.

Large-scale boiling experiments of the flooded cavity concept for in-vessel core retention

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Chu, T.Y.; Slezak, S.E.; Bentz, J.H.

1994-03-01

This paper presents results of ex-vessel boiling experiments performed in the CYBL (CYlindrical BoiLing) facility. CYBL is a reactor-scale facility for confirmatory research of the flooded cavity concept for accident management. CYBL has a tank-within-a-tank design; the inner tank simulates the reactor vessel and the outer tank simulates the reactor cavity. Experiments with uniform and edge-peaked heat flux distributions up to 20 W/cm{sup 2} across the vessel bottom were performed. Boiling outside the reactor vessel was found to be subcooled nucleate boiling. The subcooling is mainly due to the gravity head which results from flooding the sides of the reactormore » vessel. The boiling process exhibits a cyclic pattern with four distinct phases: direct liquid/solid contact, bubble nucleation and growth, coalescence, and vapor mass dispersion (ejection). The results suggest that under prototypic heat load and heat flux distributions, the flooded cavity in a passive pressurized water reactor like the AP-600 should be capable of cooling the reactor pressure vessel in the central region of the lower head that is addressed by these tests.« less

Physicochemical properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: Aqueous solubilities, n-octanol/water partition coefficients, and Henry`s law constants

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maagd, P.G.J. de; Opperhuizen, A.; Sijm, D.T.H.M.

Aqueous solubilities, n-octanol/water partition coefficients (K{sub ow}S), and Henry`s law constants were determined for a range of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) using a generator-column, slow-stirring, and gas-purge method, respectively. The currently obtained data were compared to available literature data. For seven of the PAHs no K{sub ow}S previously were determined with the slow-stirring method. For four of the PAHs the present study reports the first experimental Henry`s law constants. Relationships between subcooled liquid solubilities, K{sub ow}S, and Henry`s law constants as a function of molar volume are discussed. A consistent data set was obtained, for which an excellent correlation wasmore » found between subcooled liquid solubility and molar volume. A linear fit did not accurately describe the relationship between log K{sub ow} and molar volume. This is probably due to a decreasing solubility in n-octanol with increasing molar volume. Finally, a high correlation was found between Henry`s law constant and molar volume. The presently obtained dataset can be used to predict the fate and behavior of unsubstituted homocyclic PAHs.« less

Low-thrust chemical propulsion system propellant expulsion and thermal conditioning study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merino, F.; Wakabayashi, I.; Pleasant, R. L.; Hill, M.

1982-01-01

Thermal conditioning systems for satisfying engine net positive suction pressure (NPSP) requirements, and propellant expulsion systems for achieving propellant dump during a return-to-launch site (RTLS) abort were studied for LH2/LO2 and LCH4/LO2 upper stage propellant combinations. A state-of-the-art thermal conditioning system employing helium injection beneath the liquid surface shows the lowest weight penalty for LO2 and LCH4. A technology system incorporating a thermal subcooler (heat exchanger) for engine NPSP results in the lowest weight penalty for the LH2 tank. A preliminary design of two state-of-the-art and two new technology systems indicates a weight penalty difference too small to warrant development of a LH2 thermal subcooler. Analysis results showed that the LH2/LO2 propellant expulsion system is optimized for maximum dump line diameters, whereas the LCH4/LO2 system is optimized for minimum dump line diameter (LCH4) and maximum dump line diameter (LO2). The primary uncertainty is the accurate determination of two-phase flow rates through the dump system; experimentation is not recommended because this uncertainty is not considered significant.

Experimental and analytical study of stability characteristics of natural circulation boiling water reactors during startup transient

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Woo, Kyoungsuk

Two-phase natural circulation loops are unstable at low pressure operating conditions. New reactor design relying on natural circulation for both normal and abnormal core cooling is susceptible to different types of flow instabilities. In contrast to forced circulation boiling water reactor (BWR), natural circulation BWR is started up without recirculation pumps. The tall chimney placed on the top of the core makes the system susceptible to flashing during low pressure start-up. In addition, the considerable saturation temperature variation may induce complicated dynamic behavior driven by thermal non-equilibrium between the liquid and steam. The thermal-hydraulic problems in two-phase natural circulation systems at low pressure and low power conditions are investigated through experimental methods. Fuel heat conduction, neutron kinetics, flow kinematics, energetics and dynamics that govern the flow behavior at low pressure, are formulated. A dimensionless analysis is introduced to obtain governing dimensionless groups which are groundwork of the system scaling. Based on the robust scaling method and start-up procedures of a typical natural circulation BWR, the simulation strategies for the transient with and without void reactivity feedback is developed. Three different heat-up rates are applied to the transient simulations to study characteristics of the stability during the start-up. Reducing heat-up rate leads to increase in the period of flashing-induced density wave oscillation and decrease in the system pressurization rate. However, reducing the heat-up rate is unable to completely prevent flashing-induced oscillations. Five characteristic regions of stability are discovered at low pressure conditions. They are stable single-phase, flashing near the separator, intermittent oscillation, sinusoidal oscillation and low subcooling stable regions. Stability maps were acquired for system pressures ranging 100 kPa to 400 kPa. According to experimental investigation, the flow becomes stable below a certain heat flux regardless of the inlet subcooling at the core and system pressure. At higher heat flux, unstable phenomena were indentified within a certain range of inlet subcooling. The unstable region diminishes as the system pressure increases. In natural circulation BWRs, the significant gravitational pressure drop over the tall chimney section induces a Type-I instability. The Type-I instability becomes especially important during low power and pressure conditions during reactor start-up. Under these circumstances the effect of pressure variations on the saturation enthalpy becomes significant. An experimental study shows that the flashing phenomenon in the adiabatic chimney section is dominant during the start-up of a natural circulation BWR. Since flashing occurs outside the core, nuclear feedback effects on the stability are small. Furthermore, the thermal-hydraulic oscillation period is much longer than power fluctuation period caused by void reactivity feedback. In the natural circulation system increasing the inlet restriction reduces the natural circulation flow rate, shifting the unstable region to higher inlet subcooling.

Subcooled forced convection boiling of trichlorotrifluoroethane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dougall, R. S.; Panian, D. J.

1972-01-01

Experimental heat-transfer data were obtained for the forced-convection boiling of trichlorotrifluoroethane (R-113 or Freon-113) in a vertical annular test annular test section. The 97 data points obtained covered heat transfer by forced convection, local boiling, and fully-developed boiling. Correlating methods were obtained which accurately predicted the heat flux as a function of wall superheat (boiling curve) over the range of parameters studied.

114. WEST SIDE OF LIQUID OXYGEN CONTROL ROOM (205). LIQUID ...

Library of Congress Historic Buildings Survey, Historic Engineering Record, Historic Landscapes Survey

114. WEST SIDE OF LIQUID OXYGEN CONTROL ROOM (205). LIQUID NITROGEN (LN2) SUBCOOLER ON LEFT; SKID 8, LIQUID OXYGEN CONTROLLER FOR SWITCHING BETWEEN RAPID-LOAD AND TOPPING ON RIGHT. LIQUID OXYGEN LINE FROM SKID 9A AT RIGHT EDGE OF PHOTO. - Vandenberg Air Force Base, Space Launch Complex 3, Launch Pad 3 East, Napa & Alden Roads, Lompoc, Santa Barbara County, CA

Three region steam drum model for a nuclear power plant simulator (BRENDA). Technical report 1 Oct 80-May 81. [LMFBR

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Slovik, G.C.

1981-08-01

A new three region steam drum model has been developed. This model differs from previous works for it assumes the existence of three regions within the steam drum: a steam region, a mid region (assumed to be under saturation conditions at steady state), and a bottom region (having a mixed mean subcooled enthalpy).

Experimental study on bubble dynamics and wall heat transfer arising from a single nucleation site at subcooled flow boiling conditions – Part 2: Data analysis on sliding bubble characteristics and associated wall heat transfer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yooa, Junsoo; Estrada-Perez, Carlos E.; Hassan, Yassin A.

In this second of two companion papers presents an analysis of sliding bubble and wall heat transfer parameters measured during subcooled boiling in a square, vertical, upward flow channel. Bubbles were generated only from a single nucleation site for better observation of both the sliding bubbles’ characteristics and their impact on wall heat transfer through optical measurement techniques. Specific interests include: (i) bubbles departure and subsequent growth while sliding, (ii) bubbles release frequency, (iii) coalescence of sliding bubbles, (iv) sliding bubbles velocity, (v) bubbles size distribution and (vi) wall heat transfer influenced by sliding bubbles. Our results showed that slidingmore » bubbles involve two distinct growth behaviors: (i) at low mass fluxes, sliding bubbles grew fast near the nucleation site, subsequently shrank, and then grew again, (ii) as mass flux increased, however, sliding bubbles grew more steadily. The bubbles originating from the single nucleation site coalesced frequently while sliding, which showed close relation with bubbles release frequency. The sliding bubble velocity near the nucleation site consistently decreased by increasing mass flux, while the observation often became reversed as the bubbles slid downstream due to the effect of interfacial drag. The sliding bubbles moved faster than the local liquid (i.e., ur<0) at low mass flux conditions, but it became reversed as the mass flux increased. The size distribution of sliding bubbles followed Gaussian distribution well both near and far from the nucleation site. The standard deviation of bubble size varied insignificantly through sliding compared to the changes in mean bubble size. Lastly, the sliding bubbles enhanced the wall heat transfer and the effect became more noticeable as inlet subcooling/mass flux decreased or wall heat flux increased. Particularly, the sliding bubble characteristics such as bubble growth behavior observed near the nucleation site played a dominant role in determining the ultimate level of wall heat transfer enhancement within the test channel.« less

Experimental study on bubble dynamics and wall heat transfer arising from a single nucleation site at subcooled flow boiling conditions – Part 2: Data analysis on sliding bubble characteristics and associated wall heat transfer

DOE PAGES

Yooa, Junsoo; Estrada-Perez, Carlos E.; Hassan, Yassin A.

2016-04-28

In this second of two companion papers presents an analysis of sliding bubble and wall heat transfer parameters measured during subcooled boiling in a square, vertical, upward flow channel. Bubbles were generated only from a single nucleation site for better observation of both the sliding bubbles’ characteristics and their impact on wall heat transfer through optical measurement techniques. Specific interests include: (i) bubbles departure and subsequent growth while sliding, (ii) bubbles release frequency, (iii) coalescence of sliding bubbles, (iv) sliding bubbles velocity, (v) bubbles size distribution and (vi) wall heat transfer influenced by sliding bubbles. Our results showed that slidingmore » bubbles involve two distinct growth behaviors: (i) at low mass fluxes, sliding bubbles grew fast near the nucleation site, subsequently shrank, and then grew again, (ii) as mass flux increased, however, sliding bubbles grew more steadily. The bubbles originating from the single nucleation site coalesced frequently while sliding, which showed close relation with bubbles release frequency. The sliding bubble velocity near the nucleation site consistently decreased by increasing mass flux, while the observation often became reversed as the bubbles slid downstream due to the effect of interfacial drag. The sliding bubbles moved faster than the local liquid (i.e., ur<0) at low mass flux conditions, but it became reversed as the mass flux increased. The size distribution of sliding bubbles followed Gaussian distribution well both near and far from the nucleation site. The standard deviation of bubble size varied insignificantly through sliding compared to the changes in mean bubble size. Lastly, the sliding bubbles enhanced the wall heat transfer and the effect became more noticeable as inlet subcooling/mass flux decreased or wall heat flux increased. Particularly, the sliding bubble characteristics such as bubble growth behavior observed near the nucleation site played a dominant role in determining the ultimate level of wall heat transfer enhancement within the test channel.« less

On the Application of Image Processing Methods for Bubble Recognition to the Study of Subcooled Flow Boiling of Water in Rectangular Channels

PubMed Central

Paz, Concepción; Conde, Marcos; Porteiro, Jacobo; Concheiro, Miguel

2017-01-01

This work introduces the use of machine vision in the massive bubble recognition process, which supports the validation of boiling models involving bubble dynamics, as well as nucleation frequency, active site density and size of the bubbles. The two algorithms presented are meant to be run employing quite standard images of the bubbling process, recorded in general-purpose boiling facilities. The recognition routines are easily adaptable to other facilities if a minimum number of precautions are taken in the setup and in the treatment of the information. Both the side and front projections of subcooled flow-boiling phenomenon over a plain plate are covered. Once all of the intended bubbles have been located in space and time, the proper post-process of the recorded data become capable of tracking each of the recognized bubbles, sketching their trajectories and size evolution, locating the nucleation sites, computing their diameters, and so on. After validating the algorithm’s output against the human eye and data from other researchers, machine vision systems have been demonstrated to be a very valuable option to successfully perform the recognition process, even though the optical analysis of bubbles has not been set as the main goal of the experimental facility. PMID:28632158

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boreyko, Jonathan B; Collier, Pat

Self-propelled jumping drops are continuously removed from a condensing superhydrophobic surface to enable a micrometric steady-state drop size. Here, we report that subcooled condensate on a chilled superhydrophobic surface are able to repeatedly jump off the surface before heterogeneous ice nucleation occurs. Frost still forms on the superhydrophobic surface due to ice nucleation at neighboring edge defects, which eventually spreads over the entire surface via an inter-drop frost wave. The growth of this inter-drop frost front is shown to be up to three times slower on the superhydrophobic surface compared to a control hydrophobic surface, due to the jumping-drop effectmore » dynamically minimizing the average drop size and surface coverage of the condensate. A simple scaling model is developed to relate the success and speed of inter-drop ice bridging to the drop size distribution. While other reports of condensation frosting on superhydrophobic surfaces have focused exclusively on liquid-solid ice nucleation for isolated drops, these findings reveal that the growth of frost is an inter-drop phenomenon that is strongly coupled to the wettability and drop size distribution of the surface. A jumping-drop superhydrophobic condenser was found to be superior to a conventional dropwise condenser in two respects: preventing heterogeneous ice nucleation by continuously removing subcooled condensate, and delaying frost growth by minimizing the success of interdrop ice bridge formation.« less

Hierarchical Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Micropatterned Nanowire Arrays for High-Efficiency Jumping Droplet Condensation.

PubMed

Wen, Rongfu; Xu, Shanshan; Zhao, Dongliang; Lee, Yung-Cheng; Ma, Xuehu; Yang, Ronggui

2017-12-27

Self-propelled droplet jumping on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces is of interest for a variety of industrial applications including self-cleaning, water harvesting, power generation, and thermal management systems. However, the uncontrolled nucleation-induced Wenzel state of condensed droplets at large surface subcooling (high heat flux) leads to the formation of unwanted large pinned droplets, which results in the flooding phenomenon and greatly degrades the heat transfer performance. In this work, we present a novel strategy to manipulate droplet behaviors during the process from the droplet nucleation to growth and departure through a combination of spatially controlling initial nucleation for mobile droplets by closely spaced nanowires and promoting the spontaneous outward movement of droplets for rapid removal using micropatterned nanowire arrays. Through the optical visualization experiments and heat transfer tests, we demonstrate greatly improved condensation heat transfer characteristics on the hierarchical superhydrophobic surface including the higher density of microdroplets, smaller droplet departure radius, 133% wider range of surface subcooling for droplet jumping, and 37% enhancement in critical heat flux for jumping droplet condensation, compared to the-state-of-art jumping droplet condensation on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces. The excellent water repellency of such hierarchical superhydrophobic surfaces can be promising for many potential applications, such as anti-icing, antifogging, water desalination, and phase-change heat transfer.

Heat transfer and pressure drop of condensation of hydrocarbons in tubes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fries, Simon; Skusa, Severin; Luke, Andrea

2018-03-01

The heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop are investigated for propane. Two different mild steel plain tubes and saturation pressures are considered for varying mass flux and vapour quality. The pressure drop is compared to the Friedel-Correlation with two different approaches to determine the friction factor. The first is calculation as proposed by Friedel and the second is through single phase pressure drop investigations. For lower vapour qualities the experimental results are in better agreement with the approach of the calculated friction factor. For higher vapour qualities the experimental friction factor is more precise. The pressure drop increases for a decreasing tube diameter and saturation pressure. The circumferential temperature profile and heat transfer coefficients are shown for a constant vapour quality at varying mass fluxes. The subcooling is highest for the bottom of the tube and lowest for the top. The average subcooling as well as the circumferential deviation decreases for rising mass fluxes. The averaged heat transfer coefficients are compared to the model proposed by Thome and Cavallini. The experimental results are in good agreement with both correlations, however the trend is better described with the correlation from Thome. The experimental heat transfer coefficients are under predicted by Thome and over predicted by Cavallini.

Hierarchical Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Micropatterned Nanowire Arrays for High-Efficiency Jumping Droplet Condensation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wen, Rongfu; Xu, Shanshan; Zhao, Dongliang

Self-propelled droplet jumping on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces is of interest for a variety of industrial applications including self-cleaning, water harvesting, power generation, and thermal management systems. However, the uncontrolled nucleation-induced Wenzel state of condensed droplets at large surface subcooling (high heat flux) leads to the formation of unwanted large pinned droplets, which results in the flooding phenomenon and greatly degrades the heat transfer performance. In this work, we present a novel strategy to manipulate droplet behaviors during the process from the droplet nucleation to growth and departure through a combination of spatially controlling initial nucleation for mobile droplets by closelymore » spaced nanowires and promoting the spontaneous outward movement of droplets for rapid removal using micropatterned nanowire arrays. Through the optical visualization experiments and heat transfer tests, we demonstrate greatly improved condensation heat transfer characteristics on the hierarchical superhydrophobic surface including the higher density of microdroplets, smaller droplet departure radius, 133% wider range of surface subcooling for droplet jumping, and 37% enhancement in critical heat flux for jumping droplet condensation, compared to the-state-of-art jumping droplet condensation on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces. The excellent water repellency of such hierarchical superhydrophobic surfaces can be promising for many potential applications, such as anti-icing, antifogging, water desalination, and phase-change heat transfer.« less

Fugacity ratio estimations for high-melting rigid aromatic compounds.

PubMed

Van Noort, Paul C M

2004-07-01

Prediction of the environmental fate of organic compounds requires knowledge of their tendency to stay in the gas and water phase. Vapor pressure and aqueous solubility are commonly used descriptors for these processes. Depending on the type of distribution process, values for either the pure solid state or the (subcooled) liquid state have to be used. Values for the (subcooled) liquid state can be calculated from those for the solid state, and vice versa, using the fugacity ratio. Fugacity ratios are usually calculated from the entropy of fusion and the melting point. For polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorobenzenes, chlorodibenzofuranes, and chlorodibenzo(p)dioxins, fugacity ratios calculated using experimental entropies of fusion were systematically less than those obtained from a thermodynamically more rigorous approach using heat capacity data. The deviation was more than 1 order of magnitude at the highest melting point. The use of a universal value for the entropy of fusion of 56 J/molK resulted in either over or underestimation by up to more than 1 order of magnitude. A simple correction factor, based on the melting point only, was derived. This correction factor allowed the fugacity ratios to be estimated from experimental entropies of fusion and melting point with an accuracy better than 0.1-0.2 log units. Copyright 2004 Elsevier Ltd.

IR-thermography-based investigation of critical heat flux in subcooled flow boiling of water at atmospheric and high pressure conditions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bucci, Matteo; Seong, Jee H.; Buongiorno, Jdacopo

Here we report on MIT’s THM work in Q4 2016 and Q1 2017. The goal of this project is to design, construct and execute tests of flow boiling critical heat flux (CHF) at high-pressure using high-resolution and high-speed video and infrared (IR) thermometry, to generate unique data to inform the development of and validate mechanistic boiling heat transfer and CHF models. In FY2016, a new test section was designed and fabricated. Data was collected at atmospheric conditions at 10, 25 and 50 K subcoolings, and three mass fluxes, i.e. 500, 750 and 1000 kg/m2/s. Starting in Q4 2016 and continuingmore » forward, new post-processing techniques have been developed to analyze the data collected. These new algorithms analyze the time-dependent temperature and heat flux distributions to calculate nucleation site density, nucleation frequency, growth and wait time, dry area fraction, and the complete heat flux partitioning. In Q1 2017 a new flow boiling loop was designed and constructed to support flow boiling tests up 10 bar pressure and 180 °C. Initial shakedown and testing has been completed. The flow loop and test section are now ready to begin high-pressure flow boiling testing.« less

Pectin as an Extraordinary Natural Kinetic Hydrate Inhibitor

PubMed Central

Xu, Shurui; Fan, Shuanshi; Fang, Songtian; Lang, Xuemei; Wang, Yanhong; Chen, Jun

2016-01-01

Pectin as a novel natural kinetic hydrate inhibitor, expected to be eco-friendly and sufficiently biodegradable, was studied in this paper. The novel crystal growth inhibition (CGI) and standard induction time methods were used to evaluate its effect as hydrate inhibitor. It could successfully inhibit methane hydrate formation at subcooling temperature up to 12.5 °C and dramatically slowed the hydrate crystal growth. The dosage of pectin decreased by 66% and effective time extended 10 times than typical kinetic inhibitor. Besides, its maximum growth rate was no more than 2.0%/h, which was far less than 5.5%/h of growth rate for PVCap at the same dosage. The most prominent feature was that it totally inhibited methane hydrate crystal rapid growth when hydrate crystalline occurred. Moreover, in terms of typical natural inhibitors, the inhibition activity of pectin increased 10.0-fold in induction time and 2.5-fold in subcooling temperature. The extraordinary inhibition activity is closely related to its hydrogen bonding interaction with water molecules and the hydrophilic structure. Finally, the biodegradability and economical efficiency of pectin were also taken into consideration. The results showed the biodegradability improved 75.0% and the cost reduced by more than 73.3% compared to typical commercial kinetic inhibitors. PMID:26996773

Thermocapillary flow with evaporation and condensation at low gravity. Part 2: Deformable surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, G. R.; Chung, T. J.; Nadarajah, A.

1995-01-01

The free surface behavior of a volatile wetting liquid at low gravity is studied using scaling and numerical techniques. An open cavity model, which was applied in part 1 to investigate fluid flow and heat transfer in non-deforming pores, is used to evaluate the influence of convection on surface morphology with length scales and subcooling/superheating limits of 1 less than or equal to D less than or equal to 10(exp 2) microns and approximately 1 K, respectively. Results show that the menisci shapes of highly wetting fluids are sensitive to thermocapillary flow and to a lesser extent the recoil force associated with evaporation and condensation. With subcooling, thermocapillarity produces a suction about the pore centerline that promotes loss of mechanical equilibrium, while condensation exerts an opposing force that under some conditions offsets this destabilizing influence. With superheating, thermocapillarity and evaporation act in the same direction and mutually foster surface stability. All of these trends are magnified by high capillary and Biot numbers, and the stronger circulation intensities associated with small contact angles. These phenomena strongly depend on the thermal and interfacial equilibrium between the liquid and vapor, and have important ramifications for systems designed to maintain a pressure differential across a porous surface.

Hierarchical Superhydrophobic Surfaces with Micropatterned Nanowire Arrays for High-Efficiency Jumping Droplet Condensation

DOE PAGES

Wen, Rongfu; Xu, Shanshan; Zhao, Dongliang; ...

2017-12-07

Self-propelled droplet jumping on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces is of interest for a variety of industrial applications including self-cleaning, water harvesting, power generation, and thermal management systems. However, the uncontrolled nucleation-induced Wenzel state of condensed droplets at large surface subcooling (high heat flux) leads to the formation of unwanted large pinned droplets, which results in the flooding phenomenon and greatly degrades the heat transfer performance. In this work, we present a novel strategy to manipulate droplet behaviors during the process from the droplet nucleation to growth and departure through a combination of spatially controlling initial nucleation for mobile droplets by closelymore » spaced nanowires and promoting the spontaneous outward movement of droplets for rapid removal using micropatterned nanowire arrays. Through the optical visualization experiments and heat transfer tests, we demonstrate greatly improved condensation heat transfer characteristics on the hierarchical superhydrophobic surface including the higher density of microdroplets, smaller droplet departure radius, 133% wider range of surface subcooling for droplet jumping, and 37% enhancement in critical heat flux for jumping droplet condensation, compared to the-state-of-art jumping droplet condensation on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces. The excellent water repellency of such hierarchical superhydrophobic surfaces can be promising for many potential applications, such as anti-icing, antifogging, water desalination, and phase-change heat transfer.« less

Delayed frost growth on jumping-drop superhydrophobic surfaces.

PubMed

Boreyko, Jonathan B; Collier, C Patrick

2013-02-26

Self-propelled jumping drops are continuously removed from a condensing superhydrophobic surface to enable a micrometric steady-state drop size. Here, we report that subcooled condensate on a chilled superhydrophobic surface are able to repeatedly jump off the surface before heterogeneous ice nucleation occurs. Frost still forms on the superhydrophobic surface due to ice nucleation at neighboring edge defects, which eventually spreads over the entire surface via an interdrop frost wave. The growth of this interdrop frost front is shown to be up to 3 times slower on the superhydrophobic surface compared to a control hydrophobic surface, due to the jumping-drop effect dynamically minimizing the average drop size and surface coverage of the condensate. A simple scaling model is developed to relate the success and speed of interdrop ice bridging to the drop size distribution. While other reports of condensation frosting on superhydrophobic surfaces have focused exclusively on liquid-solid ice nucleation for isolated drops, these findings reveal that the growth of frost is an interdrop phenomenon that is strongly coupled to the wettability and drop size distribution of the surface. A jumping-drop superhydrophobic condenser minimized frost formation relative to a conventional dropwise condenser in two respects: preventing heterogeneous ice nucleation by continuously removing subcooled condensate, and delaying frost growth by limiting the success of interdrop ice bridge formation.

Flow regimes and mechanistic modeling of critical heat flux under subcooled flow boiling conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Le Corre, Jean-Marie

Thermal performance of heat flux controlled boiling heat exchangers are usually limited by the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) above which the heat transfer degrades quickly, possibly leading to heater overheating and destruction. In an effort to better understand the phenomena, a literature review of CHF experimental visualizations under subcooled flow boiling conditions was performed and systematically analyzed. Three major types of CHF flow regimes were identified (bubbly, vapor clot and slug flow regime) and a CHF flow regime map was developed, based on a dimensional analysis of the phenomena and available data. It was found that for similar geometric characteristics and pressure, a Weber number (We)/thermodynamic quality (x) map can be used to predict the CHF flow regime. Based on the experimental observations and the review of the available CHF mechanistic models under subcooled flow boiling conditions, hypothetical CHF mechanisms were selected for each CHF flow regime, all based on a concept of wall dry spot overheating, rewetting prevention and subsequent dry spot spreading. It is postulated that a high local wall superheat occurs locally in a dry area of the heated wall, due to a cyclical event inherent to the considered CHF two-phase flow regime, preventing rewetting (Leidenfrost effect). The selected modeling concept has the potential to span the CHF conditions from highly subcooled bubbly flow to early stage of annular flow. A numerical model using a two-dimensional transient thermal analysis of the heater undergoing nucleation was developed to mechanistically predict CHF in the case of a bubbly flow regime. In this type of CHF two-phase flow regime, the high local wall superheat occurs underneath a nucleating bubble at the time of bubble departure. The model simulates the spatial and temporal heater temperature variations during nucleation at the wall, accounting for the stochastic nature of the boiling phenomena. The model has also the potential to evaluate the post-DNB heater temperature up to the point of heater melting. Validation of the proposed model was performed using detailed measured wall boiling parameters near CHF, thereby bypassing most needed constitutive relations. It was found that under limiting nucleation conditions; a peak wall temperature at the time of bubble departure can be reached at CHF preventing wall cooling by quenching. The simulations show that the resulting dry patch can survive the surrounding quenching event, preventing further nucleation and leading to a fast heater temperature increase. For more practical applications, the model was applied at known CHF conditions in simple geometry coupled with one-dimensional and three-dimensional (CFD) codes. It was found that, in the case where CHF occurs under bubbly flow conditions, the local wall superheat underneath nucleating bubbles is predicted to reach the Leidenfrost temperature. However, a better knowledge of statistical variations in wall boiling parameters would be necessary to correctly capture the CHF trends with mass flux (or Weber number). In addition, consideration of relevant parameter influences on the Leidenfrost temperature and consideration of interfacial microphysics at the wall would allow improved simulation of the wall rewetting prevention and subsequent dry patch spreading.

BOILING REACTORS

DOEpatents

Untermyer, S.

1962-04-10

A boiling reactor having a reactivity which is reduced by an increase in the volume of vaporized coolant therein is described. In this system unvaporized liquid coolant is extracted from the reactor, heat is extracted therefrom, and it is returned to the reactor as sub-cooled liquid coolant. This reduces a portion of the coolant which includes vaporized coolant within the core assembly thereby enhancing the power output of the assembly and rendering the reactor substantially self-regulating. (AEC)

Recent Progress in Electrical Insulation Techniques for HTS Power Apparatus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayakawa, Naoki; Kojima, Hiroki; Hanai, Masahiro; Okubo, Hitoshi

This paper describes the electrical insulation techniques at cryogenic temperatures, i.e. Cryodielectrics, for HTS power apparatus, e.g. HTS power transmission cables, transformers, fault current limiters and SMES. Breakdown and partial discharge characteristics are discussed for different electrical insulation configurations of LN2, sub-cooled LN2, solid, vacuum and their composite insulation systems. Dynamic and static insulation performances with and without taking account of quench in HTS materials are also introduced.

Cooling Performance of a Partially-Confined FC-72 Spray: The Effect of Dissolved Air (Postprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2007-01-01

plate FC = FC-72 fluid htr = heater conductive layer int = interface between heater substrate and insulating support post m = measured s = heater... microporous enhanced surface and a plain reference surface, and developed correlations for nucleate boiling and CHF. The results of the experiment...8Rainey, K. N., You, S. M., and Lee, S., “Effect of Pressure, Subcooling, and Dissolved Gas on Pool Boiling Heat Transfer from Microporous Surfaces

Heat Transfer Enhancement due to Bubble Pumping in FC-72 Near the Saturation Temperature

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-03-01

boiling, (2) reducing wall superheat during nucleate boiling and (3) enhancing critical heat flux ( Mudawar , 1990) . Since the heat transfer potential of...flux from a simulated electronic chip attached to the wall of a vertical rectangular channel was determined by Mudawar and Madox (1988). They concluded...Surface Boiling," Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, vol. 41, No. 9, 1949. Mudawar , I., and D.E. Maddox, Critical Heat Flux in Subcooled Flow Boiling

Microscale Heat Transfer Enhancement using Spinodal Decomposition of Binary Liquid Mixtures: A Collaborative Modeling/Experimental Approach

DTIC Science & Technology

2013-09-01

heat transfer coefficients due to the high heat of vapor- ization. Many authors ([ Mudawar (2001)], [ Mudawar and Bowers (1999)] and [Kandlikar (2005...Letters, 95, (2005), 1. [Rosales and Meneveau (2006)] C. Rosales and C. Meneveau. Physics of Fluids, 18, (2006), 075104. [ Mudawar and Bowers (1999)] I... Mudawar and M.B. Bowers, Ultra-high crit- ical heat flux (CHF) for subcooled water flow boiling-I: CHF data and parametric effects for small

The Effect of Dissolved Air on the Cooling Performance of a Partially Confined FC-72 Spray

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-07-01

95 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Heat transfer coefficients: various processes and coolants ( Mudawar , 2001) .....1 Figure 2...various processes and coolants ( Mudawar , 2001). 2 In two-phase cooling a phase change of liquid to vapor, or boiling, occurs. The boiling...possible in flow boiling is also affected by the velocity of the flow and the amount of subcooling of the fluid ( Mudawar and Maddox, 1989). One highly

Experimental Investigation of Jet-Induced Mixing of a Large Liquid Hydrogen Storage Tank

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, C. S.; Hasan, M. M.; Vandresar, N. T.

1994-01-01

Experiments have been conducted to investigate the effect of fluid mixing on the depressurization of a large liquid hydrogen storage tank. The test tank is approximately ellipsoidal, having a volume of 4.89 m(exp 3) and an average wall heat flux of 4.2 W/m(exp 2) due to external heat input. A mixer unit was installed near the bottom of the tank to generate an upward directed axial jet flow normal to the liquid-vapor interface. Mixing tests were initiated after achieving thermally stratified conditions in the tank either by the introduction of hydrogen gas into the tank or by self-pressurization due to ambient heat leak through the tank wall. The subcooled liquid jet directed towards the liquid-vapor interface by the mixer induced vapor condensation and caused a reduction in tank pressure. Tests were conducted at two jet submergence depths for jet Reynolds numbers from 80,000 to 495,000 and Richardson numbers from 0.014 to 0.52. Results show that the rate of tank pressure change is controlled by the competing effects of subcooled jet flow and the free convection boundary layer flow due to external tank wall heating. It is shown that existing correlations for mixing time and vapor condensation rate based on small scale tanks may not be applicable to large scale liquid hydrogen systems.

Prediction of forced convective heat transfer and critical heat flux for subcooled water flowing in miniature tubes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shibahara, Makoto; Fukuda, Katsuya; Liu, Qiusheng; Hata, Koichi

2018-02-01

The heat transfer characteristics of forced convection for subcooled water in small tubes were clarified using the commercial computational fluid dynamic (CFD) code, PHENICS ver. 2013. The analytical model consists of a platinum tube (the heated section) and a stainless tube (the non-heated section). Since the platinum tube was heated by direct current in the authors' previous experiments, a uniform heat flux with the exponential function was given as a boundary condition in the numerical simulation. Two inner diameters of the tubes were considered: 1.0 and 2.0 mm. The upward flow velocities ranged from 2 to 16 m/s and the inlet temperature ranged from 298 to 343 K. The numerical results showed that the difference between the surface temperature and the bulk temperature was in good agreement with the experimental data at each heat flux. The numerical model was extended to the liquid sublayer analysis for the CHF prediction and was evaluated by comparing its results with the experimental data. It was postulated that the CHF occurs when the fluid temperature near the heated wall exceeds the saturated temperature, based on Celata et al.'s superheated layer vapor replenishment (SLVR) model. The suggested prediction method was in good agreement with the experimental data and with other CHF data in literature within ±25%.

Bearing tester data compilation analysis, and reporting and bearing math modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cody, J. C.

1986-01-01

Integration of heat transfer coefficients, modified to account for local vapor quality, into the 45 mm bearing model has been completed. The model has been evaluated with two flow rates and subcooled and saturated coolant. The evaluation showed that by increasing the flow from 3.6 to 7.0 lbs/sec the average ball temperature was decreased by 102 F, using a coolant temperature of -230 F. The average ball temperature was decreased by 63 F by decreasing the inlet coolant temperature from saturated to -230 F at a flow rate of 7.0 lbs/sec. Since other factors such as friction, cage heating, etc., affect bearing temperatures, the above bearing temperature effects should be considered as trends and not absolute values. The two phase heat transfer modification has been installed in the 57 mm bearing model and the effects on bearing temperatures have been evaluated. The average ball temperature was decreased by 60 F by increasing the flow rate from 4.6 to 9.0 lbs/sec for the subcooled case. By decreasing the inlet coolant temperature from saturation to -24 F, the average ball temperature was decreased 57 F for a flow rate of 9.0 lbs/sec. The technique of relating the two phase heat transfer coefficient to local vapor quality will be applied to the tester model and compared with test data.

Acoustically-Enhanced Direct Contact Vapor Bubble Condensation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boziuk, Thomas; Smith, Marc; Glezer, Ari

2017-11-01

Rate-limited, direct contact vapor condensation of vapor bubbles that are formed by direct steam injection through a nozzle in a quiescent subcooled liquid bath is accelerated using ultrasonic (MHz-range) actuation. A submerged, low power actuator produces an acoustic beam whose radiation pressure deforms the liquid-vapor interface, leading to the formation of a liquid spear that penetrates the vapor bubble to form a vapor torus with a significantly larger surface area and condensation rate. Ultrasonic focusing along the spear leads to the ejection of small, subcooled droplets through the vapor volume that impact the vapor-liquid interface and further enhance the condensation. High-speed Schlieren imaging of the formation and collapse of the vapor bubbles in the absence and presence of actuation shows that the impulse associated with the collapse of the toroidal volume leads to the formation of a turbulent vortex ring in the liquid phase. Liquid motions near the condensing vapor volume are investigated in the absence and presence of acoustic actuation using high-magnification PIV and show the evolution of a liquid jet through the center of the condensing toroidal volume and the formation and advection of vortex ring structures whose impulse appear to increase with temperature difference between the liquid and vapor phases. High-speed image processing is used to assess the effect of the actuation on the temporal and spatial variations in the characteristic scales and condensation rates of the vapor bubbles.

QSPR study of polychlorinated diphenyl ethers by molecular electronegativity distance vector (MEDV-4).

PubMed

Sun, Lili; Zhou, Liping; Yu, Yu; Lan, Yukun; Li, Zhiliang

2007-01-01

Polychlorinated diphenyl ethers (PCDEs) have received more and more concerns as a group of ubiquitous potential persistent organic pollutants (POPs). By using molecular electronegativity distance vector (MEDV-4), multiple linear regression (MLR) models are developed for sub-cooled liquid vapor pressures (P(L)), n-octanol/water partition coefficients (K(OW)) and sub-cooled liquid water solubilities (S(W,L)) of 209 PCDEs and diphenyl ether. The correlation coefficients (R) and the leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO) correlation coefficients (R(CV)) of all the 6-descriptor models for logP(L), logK(OW) and logS(W,L) are more than 0.98. By using stepwise multiple regression (SMR), the descriptors are selected and the resulting models are 5-descriptor model for logP(L), 4-descriptor model for logK(OW), and 6-descriptor model for logS(W,L), respectively. All these models exhibit excellent estimate capabilities for internal sample set and good predictive capabilities for external samples set. The consistency between observed and estimated/predicted values for logP(L) is the best (R=0.996, R(CV)=0.996), followed by logK(OW) (R=0.992, R(CV)=0.992) and logS(W,L) (R=0.983, R(CV)=0.980). By using MEDV-4 descriptors, the QSPR models can be used for prediction and the model predictions can hence extend the current database of experimental values.

Continuous Carbon Nanotube-Ultrathin Graphite Hybrid Foams for Increased Thermal Conductivity and Suppressed Subcooling in Composite Phase Change Materials.

PubMed

Kholmanov, Iskandar; Kim, Jaehyun; Ou, Eric; Ruoff, Rodney S; Shi, Li

2015-12-22

Continuous ultrathin graphite foams (UGFs) have been actively researched recently to obtain composite materials with increased thermal conductivities. However, the large pore size of these graphitic foams has resulted in large thermal resistance values for heat conduction from inside the pore to the high thermal conductivity graphitic struts. Here, we demonstrate that the effective thermal conductivity of these UGF composites can be increased further by growing long CNT networks directly from the graphite struts of UGFs into the pore space. When erythritol, a phase change material for thermal energy storage, is used to fill the pores of UGF-CNT hybrids, the thermal conductivity of the UGF-CNT/erythritol composite was found to increase by as much as a factor of 1.8 compared to that of a UGF/erythritol composite, whereas breaking the UGF-CNT bonding in the hybrid composite resulted in a drop in the effective room-temperature thermal conductivity from about 4.1 ± 0.3 W m(-1) K(-1) to about 2.9 ± 0.2 W m(-1) K(-1) for the same UGF and CNT loadings of about 1.8 and 0.8 wt %, respectively. Moreover, we discovered that the hybrid structure strongly suppresses subcooling of erythritol due to the heterogeneous nucleation of erythritol at interfaces with the graphitic structures.

Direct measurements of the interactions between clathrate hydrate particles and water droplets.

PubMed

Liu, Chenwei; Li, Mingzhong; Zhang, Guodong; Koh, Carolyn A

2015-08-14

Clathrate hydrate particle agglomeration is often considered to be one of the key limiting factors in plug formation. The hydrate particle-water interaction can play a critical role in describing hydrate agglomeration, yet is severely underexplored. Therefore, this work investigates the interactions between water droplets and cyclopentane hydrate particles using a micromechanical force (MMF) apparatus. Specifically, the effect of contact time, temperature/subcooling, contact area, and the addition of Sorbitane monooleate (Span 80) surfactant on the water droplet-hydrate particle interaction behavior are studied. The measurements indicate that hydrate formation during the measurement would increase the water-hydrate interaction force significantly. The results also indicate that the contact time, subcooling and concentration of cyclopentane, which determine the hydrate formation rate and hydrate amount, will affect the hydrate-water interaction force. In addition, the interaction forces also increase with the water-hydrate contact area. The addition of Span 80 surfactant induces a change in the hydrate morphology and renders the interfaces stable versus unstable (leading to coalescence), and the contact force can affect the hydrate-water interaction behavior significantly. Compared with the hydrate-hydrate cohesion force (measured in cyclopentane), the hydrate-water adhesion force is an order of magnitude larger. These new measurements can help to provide new and critical insights into the hydrate agglomeration process and potential strategies to control this process.

Recent Advances and Applications in Cryogenic Propellant Densification Technology

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tomsik, Thomas M.

2000-01-01

This purpose of this paper is to review several historical cryogenic test programs that were conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center (GRC), Cleveland, Ohio over the past fifty years. More recently these technology programs were intended to study new and improved denser forms of liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2) cryogenic rocket fuels. Of particular interest are subcooled cryogenic propellants. This is due to the fact that they have a significantly higher density (eg. triple-point hydrogen, slush etc.), a lower vapor pressure and improved cooling capacity over the normal boiling point cryogen. This paper, which is intended to be a historical technology overview, will trace the past and recent development and testing of small and large-scale propellant densification production systems. Densifier units in the current GRC fuels program, were designed and are capable of processing subcooled LH2 and L02 propellant at the X33 Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) scale. One final objective of this technical briefing is to discuss some of the potential benefits and application which propellant densification technology may offer the industrial cryogenics production and end-user community. Density enhancements to cryogenic propellants (LH2, LO2, CH4) in rocket propulsion and aerospace application have provided the opportunity to either increase performance of existing launch vehicles or to reduce the overall size, mass and cost of a new vehicle system.

Parametric analyses of DEMO Divertor using two dimensional transient thermal hydraulic modelling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Domalapally, Phani; Di Caro, Marco

2018-05-01

Among the options considered for cooling of the Plasma facing components of the DEMO reactor, water cooling is a conservative option because of its high heat removal capability. In this work a two-dimensional transient thermal hydraulic code is developed to support the design of the divertor for the projected DEMO reactor with water as a coolant. The mathematical model accounts for transient 2D heat conduction in the divertor section. Temperature-dependent properties are used for more accurate analysis. Correlations for single phase flow forced convection, partially developed subcooled nucleate boiling, fully developed subcooled nucleate boiling and film boiling are used to calculate the heat transfer coefficients on the channel side considering the swirl flow, wherein different correlations found in the literature are compared against each other. Correlation for the Critical Heat Flux is used to estimate its limit for a given flow conditions. This paper then investigates the results of the parametric analysis performed, whereby flow velocity, diameter of the coolant channel, thickness of the coolant pipe, thickness of the armor material, inlet temperature and operating pressure affect the behavior of the divertor under steady or transient heat fluxes. This code will help in understanding the basic parameterś effect on the behavior of the divertor, to achieve a better design from a thermal hydraulic point of view.

Estimating enthalpy of vaporization from vapor pressure using Trouton's rule.

PubMed

MacLeod, Matthew; Scheringer, Martin; Hungerbühler, Konrad

2007-04-15

The enthalpy of vaporization of liquids and subcooled liquids at 298 K (delta H(VAP)) is an important parameter in environmental fate assessments that consider spatial and temporal variability in environmental conditions. It has been shown that delta H(VAP)P for non-hydrogen-bonding substances can be estimated from vapor pressure at 298 K (P(L)) using an empirically derived linear relationship. Here, we demonstrate that the relationship between delta H(VAP)and PL is consistent with Trouton's rule and the ClausiusClapeyron equation under the assumption that delta H(VAP) is linearly dependent on temperature between 298 K and the boiling point temperature. Our interpretation based on Trouton's rule substantiates the empirical relationship between delta H(VAP) degree and P(L) degrees for non-hydrogen-bonding chemicals with subcooled liquid vapor pressures ranging over 15 orders of magnitude. We apply the relationship between delta H(VAP) degrees and P(L) degrees to evaluate data reported in literature reviews for several important classes of semivolatile environmental contaminants, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorobenzenes, polychlorinated biphenyls and polychlorinated dibenzo-dioxins and -furans and illustrate the temperature dependence of results from a multimedia model presented as a partitioning map. The uncertainty associated with estimating delta H(VAP)degrees from P(L) degrees using this relationship is acceptable for most environmental fate modeling of non-hydrogen-bonding semivolatile organic chemicals.

A Mechanistic Study of Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer Under Microgravity Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dhir, V. K.; Hasan, M. M.

2000-01-01

Experimental studies of growth and detachment processes of a single bubble and multiple bubbles formed on a heated surface have been conducted in the parabola flights of KC-135 aircraft. Distilled water and PF5060 were used as the test liquids. A micro-fabricated test surface was designed and built. Artificial cavities of diameters 10 microns, 7 microns and 4 microns were made on a thin polished Silicon wafer that was electrically heated by a number of small heating elements on the back side in order to control the surface superheat. Bubble growth period, bubble size and shape from nucleation to departure were measured under subcooled and saturation conditions. Significantly larger bubble departure diameters and bubble growth periods than those at earth normal gravity were observed. Bubble departure diameters as large as 20 mm for water and 6 mm for PF5060 were observed as opposed to about 3 mm for water and less than 1 mm for PF5060 at earth normal gravity respectively. It is found that the bubble departure diameter can be approximately related to the gravity level through the relation D(sub d) proportional 1/g(exp 1/2). For water,the effect of wall superheat and liquid subcooling on bubble departure diameter is found to be small.The growth periods are found to be very sensitive to liquid subcooling at a given wall superheat. However,the preliminary results of single bubble dynamics using PF5060 showed that the departure diameter increases when wall superheat is elevated at the same gravity and subcooling. Growth period of single bubbles in water has been found to vary as t(sub g) proportional g(exp -.93). For water, when the magnitude of horizontal gravitational components was comparable to that of gravity normal to the surface, single bubbles slid along the heater surface and departed with smaller diameter at the same gravity level in the direction normal to the surface. For PF5060, even a very small horizontal gravitational component caused the sliding of bubble along the surface. The numerical simulation has been carried out by solving under the condition of axisymmetry, the mass, momentum, and energy equations for the vapor and the liquid phases. In the model the contribution of micro-layer has been included and instantaneous shape of the evolving vapor-liquid interface is determined from the analysis. Consistent with the experimental results, it is found that effect of reduced gravity is to stretch the growth period and bubble diameter It is found that effect of reduced gravity is to stretch the growth period and bubble diameter at departure. The numerical simulations are in good agreement with the experimental data for both the departure diameters and the growth periods. In the study on dynamics of multiple bubbles, horizontal merger of 2,3 4,and 5 bubbles was observed. It is found that after merger of 2 and 3 bubbles the equivalent diameter of the detached bubble is smaller than that of a single bubble departing at the same gravity level. During and after bubble merger, liquid still fills the space between the vapor stems so as to form mushroom type bubbles. The experimental and numerical studies conducted so far have brought us a step closer to prediction of nucleate boiling heat fluxes under low gravity conditions. Preparations for a space flight are continuing.

Moisture separator reheater failure prevention

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gilcrest, J.D.; Mollerus, F.J.

1983-01-01

Moisture separator reheaters (MSRs) are used in many nuclear plants between the HP and LP turbines to remove moisture and provide some superheat, thereby improving the plant heat rate. Many of the operating MSRs have experienced problems of the following types: flow induced vibration, condensate subcooling oscillation, excessive U-tube leg ..delta..T, and shroud buckling. Although MSR vendors have made modifications to reduce these problems, the problems have not been completely solved. Further improvements in both MSR design and operation are needed. This paper discusses the necessary improvements.

A Review of Boiling Heat Transfer Processes at High Heat Flux

DTIC Science & Technology

1991-04-01

Hydrogen on Burnout for Water Flowing Vertically Upward in Round Tubes at 2000 psia," WAPD - TH-318, April 1957. 100. Doroschuck, V. E. and Lantsman, F. P...34Forced-Convection Heat Transfer Burnout Studies for Water in Rectangular Channels and Round Tubes at Pressures above 500 psia," USAEC Rept. WAPD ...Volumes in Subcooled Boiling Systems, ASME Paper 58-HT-19, 1958. 264 . Core, T. C. and Sato, K., "Determination of Burnout Limits of Polyphenyl Coolants

An investigation of transition boiling mechanisms of subcooled water under forced convective conditions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kwang-Won, Lee; Sang-Yong, Lee

1995-09-01

A mechanistic model for forced convective transition boiling has been developed to investigate transition boiling mechanisms and to predict transition boiling heat flux realistically. This model is based on a postulated multi-stage boiling process occurring during the passage time of the elongated vapor blanket specified at a critical heat flux (CHF) condition. Between the departure from nucleate boiling (DNB) and the departure from film boiling (DFB) points, the boiling heat transfer is established through three boiling stages, namely, the macrolayer evaporation and dryout governed by nucleate boiling in a thin liquid film and the unstable film boiling characterized by themore » frequent touches of the interface and the heated wall. The total heat transfer rates after the DNB is weighted by the time fractions of each stage, which are defined as the ratio of each stage duration to the vapor blanket passage time. The model predictions are compared with some available experimental transition boiling data. The parametric effects of pressure, mass flux, inlet subcooling on the transition boiling heat transfer are also investigated. From these comparisons, it can be seen that this model can identify the crucial mechanisms of forced convective transition boiling, and that the transition boiling heat fluxes including the maximum heat flux and the minimum film boiling heat flux are well predicted at low qualities/high pressures near 10 bar. In future, this model will be improved in the unstable film boiling stage and generalized for high quality and low pressure situations.« less

Submicron Dropwise Condensation under Superheated and Rarefied Vapor Condition

PubMed Central

Anand, Sushant; Son, Sang Young

2010-01-01

Phase change accompanying conversion of a saturated or superheated vapor in presence of subcooled surfaces is one of the most common occurring phenomena in nature. The mode of phase change which follows such a transformation is dependent upon surface properties like as of contact angle and thermodynamic conditions of the system. In present studies, an experimental approach is used to study the physics behind droplet growth on a partially wetting surface. Superheated vapor at low pressures of 4–5 torr was condensed on subcooled silicon surface with static contact angle as of 60° in absence of non-condensable gases, and the condensation process monitored using Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope (ESEM) with submicroscopic spatial resolution. The condensation process was analyzed in the form of size growth of isolated droplets for before a coalescence event ended the regime of single droplet growth. Droplet growth obtained as a function of time reveals that the rate of growth decreases as the droplet increases in size. This behavior is indicative of an overall droplet growth law existing over larger time scales of which the current observations in their brief time intervals could be fitted in. A theoretical model based on kinetic theory further support the experimental observations indicating a mechanism where growth occurs by interfacial mass transport directly on condensing droplet surface. Evidence was also found which establishes the presence of submicroscopic droplets nucleating and growing in between microscopic droplets for partially wetting case. PMID:20942412

Transition process leading to microbubble emission boiling on horizontal circular heated surface in subcooled pool

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ueno, Ichiro; Ando, Jun; Horiuchi, Kazuna; Saiki, Takahito; Kaneko, Toshihiro

2016-11-01

Microbubble emission boiling (MEB) produces a higher heat flux than critical heat flux (CHF) and therefore has been investigated in terms of its heat transfer characteristics as well as the conditions under which MEB occurs. Its physical mechanism, however, is not yet clearly understood. We carried out a series of experiments to examine boiling on horizontal circular heated surfaces of 5 mm and of 10 mm in diameter, in a subcooled pool, paying close attention to the transition process to MEB. High-speed observation results show that, in the MEB regime, the growth, condensation, and collapse of the vapor bubbles occur within a very short time. In addition, a number of fine bubbles are emitted from the collapse of the vapor bubbles. By tracking these tiny bubbles, we clearly visualize that the collapse of the vapor bubbles drives the liquid near the bubbles towards the heated surface, such that the convection field around the vapor bubbles under MEB significantly differs from that under nucleate boiling. Moreover, the axial temperature gradient in a heated block (quasi-heat flux) indicates a clear difference between nucleate boiling and MEB. A combination of quasi-heat flux and the measurement of the behavior of the vapor bubbles allows us to discuss the transition to MEB. This work was financially supported by the 45th Research Grant in Natural Sciences from The Mitsubishi Foundation (2014 - 2015), and by Research Grant for Boiler and Pressurized Vessels from The Japan Boiler Association (2016).

Momentum effects in steady nucleate pool boiling during microgravity.

PubMed

Merte, Herman

2004-11-01

Pool boiling experiments were conducted in microgravity on five space shuttle flights, using a flat plate heater consisting of a semitransparent thin gold film deposited on a quartz substrate that also acted as a resistance thermometer. The test fluid was R-113, and the vapor bubble behavior at the heater surface was photographed from beneath as well as from the side. Each flight consisted of a matrix of three levels of heat flux and three levels of subcooling. In 26 of the total of 45 experiments conditions of steady-state pool boiling were achieved under certain combinations of heat flux and liquid subcooling. In many of the 26 cases, it was observed from the 16-mm movie films that a large vapor bubble formed, remaining slightly removed from the heater surface, and that subsequent vapor bubbles nucleate and grow on the heater surface. Coalescence occurs upon making contact with the large bubble, which thus acts as a vapor reservoir. Recently, measurements of the frequencies and sizes of the small vapor bubbles as they coalesced with the large bubble permitted computation of the associated momentum transfer. The transient forces obtained are presented here. Where these arise from the conversion of the surface energy in the small vapor bubble to kinetic energy acting away from the solid heater surface, they counter the Marangoni convection due to the temperature gradients normal to the heater surface. This Marangoni convection would otherwise impel the large vapor bubble toward the heater surface and result in dryout and unsteady heat transfer.

Extension of Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program's Fluid Property Database

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patel, Kishan

2011-01-01

This internship focused on the development of additional capabilities for the General Fluid Systems Simulation Program (GFSSP). GFSSP is a thermo-fluid code used to evaluate system performance by a finite volume-based network analysis method. The program was developed primarily to analyze the complex internal flow of propulsion systems and is capable of solving many problems related to thermodynamics and fluid mechanics. GFSSP is integrated with thermodynamic programs that provide fluid properties for sub-cooled, superheated, and saturation states. For fluids that are not included in the thermodynamic property program, look-up property tables can be provided. The look-up property tables of the current release version can only handle sub-cooled and superheated states. The primary purpose of the internship was to extend the look-up tables to handle saturated states. This involves a) generation of a property table using REFPROP, a thermodynamic property program that is widely used, and b) modifications of the Fortran source code to read in an additional property table containing saturation data for both saturated liquid and saturated vapor states. Also, a method was implemented to calculate the thermodynamic properties of user-fluids within the saturation region, given values of pressure and enthalpy. These additions required new code to be written, and older code had to be adjusted to accommodate the new capabilities. Ultimately, the changes will lead to the incorporation of this new capability in future versions of GFSSP. This paper describes the development and validation of the new capability.

Investigation of Critical Heat Flux in Reduced Gravity Using Photomicrographic Techniques

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mudawar, Issam; Zhang, Hui

2003-01-01

Experiments were performed to examine the effects of body force on flow boiling critical heat flux (CHF). FC-72 was boiled along one wall of a transparent rectangular flow channel that permitted photographic study of the vapor-liquid interface just prior to CHF. High-speed video imaging techniques were used to identify dominant CHF mechanisms corresponding to different flow orientations and liquid velocities. Six different CHF regimes were identified: Wavy Vapor Layer, Pool Boiling, Stratification, Vapor Counterflow, Vapor Stagnation, and Separated Concurrent Vapor Flow. CHF showed significant sensitivity to orientation for flow velocities below 0.2 m/s, where extremely low CHF values where measured, especially with downward-facing heated wall and downflow orientations. High flow velocities dampened the effects of orientation considerably. The CHF data were used to assess the suitability of previous CHF models and correlations. It is shown the Interfacial Lift-off Model is very effective at predicting CHF for high velocities at all orientations. The flooding limit, on the other hand, is useful at estimating CHF at low velocities and for downflow orientations. A new method consisting of three dimensionless criteria is developed for determining the minimum flow velocity required to overcome body force effects on near-saturated flow boiling CHF. Vertical upflow boiling experiments were performed in pursuit of identifying the trigger mechanism for subcooled flow boiling CHF. While virtually all prior studies on flow boiling CHF concern the prediction or measurement of conditions that lead to CHF, this study was focused on events that take place during the CHF transient. High-speed video imaging and photomicrographic techniques were used to record the transient behavior of interfacial features from the last steady-state power level before CHF until the moment of power cut-off following CHF. The video records show the development of a wavy vapor layer which propagates along the heated wall, permitting cooling prior to CHF only in wetting fronts corresponding to the wave troughs. Image analysis software was developed to estimate void fraction from the individual video images. The void fraction records for subcooled flow boiling show the CHF transient is accompanied by gradual lift-off of wetting fronts culminating in some maximum vapor layer mean thickness, following which the vapor layer begins to thin down as the transition to film boiling ensues. This study proves the Interfacial Lift-off Model, which has been validated for near-saturated flow boiling CHF, is equally valid for subcooled conditions.

Horizontal Two Phase Flow Regime Identification: Comparison of Pressure Signature, Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) and High Speed Visualization (Postprint)

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-01

W., and Mudawar , I., "Measurement and Correlation of Critical Heat Flux in Two-Phase Micro-Channel Heat Sinks," International Journal of Heat and...Mass Transfer, Vol. 47, No. 10-11, 2004, pp. 2045-2059. 3 Zhang, H., Mudawar , I., and Hasan, M. M., "Photographic Study of High-Flux Subcooled Flow...component Fow in Pipes," Chemical Engineering Progress, Vol. 45, 1949, pp. 39-48. 34 Qu, W., and Mudawar , I., "Measurement and Prediction of Pressure

Portable refrigerant charge meter and method for determining the actual refrigerant charge in HVAC systems

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao, Zhiming; Abdelaziz, Omar; LaClair, Tim L.

A refrigerant charge meter and a method for determining the actual refrigerant charge in HVAC systems are described. The meter includes means for determining an optimum refrigerant charge from system subcooling and system component parameters. The meter also includes means for determining the ratio of the actual refrigerant charge to the optimum refrigerant charge. Finally, the meter includes means for determining the actual refrigerant charge from the optimum refrigerant charge and the ratio of the actual refrigerant charge to the optimum refrigerant charge.

Enhanced boiling in microchannels due to recirculation induced by repeated saw-toothed cross-sectional geometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Le; Bhavnani, Sushil H.

2017-10-01

A saw-toothed shaped microchannel heat sink is investigated for enhancing flow boiling heat transfer. Tests are conducted at mass fluxes of 444-1776 kg/m2 s and an inlet subcooling of 15 °C. The effects of channel geometry on boiling curves, flow patterns, pressure drops, and heat transfer coefficient are discussed in this letter. It is found that heat transfer performance is enhanced by up to 50% especially at heat flux levels associated with the current generation of microprocessors.

Engine for the next-generation launcher

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Beichel, Rudi; Grey, Jerry

1995-05-01

The proposed dual-fuel/dual-expansion engine for the Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) could solve the vehicle's need for a high-performance, lightweight, low-cost, maintainable engine. The features that make dual-fuel/dual-expansion engine a prime candidate for RLV include oxygen-rich combustion, high-pressure staged-combustion cycle and dual-fuel operation. Cost-reducing, reliability-enhancing innovations such as the elimination of regenerative cooling, elimination of gimbaling and replacement of kerosene-based hydrocarbon fuel by subcooled propane have also made the this type of engine an attractive option.

Investigation of saturated critical heat flux in a single, uniformly heated microchannel

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wojtan, Leszek; Revellin, Remi; Thome, John R.

2006-08-15

A series of tests have been performed to determine the saturated critical heat flux (CHF) in 0.5 and 0.8mm internal diameter microchannel tubes as a function of refrigerant mass velocity, heated length, saturation temperature and inlet liquid subcooling. The tested refrigerants were R-134a and R-245fa and the heated length of microchannel was varied between 20 and 70mm. The results show a strong dependence of CHF on mass velocity, heated length and microchannel diameter but no influence of liquid subcooling (2-15{sup o}C) was observed. The experimental results have been compared to the well-known CHF single-channel correlation of Y. Katto and H.more » Ohno [An improved version of the generalized correlation of critical heat flux for the forced convective boiling in uniformly heated vertical tubes, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer 27 (9) (1984) 1641-1648] and the multichannel correlation of W. Qu and I. Mudawar [Measurement and correlation of critical heat flux in two-phase microchannel heat sinks, Int. J. Heat and Mass Transfer 47 (2004) 2045-2059]. The comparison shows that the correlation of Katto-Ohno predicts microchannel data with a mean absolute error of 32.8% with only 41.2% of the data falling within a +/-15% error band. The correlation of Qu and Mudawar shows the same trends as the CHF data but significantly overpredicts them. Based on the present experimental data, a new microscale version of the Katto-Ohno correlation for the prediction of CHF during saturated boiling in microchannels has been proposed. (author)« less

Analysis and optimisation of a mixed fluid cascade (MFC) process

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ding, He; Sun, Heng; Sun, Shoujun; Chen, Cheng

2017-04-01

A mixed fluid cascade (MFC) process that comprises three refrigeration cycles has great capacity for large-scale LNG production, which consumes a great amount of energy. Therefore, any performance enhancement of the liquefaction process will significantly reduce the energy consumption. The MFC process is simulated and analysed by use of proprietary software, Aspen HYSYS. The effect of feed gas pressure, LNG storage pressure, water-cooler outlet temperature, different pre-cooling regimes, liquefaction, and sub-cooling refrigerant composition on MFC performance are investigated and presented. The characteristics of its excellent numerical calculation ability and the user-friendly interface of MATLAB™ and powerful thermo-physical property package of Aspen HYSYS are combined. A genetic algorithm is then invoked to optimise the MFC process globally. After optimisation, the unit power consumption can be reduced to 4.655 kW h/kmol, or 4.366 kW h/kmol on condition that the compressor adiabatic efficiency is 80%, or 85%, respectively. Additionally, to improve the process further, with regards its thermodynamic efficiency, configuration optimisation is conducted for the MFC process and several configurations are established. By analysing heat transfer and thermodynamic performances, the configuration entailing a pre-cooling cycle with three pressure levels, liquefaction, and a sub-cooling cycle with one pressure level is identified as the most efficient and thus optimal: its unit power consumption is 4.205 kW h/kmol. Additionally, the mechanism responsible for the weak performance of the suggested liquefaction cycle configuration lies in the unbalanced distribution of cold energy in the liquefaction temperature range.

Criteria for approximating certain microgravity flow boiling characteristics in Earth gravity.

PubMed

Merte, Herman; Park, Jaeseok; Shultz, William W; Keller, Robert B

2002-10-01

The forces governing flow boiling, aside from system pressure, are buoyancy, liquid momentum, interfacial surface tensions, and liquid viscosity. Guidance for approximating certain aspects of the flow boiling process in microgravity can be obtained in Earth gravity research by the imposition of a liquid velocity parallel to a flat heater surface in the inverted position, horizontal, or nearly horizontal, by having buoyancy hold the heated liquid and vapor formed close to the heater surface. Bounds on the velocities of interest are obtained from several dimensionless numbers: a two-phase Richardson number, a two-phase Weber number, and a Bond number. For the fluid used in the experimental work here, liquid velocities in the range U = 5-10cm/sec are judged to be critical for changes in behavior of the flow boiling process. Experimental results are presented for flow boiling heat transfer, concentrating on orientations that provide the largest reductions in buoyancy parallel to the heater surface, varying +/-5 degrees from facing horizontal downward. Results are presented for velocity, orientation, and subcooling effects on nucleation, dryout, and heat transfer. Two different heater surfaces were used: a thin gold film on a polished quartz substrate, acting as a heater and resistance thermometer, and a gold-plated copper heater. Both transient and steady measurements of surface heat flux and superheat were made with the quartz heater; only steady measurements were possible with the copper heater. R-113 was the fluid used; the velocity varied over the interval 4-16cm/sec; bulk liquid subcooling varied over 2-20 degrees C; heat flux varied over 4-8W/cm(2).

Patterned Polymer Coatings Increase the Efficiency of Dew Harvesting.

PubMed

Al-Khayat, Omar; Hong, Jun Ki; Beck, David M; Minett, Andrew I; Neto, Chiara

2017-04-19

Micropatterned polymer surfaces, possessing both topographical and chemical characteristics, were prepared on three-dimensional copper tubes and used to capture atmospheric water. The micropatterns mimic the structure on the back of a desert beetle that condenses water from the air in a very dry environment. The patterned coatings were prepared by the dewetting of thin films of poly-4-vinylpyridine (P4VP) on top of polystyrene films (PS) films, upon solvent annealing, and consist of raised hydrophilic bumps on a hydrophobic background. The size and density distribution of the hydrophilic bumps could be tuned widely by adjusting the initial thickness of the P4VP films: the diameter of the produced bumps and their height could be varied by almost 2 orders of magnitude (1-80 μm and 40-9000 nm, respectively), and their distribution density could be varied by 5 orders of magnitude. Under low subcooling conditions (3 °C), the highest rate of water condensation was measured on the largest (80 μm diameter) hydrophilic bumps and was found to be 57% higher than that on flat hydrophobic films. These subcooling conditions are achieved spontaneously in dew formation, by passive radiative cooling of a surface exposed to the night sky. In effect, the pattern would result in a larger number of dewy nights than a flat hydrophobic surface and therefore increases water capture efficiency. Our approach is suited to fabrication on a large scale, to enable the use of the patterned coatings for water collection with no external input of energy.

Coal liquefaction quenching process

DOEpatents

Thorogood, Robert M.; Yeh, Chung-Liang; Donath, Ernest E.

1983-01-01

There is described an improved coal liquefaction quenching process which prevents the formation of coke with a minimum reduction of thermal efficiency of the coal liquefaction process. In the process, the rapid cooling of the liquid/solid products of the coal liquefaction reaction is performed without the cooling of the associated vapor stream to thereby prevent formation of coke and the occurrence of retrograde reactions. The rapid cooling is achieved by recycling a subcooled portion of the liquid/solid mixture to the lower section of a phase separator that separates the vapor from the liquid/solid products leaving the coal reactor.

Liquid over-feeding air conditioning system and method

DOEpatents

Mei, Viung C.; Chen, Fang C.

1993-01-01

A refrigeration air conditioning system utilizing a liquid over-feeding operation is described. A liquid refrigerant accumulator-heat exchanger is placed in the system to provide a heat exchange relationship between hot liquid refrigerant discharged from condenser and a relatively cool mixture of liquid and vaporous refrigerant discharged from the evaporator. This heat exchange relationship substantially sub-cools the hot liquid refrigerant which undergoes little or no evaporation across the expansion device and provides a liquid over-feeding operation through the evaporator for effectively using 100 percent of evaporator for cooling purposes and for providing the aforementioned mixture of liquid and vaporous refrigerant.

Process of making cryogenically cooled high thermal performance crystal optics

DOEpatents

Kuzay, Tuncer M.

1992-01-01

A method for constructing a cooled optic wherein one or more cavities are milled, drilled or formed using casting or ultrasound laser machining techniques in a single crystal base and filled with porous material having high thermal conductivity at cryogenic temperatures. A non-machined strain-free single crystal can be bonded to the base to produce superior optics. During operation of the cooled optic, N.sub.2 is pumped through the porous material at a sub-cooled cryogenic inlet temperature and with sufficient system pressure to prevent the fluid bulk temperature from reaching saturation.

Process of making cryogenically cooled high thermal performance crystal optics

DOEpatents

Kuzay, T.M.

1992-06-23

A method is disclosed for constructing a cooled optic wherein one or more cavities are milled, drilled or formed using casting or ultrasound laser machining techniques in a single crystal base and filled with porous material having high thermal conductivity at cryogenic temperatures. A non-machined strain-free single crystal can be bonded to the base to produce superior optics. During operation of the cooled optic, N[sub 2] is pumped through the porous material at a sub-cooled cryogenic inlet temperature and with sufficient system pressure to prevent the fluid bulk temperature from reaching saturation. 7 figs.

Numerical study on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of slush nitrogen in a corrugated pipe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Y. J.; Wu, S. Q.; Jin, T.

2017-12-01

Slush nitrogen has lower temperature, higher density and higher heat capacity than that of liquid nitrogen at normal boiling point. It is considered to be a potential coolant for high-temperature superconductive cables (HTS) that would decrease nitrogen consumption and storage cost. The corrugated pipe can help with the enhancement of heat transfer and flexibility of the coolants for HTS cables. In this paper, a 3-D Euler-Euler two-fluid model has been developed to study the flow and heat transfer characteristics of slush nitrogen in a horizontal helically corrugated pipe. By comparing with the empirical formula for pressure drop, the numerical model is confirmed to be effective for the prediction of slush nitrogen flow in corrugated pipes. The flow and heat transfer characteristics of slush nitrogen in a horizontal pipe at various working conditions (inlet solid fraction of 0-20%, inlet velocity of 0-3 m/s, heat flux of 0-12 kW/m2) have been analyzed. The friction factor of slush nitrogen is lower than that of subcooled liquid nitrogen when the slush Reynolds number is higher than 4.2×104. Moreover, the heat transfer coefficient of slush nitrogen flow in the corrugated pipe is higher than that of subcooled liquid nitrogen at velocities which is higher than that 1.76 m/s, 0.91 m/s and 0.55 m/s for slush nitrogen with solid fraction of 5%, 10% and 20%, respectively. The slush nitrogen has been confirmed to have better heat transfer performance and lower pressure drop instead of using liquid nitrogen flowing through a helically corrugated pipe.

Refrigeration system with a compressor-pump unit and a liquid-injection desuperheating line

DOEpatents

Gaul, Christopher J.

2001-01-01

The refrigeration system includes a compressor-pump unit and/or a liquid-injection assembly. The refrigeration system is a vapor-compression refrigeration system that includes an expansion device, an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser, and a liquid pump between the condenser and the expansion device. The liquid pump improves efficiency of the refrigeration system by increasing the pressure of, thus subcooling, the liquid refrigerant delivered from the condenser to the expansion device. The liquid pump and the compressor are driven by a single driving device and, in this regard, are coupled to a single shaft of a driving device, such as a belt-drive, an engine, or an electric motor. While the driving device may be separately contained, in a preferred embodiment, the liquid pump, the compressor, and the driving device (i.e., an electric motor) are contained within a single sealable housing having pump and driving device cooling paths to subcool liquid refrigerant discharged from the liquid pump and to control the operating temperature of the driving device. In another aspect of the present invention, a liquid injection assembly is included in a refrigeration system to divert liquid refrigerant from the discharge of a liquid pressure amplification pump to a compressor discharge pathway within a compressor housing to desuperheat refrigerant vapor to the saturation point within the compressor housing. The liquid injection assembly includes a liquid injection pipe with a control valve to meter the volume of diverted liquid refrigerant. The liquid injection assembly may also include a feedback controller with a microprocessor responsive to a pressure sensor and a temperature sensor both positioned between the compressor to operate the control valve to maintain the refrigerant at or near saturation.

Investigation of Spray Cooling Schemes for Dynamic Thermal Management

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yata, Vishnu Vardhan Reddy

This study aims to investigate variable flow and intermittent flow spray cooling characteristics for efficiency improvement in active two-phase thermal management systems. Variable flow spray cooling scheme requires control of pump input voltage (or speed), while intermittent flow spray cooling scheme requires control of solenoid valve duty cycle and frequency. Several testing scenarios representing dynamic heat load conditions are implemented to characterize the overall performance of variable flow and intermittent flow spray cooling cases in comparison with the reference, steady flow spray cooling case with constant flowrate, continuous spray cooling. Tests are conducted on a small-scale, closed loop spray cooling system featuring a pressure atomized spray nozzle. HFE-7100 dielectric liquid is selected as the working fluid. Two types of test samples are prepared on 10 mm x 10 mm x 2 mm copper substrates with matching size thick film resistors attached onto the opposite side, to generate heat and simulate high heat flux electronic devices. The test samples include: (i) plain, smooth surface, and (ii) microporous surface featuring 100 ?m thick copper-based coating prepared by dual stage electroplating technique. Experimental conditions involve HFE-7100 at atmospheric pressure and 30°C and 10°C subcooling. Steady flow spray cooling tests are conducted at flow rates of 2-5 ml/cm2.s, by controlling the heat flux in increasing steps, and recording the corresponding steady-state temperatures to obtain cooling curves in the form of surface superheat vs. heat flux. Variable flow and intermittent flow spray cooling tests are done at selected flowrate and subcooling conditions to investigate the effects of dynamic flow conditions on maintaining the target surface temperatures defined based on reference steady flow spray cooling performance.

Gas Hydrate Formation Probability Distributions: The Effect of Shear and Comparisons with Nucleation Theory.

PubMed

May, Eric F; Lim, Vincent W; Metaxas, Peter J; Du, Jianwei; Stanwix, Paul L; Rowland, Darren; Johns, Michael L; Haandrikman, Gert; Crosby, Daniel; Aman, Zachary M

2018-03-13

Gas hydrate formation is a stochastic phenomenon of considerable significance for any risk-based approach to flow assurance in the oil and gas industry. In principle, well-established results from nucleation theory offer the prospect of predictive models for hydrate formation probability in industrial production systems. In practice, however, heuristics are relied on when estimating formation risk for a given flowline subcooling or when quantifying kinetic hydrate inhibitor (KHI) performance. Here, we present statistically significant measurements of formation probability distributions for natural gas hydrate systems under shear, which are quantitatively compared with theoretical predictions. Distributions with over 100 points were generated using low-mass, Peltier-cooled pressure cells, cycled in temperature between 40 and -5 °C at up to 2 K·min -1 and analyzed with robust algorithms that automatically identify hydrate formation and initial growth rates from dynamic pressure data. The application of shear had a significant influence on the measured distributions: at 700 rpm mass-transfer limitations were minimal, as demonstrated by the kinetic growth rates observed. The formation probability distributions measured at this shear rate had mean subcoolings consistent with theoretical predictions and steel-hydrate-water contact angles of 14-26°. However, the experimental distributions were substantially wider than predicted, suggesting that phenomena acting on macroscopic length scales are responsible for much of the observed stochastic formation. Performance tests of a KHI provided new insights into how such chemicals can reduce the risk of hydrate blockage in flowlines. Our data demonstrate that the KHI not only reduces the probability of formation (by both shifting and sharpening the distribution) but also reduces hydrate growth rates by a factor of 2.

Gauging Systems Monitor Cryogenic Liquids

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

2009-01-01

Rocket fuel needs to stay cool - super cool, in fact. The ability to store gas propellants like liquid hydrogen and oxygen at cryogenic temperatures (below -243 F) is crucial for space missions in order to reduce their volumes and allow their storage in smaller (and therefore, less costly) tanks. The Agency has used these cryogenic fluids for vehicle propellants, reactants, and life support systems since 1962 with the Centaur upper stage rocket, which was powered with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. During proposed long-duration missions, super-cooled fluids will also be used in space power systems, spaceports, and lunar habitation systems. In the next generation of launch vehicles, gaseous propellants will be cooled to and stored for extended periods at even colder temperatures than currently employed via a process called densification. Densification sub-cools liquids to temperatures even closer to absolute zero (-459 F), increasing the fluid s density and shrinking its volume beyond common cryogenics. Sub-cooling cryogenic liquid hydrogen, for instance, from 20 K (-423 F) to 15 K (-432.4 F) reduces its mass by 10 percent. These densified liquid gases can provide more cost savings from reduced payload volume. In order to benefit from this cost savings, the Agency is working with private industry to prevent evaporation, leakage, and other inadvertent loss of liquids and gases in payloads - requiring new cryogenic systems to prevent 98 percent (or more) of boil-off loss. Boil-off occurs when cryogenic or densified liquids evaporate, and is a concern during launch pad holds. Accurate sensing of propellants aboard space vehicles is also critical for proper engine shutdown and re-ignition after launch, and zero boil-off fuel systems are also in development for the Altair lunar lander.

Posttest TRAC-PD2/MOD1 predictions for FLECHT SEASET test 31504. [PWR

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Booker, C.P.

TRAC-PD2/MOD1 is a publicly released version of TRAC that is used primarily to analyze large-break loss-of-coolant accidents in pressurized-water reactors (PWRs). TRAC-PD2 can calculate, among other things, reflood phenomena. TRAC posttest predictions are compared with test 31504 reflood data from the Full-Length Emergency Core Heat Transfer (FLECHT) System Effects and Separate Effects Tests (SEASET) facility. A false top-down quench is predicted near the top of the core and the subcooling is underpredicted at the bottom of the core. However, the overall TRAC predictions are good, especially near the center of the core.

Supercritical convection, critical heat flux, and coking characteristics of propane

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Rousar, D. C.; Gross, R. S.; Boyd, W. C.

1984-01-01

The heat transfer characteristics of propane at subcritical and supercritical pressure were experimentally evaluated using electrically heated Monel K-500 tubes. A design correlation for supercritical heat transfer coefficient was established using the approach previously applied to supercritical oxygen. Flow oscillations were observed and the onset of these oscillations at supercritical pressures was correlated with wall-to-bulk temperature ratio and velocity. The critical heat flux measured at subcritical pressure was correlated with the product of velocity and subcooling. Long duration tests at fixed heat flux conditions were conducted to evaluate coking on the coolant side tube wall and coking rates comparable to RP-1 were observed.

The mixing of particle clouds plunging into water

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Angelini, S.; Theofanous, T.G.; Yuen, W.W.

This work addresses certain fundamental aspects of the premixing phase of steam explosions, At issue are the multifield interaction aspects under highly transient, multidimensional conditions, and in presence of strong phase changes. They are addressed in an experiment (the MAGICO-2000) involving well-characterized particle clouds mixing with water, and detailed measurements on both external and internal characteristics of the mixing zone. Both cold and hot (up to 1500{degrees}C) particle clouds are considered in conjunction with saturated and subcooled water pools. The PMALPHA code is used as an aid in interpreting the experimental results, and the exercise reveals good predictive capabilities formore » it.« less

Liquid over-feeding air conditioning system and method

DOEpatents

Mei, V.C.; Chen, F.C.

1993-09-21

A refrigeration air conditioning system utilizing a liquid over-feeding operation is described. A liquid refrigerant accumulator-heat exchanger is placed in the system to provide a heat exchange relationship between hot liquid refrigerant discharged from condenser and a relatively cool mixture of liquid and vaporous refrigerant discharged from the evaporator. This heat exchange relationship substantially sub-cools the hot liquid refrigerant which undergoes little or no evaporation across the expansion device and provides a liquid over-feeding operation through the evaporator for effectively using 100 percent of evaporator for cooling purposes and for providing the aforementioned mixture of liquid and vaporous refrigerant. 1 figure.

Experimental Simulation of Turbine-Exhaust Oxygen Recovery

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Clark, Jim A.; Branch, Ryan W.

2004-01-01

In some liquid-propellant rocket engines, the liquid-oxygen boost pump is driven by a turbine that is powered by high-pressure gaseous oxygen. Once it exits the turbine, this gaseous oxygen can be salvaged by injecting it into the subcooled liquid oxygen exiting the boost pump. If the main LOX pump is to function correctly under these circumstances, complete condensation of the gaseous oxygen must quickly follow its injection into the boost-pump discharge. The current investigation uses steam and water in a simple rig that allows the condensation process to be visualized and quantified. This paper offers dimensionless-parameter correlations of the data and trends observed.

Gas-Liquid Flows and Phase Separation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McQuillen, John

2004-01-01

Common issues for space system designers include:Ability to Verify Performance in Normal Gravity prior to Deployment; System Stability; Phase Accumulation & Shedding; Phase Separation; Flow Distribution through Tees & Manifolds Boiling Crisis; Heat Transfer Coefficient; and Pressure Drop.The report concludes:Guidance similar to "A design that operates in a single phase is less complex than a design that has two-phase flow" is not always true considering the amount of effort spent on pressurizing, subcooling and phase separators to ensure single phase operation. While there is still much to learn about two-phase flow in reduced gravity, we have a good start. Focus now needs to be directed more towards system level problems .

Simulation of an ammonia-water heat pump water heater with combustion products-driven evaporator

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Perez-Blanco, Horacio; Gluesenkamp, K.; Ally, Moonis Raza

Here, the objective of this work is to simulate a single effct (SE) ammonia-water heat pump for domestic water heating, with innovative aspects for cycle simulation and eventual implementation. Seasonal temperature variations demand verfication of distillation column viability. For the given application and temperature ranges, it is found that some variables need to be controlled if the same column is to be used all year round. In addition, a number of simplifications are considered in this work: an advanced evaporator requireing minimal gas flow and surface area, subcooling at two crucial spots of the cycle and the viability of somemore » pump designs to assuage cavitation issues.« less

Simulation of an ammonia-water heat pump water heater with combustion products-driven evaporator

DOE PAGES

Perez-Blanco, Horacio; Gluesenkamp, K.; Ally, Moonis Raza

2016-12-19

Here, the objective of this work is to simulate a single effct (SE) ammonia-water heat pump for domestic water heating, with innovative aspects for cycle simulation and eventual implementation. Seasonal temperature variations demand verfication of distillation column viability. For the given application and temperature ranges, it is found that some variables need to be controlled if the same column is to be used all year round. In addition, a number of simplifications are considered in this work: an advanced evaporator requireing minimal gas flow and surface area, subcooling at two crucial spots of the cycle and the viability of somemore » pump designs to assuage cavitation issues.« less

The Heat and Mass Transfer Processes at the Cooling of Strong Heated Sphere in a Cold Liquid

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Puzina, Yu Yu

2017-10-01

Some new experimental results of continuum mechanics problems in two-phase systems are described. The processes of heat and mass transfer during cooling of strong heated sphere in the subcooled liquid are studied. Due to high level of heater temperature the stable vapor film is formed on the sphere surface. Calculation of steady-state transport processes at vapor - water interface is carried out using methods of molecular-kinetic theory. Heat transfer in vapor by thermal conductivity and natural convection in liquid are considered. Pressure balance is provided by hydrostatic pressure and non-equilibrium boundary condition. The results of the calculations are analyzed by comparison with previous data and experimental results.

Pool film boiling from rotating and stationary spheres in liquid nitrogen. [for SSME turbopump ball bearings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cuan, Winston M.; Schwartz, Sidney H.

1988-01-01

Results are presented for a preliminary experiment involving a saturated pool boiling at 1 atm from rotating 2 and 3 inch diameter spheres which were immersed in LN2. Additional results are presented for a stationary 2 inch diameter sphere quenched in LN2, which were obtained with a more versatile and complete experimental apparatus. The speed of the rotational tests varied from 0 to 10,000 rpm. The stationary experiments parametrically varied pressure and subcooling levels from 0 to 600 psig and from 0 to 50 F, respectively. During the rotational tests, a high speed photographic analysis was undertaken to measure the thickness of the vapor film surrounding the sphere.

A visual study of radial inward choked flow of liquid nitrogen.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hendricks, R. C.; Simoneau, R. J.; Hsu, Y. Y.

1973-01-01

Data and high speed movies were acquired on pressurized subcooled liquid nitrogen flowing radially inward through a 0.0076 cm gap. The stagnation pressure ranged from 0.7 to 4 MN/sq m. Steady radial inward choked flow appears equivalent to steady choked flow through axisymmetric nozzles. Transient choked flows through the radial gap are not uniform and the discharge pattern appears as nonuniform impinging jets. The critical mass flow rate data for the transient case appear different from those for the steady case. On the mass flow rate vs pressure map, the slope and separation of the isotherms appear to be less for transient than for steady radial choked flow.

Flow reversal and thermal limit in a heated rectangular channel

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheng, L.Y.; Tichler, P.R.; Yang, B.W.

The thermal limit in a vertical rectangular channel was determined in a series of experiments whereby the internal coolant underwent a change in flow direction from forced downflow to upward natural circulation. The tests were designed to simulate the flow reversal transient in the High Flux Beam Reactor. A number of parameters were varied in the flow reversal experiments to examine their effects on the thermal limit. Among the parameters varied were the rate of flow coastdown, inlet subcooling, water level in the upper plenum, bypass ratio (ratio of initial flow through the heated section to initial flow through themore » bypass orifice), and single- verses double-sided heating.« less

Boiling incipience and convective boiling of neon and nitrogen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Papell, S. S.; Hendricks, R. C.

1977-01-01

Forced convection and subcooled boiling heat transfer data for liquid nitrogen and liquid neon were obtained in support of a design study for a 30 tesla cryomagnet cooled by forced convection of liquid neon. The cryogen data obtained over a range of system pressures, fluid flow rates, and applied heat fluxes were used to develop correlations for predicting boiling incipience and convective boiling heat transfer coefficients in uniformly heated flow channels. The accuracy of the correlating equations was then evaluated. A technique was also developed to calculate the position of boiling incipience in a uniformly heated flow channel. Comparisons made with the experimental data showed a prediction accuracy of + or - 15 percent.

Liquid Oxygen Propellant Densification Unit Ground Tested With a Large-Scale Flight-Weight Tank for the X-33 Reusable Launch Vehicle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tomsik, Thomas M.

2002-01-01

Propellant densification has been identified as a critical technology in the development of single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicles. Technology to create supercooled high-density liquid oxygen (LO2) and liquid hydrogen (LH2) is a key means to lowering launch vehicle costs. The densification of cryogenic propellants through subcooling allows 8 to 10 percent more propellant mass to be stored in a given unit volume, thereby improving the launch vehicle's overall performance. This allows for higher propellant mass fractions than would be possible with conventional normal boiling point cryogenic propellants, considering the normal boiling point of LO2 and LH2.

Experimental Study of Subcooled Flow Boiling Heat Transfer on a Smooth Surface in Short-Term Microgravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Yonghai; Liu, Bin; Zhao, Jianfu; Deng, Yueping; Wei, Jinjia

2018-06-01

The flow boiling heat transfer characteristics of subcooled air-dissolved FC-72 on a smooth surface (chip S) were studied in microgravity by utilizing the drop tower facility in Beijing. The heater, with dimensions of 40 × 10 × 0.5 mm3 (length × width × thickness), was combined with two silicon chips with the dimensions of 20 × 10 × 0.5 mm3. High-speed visualization was used to supplement observation in the heat transfer and vapor-liquid two-phase flow characteristics. In the low and moderate heat fluxes region, the flow boiling of chip S at inlet velocity V = 0.5 m/s shows almost the same regulations as that in pool boiling. All the wall temperatures at different positions along the heater in microgravity are slightly lower than that in normal gravity, which indicates slight heat transfer enhancement. However, in the high heat flux region, the pool boiling of chip S shows much evident deterioration of heat transfer compared with that of flow boiling in microgravity. Moreover, the bubbles of flow boiling in microgravity become larger than that in normal gravity due to the lack of buoyancy Although the difference of the void fraction in x-y plain becomes larger with increasing heat flux under different gravity levels, it shows nearly no effect on heat transfer performance except for critical heat flux (CHF). Once the void fraction in y-z plain at the end of the heater equals 1, the vapor blanket will be formed quickly and transmit from downstream to upstream along the heater, and CHF occurs. Thus, the height of channel is an important parameter to determine CHF in microgravity at a fixed velocity. The flow boiling of chip S at inlet velocity V = 0.5 m/s shows higher CHF than that of pool boiling because of the inertia force, and the CHF under microgravity is about 78-92% of that in normal gravity.

Dual-energy-X-ray imaging to measure phase volume fractions in a transient multiphase flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Loewen, Eric Paul

1999-12-01

The objective of this research was to visualize the pre-mixing phase of a fuel-coolant interaction (FCI) by using combinations of high-speed cinematography and dual energy X-ray imaging to identify and quantify the spatial and temporal characteristics of the three FCI phases---metal (fuel), liquid (coolant water), and voids (generated steam). (1) The high-speed cinematography imaging subsystem and the low-energy X-ray imaging subsystem provided visual photographs and distinguished generated voids from water. (2) The high-energy X-Ray imaging subsystem provided additional discernment of metal from water and vapor. This is the first time that dynamic dual X-ray images have been provided with quantitative results. The data provide new information concerning the melt fractions, melt jet configuration, melt jet velocity, and qualitative spatial and temporal quantification of the pre-mixing event. This information provides new insight into the FCI phenomenon that could not have been deduced from visible-light imaging or other instrumentation such as thermocouples, void sensors, or pressure transmitters. Significant findings include: (1) the fuel column (molten Pb jet) penetrated deeply (<7 cm) into the coolant (water) while maintaining its columnar shape. (2) Energetic FCIs occurred (and were imaged) below the melt-coolant interface temperature equal to the homogenous nucleation temperature (310°C). (3) The molten jet breakup was observed to be caused by hydrodynamic forces. (4) The Pb/water thermal interaction zone was imaged over melt temperatures from 330°C to 640°C and coolant subcooling of 4°C to 80°C. (5) The interface regions between the molten Pb and coolant was observed to grow with decreasing coolant subcooling. This imaging process can be applied to further study of the FCI phenomena at other test facilities. It can also be applied for observation of other two- or three-phase flow phenomena previously opaque to conventional imaging systems.

Heterogeneous nucleation from a supercooled ionic liquid on a carbon surface

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Xiaoxia; Shen, Yan; Hung, Francisco R.; Santiso, Erik E.

2016-12-01

Classical molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the nucleation of the crystal phase of the ionic liquid [dmim+][Cl-] from its supercooled liquid phase, both in the bulk and in contact with a graphitic surface of D = 3 nm. By combining the string method in collective variables [Maragliano et al., J. Chem. Phys. 125, 024106 (2006)], with Markovian milestoning with Voronoi tessellations [Maragliano et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 5, 2589-2594 (2009)] and order parameters for molecular crystals [Santiso and Trout, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 064109 (2011)], we computed minimum free energy paths, the approximate size of the critical nucleus, the free energy barrier, and the rates involved in these nucleation processes. For homogeneous nucleation, the subcooled liquid phase has to overcome a free energy barrier of ˜85 kcal/mol to form a critical nucleus of size ˜3.6 nm, which then grows into the monoclinic crystal phase. This free energy barrier becomes about 42% smaller (˜49 kcal/mol) when the subcooled liquid phase is in contact with a graphitic disk, and the critical nucleus formed is about 17% smaller (˜3.0 nm) than the one observed for homogeneous nucleation. The crystal formed in the heterogeneous nucleation scenario has a structure that is similar to that of the bulk crystal, with the exception of the layers of ions next to the graphene surface, which have larger local density and the cations lie with their imidazolium rings parallel to the graphitic surface. The critical nucleus forms near the graphene surface separated only by these layers of ions. The heterogeneous nucleation rate (˜4.8 × 1011 cm-3 s-1) is about one order of magnitude faster than the homogeneous rate (˜6.6 × 1010 cm-3 s-1). The computed free energy barriers and nucleation rates are in reasonable agreement with experimental and simulation values obtained for the homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of other systems (ice, urea, Lennard-Jones spheres, and oxide glasses).

Non-Toxic Orbiter Maneuvering System (OMS) and Reaction Control System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hurlbert, Eric A.; Nicholson, Leonard S. (Technical Monitor)

1999-01-01

NASA is pursuing the technology and advanced development of a non-toxic (NT) orbital maneuvering system (OMS) and reaction control system (RCS) for shuttle upgrades, RLV, and reusable first stages. The primary objectives of the shuttle upgrades program are improved safety, improved reliability, reduced operations time and cost, improved performance or capabilities, and commonality with future space exploration needs. Non-Toxic OMS/RCS offers advantages in each of these categories. A non-toxic OMS/RCS eliminates the ground hazards and the flight safety hazards of the toxic and corrosive propellants. The cost savings for ground operations are over $24M per year for 7 flights, and the savings increase with increasing flight rate up to $44M per year. The OMS/RCS serial processing time is reduced from 65 days to 13 days. The payload capability can be increased up to 5100 Ibms. The non-toxic OMS/RCS also provides improved space station reboost capability up to 20 nautical miles over the current toxic system of 14 nautical miles. A NT OMS/RCS represents a clear advancement in the SOA over MMH/NTO. Liquid oxygen and ethanol are clean burning, high-density propellants that provide a high degree of commonality with other spacecraft subsystems including life support, power, and thermal control, and with future human exploration and development of space missions. The simple and reliable pressure-fed design uses sub-cooled liquid oxygen at 250 to 350 psia, which allows a propellant to remain cryogenic for longer periods of time. The key technologies are thermal insulation and conditioning techniques are used to maintain the sub-cooling. Phase I successfully defined the system architecture, designed an integrated OMS/RCS propellant tank, analyzed the feed system, built and tested the 870 lbf RCS thrusters, and tested the 6000 lbf OMS engine. Phase 11 is currently being planned for the development and test of full-scale prototype of the system in 1999 and 2000

Heterogeneous nucleation from a supercooled ionic liquid on a carbon surface.

PubMed

He, Xiaoxia; Shen, Yan; Hung, Francisco R; Santiso, Erik E

2016-12-07

Classical molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the nucleation of the crystal phase of the ionic liquid [dmim + ][Cl - ] from its supercooled liquid phase, both in the bulk and in contact with a graphitic surface of D = 3 nm. By combining the string method in collective variables [Maragliano et al., J. Chem. Phys. 125, 024106 (2006)], with Markovian milestoning with Voronoi tessellations [Maragliano et al., J. Chem. Theory Comput. 5, 2589-2594 (2009)] and order parameters for molecular crystals [Santiso and Trout, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 064109 (2011)], we computed minimum free energy paths, the approximate size of the critical nucleus, the free energy barrier, and the rates involved in these nucleation processes. For homogeneous nucleation, the subcooled liquid phase has to overcome a free energy barrier of ∼85 kcal/mol to form a critical nucleus of size ∼3.6 nm, which then grows into the monoclinic crystal phase. This free energy barrier becomes about 42% smaller (∼49 kcal/mol) when the subcooled liquid phase is in contact with a graphitic disk, and the critical nucleus formed is about 17% smaller (∼3.0 nm) than the one observed for homogeneous nucleation. The crystal formed in the heterogeneous nucleation scenario has a structure that is similar to that of the bulk crystal, with the exception of the layers of ions next to the graphene surface, which have larger local density and the cations lie with their imidazolium rings parallel to the graphitic surface. The critical nucleus forms near the graphene surface separated only by these layers of ions. The heterogeneous nucleation rate (∼4.8 × 10 11 cm -3 s -1 ) is about one order of magnitude faster than the homogeneous rate (∼6.6 × 10 10 cm -3 s -1 ). The computed free energy barriers and nucleation rates are in reasonable agreement with experimental and simulation values obtained for the homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation of other systems (ice, urea, Lennard-Jones spheres, and oxide glasses).

Dryout and Rewetting in the Pool Boiling Experiment Flown on STS-72 (PBE-2 B) and STS-77 (PBE-2 A)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merte, Herman, Jr.; Lee, Ho Sung; Keller, Robert B.

1998-01-01

Experiments were conducted in the microgravity of space in which a pool of liquid (R-113), initially at a precisely defined pressure and temperature, is subjected to a step imposed heat flux from a semi-transparent thin-film heater forming part of one wall of the container such that boiling is initiated and maintained for a defined period of time at a constant pressure level. A total of nine tests were conducted at three levels of heat flux and three levels of subcooling in each of the two space experiments in a GAS canister on the STS-77, -72, respectively. Three (3) modes of propagation of boiling across the heater surface and subsequent vapor bubble growths were observed, in addition to the two (2) modes observed in the previous microgravity pool boiling space flights on STS-47, -57, and -60. Of particular interest were the extremely dynamic or "explosive" growths, which were determined to be the consequence of the large increase in the liquid-vapor interface area associated with the appearance of a corrugated or rough interface. Predictions of circumstances for its onset have been carried out. Assumptions were necessary regarding the character of disturbances necessary for the instabilities to grow. Also, a new vapor bubble phenomena was observed in which small vapor bubbles migrated toward a larger bubble, eventually coalescing with this larger bubble. The heat transfer was enhanced approximately 30% as a result of these migrating bubbles, which is believed to be a vapor bubble manifestation of Marangoni convection and/or molecular momentum effects, sometimes referred to as vapor recoil. The circumstances of heat flux and liquid subcooling necessary to produce heater surface dryout for an initially stagnant liquid subjected to an imposed heat flux have been more closely identified.

Walks of bubbles on a hot wire in a liquid bath

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Duchesne, A.; Caps, H.

2017-05-01

When a horizontal resistive wire is heated up to the boiling point in a subcooled liquid bath, some vapor bubbles nucleate on its surface. The traditional nucleate boiling theory predicts that bubbles generated from active nucleate sites grow up and depart from the heating surface due to buoyancy and inertia. However, we observed here a different behavior: the bubbles slide along the heated wire. In this situation, unexpected regimes are observed; from the simple sliding motion to bubble clustering. We noticed that bubbles could rapidly change their moving direction and may also interact. Finally, we propose an interpretation for both the attraction between the bubbles and the wire and for the motion of the bubbles on the wire in terms of Marangoni effects.

Bubble Point Measurements with Liquid Methane of a Screen Capillary Liquid Acquisition Device

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jurns, John M.; McQuillen, John B.

2009-01-01

Liquid acquisition devices (LADs) can be utilized within a propellant tank in space to deliver single-phase liquid to the engine in low gravity. One type of liquid acquisition device is a screened gallery whereby a fine mesh screen acts as a bubble filter and prevents the gas bubbles from passing through until a crucial pressure differential condition across the screen, called the bubble point, is reached. This paper presents data for LAD bubble point data in liquid methane (LCH4) for stainless steel Dutch twill screens with mesh sizes of 325 by 2300 and 200 by 1400 wires per inch. Data is presented for both saturated and sub-cooled LCH4, and is compared with predicted values.

Detection of vapor nanobubbles by small angle neutron scattering (SANS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Popov, Emilian; He, Lilin; Dominguez-Ontiveros, Elvis; Melnichenko, Yuri

2018-04-01

Experiments using boiling water on untreated (roughness 100-300 nm) metal surfaces using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) show the appearance of structures that are 50-70 nm in size when boiling is present. The scattering signal disappears when the boiling ceases, and no change in the signal is detected at any surface temperature condition below saturation. This confirms that the signal is caused by vapor nanobubbles. Two boiling regimes are evaluated herein that differ by the degree of subcooling (3-10 °C). A polydisperse spherical model with a log-normal distribution fits the SANS data well. The size distribution indicates that a large number of nanobubbles exist on the surface during boiling, and some of them grow into large bubbles.

Space nuclear power systems 1989; Proceedings of the 6th Symposium, Albuquerque, NM, Jan. 8-12, 1989. Vols. 1 & 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

El-Genk, Mohamed S. (Editor); Hoover, Mark D. (Editor)

1992-01-01

The present conference discusses such space nuclear power (SNP) issues as current design trends for SDI applications, ultrahigh heat-flux systems with curved surface subcooled nucleate boiling, design and manufacturing alternatives for low cost production of SNPs, a lightweight radioisotope heater for the Galileo mission, compatible materials for uranium fluoride-based gas core SNPs, Johnson noise thermometry for SNPs, and uranium nitride/rhenium compatibility studies for the SP-100 SNP. Also discussed are system issues in antimatter energy conversion, the thermal design of a heat source for a Brayton cycle radioisotope power system, structural and thermal analyses of an isotope heat source, a novel plant protection strategy for transient reactors, and beryllium toxicity.

Buoyancy effects on the vapor condensation rate on a horizontal liquid surface

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hasan, Mohammad M.; Lin, Chin-Shun

1989-01-01

The results are presented of a numerical study of the effects of buoyancy on the direct condensation of saturated or nearly saturated vapor on a horizontal liquid surface in a cylindrical tank. The liquid motion beneath the liquid-vapor interface is induced by an axisymmetric laminar jet of subcooled liquid. Analysis and numerical results show that the dominant parameter which determines the influence of buoyancy on the condensation rate is the Richardson number. However, the effect of buoyancy on the condensation rate cannot be quantified in terms of the Richardson number alone. The critical value of the Richardson number below which the condensation rate is not significantly reduced depends on the Reynolds number as well as the Prandtl number.

Cooling the vertical surface by conditionally single pulses

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karpov, Pavel; Nazarov, Alexander; Serov, Anatoly; Terekhov, Victor

2017-10-01

You Sprays with periodic supply of the droplet phase have great opportunities to control the heat exchange processes. Varying pulse duration and frequency of their repetition, we can achieve the optimal conditions of evaporative cooling with minimization of the liquid flow rate. The paper presents experimental data on studying local heat transfer on a large subcooled surface, obtained on the original setup with multinozzle controlled system of impact irrigation by the gas-droplet flow. A contribution to intensification of the spray parameters (flow rate, pulse duration, repetition frequency) per a growth of integral heat transfer was studied. Data on instantaneous distribution of the heat flux value helped us to describe the processes occurring on the studied surface. These data could describe the regime of "island" film cooling.

Status and Design Concepts for the Hydrogen On-Orbit Storage and Supply Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chato, David J.; VanDyke, Melissa; Batty, J. Clair; Schick, Scott

1998-01-01

This paper studies concepts for the Hydrogen On-Orbit Storage and Supply Experiment (HOSS). HOSS is a space flight experiment whose objectives are: Show stable gas supply for storage and direct gain solar-thermal thruster designs; and evaluate and compare low-g performance of active and passive pressure control via a thermodynamic vent system (TVS) suitable for solar-thermal upper stages. This paper shows that the necessary experimental equipment for HOSS can be accommodated in a small hydrogen dewar of 36 to 80 liter. Thermal designs for these dewars which meet the on-orbit storage requirements can be achieved. Furthermore ground hold insulation and shielding concepts are achieved which enable storing initially subcooled liquid hydrogen in these small dewars without venting in excess of 144 hours.

Computational Prediction of Cryogenic Micro-nano Solid Nitrogen Particle Production Using Laval Nozzle for Physical Photo Resist Removal-cleaning Technology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ishimoto, Jun; Abe, Haruto; Ochiai, Naoya

The fundamental characteristics of the cryogenic single-component micro-nano solid nitrogen (SN2) particle production using super adiabatic Laval nozzle and its application to the physical photo resist removal-cleaning technology are investigated by a new type of integrated measurement coupled computational technique. As a result of present computation, it is found that high-speed ultra-fine SN2 particles are continuously generated due to the freezing of liquid nitrogen (LN2) droplets induced by rapid adiabatic expansion of transonic subcooled two-phase nitrogen flow passing through the Laval nozzle. Furthermore, the effect of SN2 particle diameter, injection velocity, and attack angle to the wafer substrate on resist removal-cleaning performance is investigated in detail by integrated measurement coupled computational technique.

Thermal energy storage with phase change materials (PCMs) for the improvement of the energy performance of buildings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Soares, Nelson

The improvement of the energy efficiency of buildings during their operational phase is an active area of research. The markets are looking for new technologies, namely new thermal energy storage (TES) systems, which can be used to reduce buildings' dependency on fossil fuels, to make use of renewable energy sources and to contribute to match energy supply and demand efficiently. The main goals of this thesis are: (i) to evaluate the heat transfer with solid-liquid phase-change through small TES units filled with phase-change materials (PCMs), providing experimental data to be used in the design of new TES systems for buildings and in the validation of numerical models, and (ii) to provide some guidelines for the incorporation of PCM-drywalls in buildings aiming to reduce the energy demand for heating and cooling by making use of the latent heat from the phase-change processes of PCMs. The first part of this thesis refers to the experimental study of the heat transfer through a vertical stack of metallic rectangular cavities filled with different PCMs (a microencapsulated and a free-form PCM). The research carried out aims: (i) to analyze the melting and solidification processes of the PCM within the enclosures, (ii) to evaluate the influence of the aspect ratio of the cavities on the heat transfer and (iii) to discuss which type of PCM is better for specific cases. As a result, a big amount of experimental data for benchmarking and validation of numerical models is made available to the scientific community. Moreover, the results allow discussing which arrangement of the TES unit is better for specific applications considering the thermal regulation effect during charging, the influence of subcooling during discharging, and the influence of natural convection during both processes. It is shown that the effect of natural convection in the free-form PCM must be considered in any simulation to better describe the charging process. During discharging, subcooling must also be considered. On the contrary, the effect of natural convection and subcooling can be neglected when considering the microencapsulated PCM. The second part of this thesis concentrates on the dynamic simulation of energy in buildings considering the latent heat from PCMs' phase-change processes. The energy system under investigation is extended to an air-conditioned residential single-zone room. The main goals are: (i) to develop a holistic methodology to optimize the incorporation of PCM-drywalls in different typologies of construction and (ii) to provide guidelines for the incorporation of PCM-drywalls in different climates. Two studies are carried out: (i) a multi-dimensional optimization study combining EnergyPlus and GenOpt tools to optimize the incorporation of PCM-drywalls in lightweight steel-framed (LSF) residential buildings in Europe, and (ii) an EnergyPlus-based parametric study to optimize the incorporation of PCM-drywalls in heavyweight residential buildings in Kuwait. It is shown that an optimum PCM-drywall solution can be found for each European climate and that the incorporation of PCM-drywalls can contribute for heating and cooling energy savings in LSF construction. The results show that PCM-drywalls are particularly interesting for LSF construction in Mediterranean climates leading to higher energy savings. PCM-drywalls can also be used to reduce the annual energy demand for cooling in Kuwait by almost 5%.

Dropwise condensation dynamics in humid air

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Castillo Chacon, Julian Eduardo

Dropwise condensation of atmospheric water vapor is important in multiple practical engineering applications. The roles of environmental factors and surface morphology/chemistry on the condensation dynamics need to be better understood to enable efficient water-harvesting, dehumidication, and other psychrometric processes. Systems and surfaces that promote faster condensation rates and self-shedding of condensate droplets could lead to improved mass transfer rates and higher water yields in harvesting applications. The thesis presents the design and construction of an experimental facility that allows visualization of the condensation process as a function of relative humidity. Dropwise condensation experiments are performed on a vertically oriented, hydrophobic surface at a controlled relative humidity and surface subcooling temperature. The distribution and growth of water droplets are monitored across the surface at different relative humidities (45%, 50%, 55%, and 70%) at a constant surface subcooling temperature of 15 °C below the ambient temperature. The droplet growth dynamics exhibits a strong dependency on relative humidity in the early stages during which there is a large population of small droplets on the surface and single droplet growth dominates over coalescence effects. At later stages, the dynamics of droplet growth is insensitive to relative humidity due to the dominance of coalescence effects. The overall volumetric rate of condensation on the surface is also assessed as a function of time and ambient relative humidity. Low relative humidity conditions not only slow the absolute rate of condensation, but also prolong an initial transient regime over which the condensation rate remains significantly below the steady-state value. The current state-of-the-art in dropwise condensation research indicates the need for systematic experimental investigations as a function of relative humidity. The improved understanding of the relative humidity effects on the growth of single and distributed droplets offered in this thesis can improve the prediction of heat and mass transfer during dropwise condensation of humid air under differing environmental conditions. This knowledge can be used to engineer condenser systems and surfaces that are adapted for local ambient relative humidity and temperature conditions.

Natural Convection Heat Transfer in a Rectangular Liquid Metal Pool With Bottom Heating and Top Cooling

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Il S.; Yu, Yong H.; Son, Hyoung M.

2006-07-01

An experimental study is performed to investigate the natural convection heat transfer characteristics with subcooled coolant to create engineering database for basic applications in a lead alloy cooled reactor. Tests are performed in the ALTOS (Applied Liquid-metal Thermal Operation Study) apparatus as part of MITHOS (Metal Integrated Thermo Hydrodynamic Operation System). A relationship is determined between the Nusselt number Nu and the Rayleigh number Ra in the liquid metal rectangular pool. Results are compared with correlations and experimental data in the literature. Given the similar Ra condition, the present test results for Nu of the liquid metal pool with topmore » subcooling are found to be similar to those predicted by the existing correlations or experiments. The current test results are utilized to develop natural convection heat transfer correlations applicable to low Prandtl number Pr fluids that are heated from below and cooled by the external coolant above. Results from this study are slated to be used in designing BORIS (Battery Optimized Reactor Integral System), a small lead cooled modular fast reactor for deployment at remote sites cycled with MOBIS (Modular Optimized Brayton Integral System) for electricity generation, tied with NAVIS (Naval Application Vessel Integral System) for ship propulsion, joined with THAIS (Thermochemical Hydrogen Acquisition Integral System) for hydrogen production, and coupled with DORIS (Desalination Optimized Reactor Integral System) for seawater desalination. Tests are performed with Wood's metal (Pb-Bi-Sn-Cd) filling a rectangular pool whose lower surface is heated and upper surface cooled by forced convection of water. The test section is 20 cm long, 11.3 cm high and 15 cm wide. The simulant has a melting temperature of 78 deg. C. The constant temperature and heat flux condition was realized for the bottom heating once the steady state had been met. The test parameters include the heated bottom surface temperature of the liquid metal pool, the input power to the bottom surface of the section, and the coolant temperature. (authors)« less

FCI experiments in the corium/water system

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huhtiniemi, I.; Hohmann, H.; Magallon, D.

The KROTOS fuel coolant interaction (FCI) tests aim at providing benchmark data to examine the effect of fuel/coolant initial conditions and mixing on explosion energetics. Experiments, fundamental in nature, are performed in well-controlled geometries and are complementary to the FARO large scale tests. Recently, a new test series was started using 3 kg of prototypical core material (80 w/o UO{sub 2}, 20 w/o ZrO{sub 2}) which was poured into a water column of {le} 1.25 m in height (95 mm and 200 mm in diameter) under 0.1 MPa ambient pressure. Four tests have been performed in the test section ofmore » 95 mm in diameter (ID) with different subcooling levels (10-80K) and with and without an external trigger. Additionally, one test has been performed with a test section of 200 mm in diameter (ID) and with an external trigger. No spontaneous or triggered energetic FCIs (steam explosions) have been observed in these corium tests. This is in sharp contrast with the steam explosions observed in the previously reported Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} test series which had the same initial conditions of ambient pressure and subcooling. The post-test analysis of the corium experiments indicated that strong vaporisation at the melt/water contact led to a partial expulsion of the melt from the test section into the pressure vessel. In order to avoid this and to obtain a good penetration and premixing os the corium melt, an additional test has been performed with a larger diameter test section. In all the UO{sub 2}-ZrO{sub 2} tests an efficient quenching process (0.7-1.2 MW/kg-melt) with total fuel fragmentation (mass mean diameter 1.4-2.5 mm) was observed. Results from Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} tests under the same initial conditions are also presented for further confirmation of the observed differences in behaviour between Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and UO{sub 2}-ZrO{sub 2} melts.« less

Interfacial area transport of steam-water two-phase flow in a vertical annulus at elevated pressures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ozar, Basar

Analysis of accident scenarios in nuclear reactors are done by using codes such as TRACE and RELAP5. Large oscillations in the core void fraction are observed in calculations of advanced passive light water reactors (ALWRs), especially during the low pressure long-term cooling phase. These oscillations are attributed to be numerical in nature and served to limit the accuracy as well as the credibility of the calculations. One of the root causes of these unphysical oscillations is determined to be flow regime transitions caused by the usage of static flow regime maps. The interfacial area transport equation was proposed earlier in order to address these issues. Previous research successfully developed the foundation of the interfacial area transport equation and the experimental techniques needed for the measurement of interfacial area, bubble diameters and velocities. In the past, an extensive database has been then generated for adiabatic air-water conditions in vertical upward and downward bubbly-churn turbulent flows in pipes. Using this database, mechanistic models for the creation (bubble breakup) and destruction (bubble coalescence) of interfacial area have been developed for the bubblyslug flow regime transition. However, none of these studies investigated the effect of phase change. To address this need, a heated annular test section was designed and constructed. The design relied on a three level scaling approach: geometric scaling; hydrodynamic scaling; thermal scaling. The test section consisted of a heated and unheated section in order to study the sub-cooled boiling and bulk condensation/flashing and evaporation phenomena, respectively. Steam-water two-phase flow tests were conducted under sub-cooled boiling conditions in the heated section and with sub-cooled/super-heated bulk liquid in the unheated section. The modeling of interfacial area transport equation with phase change effects was introduced and discussed. Constitutive relations, which took phase change effects into account, for interfacial area transport equation were proposed and implemented. Effects of these constitutive relations on the prediction capability of the transport equation were discussed.

Validation and Calibration of Nuclear Thermal Hydraulics Multiscale Multiphysics Models - Subcooled Flow Boiling Study

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Anh Bui; Nam Dinh; Brian Williams

In addition to validation data plan, development of advanced techniques for calibration and validation of complex multiscale, multiphysics nuclear reactor simulation codes are a main objective of the CASL VUQ plan. Advanced modeling of LWR systems normally involves a range of physico-chemical models describing multiple interacting phenomena, such as thermal hydraulics, reactor physics, coolant chemistry, etc., which occur over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. To a large extent, the accuracy of (and uncertainty in) overall model predictions is determined by the correctness of various sub-models, which are not conservation-laws based, but empirically derived from measurement data. Suchmore » sub-models normally require extensive calibration before the models can be applied to analysis of real reactor problems. This work demonstrates a case study of calibration of a common model of subcooled flow boiling, which is an important multiscale, multiphysics phenomenon in LWR thermal hydraulics. The calibration process is based on a new strategy of model-data integration, in which, all sub-models are simultaneously analyzed and calibrated using multiple sets of data of different types. Specifically, both data on large-scale distributions of void fraction and fluid temperature and data on small-scale physics of wall evaporation were simultaneously used in this work’s calibration. In a departure from traditional (or common-sense) practice of tuning/calibrating complex models, a modern calibration technique based on statistical modeling and Bayesian inference was employed, which allowed simultaneous calibration of multiple sub-models (and related parameters) using different datasets. Quality of data (relevancy, scalability, and uncertainty) could be taken into consideration in the calibration process. This work presents a step forward in the development and realization of the “CIPS Validation Data Plan” at the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of LWRs to enable quantitative assessment of the CASL modeling of Crud-Induced Power Shift (CIPS) phenomenon, in particular, and the CASL advanced predictive capabilities, in general. This report is prepared for the Department of Energy’s Consortium for Advanced Simulation of LWRs program’s VUQ Focus Area.« less

Effect of dynamic load on water flow boiling CHF in rectangular channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhao; Song, Baoyin; Li, Gang; Cao, Xi

2018-06-01

Experimental investigation into flow boiling critical heat flux (CHF) characteristics in narrow rectangular channels was performed under rotating state using distilled water as working fluids. The effects of mass velocity, inlet temperature and heating orientation on CHF under dynamic load were analyzed and discussed in this paper. The results show that the dynamic load obviously influences the CHF through enhancing two-phase mixing up and bubble separating. The greater the dynamic load, the higher the CHF values. The CHF values increase with the increase of mass velocity and inlet subcooling in the experimental range. The magnitude of CHF increase with the dynamic load for bottom heating is greater than that for up heating. The present study and its newly correlation may provide some technical supports in designing the airborne vapor cycle system.

Review of the BACKONE equation of state and its applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lai, Ngoc Anh; Phan, Thi Thu Huong

2017-06-01

This paper presents a review of the BACKONE equation of state (EOS) and its various applications in the study of pure fluid and mixtures as refrigerants, working fluids, natural gases and the study of heat pumps, refrigeration cycles, organic Rankine cycles, trilateral cycles and power flash cycles. It also presents an accurate parameterisation of the BACKONE EOS for the low global warming potential working fluid 3,3,3-trifluoropropene (HFO-1243zf). The average absolute deviations (AAD) between experimental vapour pressure and saturated liquid density data from those of the BACKONE EOS are 0.12% and 0.08%, respectively. The BACKONE EOS for HFO-1243zf also predicts thermodynamic data accurately. The AAD between the BACKONE predicted values and experimental data are 0.20% for sub-cooled liquid density and 0.56% for gaseous pressure.

Use of a CO2 laser to prepare chondrule-like spherules from supercooled molten oxide and silicate droplets.

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nelson, L. S.; Blander, M.; Keil, K.; Skaggs, S. R.

1972-01-01

Chondrule-like spherules were formed from individual freely falling subcooled droplets of alumina, enstatite, forsterite, enstatite-albite and forsterite-albite mixtures that had been melted with a focused continuous CO2 laser beam. Their textures (rimmed, excentro-radial, barred, glassy) are strikingly similar to those of many meteoritic chondrules. It is suggested that the phenomena associated with rapid crystallization from the supercooled melt are responsible for the various textures observed in the artificial spherules as well as in similar meteoritic chondrules. It is suggested that the textures observed would also result from rapid crystallization of relatively slowly cooling molten droplets that may have been produced in larger scale events, including condensation from a nebula of solar composition and solidification in an ambient medium of high temperature.

Thermodynamic design of 10 kW Brayton cryocooler for HTS cable

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Ho-Myung; Park, C. W.; Yang, H. S.; Sohn, Song Ho; Lim, Ji Hyun; Oh, S. R.; Hwang, Si Dole

2012-06-01

Thermodynamic design of Brayton cryocooler is presented as part of an ongoing governmental project in Korea, aiming at 1 km HTS power cable in the transmission grid. The refrigeration requirement is 10 kW for continuously sub-cooling liquid nitrogen from 72 K to 65 K. An ideal Brayton cycle for this application is first investigated to examine the fundamental features. Then a practical cycle for a Brayton cryocooler is designed, taking into account the performance of compressor, expander, and heat exchangers. Commercial software (Aspen HYSYS) is used for simulating the refrigeration cycle with real fluid properties of refrigerant. Helium is selected as a refrigerant, as it is superior to neon in thermodynamic efficiency. The operating pressure and flow rate of refrigerant are decided with a constraint to avoid the freezing of liquid nitrogen

Combined refrigeration system with a liquid pre-cooling heat exchanger

DOEpatents

Gaul, Christopher J.

2003-07-01

A compressor-pump unit for use in a vapor-compression refrigeration system is provided. The compressor-pump unit comprises a driving device including a rotatable shaft. A compressor is coupled with a first portion of the shaft for compressing gaseous refrigerant within the vapor-compression refrigeration system. A liquid pump is coupled with a second portion of the shaft for receiving liquid refrigerant having a first pressure and for discharging the received liquid refrigerant at a second pressure with the second pressure being higher than the first pressure by a predetermined amount such that the discharged liquid refrigerant is subcooled. A pre-cooling circuit is connected to the liquid pump with the pre-cooling circuit being exposed to the gaseous refrigerant whereby the gaseous refrigerant absorbs heat from the liquid refrigerant, prior to the liquid refrigerant entering the liquid pump.

Treatment of TNT red water by layer melt crystallization.

PubMed

Jo, Jeong-Hyeon; Ernest, Takyi; Kim, Kwang-Joo

2014-09-15

Treatment of the red water, which is wastewater of 2,4,6- trinitrotoluene (TNT) manufacturing process has been explored using ice crystallization. This study focuses on the formation of ice crystals from the red water in a layer crystallizer under various operating conditions. Among the parameters which affect layer crystallization, attention was given to cooling rate, cooling temperature, sweating rate and concentration of the red water. The study highlights the effect of subcooling and growth rate on purity of the ice crystalline layers produced. After sweating, the COD value of crystalline ice layer was significantly reduced from 10,000 mg/L to below 20mg/L. Most organic contaminants were removed in sweating fractions of 0.5. Eventually, the red water was treated by layer crystallization combined with the sweating process. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Development of a low temperature phase change material package. [for spacecraft thermal control

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Brennan, P. J.; Suelau, H. J.; Mcintosh, R.

1977-01-01

Test data obtained for a low temperature phase change material (PCM) canisters are presented. The canister was designed to provide up to 30 w-hrs of storage capacity at approximately -90 C with an overall thermal conductance which is greater than 8 w/deg C. N-heptane which is an n-paraffin and has a -90.6 C freezing point was used as the working fluid. The canister was fabricated from aluminum and has an aluminum honeycomb core. Its void volume permits service temperatures up to 70 C. Results obtained from component and system's tests indicate well defined melting and freezing points which are repeatable and within 1 C of each other. Subcooling effects are less than 0.5 C and are essentially negligible. Measured storage capacities are within 94 to 88% the theoretical.

Centaur propellant acquisition system study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blatt, M. H.; Walter, M. D.

1975-01-01

A study was performed to determine the desirability of replacing the hydrogen peroxide settling system on the Centaur D-1S with a capillary acquisition system. A comprehensive screening was performed to select the most promising capillary device fluid acquisition, thermal conditioning, and fabrication techniques. Refillable start baskets and bypass feed start tanks were selected for detailed design. Critical analysis areas were settling and refilling, start sequence development with an initially dry boost pump, and cooling the fluid delivered to the boost pump in order to provide necessary net position suction head (NPSH). Design drawings were prepared for the start basket and start tank concepts for both LO2 and LH2 tanks. System comparisons indicated that the start baskets using wicking for thermal conditioning, and thermal subcooling for boost pump NPSH, are the most desirable systems for future development.

Centaur propellant acquisition system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blatt, M. H.; Aydelott, J. C.

1975-01-01

The desirability of replacing the hydrogen peroxide settling system of the Centaur D-1S with a capillary acquisition system was evaluated. A comprehensive screening was performed to select the most promising capillary device fluid acquisition, thermal conditioning, and fabrication techniques. Refillable start baskets and bypass feed start tanks were selected for detailed design. Critical analysis areas were settling and refilling, start sequence development with an initially dry boost pump, and cooling the fluid delivered to the boost pump to provide the necessary net positive suction head (NPSH). Design drawings were prepared for start basket and start tank concepts for both the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen tanks. System comparisons indicated that the start baskets using wicking flow for thermal conditioning, and thermal subcooling for providing boost pump NPSH, are the most desirable systems for future Centaur acquisition system development.

Analysis and Modeling of a Two-Phase Jet Pump of a Thermal Management System for Aerospace Applications

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherif, S.A.; Hunt, P. L.; Holladay, J. B.; Lear, W. E.; Steadham, J. M.

1998-01-01

Jet pumps are devices capable of pumping fluids to a higher pressure by inducing the motion of a secondary fluid employing a high speed primary fluid. The main components of a jet pump are a primary nozzle, secondary fluid injectors, a mixing chamber, a throat, and a diffuser. The work described in this paper models the flow of a two-phase primary fluid inducing a secondary liquid (saturated or subcooled) injected into the jet pump mixing chamber. The model is capable of accounting for phase transformations due to compression, expansion, and mixing. The model is also capable of incorporating the effects of the temperature and pressure dependency in the analysis. The approach adopted utilizes an isentropic constant pressure mixing in the mixing chamber and at times employs iterative techniques to determine the flow conditions in the different parts of the jet pump.

System for cooling hybrid vehicle electronics, method for cooling hybrid vehicle electronics

DOEpatents

France, David M.; Yu, Wenhua; Singh, Dileep; Zhao, Weihuan

2017-11-21

The invention provides a single radiator cooling system for use in hybrid electric vehicles, the system comprising a surface in thermal communication with electronics, and subcooled boiling fluid contacting the surface. The invention also provides a single radiator method for simultaneously cooling electronics and an internal combustion engine in a hybrid electric vehicle, the method comprising separating a coolant fluid into a first portion and a second portion; directing the first portion to the electronics and the second portion to the internal combustion engine for a time sufficient to maintain the temperature of the electronics at or below 175.degree. C.; combining the first and second portion to reestablish the coolant fluid; and treating the reestablished coolant fluid to the single radiator for a time sufficient to decrease the temperature of the reestablished coolant fluid to the temperature it had before separation.

Experimental Studies of Liquefaction and Densification of Liquid Oxygen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Partridge, Jonathan Koert

2010-01-01

The propellant combination that offers optimum performance is very reactive with a low average molecular weight of the resulting combustion products. Propellant combinations such as oxygen and hydrogen meet the above criteria, however, the propellants in gaseous form require large propellant tanks due to the low density of gas. Thus, rocketry employs cryogenic refrigeration to provide a more dense propellant stored as a liquid. In addition to propellant liquefaction, cryogenic refrigeration can also conserve propellant and provide propellant subcooling and propellant densification. Previous studies analyzed vapor conditioning of a cryogenic propellant, with the vapor conditioning by either a heat exchanger position in the vapor or by using the vapor in a refrigeration cycle as the working fluid. This study analyzes the effects of refrigeration heat exchanger located in the liquid of the common propellant oxidizer, liquid oxygen. This study predicted and determined the mass condensation rate and heat transfer coefficient for liquid oxygen.

Creating nanoscale emulsions using condensation.

PubMed

Guha, Ingrid F; Anand, Sushant; Varanasi, Kripa K

2017-11-08

Nanoscale emulsions are essential components in numerous products, ranging from processed foods to novel drug delivery systems. Existing emulsification methods rely either on the breakup of larger droplets or solvent exchange/inversion. Here we report a simple, scalable method of creating nanoscale water-in-oil emulsions by condensing water vapor onto a subcooled oil-surfactant solution. Our technique enables a bottom-up approach to forming small-scale emulsions. Nanoscale water droplets nucleate at the oil/air interface and spontaneously disperse within the oil, due to the spreading dynamics of oil on water. Oil-soluble surfactants stabilize the resulting emulsions. We find that the oil-surfactant concentration controls the spreading behavior of oil on water, as well as the peak size, polydispersity, and stability of the resulting emulsions. Using condensation, we form emulsions with peak radii around 100 nm and polydispersities around 10%. This emulsion formation technique may open different routes to creating emulsions, colloidal systems, and emulsion-based materials.

Flight qualified solid argon cooler for the BBXRT instrument. [Broad Band X Ray Telescope for ASTRO-1 payload

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cygnarowicz, Thomas A.; Schein, Michael E.; Lindauer, David A.; Scarlotti, Roger; Pederson, Robert

1990-01-01

A solid argon cooler (SAC) for attached Shuttle payloads has been developed and qualified to meet the need for low cost cooling of flight instruments to the temperature range of 60-120 K. The SACs have been designed and tested with the intent of flying them up to five times. Two coolers, as part of the Broad Band X-ray Telescope (BBXRT) instrument on the ASTRO-1 payload, are awaiting launch on Space Shuttle mission STS-35. This paper describes the design, testing and performance of the SAC and its vacuum maintenance system (VMS), used to maintain the argon as a solid during launch delays of up to 5 days. BBXRT cryogen system design features used to satisfy Shuttle safety requirements are discussed, along with SAC ground servicing equipment (GSE) and procedures used to fill, freeze and subcool the argon.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Boreyko, Jonathan B.; Srijanto, Bernadeta R.; Nguyen, Trung Dac

Water suspended on chilled superhydrophobic surfaces exhibits delayed freezing; however, the interdrop growth of frost through subcooled condensate forming on the surface seems unavoidable in humid environments. It is therefore of great practical importance to determine whether facile defrosting is possible on superhydrophobic surfaces. Here in this paper, we report that nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces promote the growth of frost in a suspended Cassie state, enabling its dynamic removal upon partial melting at low tilt angles (<15°). The dynamic removal of the melting frost occurred in two stages: spontaneous dewetting followed by gravitational mobilization. This dynamic defrosting phenomenon is driven bymore » the low contact angle hysteresis of the defrosted meltwater relative to frost on microstructured superhydrophobic surfaces, which forms in the impaled Wenzel state. Dynamic defrosting on nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces minimizes the time, heat, and gravitational energy required to remove frost from the surface, and is of interest for a variety of systems in cold and humid environments.« less

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fincke, J.R.; Swank, W.D.; Haggard, D.C.

This paper describes the experimental demonstration of a process for the direct plasma reduction of depleted uranium hexafluoride to uranium metal. The process exploits the large departures from equilibrium that can be achieved in the rapid supersonic expansion of a totally dissociated and partially ionized mixture of UF{sub 6}, Ar, He, and H{sub 2}. The process is based on the rapid condensation of subcooled uranium vapor and the relatively slow rate of back reaction between metallic uranium and HF to F{sub 2} to reform stable fluorides. The high translational velocities and rapid cooling result in an overpopulation of atomic hydrogenmore » which persists throughout the expansion process. Atomic hydrogen shifts the equilibrium composition by inhibiting the reformation of uranium-fluorine compounds. This process has the potential to reduce the cost of reducing UF{sub 6} to uranium metal with the added benefit of being a virtually waste free process. The dry HF produced is a commodity which has industrial value.« less

Numerical Simulation of Liquid Nitrogen Chilldown of a Vertical Tube

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Darr, Samuel; Hu, Hong; Schaeffer, Reid; Chung, Jacob; Hartwig, Jason; Majumdar, Alok

2015-01-01

This paper presents the results of a one-dimensional numerical simulation of the transient chilldown of a vertical stainless steel tube with liquid nitrogen. The direction of flow is downward (with gravity) through the tube. Heat transfer correlations for film, transition, and nucleate boiling, as well as critical heat flux, rewetting temperature, and the temperature at the onset of nucleate boiling were used to model the convection to the tube wall. Chilldown curves from the simulations were compared with data from 55 recent liquid nitrogen chilldown experiments. With these new correlations the simulation is able to predict the time to rewetting temperature and time to onset of nucleate boiling to within 25% for mass fluxes ranging from 61.2 to 1150 kg/(sq m s), inlet pressures from 175 to 817 kPa, and subcooled inlet temperatures from 0 to 14 K below the saturation temperature.

Design, Fabrication, and Testing of an Auxiliary Cooling System for Jet Engines

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Leamy, Kevin; Griffiths, Jim; Andersen, Paul; Joco, Fidel; Laski, Mark; Balser, Jeffrey (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

This report summarizes the technical effort of the Active Cooling for Enhanced Performance (ACEP) program sponsored by NASA. It covers the design, fabrication, and integrated systems testing of a jet engine auxiliary cooling system, or turbocooler, that significantly extends the use of conventional jet fuel as a heat sink. The turbocooler is designed to provide subcooled cooling air to the engine exhaust nozzle system or engine hot section. The turbocooler consists of three primary components: (1) a high-temperature air cycle machine driven by engine compressor discharge air, (2) a fuel/ air heat exchanger that transfers energy from the hot air to the fuel and uses a coating to mitigate fuel deposits, and (3) a high-temperature fuel injection system. The details of the turbocooler component designs and results of the integrated systems testing are documented. Industry Version-Data and information deemed subject to Limited Rights restrictions are omitted from this document.

Boiling incipience and convective boiling of neon and nitrogen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Papell, S. S.; Hendricks, R. C.

1977-01-01

Forced convection and subcooled boiling heat transfer data for liquid nitrogen and liquid neon were obtained in support of a design study for a 30 tesla cryomagnet cooled by forced convection of liquid neon. This design precludes nucleate boiling in the flow channels as they are too small to handle vapor flow. Consequently, it was necessary to determine boiling incipience under the operating conditions of the magnet system. The cryogen data obtained over a range of system pressures, fluid flow rates, and applied heat fluxes were used to develop correlations for predicting boiling incipience and convective boiling heat transfer coefficients in uniformly heated flow channels. The accuracy of the correlating equations was then evaluated. A technique was also developed to calculate the position of boiling incipience in a uniformly heated flow channel. Comparisons made with the experimental data showed a prediction accuracy of plus or minus 15 percent

Design and test of a pumped two-phase mounting plate. [for spacecraft thermal control systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Grote, M. G.; Swanson, T. D.

1985-01-01

The design, fabrication, and testing of the full-scale development unit of a pumped two-phase mounting plate (TPMP) used in advanced two-phase spacecraft thermal control systems are described. The mounting plate is tested with R-11 in the evaporator mode for total heat loads of over 3000 watts and local heat fluxes over 4 W/sq cm, and in the condenser mode with condenser loads from 60 to 400 watts and inlet qualities from 8 to 94 percent. The calculated heat-transfer coefficients are between 0.66 and 1.0 W/sq cm/C and are nearly independent of the flow rate and heat load except at very low heat loads. It is shown that the TPMP can be run with inlet conditions down to 22 C subcooling without any significant gradients in the plate and that it performs well with nonuniform heat fluxes.

Moisture Separator Reheater for NPP Turbines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manabe, Jun; Kasahara, Jiro

This paper introduces the development of the current model Moisture Separator Reheater (MSR) for nuclear power plant (NPP) turbines, commercially placed in service in the period 1984-1997, focusing on the mist separation performance of the MSR along with drainage from heat exchanger tubes. A method of predicting the mist separation performance was devised first based on the observation of mist separation behaviors under an air-water test. Then the method was developed for the application to predict under the steam conditions, followed by the verification in comparison with the actual results of a steam condition test. The instability of tube drainage associated with both sub-cooling and temperature oscillation might adversely affect the seal welding of tubes to tube sheet due to thermal fatigue. The instability was measured on an existing unit to clarify behaviors and the development of a method to suppress them. Both methods were applied to newly constructed units and the effectiveness of the methods was demonstrated.

Critical heat flux phenomena depending on pre-pressurization in transient heat input

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, Jongdoc; Fukuda, Katsuya; Liu, Qiusheng

2017-07-01

The critical heat flux (CHF) levels that occurred due to exponential heat inputs for varying periods to a 1.0-mm diameter horizontal cylinder immersed in various liquids were measured to develop an extended database on the effect of various pressures and subcoolings by photographic study. Two main mechanisms of CHF were found. One mechanism is due to the time lag of the hydrodynamic instability (HI) which starts at steady-state CHF upon fully developed nucleate boiling, and the other mechanism is due to the explosive process of heterogeneous spontaneous nucleation (HSN) which occurs at a certain HSN superheat in originally flooded cavities on the cylinder surface. The incipience of boiling processes was completely different depending on pre-pressurization. Also, the dependence of pre-pressure in transient CHFs changed due to the wettability of boiling liquids. The objective of this work is to clarify the transient CHF phenomena due to HI or HSN by photographic.

Why solidification has an S-shaped history

PubMed Central

Bejan, A.; Lorente, S.; Yilbas, B. S.; Sahin, A. Z.

2013-01-01

Here we show theoretically that the history of solid growth during “rapid” solidification must be S-shaped, in accord with the constructal law of design in nature. In the beginning the rate of solidification increases and after reaching a maximum it decreases monotonically as the volume of solid tends toward a plateau. The S-history is a consequence of four configurations for the flow of heat from the solidification front to the subcooled surroundings, in this chronological order: solid spheres centered at nucleation sites, needles that invade longitudinally, radial growth by conduction, and finally radial lateral conduction to interstices that are warming up. The solid volume (Bs) vs time (t) is an S-curve because it is a power law of type Bs ~ tn where the exponent n first increases and then decreases in time (n = 3/2, 2, 1, …). The initial portion of the S curve is not an exponential.

Condensation induced water hammer driven sterilization

DOEpatents

Kullberg, Craig M.

2004-05-11

A method and apparatus (10) for treating a fluid or materials therein with acoustic energy has a vessel (14) for receiving the fluid with inner walls shaped to focus acoustic energy to a target zone within the vessel. One or more nozzles (26) are directed into the vessel (14) for injecting a condensable vapor, such as steam, into the vessel (14). The system may include a steam source (18) for providing steam as the condensable vapor from an industrial waste heat source. Steam drums (88) are disposed between the steam source (18) and nozzles (26) to equalize and distribute the vapor pressure. A cooling source (30) provides a secondary fluid for maintaining the liquid in the vessel (14) in subcooled conditions. A heating jacket (32) surrounds the vessel (14) to heat the walls of the vessel (14) and prevent biological growth thereon. A pressurizer (33) may operate the system at elevated pressures.

New application of plate-fin heat exchanger with regenerative cryocoolers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chang, Ho-Myung; Gwak, Kyung Hyun

2015-09-01

A design idea is newly proposed and investigated for the application of plate-fin heat exchanger (PFHX) with regenerative cryocoolers. The role of this heat exchanger is to effectively absorb heat from the stream of coolant and deliver it to the cold-head of a cryocooler. While various types of tubular HX's have been developed so far, a small PFHX could be more useful for this purpose by taking advantage of compactness and design flexibility. In order to confirm the feasibility and effectiveness, a prototype of aluminum-brazed PFHX is designed, fabricated, and tested with a single-stage GM cryocooler in experiments for subcooling liquid nitrogen from 78 K to 65-70 K. The results show that the PFHX is 30-50% more effective in cooling rate than the tubular HX's. Several potential applications of PFHX are presented and discussed with specific design concepts.

An experimental investigation on liquid methane heat transfer enhancement through the use of longitudinal fins in cooling channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galvan, Manuel de Jesus

In the past years, hydrocarbon fuels have been the focus of attention as the interest in developing reusable, high-performing liquid rocket engines has grown. Liquid methane (LCH4) has been of particular interest because of the cost, handling, and storage advantages that it presents when compared to currently used propellants. Deep space exploration requires thrusters that can operate reliably during long-duration missions. One of the challenges in the development of a reliable engine has been providing adequate combustion chamber cooling to prevent engine failure. Regenerative (regen) cooling has presented itself as an appealing option because it provides improved cooling and engine efficiency over other types of cooling, such as film or dump cooling. Due to limited availability of experimental sub-critical liquid methane cooling data for pressure-fed regen engine design, there has been an interest in studying the heat transfer characteristics of the propellant. For this reason, recent experimental studies at the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) have focused on investigating the heat transfer characteristics of sub-critical CH4 flowing through smooth sub-scale cooling channels. In addition to investigating smooth channels, the cSETR has conducted experiments to investigate the effects of internal longitudinal fins on the heat transfer of methane. To conduct the experiments, the cSETR developed a conduction-based thermal concentrator known as the High Heat Flux Test Facility (HHFTF) in which the channels are heated. In this study, a smooth channel and three channels with longitudinal fins all with cross sectional geometries of 3.2 mm x 3.2 mm were tested. The Nusselt numbers ranged from 70 and 510, and Reynolds numbers were between 50,000 and 128,000. Sub-cooled film-boiling phenomena were discovered in the data pertaining to the smooth and two finned channels. Sub-cooled film-boiling was not observed in the channel that had the fins with the highest height. Film-boiling onset at Critical Heat Flux (CHF) was correlated to a Boiling Number (Bo) of approximately 0.1 for the channels studies. Convective Nusselt number follows predicted trends for Reynolds number with a wall temperature correction factor for both the boiling and non-boiling regimes.

The impact of viscosity on the combined heat, mass and momentum transfer in laminar liquid falling films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mittermaier, M.; Ziegler, F.

2018-04-01

In this article we present a model describing a laminar film flow over a vertical isothermal plate whilst heat and mass transfer is occurring. We focus on a formulation where most common assumptions, such as constant property data and constant film thickness, have been cancelled. The hydrodynamic model results in longitudinal and transversal velocity components and their evolution in the entrance region. Heat and mass transfer occurs simultaneously and is modelled with respect to release of differential heat of solution as well as heat flow due to interdiffusion. The numerical solution is obtained by utilising a Newton-Raphson method to solve the finite difference formulation of the governing equations. Mass transfer across the film affects the development of both longitudinal and transversal velocity components. The hydrodynamics are modelled using a boundary layer approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The significance of simplifications on the hydrodynamic model are illustrated and discussed using a fully developed velocity profile (Nusselt flow) and a plug flow at the inlet for comparison. Even if a Nusselt profile is assumed, it develops further since mass is absorbed or desorbed. It is found that the onset of absorption occurs at shorter flow length when applying a plug flow at the inlet. If the film is initially in equilibrium, this results in a 9.3% increase in absorbed mass over a length of 0.03 m as compared with the Nusselt flow. A fluid with a viscosity five times the one of lithium bromide solution but sharing comparable properties apart from that, leads to lower overall heat and mass transfer rates. If the respective fluids are saturated at the inlet, the accumulated mass flux absorbed by lithium bromide solution is 2.2 times higher than the one absorbed by a high viscous fluid. However, when a plug flow is applied and the fluid is sub-cooled, ab initio the absorbed mass flux is slightly higher for a high viscous fluid. Assuming a sub-cooling of 3 K at the inlet, lithium bromide solution now only performs around 11% better as compared with a high viscous fluid over the considered length of 0.03 m. The code may be downloaded from: https://github.com/mittermaier/hmt.

Ignition Characterization Tests of the LOX/Ethanol Propellant Combination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Popp, Christopher G.; Robinson, Philip J.; Veith, Eric M.

2004-01-01

A series of contracts have been issued by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to explore candidate technologies considered to be important for the Next Generation Launch Technology (NGLT) effort. One aspect of the NGLT effort is to explore the potential of incorporating non-toxic propellants for Reaction Control Subsystems (RCS). Contract NAS8-01109 has been issued to Aerojet to develop a dual thrust Reaction Control Engine (RCE) that utilizes liquid oxygen and ethanol as the propellants. The dual thrust RCE incorporates a primary thrust level of 870 lbf, and a vernier thrust level of 10 - 30 lbf. Aerojet has designed and tested a workhorse LOX igniter to determine LOX/Ethanol ignition characteristics as part of a risk mitigation effort for the dual thrust RCE design. The objective of the ignition testing was to demonstrate successfid ignition from GOX to LOX, encompassing potential two-phase flow conditions. The workhorse igniter was designed to accommodate the full LOX design flowrate, as well as a reduced GOX flowrate. It was reasoned that the initial LOX flow through the igniter would flash to GOX due to the inherent heat stored in the hardware, causing a reduced oxygen flowrate because of a choked, or sonic, flow condition through the injection elements. As LOX flow continued, the inherent heat of the test hardware would be removed and the hardware would chill-in, with the injected oxygen flow transitioning from cold GOX through two-phase flow to subcooled LOX. Pressure and temperature instrumentation permitted oxygen state points to be determined, and gas-side igniter chamber thermocouples provided chamber thermal profile characteristics. The cold flow chamber pressure (P(sub c)) for each test was determined and coupled with the igniter chamber diameter (D(sub c)) to calculate the characteristic quench parameter (P(sub c) x D(sub c)), which was plotted as a function of core mixture ratio, MR(sub c). Ignition limits were determined over a broad range of valve inlet conditions, and ignition was demonstrated with oxygen inlet conditions that ranged from subcooled 173 R LOX to 480 R GQX. Once ignited at cold GOX conditions, combustion was continuous as the hardware chilled in and the core mixture ratio transitioned from values near 1.0 to over 12.5.

Design and development of a direct injection system for cryogenic engines

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mutumba, Angela; Cheeseman, Kevin; Clarke, Henry; Wen, Dongsheng

2018-04-01

The cryogenic engine has received increasing attention due to its promising potential as a zero-emission engine. In this study, a new robust liquid nitrogen injection system was commissioned and set up to perform high-pressure injections into an open vessel. The system is used for quasi-steady flow tests used for the characterisation of the direct injection process for cryogenic engines. An electro-hydraulic valve actuator provides intricate control of the valve lift, with a minimum cycle time of 3 ms and a frequency of up to 20 Hz. With additional sub-cooling, liquid phase injections from 14 to 94 bar were achieved. Results showed an increase in the injected mass with the increase in pressure, and decrease in temperature. The injected mass was also observed to increases linearly with the valve lift. Better control of the injection process, minimises the number of variables, providing more comparable and repeatable sets of data. Implications of the results on the engine performance were also discussed.

Attenuation of the Atmospheric Migration Ability of Polychlorinated Naphthalenes (PCN-2) Based on Three-dimensional QSAR Models with Full Factor Experimental Design.

PubMed

Gu, Wenwen; Chen, Ying; Li, Yu

2017-08-01

Based on the experimental subcooled liquid vapor pressures (P L ) of 17 polychlorinated naphthalene (PCN) congeners, one type of three-dimensional quantitative structure-activity relationship (3D-QSAR) models, comparative molecular similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA), was constructed with Sybyl software. Full factor experimental design was used to obtain the final regulation scheme for PCN, and then carry out modification of PCN-2 to significantly lower its P L . The contour maps of CoMSIA model showed that the migration ability of PCN decreases when the Cl atoms at the 2-, 3-, 4-, 5-, 6-, 7- and 8-positions of PCNs are replaced by electropositive groups. After modification of PCN-2, 12 types of new modified PCN-2 compounds were obtained with lnP L values two orders of magnitude lower than that of PCN-2. In addition, there are significant differences between the calculated total energies and energy gaps of the new modified compounds and those of PCN-2.

Investigative techniques used to locate the liquid hydrogen leakage on the Space Shuttle Main Propulsion System

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hammock, William R., Jr.; Cota, Phillip E., Jr.; Rosenbaum, Bernard J.; Barrett, Michael J.

1991-01-01

Standard leak detection methods at ambient temperature have been developed in order to prevent excessive leakage from the Space Shuttle liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen Main Propulsion System. Unacceptable hydrogen leakage was encountered on the Columbia and Atlantis flight vehicles in the summer of 1990 after the standard leak check requirements had been satisfied. The leakage was only detectable when the fuel system was exposed to subcooled liquid hydrogen during External Tank loading operations. Special instrumentation and analytical tools were utilized during a series of propellant tanking tests in order to identify the sources of the hydrogen leakage. After the leaks were located and corrected, the physical characteristics of the leak sources were analyzed in an effort to understand how the discrepancies were introduced and why the leakage had evaded the standard leak detection methods. As a result of the post-leak analysis, corrective actions and leak detection improvements have been implemented in order to preclude a similar incident.

Bearing tester data compilation, analysis, and reporting and bearing math modeling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1986-01-01

A test condition data base was developed for the Bearing and Seal Materials Tester (BSMT) program which permits rapid retrieval of test data for trend analysis and evaluation. A model was developed for the Space shuttle Main Engine (SSME) Liquid Oxygen (LOX) turbopump shaft/bearing system. The model was used to perform parametric analyses to determine the sensitivity of bearing operating characteristics and temperatures to variations in: axial preload, contact friction, coolant flow and subcooling, heat transfer coefficients, outer race misalignments, and outer race to isolator clearances. The bearing program ADORE (Advanced Dynamics of Rolling Elements) was installed on the UNIVAC 1100/80 computer system and is operational. ADORE is an advanced FORTRAN computer program for the real time simulation of the dynamic performance of rolling bearings. A model of the 57 mm turbine-end bearing is currently being checked out. Analyses were conducted to estimate flow work energy for several flow diverter configurations and coolant flow rates for the LOX BSMT.

A study of forced convection boiling under reduced gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merte, Herman, Jr.

1992-01-01

This report presents the results of activities conducted over the period 1/2/85-12/31/90, in which the study of forced convection boiling under reduced gravity was initiated. The study seeks to improve the understanding of the basic processes that constitute forced convection boiling by removing the buoyancy effects which may mask other phenomena. Specific objectives may also be expressed in terms of the following questions: (1) what effects, if any, will the removal of body forces to the lowest possible levels have on the forced convection boiling heat transfer processes in well-defined and meaningful circumstances? (this includes those effects and processes associated with the nucleation or onset of boiling during the transient increase in heater surface temperature, as well as the heat transfer and vapor bubble behaviors with established or steady-state conditions); and (2) if such effects are present, what are the boundaries of the relevant parameters such as heat flux, heater surface superheat, fluid velocity, bulk subcooling, and geometric/orientation relationships within which such effects will be produced?

Light scattering methods to test inorganic PCMs for application in buildings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

De Paola, M. G.; Calabrò, V.; De Simone, M.

2017-10-01

Thermal performance and stability over time are key parameters for the characterization and application of PCMs in the building sector. Generally, inorganic PCMs are dispersions of hydrated salts and additives in water that counteract phase segregation phenomena and subcooling. Traditional methods or in “house” methods can be used for evaluating thermal properties, while stability can be estimated over time by using optical techniques. By considering this double approach, in this work thermal and structural analyses of Glauber salt based composite PCMs are conducted by means of non-conventional equipment: T-history method (thermal analysis) and Turbiscan (stability analysis). Three samples with the same composition (Glauber salt with additives) were prepared by using different sonication times and their thermal performances were compared by testing both the thermal cycling and the thermal properties. The stability of the mixtures was verified by the identification of destabilization phenomena, the evaluation of the migration velocities of particles and the estimation of variation of particle size.

Condensation Dynamics on Mimicked Metal Matrix Hydrophobic Nanoparticle-Composites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Damle, Viraj; Sun, Xiaoda; Rykaczewski, Konrad

2014-11-01

Use of hydrophobic surfaces promotes condensation in the dropwise mode, which is significantly more efficient than the common filmwise mode. However, limited longevity of hydrophobic surface modifiers has prevented their wide spread use in industry. Recently, metal matrix composites (MMCs) having microscale hydrophobic heterogeneities dispersed in hydrophilic metal matrix have been proposed as durable and self-healing alternative to hydrophobic surface coatings interacting with deposited water droplets. While dispersion of hydrophobic microparticles in MMC is likely to lead to surface flooding during condensation, the effect of dispersion of hydrophobic nanoparticles (HNPs) with size comparable to water nuclei critical radii and spacing is not obvious. To this end, we fabricated highly ordered arrays of Teflon nanospheres on silicon substrates that mimic the top surface of the MMCs with dispersed HNPs. We used light and electron microscopy to observe breath figures resulting from condensation on these surfaces at varied degrees of subcooling. Here, we discuss the relation between the droplet size distribution, Teflon nanosphere diameter and spacing, and condensation mode. KR acknowledges startup funding from ASU.

Superfluid high REynolds von Kármán experiment.

PubMed

Rousset, B; Bonnay, P; Diribarne, P; Girard, A; Poncet, J M; Herbert, E; Salort, J; Baudet, C; Castaing, B; Chevillard, L; Daviaud, F; Dubrulle, B; Gagne, Y; Gibert, M; Hébral, B; Lehner, Th; Roche, P-E; Saint-Michel, B; Bon Mardion, M

2014-10-01

The Superfluid High REynolds von Kármán experiment facility exploits the capacities of a high cooling power refrigerator (400 W at 1.8 K) for a large dimension von Kármán flow (inner diameter 0.78 m), which can work with gaseous or subcooled liquid (He-I or He-II) from room temperature down to 1.6 K. The flow is produced between two counter-rotating or co-rotating disks. The large size of the experiment allows exploration of ultra high Reynolds numbers based on Taylor microscale and rms velocity [S. B. Pope, Turbulent Flows (Cambridge University Press, 2000)] (Rλ > 10000) or resolution of the dissipative scale for lower Re. This article presents the design and first performance of this apparatus. Measurements carried out in the first runs of the facility address the global flow behavior: calorimetric measurement of the dissipation, torque and velocity measurements on the two turbines. Moreover first local measurements (micro-Pitot, hot wire,…) have been installed and are presented.

Numerical Study of Unsteady Flow in Centrifugal Cold Compressor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Ning; Zhang, Peng; Wu, Jihao; Li, Qing

In helium refrigeration system, high-speed centrifugal cold compressor is utilized to pumped gaseous helium from saturated liquid helium tank at low temperature and low pressure for producing superfluid helium or sub-cooled helium. Stall and surge are common unsteady flow phenomena in centrifugal cold compressors which severely limit operation range and impact efficiency reliability. In order to obtain the installed range of cold compressor, unsteady flow in the case of low mass flow or high pressure ratio is investigated by the CFD. From the results of the numerical analysis, it can be deduced that the pressure ratio increases with the decrease in reduced mass flow. With the decrease of the reduced mass flow, backflow and vortex are intensified near the shroud of impeller. The unsteady flow will not only increase the flow loss, but also damage the compressor. It provided a numerical foundation of analyzing the effect of unsteady flow field and reducing the flow loss, and it is helpful for the further study and able to instruct the designing.

Calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions in the Allende meteorite - Evidence for a liquid origin

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blander, M.; Fuchs, L. H.

1975-01-01

We have made a detailed examination of the mineralogy, textures, and assemblages of six calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAI) in the Allende meteorite. They can be classified into four types - hibonite-bearing, fassaite- and olivine-bearing, feldspathoid-bearing and fassaite-bearing CAI that are hibonite and olivine free. Examples of each type appear to have crystallized from a liquid rather than by agglomeration of solid nebular condensates. Some lines of evidence for a liquid origin are the presence of spherical and ovoid shapes and rims containing minerals that are more refractory than minerals inside the inclusion. Thermodynamic calculations and comparisons with liquidus phase diagrams indicate that the CAI could have been produced by direct condensation to metastable subcooled liquids that subsequently crystallized or by remelting of an equilibrium high-temperature condensate by impact. The diopside rims in some hibonite-bearing CAI and the paucity of metal in fassaite-olivine-bearing CAI are more consistent with direct condensation of a liquid.

Three-Dimensional Superhydrophobic Nanowire Networks for Enhancing Condensation Heat Transfer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Yang, Ronggui; Wen, Rongfu; Xu, Shanshan

Spontaneous droplet jumping on nanostructured surfaces can potentially enhance condensation heat transfer by accelerating droplet removal. However, uncontrolled nucleation in the micro-defects of nanostructured superhydrophobic surfaces could lead to the formation of large pinned droplets, which greatly degrades the performance. Here, we experimentally demonstrate for the first time stable and efficient jumping droplet condensation on a superhydrophobic surface with three-dimensional (3D) copper nanowire networks. Due to the formation of interconnections among nanowires, the micro-defects are eliminated while the spacing between nanowires is reduced, which results in the formation of highly mobile droplets. By preventing flooding on 3D nanowire networks, wemore » experimentally demonstrate a 100% higher heat flux compared with that on the state-of-the-art hydrophobic surface over a wide range of subcooling (up to 28 K). The remarkable water repellency of 3D nanowire networks can be applied to a broad range of water-harvesting and phase-change heat transfer applications.« less

Development of a thermal-hydraulics experimental system for high Tc superconductors cooled by liquid hydrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tatsumoto, H.; Shirai, Y.; Shiotsu, M.; Hata, K.; Kobayashi, H.; Naruo, Y.; Inatani, Y.; Kato, T.; Futakawa, M.; Kinoshita, K.

2010-06-01

A thermal-hydraulics experimental system of liquid hydrogen was developed in order to investigate the forced flow heat transfer characteristics in the various cooling channels for wide ranges of subcoolings, flow velocities, and pressures up to supercritical. A main tank is connected to a sub tank through a hydrogen transfer line with a control valve. A channel heater is located at one end of the transfer line in the main tank. Forced flow through the channel is produced by adjusting the pressure difference between the tanks and the valve opening. The mass flow rate is measured from the weight change of the main tank. For the explosion protection, electrical equipments are covered with a nitrogen gas blanket layer and a remote control system was established. The first cryogenic performance tests confirmed that the experimental system had satisfied with the required performances. The forced convection heat transfer characteristics was successfully measured at the pressure of 0.7 MPa for various flow velocities.

Study of liquid and vapor flow into a Centaur capillary device

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Blatt, M. H.; Risberg, J. A.

1979-01-01

The following areas of liquid and vapor flow were analyzed and experimentally evaluated; 1) the refilling of capillary devices with settled liquid, and 2) vapor flow across wetted screens. These investigations resulted in: 1) the development of a versatile computer program that was successfully correlated with test data and used to predict Centaur D-1S LO2 and LH2 start basket refilling; 2) the development of a semi-empirical model that was only partially correlated with data due to difficulties in obtaining repeatable test results. Also, a comparison was made to determine the best propellant management system for the Centaur D-1S vehicle. The comparison identified the basline Centaur D-1S system (using pressurization, boost pumps and propellant settling) as the best candidate based on payload weight penalty. However, other comparison criteria and advanced mission condition were identified where pressure fed systems, thermally subcooled boost pumps and capillary devices would be selected as attractive alternatives.

Determination of the Accomodation Coefficient Using Vapor/Gas Bubble Dynamics in an Acoustic Field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gumerov, Nail A.

1999-01-01

Non-equilibrium liquid/vapor phase transformations can occur in superheated or subcooled liquids in fast processes such as in evaporation in a vacuum, in processing of molten metals, and in vapor explosions. The rate at which such a phase transformation occurs, Xi, can be described by the Hertz-Knudsen-Langmuir formula. More than one century of the history of the accommodation coefficient measurements shows many problems with its determination. This coefficient depends on the temperature, is sensitive to the conditions at the interface, and is influenced by small amounts of impurities. Even recent measurements of the accommodation coefficient for water (Hagen et al, 1989) showed a huge variation in Beta from 1 for 1 micron droplets to 0.006 for 15 micron droplets. Moreover, existing measurement techniques for the accommodation coefficient are complex and expensive. Thus development of a relatively inexpensive and reliable technique for measurement of the accommodation coefficient for a wide range of substances and temperatures is of great practical importance.

Two-phase flow research using the DC-9/KC-135 apparatus

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

McQuillen, John B.; Neumann, Eric S.; Shoemaker, J. Michael

1996-01-01

Low-gravity gas-liquid flow research can be conducted aboard the NASA Lewis Research Center DC-9 or the Johnson Space Center KC-135. Air and water solutions serve as the test liquids in cylindrical test sections with constant or variable inner diameters of approximately 2.54 cm and lengths of up to 3.0 m. Superficial velocities range from 0.1 to 1.1 m/sec for liquids and from 0.1 to 25 m/sec for air. Flow rate, differential pressure, void fraction, film thickness, wall shear stress, and acceleration data are measured and recorded at data rates of up to 1000 Hz throughout the 20-sec duration of the experiment. Flow is visualized with a high-speed video system. In addition, the apparatus has a heat-transfer capability whereby sensible heat is transferred between the test-section wall and a subcooled liquid phase so that the heat-transfer characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flows can be determined.

Superfluid high REynolds von Kármán experiment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rousset, B.; Bonnay, P.; Diribarne, P.; Girard, A.; Poncet, J. M.; Herbert, E.; Salort, J.; Baudet, C.; Castaing, B.; Chevillard, L.; Daviaud, F.; Dubrulle, B.; Gagne, Y.; Gibert, M.; Hébral, B.; Lehner, Th.; Roche, P.-E.; Saint-Michel, B.; Bon Mardion, M.

2014-10-01

The Superfluid High REynolds von Kármán experiment facility exploits the capacities of a high cooling power refrigerator (400 W at 1.8 K) for a large dimension von Kármán flow (inner diameter 0.78 m), which can work with gaseous or subcooled liquid (He-I or He-II) from room temperature down to 1.6 K. The flow is produced between two counter-rotating or co-rotating disks. The large size of the experiment allows exploration of ultra high Reynolds numbers based on Taylor microscale and rms velocity [S. B. Pope, Turbulent Flows (Cambridge University Press, 2000)] (Rλ > 10000) or resolution of the dissipative scale for lower Re. This article presents the design and first performance of this apparatus. Measurements carried out in the first runs of the facility address the global flow behavior: calorimetric measurement of the dissipation, torque and velocity measurements on the two turbines. Moreover first local measurements (micro-Pitot, hot wire,…) have been installed and are presented.

Micro-bubble emission boiling with the cavitation bubble blow pit

PubMed Central

Inada, Shigeaki; Shinagawa, Kazuaki; Illias, Suhaimi Bin; Sumiya, Hiroyuki; Jalaludin, Helmisyah A.

2016-01-01

The miniaturization boiling (micro-bubble emission boiling [MEB]) phenomenon, with a high heat removal capacity that contributes considerably to the cooling of the divertor of the nuclear fusion reactor, was discovered in the early 1980s. Extensive research on MEB has been performed since its discovery. However, the progress of the application has been delayed because the generation mechanism of MEB remains unclear. Reasons for this lack of clarity include the complexity of the phenomenon itself and the high-speed phase change phenomenon in which boiling and condensation are rapidly generated. In addition, a more advanced thermal technique is required to realize the MEB phenomenon at the laboratory scale. To the authors’ knowledge, few studies have discussed the rush mechanism of subcooled liquid to the heating surface, which is critical to elucidating the mechanism behind MEB. This study used photographic images to verify that the cavitation phenomenon spreads to the inside of the superheated liquid on the heating surface and thus clarify the mechanism of MEB. PMID:27628271

Boiling Experiment Facility for Heat Transfer Studies in Microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delombard, Richard; McQuillen, John; Chao, David

2008-01-01

Pool boiling in microgravity is an area of both scientific and practical interest. By conducting tests in microgravity, it is possible to assess the effect of buoyancy on the overall boiling process and assess the relative magnitude of effects with regards to other "forces" and phenomena such as Marangoni forces, liquid momentum forces, and microlayer evaporation. The Boiling eXperiment Facility is now being built for the Microgravity Science Glovebox that will use normal perfluorohexane as a test fluid to extend the range of test conditions to include longer test durations and less liquid subcooling. Two experiments, the Microheater Array Boiling Experiment and the Nucleate Pool Boiling eXperiment will use the Boiling eXperiment Facility. The objectives of these studies are to determine the differences in local boiling heat transfer mechanisms in microgravity and normal gravity from nucleate boiling, through critical heat flux and into the transition boiling regime and to examine the bubble nucleation, growth, departure and coalescence processes. Custom-designed heaters will be utilized to achieve these objectives.

Atmospheric concentrations, sources and gas-particle partitioning of PAHs in Beijing after the 29th Olympic Games.

PubMed

Ma, Wan-Li; Sun, De-Zhi; Shen, Wei-Guo; Yang, Meng; Qi, Hong; Liu, Li-Yan; Shen, Ji-Min; Li, Yi-Fan

2011-07-01

A comprehensive sampling campaign was carried out to study atmospheric concentration of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Beijing and to evaluate the effectiveness of source control strategies in reducing PAHs pollution after the 29th Olympic Games. The sub-cooled liquid vapor pressure (logP(L)(o))-based model and octanol-air partition coefficient (K(oa))-based model were applied based on each seasonal dateset. Regression analysis among log K(P), logP(L)(o) and log K(oa) exhibited high significant correlations for four seasons. Source factors were identified by principle component analysis and contributions were further estimated by multiple linear regression. Pyrogenic sources and coke oven emission were identified as major sources for both the non-heating and heating seasons. As compared with literatures, the mean PAH concentrations before and after the 29th Olympic Games were reduced by more than 60%, indicating that the source control measures were effective for reducing PAHs pollution in Beijing. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Modeling of a Two-Phase Jet Pump with Phase Change, Shocks and Temperature-Dependent Properties

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sherif, S. A.

1998-01-01

One of the primary motivations behind this work is the attempt to understand the physics of a two-phase jet pump which constitutes part of a flow boiling test facility at NASA-Marshall. The flow boiling apparatus is intended to provide data necessary to design highly efficient two-phase thermal control systems for aerospace applications. The facility will also be capable of testing alternative refrigerants and evaluate their performance using various heat exchangers with enhanced surfaces. The test facility is also intended for use in evaluating single-phase performance of systems currently using CFC refrigerants. Literature dealing with jet pumps is abundant and covers a very wide array of application areas. Example application areas include vacuum pumps which are used in the food industry, power station work, and the chemical industry; ejector systems which have applications in the aircraft industry as cabin ventilators and for purposes of jet thrust augmentation; jet pumps which are used in the oil industry for oil well pumping; and steam-jet ejector refrigeration, to just name a few. Examples of work relevant to this investigation includes those of Fairuzov and Bredikhin (1995). While past researchers have been able to model the two-phase flow jet pump using the one-dimensional assumption with no shock waves and no phase change, there is no research known to the author apart from that of Anand (1992) who was able to account for condensation shocks. Thus, one of the objectives of this work is to model the dynamics of fluid interaction between a two-phase primary fluid and a subcooled liquid secondary fluid which is being injected employing atomizing spray injectors. The model developed accounts for phase transformations due to expansion, compression, and mixing. It also accounts for shock waves developing in the different parts of the jet pump as well as temperature and pressure dependencies of the fluid properties for both the primary two-phase mixture and the secondary subcooled liquid. The research effort on which this document partly reports described a relatively simple model capable of describing the performance of a two-phase flow jet pump. The model is based on the isentropic homogeneous expansion/compression hypothesis and is capable of fully incorporating the effects of shocks in both the mixing chamber and the throat/diffuser parts of the pump. The physical system chosen is identical to that experimentally tested by Fairuzov and Bredikhin (1995) and should therefore be relatively easy to validate.

Combustion Stability Characteristics of the Project Morpheus Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Methane Main Engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Melcher, J. C.; Morehead, Robert L.

2014-01-01

The Project Morpheus liquid oxygen (LOX) / liquid methane rocket engines demonstrated acousticcoupled combustion instabilities during sea-level ground-based testing at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) and Stennis Space Center (SSC). High-amplitude, 1T, 1R, 1T1R (and higher order) modes appear to be triggered by injector conditions. The instability occurred during the Morpheus-specific engine ignition/start sequence, and did demonstrate the capability to propagate into mainstage. However, the instability was never observed to initiate during mainstage, even at low power levels. The Morpheus main engine is a JSC-designed 5,000 lbf-thrust, 4:1 throttling, pressure-fed cryogenic engine using an impinging element injector design. Two different engine designs, named HD4 and HD5, and two different builds of the HD4 engine all demonstrated similar instability characteristics. Through the analysis of more than 200 hot fire tests on the Morpheus vehicle and SSC test stand, a relationship between ignition stability and injector/chamber pressure was developed. The instability has the distinct characteristic of initiating at high relative injection pressure drop (dP) at low chamber pressure (Pc); i.e., instabilities initiated at high dP/Pc at low Pc during the start sequence. The high dP/Pc during start results during the injector /chamber chill-in, and is enhanced by hydraulic flip in the injector orifice elements. Because of the fixed mixture ratio of the existing engine design (the main valves share a common actuator), it is not currently possible to determine if LOX or methane injector dP/Pc were individual contributors (i.e., LOX and methane dP/Pc typically trend in the same direction within a given test). The instability demonstrated initiation characteristic of starting at or shortly after methane injector chillin. Colder methane (e.g., sub-cooled) at the injector inlet prior to engine start was much more likely to result in an instability. A secondary effect of LOX sub-cooling was also possibly observed; greater LOX sub- cooling improved stability. Some tests demonstrated a low-amplitude 1L-1T instability prior to LOX injector chill-in. The Morpheus main engine also demonstrated chug instabilities during some engine shutdown sequences on the flight vehicle and SSC test stand. The chug instability was also infrequently observed during the startup sequence. The chug instabilities predictably initiated at low dP/Pc at low Pc. The chug instabilities were always self-limiting; startup chug instabilities terminated during throttle-up and shutdown chug instabilities decayed by shutdown termination.

8. Innovative Technologies: Two-Phase Heat Transfer in Water-Based Nanofluids for Nuclear Applications Final Report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Buongiorno, Jacopo; Hu, Lin-wen

2009-07-31

Nanofluids are colloidal dispersions of nanoparticles in water. Many studies have reported very significant enhancement (up to 200%) of the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) in pool boiling of nanofluids (You et al. 2003, Vassallo et al. 2004, Bang and Chang 2005, Kim et al. 2006, Kim et al. 2007). These observations have generated considerable interest in nanofluids as potential coolants for more compact and efficient thermal management systems. Potential Light Water Reactor applications include the primary coolant, safety systems and severe accident management strategies, as reported in other papers (Buongiorno et al. 2008 and 2009). However, the situation of interestmore » in reactor applications is often flow boiling, for which no nanofluid data have been reported so far. In this project we investigated the potential of nanofluids to enhance CHF in flow boiling. Subcooled flow boiling heat transfer and CHF experiments were performed with low concentrations of alumina, zinc oxide, and diamond nanoparticles in water (≤ 0.1 % by volume) at atmospheric pressure. It was found that for comparable test conditions the values of the nanofluid and water heat transfer coefficient (HTC) are similar (within ±20%). The HTC increased with mass flux and heat flux for water and nanofluids alike, as expected in flow boiling. The CHF tests were conducted at 0.1 MPa and at three different mass fluxes (1500, 2000, 2500 kg/m2s) under subcooled conditions. The maximum CHF enhancement was 53%, 53% and 38% for alumina, zinc oxide and diamond, respectively, always obtained at the highest mass flux. A post-mortem analysis of the boiling surface reveals that its morphology is altered by deposition of the particles during nanofluids boiling. A confocal-microscopy-based examination of the test section revealed that nanoparticles deposition not only changes the number of micro-cavities on the surface, but also the surface wettability. A simple model was used to estimate the ensuing nucleation site density changes, but no definitive correlation between the nucleation site density and the heat transfer coefficient data could be found. Wettability of the surface was substantially increased for heater coupons boiled in alumina and zinc oxide nanofluids, and such wettability increase seems to correlate reasonably well with the observed marked CHF enhancement for the respective nanofluids. Interpretation of the experimental data was conducted in light of the governing surface parameters (surface area, contact angle, roughness, thermal conductivity) and existing models. It was found that no single parameter could explain the observed HTC or CHF phenomena.« less

High Temperature Corrosion and Heat Transfer Studies of Zirconium-Silicide Coatings for Light Water Reactor Cladding Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yeom, Hwasung

Experimental results investigating the feasibility of zirconium-silicide coating for accident tolerance of LWR fuel cladding coating was presented. The oxidation resistance of ZrSi2 appeared to be superior to bare Zircaloy-4 in high temperature air. It was shown that micro- and nanostructures consisting of alternating SiO2 and ZrO2 evolved during transient oxidation of ZrSi2, which was explained by spinodal phase decomposition of Zr-Si-O oxide. Coating optimization regarding oxidation resistance was performed mainly using magnetron sputter deposition method. ZrSi 2 coatings ( 3.9 microm) showed improvement of almost two orders of magnitude when compared to bare Zircaloy-4 after air-oxidation at 700 °C for 20-hours. Pre-oxidation of ZrSi2 coating at 700 °C for 5 h significantly mitigated oxygen diffusion in air-oxidation tests at 1000 °C for 1-hour and 1200 °C for 10-minutes. The ZrSi2 coating with the pre-oxidation was found to be the best condition to prevent oxide formation in Zircaloy-4 substrate in the steam condition even if the top surface of the coating was degraded by formation of zirconium-rich oxide layer. Only the ZrSiO4 phase, formed by exposing the ZrSi2 coating at 1400 °C in air, allowed for immobilization of silicon species in the oxide scale in the aqueous environments. A quench test facility was designed and built to study transient boiling heat transfer of modified Zircaloy-4 surfaces (e.g., roughened surfaces, oxidized surfaces, ZrSi2 coated surfaces) at various system conditions (e.g., elevated pressures and water subcooling). The minimum film boiling temperature increased with increasing system pressure and water subcooling, consistent with past literature. Quenching behavior was affected by the types of surface modification regardless of the environmental conditions. Quenching heat transfer was improved by the ZrSi 2 coating, a degree of surface oxidation (deltaox = 3 to 50 microm), and surface roughening (Ra 20 microm). A plausible hypothesis based on transient heat conduction models for liquid-solid contact in quenching process was proposed to explain the enhanced quenching performance. The theoretical model incorporated localized temperature behavior on superheated surface and elucidated bubble dynamics qualitatively, and predicts minimum film boiling temperature of oxidized Zirc-4 surfaces, which were in good agreement with experimental data.

Controlled formation of cyclopentane hydrate suspensions via capillary-driven jet break-up

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Geri, Michela; McKinley, Gareth

2017-11-01

Clathrate hydrates are crystalline compounds that form when a lattice of hydrogen-bonded water molecules is filled by guest molecules sequestered from an adjacent gas or liquid phase. Being able to rapidly produce and transport synthetic hydrates is of great interest given their significant potential as a clean energy source and safe option for hydrogen storage. We propose a new method to rapidly produce cyclopentane hydrate suspensions at ambient pressure with tunable particle size distribution by taking advantage of the Rayleigh-Plateau instability to form a mono-disperse stream of droplets during the controlled break-up of a water jet. The droplets are immediately frozen into ice particles through immersion in a subcooled reservoir and converted into hydrates with a dramatic reduction in the nucleation induction time. By measuring the evolution of the rheological properties with time, we monitor the process of hydrates formation via surface crystallization and agglomeration with different droplet size distributions. This new method enables us to gain new insights into hydrate formation and transport which was previously hindered by uncontrolled droplet formation and hydrate nucleation processes. MITei Chevron Fellowship.

Crystal growth kinetics of triblock Janus colloids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reinhart, Wesley F.; Panagiotopoulos, Athanassios Z.

2018-03-01

We measure the kinetics of crystal growth from a melt of triblock Janus colloids using non-equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations. We assess the impact of interaction anisotropy by systematically varying the size of the attractive patches from 40% to 100% coverage, finding substantially different growth behaviors in the two limits. With isotropic particles, the interface velocity is directly proportional to the subcooling, in agreement with previous studies. With highly anisotropic particles, the growth curves are well approximated by using a power law with exponent and prefactor that depend strongly on the particular surface geometry and patch fraction. This nonlinear growth appears correlated to the roughness of the solid-liquid interface, with the strongest growth inhibition occurring for the smoothest crystal faces. We conclude that crystal growth for patchy particles does not conform to the typical collision-limited mechanism, but is instead an activated process in which the rate-limiting step is the collective rotation of particles into the proper orientation. Finally, we show how differences in the growth kinetics could be leveraged to achieve kinetic control over polymorph growth, either enhancing or suppressing metastable phases near solid-solid coexistence lines.

Research on resistance characteristics of YBCO tape under short-time DC large current impact

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, Zhifeng; Yang, Jiabin; Qiu, Qingquan; Zhang, Guomin; Lin, Liangzhen

2017-06-01

Research of the resistance characteristics of YBCO tape under short-time DC large current impact is the foundation of the developing DC superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) for voltage source converter-based high voltage direct current system (VSC-HVDC), which is one of the valid approaches to solve the problems of renewable energy integration. SFCL can limit DC short-circuit and enhance the interrupting capabilities of DC circuit breakers. In this paper, under short-time DC large current impacts, the resistance features of naked tape of YBCO tape are studied to find the resistance - temperature change rule and the maximum impact current. The influence of insulation for the resistance - temperature characteristics of YBCO tape is studied by comparison tests with naked tape and insulating tape in 77 K. The influence of operating temperature on the tape is also studied under subcooled liquid nitrogen condition. For the current impact security of YBCO tape, the critical current degradation and top temperature are analyzed and worked as judgment standards. The testing results is helpful for in developing SFCL in VSC-HVDC.

Screen channel liquid acquisition device outflow tests in liquid hydrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hartwig, J. W.; Chato, D. J.; McQuillen, J. B.; Vera, J.; Kudlac, M. T.; Quinn, F. D.

2014-11-01

This paper presents experimental design and test results of the recently concluded 1-g inverted vertical outflow testing of two 325 × 2300 full scale liquid acquisition device (LAD) channels in liquid hydrogen (LH2). One of the channels had a perforated plate and internal cooling from a thermodynamic vent system (TVS) to enhance performance. The LADs were mounted in a tank to simulate 1-g outflow over a wide range of LH2 temperatures (20.3-24.2 K), pressures (100-350 kPa), and flow rates (0.010-0.055 kg/s). Results indicate that the breakdown point is dominated by liquid temperature, with a second order dependence on mass flow rate through the LAD. The best performance is always achieved in the coldest liquid states for both channels, consistent with bubble point theory. Higher flow rates cause the standard channel to break down relatively earlier than the TVS cooled channel. Both the internal TVS heat exchanger and subcooling the liquid in the propellant tank are shown to significantly improve LAD performance.

Criteria for significance of simultaneous presence of both condensible vapors and aerosol particles on mass transfer (deposition) rates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gokoglu, S. A.

1987-01-01

The simultaneous presence of aerosol particles and condensible vapors in a saturated boundary layer which may affect deposition rates to subcooled surfaces because of vapor-particle interactions is discussed. Scavenging of condensible vapors by aerosol particles may lead to increased particle size and decreased vapor mass fraction, which alters both vapor and particle deposition rates. Particles, if sufficiently concentrated, may also coagulate. Criteria are provided to assess the significance of such phenomena when particles are already present in the mainstream and are not created inside the boundary layer via homogeneous nucleation. It is determined that there is direct proportionality with: (1) the mass concentration of both condensible vapors and aerosol particles; and (2) the square of the boundary layer thickness to particle diameter ratio (delta d sub p) square. Inverse proportionality was found for mainstream to surface temperature difference if thermophoresis dominates particle transport. It is concluded that the square of the boundary layer thickness to particle diameter ratio is the most critical factor to consider in deciding when to neglect vapor-particle interactions.

Critical Heat Flux Phenomena at HighPressure & Low Mass Fluxes: NEUP Final Report Part I: Experiments

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Corradini, Michael; Wu, Qiao

2015-04-30

This report is a preliminary document presenting an overview of the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) phenomenon, the High Pressure Critical Heat Flux facility (HPCHF), preliminary CHF data acquired, and the future direction of the research. The HPCHF facility has been designed and built to study CHF at high pressure and low mass flux ranges in a rod bundle prototypical of conceptual Small Modular Reactor (SMR) designs. The rod bundle is comprised of four electrically heated rods in a 2x2 square rod bundle with a prototypic chopped-cosine axial power profile and equipped with thermocouples at various axial and circumferential positions embeddedmore » in each rod for CHF detection. Experimental test parameters for CHF detection range from pressures of ~80 – 160 bar, mass fluxes of ~400 – 1500 kg/m2s, and inlet water subcooling from ~30 – 70°C. The preliminary data base established will be further extended in the future along with comparisons to existing CHF correlations, models, etc. whose application ranges may be applicable to the conditions of SMRs.« less

Criteria for significance of simultaneous presence of both condensible vapors and aerosol particles on mass transfer (deposition) rates

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gokoglu, S. A.

1986-01-01

The simultaneous presence of aerosol particles and condensible vapors in a saturated boundary layer which may affect deposition rates to subcooled surfaces because of vapor-particle interactions is discussed. Scavenging of condensible vapors by aerosol particles may lead to increased particle size and decreased vapor mass fraction, which alters both vapor and particle deposition rates. Particles, if sufficiently concentrated, may also coagulate. Criteria are provided to assess the significance of such phenomena when particles are already present in the mainstream and are not created inside the boundary layer via homogeneous nucleation. It is determined that there is direct proportionality with: (1) the mass concentration of both condensible vapors and aerosol particles; and (2) the square of the boundary layer thickness to particle diameter ratio (delta d sub p) square. Inverse proportionality was found for mainstream to surface temperature difference if thermophoresis dominates particle transport. It is concluded that the square of the boundary layer thickness to particle diameter ratio is the most critical factor to consider in deciding when to neglect vapor-particle interactions.

Screening reactor steam/water piping systems for water hammer

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Griffith, P.

1997-09-01

A steam/water system possessing a certain combination of thermal, hydraulic and operational states, can, in certain geometries, lead to a steam bubble collapse induced water hammer. These states, operations, and geometries are identified. A procedure that can be used for identifying whether an unbuilt reactor system is prone to water hammer is proposed. For the most common water hammer, steam bubble collapse induced water hammer, six conditions must be met in order for one to occur. These are: (1) the pipe must be almost horizontal; (2) the subcooling must be greater than 20 C; (3) the L/D must be greatermore » than 24; (4) the velocity must be low enough so that the pipe does not run full, i.e., the Froude number must be less than one; (5) there should be void nearby; (6) the pressure must be high enough so that significant damage occurs, that is the pressure should be above 10 atmospheres. Recommendations on how to avoid this kind of water hammer in both the design and the operation of the reactor system are made.« less

Some features of the effect the pH value and the physicochemical properties of boric acid have on mass transfer in a VVER reactor's core

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gavrilov, A. V.; Kritskii, V. G.; Rodionov, Yu. A.; Berezina, I. G.

2013-07-01

Certain features of the effect of boric acid in the reactor coolant of nuclear power installations equipped with a VVER-440 reactor on mass transfer in the reactor core are considered. It is determined that formation of boric acid polyborate complexes begins under field conditions at a temperature of 300°C when the boric acid concentration is equal to around 0.065 mol/L (4 g/L). Operations for decontaminating the reactor coolant system entail a growth of corrosion product concentration in the coolant, which gives rise to formation of iron borates in the zones where subcooled boiling of coolant takes place and to the effect of axial offset anomalies. A model for simulating variation of pressure drop in a VVER-440 reactor's core that has invariable parameters during the entire fuel campaign is developed by additionally taking into account the concentrations of boric acid polyborate complexes and the quantity of corrosion products (Fe, Ni) represented by the ratio of their solubilities.

Screen Channel Liquid Acquisition Device Outflow Tests in Liquid Hydrogen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartwig, Jason W.; Chato, David J.; McQuillen, J. B.; Vera, J.; Kudlac, M. T.; Quinn, F. D.

2013-01-01

This paper presents experimental design and test results of the recently concluded 1-g inverted vertical outflow testing of two 325x2300 full scale liquid acquisition device (LAD) channels in liquid hydrogen (LH2). One of the channels had a perforated plate and internal cooling from a thermodynamic vent system (TVS) to enhance performance. The LADs were mounted in a tank to simulate 1-g outflow over a wide range of LH2 temperatures (20.3 - 24.2 K), pressures (100 - 350 kPa), and flow rates (0.010 - 0.055 kg/s). Results indicate that the breakdown point is dominated by liquid temperature, with a second order dependence on mass flow rate through the LAD. The best performance is always achieved in the coldest liquid states for both channels, consistent with bubble point theory. Higher flow rates cause the standard channel to break down relatively earlier than the TVS cooled channel. Both the internal TVS heat exchanger and subcooling the liquid in the propellant tank are shown to significantly improve LAD performance.

The heat transfer coefficient determination with the use of the Beck-Trefftz method in flow boiling in a minichannel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strąk, Kinga; Maciejewska, Beata; Piasecka, Magdalena

2018-06-01

In this paper, the solution of the two-dimensional inverse heat transfer problem with the use of the Beck method coupled with the Trefftz method is proposed. This method was applied for solving an inverse heat conduction problem. The aim of the calculation was to determine the boiling heat transfer coefficient on the basis of temperature measurements taken by infrared thermography. The experimental data of flow boiling heat transfer in a single vertical minichannel of 1.7 mm depth, heated asymmetrically, were used in calculations. The heating element for two refrigerants (FC-72 and HFE-7100, 3M) flowing in the minichannel was the plate enhanced on the side contacting with the fluid. The analysis of the results was performed on the basis of experimental series obtained for the same heat flux and two different mass flow velocities. The results were presented as infrared thermographs, heated wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient as a function of the distance from the minichannel inlet. The results was discussed for the subcooled and saturated boiling regions separately.

Semi-empirical estimation of organic compound fugacity ratios at environmentally relevant system temperatures.

PubMed

van Noort, Paul C M

2009-06-01

Fugacity ratios of organic compounds are used to calculate (subcooled) liquid properties, such as solubility or vapour pressure, from solid properties and vice versa. They can be calculated from the entropy of fusion, the melting temperature, and heat capacity data for the solid and the liquid. For many organic compounds, values for the fusion entropy are lacking. Heat capacity data are even scarcer. In the present study, semi-empirical compound class specific equations were derived to estimate fugacity ratios from molecular weight and melting temperature for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated benzenes, biphenyls, dibenzo[p]dioxins and dibenzofurans. These equations estimate fugacity ratios with an average standard error of about 0.05 log units. In addition, for compounds with known fusion entropy values, a general semi-empirical correction equation based on molecular weight and melting temperature was derived for estimation of the contribution of heat capacity differences to the fugacity ratio. This equation estimates the heat capacity contribution correction factor with an average standard error of 0.02 log units for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated benzenes, biphenyls, dibenzo[p]dioxins and dibenzofurans.

Study of toluene rotary fluid management device and shear flow condenser performance for a space-based organic Rankine power system

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Havens, Vance; Ragaller, Dana

1988-01-01

Management of two-phase fluid and control of the heat transfer process in microgravity is a technical challenge that must be addressed for an orbital Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) application. A test program was performed in 1-g that satisfactorily demonstrated the two-phase management capability of the rotating fluid management device (RFMD) and shear-flow condenser. Operational tests of the RFMD and shear flow condenser in adverse gravity orientations, confirmed that the centrifugal forces in the RFMD and the shear forces in the condenser were capable of overcoming gravity forces. In a microgravity environment, these same forces would not have to compete against gravity and would therefore be dominant. The specific test program covered the required operating range of the Space Station Solar Dynamic Rankine Cycle power system. Review of the test data verified that: fluid was pumped from the RFMD in all attitudes; subcooled states in the condenser were achieved; condensate was pushed uphill against gravity; and noncondensible gases were swept through the condenser.

Summer-winter concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of short chain chlorinated paraffins in the atmosphere of an urban setting.

PubMed

Wang, Thanh; Han, Shanlong; Yuan, Bo; Zeng, Lixi; Li, Yingming; Wang, Yawei; Jiang, Guibin

2012-12-01

Short chain chlorinated paraffins (SCCPs) are semi-volatile chemicals that are considered persistent in the environment, potential toxic and subject to long-range transport. This study investigates the concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs at an urban site in Beijing during summer and wintertime. The total atmospheric SCCP levels ranged 1.9-33.0 ng/m(3) during wintertime. Significantly higher levels were found during the summer (range 112-332 ng/m(3)). The average fraction of total SCCPs in the particle phase (ϕ) was 0.67 during wintertime but decreased significantly during the summer (ϕ = 0.06). The ten and eleven carbon chain homologues with five to eight chlorine atoms were the predominant SCCP formula groups in air. Significant linear correlations were found between the gas-particle partition coefficients and the predicted subcooled vapor pressures and octanol-air partition coefficients. The gas-particle partitioning of SCCPs was further investigated and compared with both the Junge-Pankow adsorption and K(oa)-based absorption models. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of clathrate hydrate formation and decomposition on NMR parameters in THF-D2O solution.

PubMed

Rousina-Webb, Alexander; Leek, Donald M; Ripmeester, John

2012-06-28

The NMR spin-lattice relaxation time (T(1)), spin-spin relaxation time (T(2)) and the diffusion coefficient D were measured for (1)H in a 1:17 mol % solution of tetrahydrofuran (THF) in D(2)O. The aim of the work was to clarify some earlier points raised regarding the utility of these measurements to convey structural information on hydrate formation and reformation. A number of irregularities in T(1) and T(2) measurements during hydrate processes reported earlier are explained in terms of the presence of interfaces and possible temperature gradients. We observe that T(1) and T(2) in solution are exactly the same before and after hydrate formation, thus confirming that the solution is isotropic. This is inconsistent with the presence of memory effects, at least those that may affect the dynamics to which T(1) and T(2) are sensitive. The measurement of the diffusion coefficient for a number of hours in the subcooled solution before nucleation proved invariant with time, again suggesting that the solution remains isotropic without affecting the guest dynamics and diffusion.

Crystallographic effects during radiative melting of semitransparent materials

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Webb, B. W.; Viskanta, R.

1987-10-01

Experiments have been performed to illustrate crystallogrpahic effects during radiative melting of unconfined vertical layers of semitransparent material. Radiative melting of a polycrystalline paraffin was performed and the instantaneous layer weight and transmittance were measured using a cantilever beam technique and thermopile radiation detector, respectively. The effects of radiative flux, initial solid subcooling, spectral distribution of the irradiation, and crystal structure of the solid as determined qualitatively by the sample solidification rate were studied. Experimental results show conclusively the dominant influence of cystallographic effects in the form of multiple internal scattering of radiation during the melting process. A theoretical model is formulated to predict the melting rate of the material. Radiation transfer is treated by solving the one-dimensional radiative transfer equation for an absorbing-scattering medium using the discrete ordinates method. Melting rate and global layer reflectance as predicted by the model agree well with experimental data. Parametric studies conducted with the model illustrate the sensitivity of the melting behavior to such variables as incident radiative flux, initial layer opacity (material extinction coefficient), and scattering asymmetry factor.

Depicting mass flow rate of R134a /LPG refrigerant through straight and helical coiled adiabatic capillary tubes of vapor compression refrigeration system using artificial neural network approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gill, Jatinder; Singh, Jagdev

2018-07-01

In this work, an experimental investigation is carried out with R134a and LPG refrigerant mixture for depicting mass flow rate through straight and helical coil adiabatic capillary tubes in a vapor compression refrigeration system. Various experiments were conducted under steady-state conditions, by changing capillary tube length, inner diameter, coil diameter and degree of subcooling. The results showed that mass flow rate through helical coil capillary tube was found lower than straight capillary tube by about 5-16%. Dimensionless correlation and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) models were developed to predict mass flow rate. It was found that dimensionless correlation and ANN model predictions agreed well with experimental results and brought out an absolute fraction of variance of 0.961 and 0.988, root mean square error of 0.489 and 0.275 and mean absolute percentage error of 4.75% and 2.31% respectively. The results suggested that ANN model shows better statistical prediction than dimensionless correlation model.

Isothermal Ice Crystallization Kinetics in the Gas-Diffusion Layer of a Proton-Exchange-Membrane Fuel Cell

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dursch, Thomas J.; Ciontea, Monica A.; Radke, Clayton J.

2011-12-01

Nucleation and growth of ice in the fibrous gas-diffusion layer (GDL) of a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) are studied using isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Isothermal crystallization rates and pseudo-steady-state nucleation rates are obtained as a function of subcooling from heat-flow and induction-time measurements. Kinetics of ice nucleation and growth are studied at two polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) loadings (0 and 10 wt %) in a commercial GDL for temperatures between 240 and 273 K. A nonlinear ice-crystallization rate expression is developed using Johnson–Mehl–Avrami–Kolmogorov (JMAK) theory, in which the heat-transfer-limited growth rate is determined from the moving-boundary Stefan problem. Induction timesmore » follow a Poisson distribution and increase upon addition of PTFE, indicating that nucleation occurs more slowly on a hydrophobic fiber than on a hydrophilic fiber. The determined nucleation rates and induction times follow expected trends from classical nucleation theory. Finally, a validated rate expression is now available for predicting ice-crystallization kinetics in GDLs.« less

An experimental study of the flow of LPG as refrigerant inside an adiabatic helical coiled capillary tube in vapour compression refrigeration system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Punia, Sanjeev Singh; Singh, Jagdev

2015-11-01

This paper presents an experimental investigation for the flow of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as a refrigerant inside an adiabatic helically coiled capillary tube in vapour compression refrigeration system. The effect of various geometric parameters and operating conditions like capillary tube inner diameter, length of capillary tube, coil diameter and different inlet subcoolings on the mass flow rate of LPG through the helical coiled capillary tube geometry has been investigated. It has been established that the coil diameter significantly influences the mass flow rate of LPG through the adiabatic helical capillary tube. It has been concluded that the effect of coiling of capillary tube reduces the mass flow rate by 5-12 % as compared to those of the straight capillary tube operating under similar conditions. The data obtained from the experiments are analyzed and a dimensionless correlation has been developed. The proposed correlation predicts that more than 90 % of experimental data which is in agreement with measured data in an error band of ±10 %.

Experimental investigation of the dynamics of spontaneous pattern formation during dendritic ice crystal growth

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tirmizi, Shakeel H.; Gill, William N.

1989-06-01

The dynamics of spontaneous pattern formation are studied experimentally by observing and recording the evolution of ice crystal patterns which grow freely in a supercooled melt. The sequence of evolution to dendrites is recorded in real time using cine-micrography. In the range of subcoolings from 0.06 to 0.29°C, all the patterns evolved as follows: Smooth disk → Perturbed disk → Disk dendrite → Partially developed dendrite → Fully developed dendrite. The initial smooth disk, the main branch and the side branches all developed perturbations beyond a critical size which depends on the subcooling. The combined effect of the destabilizing thermal gradients ahead of the growing crystal and the stabilizing Gibbs-Thompson capillarity effect dictates the critical size of the unstable structures in terms of the mean curvature of the interface. Detailed analysis of the evolving patterns was done using digital image analysis on the PRIME computer to determine both the manner in which the dendritic growth process replicates itself and the role which the shape and the movement of the interface play in the pattern formation process. Total arc length ST, total area A and the complexity ratio ξ = ST⧸√ A of evolving patterns were computed as a function of time and undercooling for each crystal image. These results permitted us to make some comparisons with theoretical models on pattern evolution. Three distinct phases of evolution were identified: the initial phase when the crystal structure is smooth and free of any perturbations and the complexity ratio is almost a constant, an intermediate phase when the crystal structure develops perturbations which grow quickly in number and in size and the complexity ratio increases rapidly and a final phase when the pattern approaches that of a fully developed dendrite which, on a global scale grows in a shape-perserving manner and has a slowly increasing complexity ratio which seems to approach an asymptote. Two factors were found to be responsible for the symmetric dendritic patterns. These are: first, hexagonal symmetry due to the hexagonal closed packed structure, leads to strong anisotropy in molecular attachment kinetics and in surface free energy; second, the competition among side branches causes smaller side branches to melt when they are trapped between larger ones which generate latent heat and prevent the small branches from gaining access to the fresh cold fluid ahead of them. These two factors lead to a channelling effect which prevents the growth of perturbations from occurring randomly and thus directs the evolving crystal structure into patterns which are regular and reproducible. Theoretical models which are local in nature fail to take into account side branch competition, and this is one of their major weaknesses.

Improving and assessing vapour pressure estimation methods for organic compounds of atmospheric relevance using a Knudsen Effusion Mass Spectrometer (KEMS)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Booth, A. M.; Topping, D. O.; McFiggans, G. B.; Garforth, A.; Percival, C. J.

2009-12-01

Aerosol particles influence climate directly through the scattering and absorbing radiation and indirectly through their role as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Traditionally, models aiming to capture the behaviour of aerosols in the atmosphere have concentrated on the role of inorganic compounds. However, organic components, covering a huge range of chemical and physical properties (Jacobson et.al., 2000), may constitute a significant fraction depending on location (Houghton et.al., 2001). Knowledge of pure component vapour pressures is essential for calculations of gas/particle partitioning. There are many methods of estimating vapour pressures but most of the experimental data collected to date has been for intermediate or high pressure compounds (and often measured at temperatures considerably above ambient) and the proportion of experimental data for low (less than 100Pa) vapour pressure compounds has been very small. Hence the datasets used for developing the estimation methods have reflected this bias in addition to the fact that components studied tend to have one or two functional groups at the most. Thus it is unsurprising that some of the estimation methods can give errors in vapour pressure of several orders of magnitude for multifunctional compounds at ambient temperatures. Knudsen Effusion Mass Spectrometer (KEMS) has been used to measure solid state vapour pressures for multifunctional organic compounds based on dicarboxylic acids (Booth et al 2009). In the atmosphere these compounds are likely to exist in the sub-cooled state so Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was used to obtain thermochemical data to effect a correction between solid and sub-cooled vapour pressures. The group contribution method of Nanoolal and co-workers (Nanoolal et al., 2008) is one of the best predictive methods in terms of reproducing available low volatility vapour pressure data (barley et al., 2009). The Nanoolal method relies on the use of primary and secondary functional groups and interaction parameters, derived from experimental data, to reliably predict boiling points and vapour pressures. A sensitivity study was undertaken to establish the impact of the new experimentally determined vapour pressures on partitioning models. Jacobson, M.C., et al. Rev Geophys, 38 (2), 267-294, 2000. Houghton et al. Climate Change 2001: The Scientific Basis. Contribution of Working Group 1 to the Third Assessment Report of the IPCC., 881 pp., Cambridge University Press, 2001. Johnson, D. , et al. Atmo. Chem. Phys., Vol. 6, 419-431, 2006 Yu, J. Z., et al. J Atmos Chem. 34, 207-258, 1999 Booth, A.M. et al Atmos. Meas. Tech.,2,355-361, 2009 Nanoolal, Y. et al Fluid Phase Equilibria, 269,117-133., 2008. Barley, M. et al Atmos. Chem. Phys., -,to be submitted.

Lunar Portable Life Support System Heat Rejection Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Conger, Bruce; Sompayrac,Robert G.; Trevino, Luis A.; Bue, Grant C.

2009-01-01

Performing extravehicular activity (EVA) at various locations of the lunar surface presents thermal challenges that exceed those experienced in space flight to date. The lunar Portable Life Support System (PLSS) cooling unit must maintain thermal conditions within the space suit and reject heat loads generated by the crewmember and the PLSS equipment. The amount of cooling required varies based on the lunar location and terrain due to the heat transferred between the suit and its surroundings. A study has been completed which investigated the resources required to provide cooling under various lunar conditions, assuming three different thermal technology categories: 1. Spacesuit Water Membrane Evaporator (SWME) 2. Subcooled Phase Change Material (SPCM) 3. Radiators with and without heat pumps Results from the study are presented that show mass and power impacts on the cooling system as a function of the location and terrain on the lunar surface. Resources (cooling equipment mass and consumables) are greater at the equator and inside sunlit craters due to the additional heat loads on the cooling system. While radiator and SPCM technologies require minimal consumables, they come with carry-weight penalties and have limitations. A wider investigation is recommended to determine if these penalties and limitations are offset by the savings in consumables.

Impact of different thickness of the smooth heated surface on flow boiling heat transfer

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Strąk, Kinga; Piasecka, Magdalena

2018-06-01

This paper presents a comparison of the performance of three smooth heated surfaces with different thicknesses. Analysis was carried out on an experimental setup for flow boiling heat transfer. The most important element of the setup was the test section with a rectangular minichannel, 1.7 mm deep, 16 mm wide and 180 mm long, oriented vertically. The heated element for the FC-72 Fluorinert flowing in the minichannel was designated as a Haynes-230 alloy plate (0.10 mm and 0.45 mm thick) or a Hastelloy X alloy plate (0.65 mm thick). Infrared thermography was used to measure the temperature of the outer plate surface. The local values of the heat transfer coefficient for stationary state conditions were calculated using a simple one-dimensional method. The experimental results were presented as the relationship between the heat transfer coefficients in the subcooled boiling region and the distance along the minichannel length and boiling curves. The highest local heat transfer coefficients were recorded for the surface of 0.10 mm thick heated plate at the outlet and 0.45 mm thick plate at the minichannel inlet. All boiling curves were typical in shape.

Simplified liquid oxygen propellant conditioning concepts

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Cleary, N. L.; Holt, K. A.; Flachbart, R. H.

1995-01-01

Current liquid oxygen feed systems waste propellant and use hardware, unnecessary during flight, to condition the propellant at the engine turbopumps prior to launch. Simplified liquid oxygen propellant conditioning concepts are being sought for future launch vehicles. During a joint program, four alternative propellant conditioning options were studied: (1) passive recirculation; (2) low bleed through the engine; (3) recirculation lines; and (4) helium bubbling. The test configuration for this program was based on a vehicle design which used a main recirculation loop that was insulated on the downcomer and uninsulated on the upcomer. This produces a natural convection recirculation flow. The test article for this program simulated a feedline which ran from the main recirculation loop to the turbopump. The objective was to measure the temperature profile of this test article. Several parameters were varied from the baseline case to determine their effects on the temperature profile. These parameters included: flow configuration, feedline slope, heat flux, main recirculation loop velocity, pressure, bleed rate, helium bubbling, and recirculation lines. The heat flux, bleed rate, and recirculation configurations produced the greatest changes from the baseline temperature profile. However, the temperatures in the feedline remained subcooled. Any of the options studied could be used in future vehicles.

Influence of Two-Phase Thermocapillary Flow on Cryogenic Liquid Retention in Microscopic Pores

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schmidt, G. R.; Nadarajah, A.; Chung, T. J.; Karr, G. R.

1994-01-01

Previous experiments indicate that the bubble point pressure of spacecraft liquid hydrogen acquisition devices is reduced substantially when the ullage is pressurized with heated hydrogen vapor. The objective is to determine whether the two-phase thermocapillary convection arising from thermodynamic non-equilibrium along the porous surfaces of such devices could lead to this observed degradation in retention performance. We also examine why retention capability appears to be unaffected by pressurization with heated helium or direct heating through the porous structure. Computational assessments based on coupled solution of the flowfield and liquid free surface indicate that for highly wetting fluids in small pores, dynamic pressure and vapor recoil dictate surface morphology and drive meniscus deformation. With superheating, the two terms exert the same influence on curvature and promote mechanical equilibrium, but with subcooling, the pressure distribution produces a suction about the pore center-line that degrades retention. This result points to thermocapillary-induced deformation arising from condensation as the cause for retention loss. It also indicates that increasing the level of non-equilibrium by reducing accommodation coefficient restricts deformation and explains why retention failure does not occur with direct screen heating or helium pressurization.

Condensation on superhydrophobic surfaces: the role of local energy barriers and structure length scale.

PubMed

Enright, Ryan; Miljkovic, Nenad; Al-Obeidi, Ahmed; Thompson, Carl V; Wang, Evelyn N

2012-10-09

Water condensation on surfaces is a ubiquitous phase-change process that plays a crucial role in nature and across a range of industrial applications, including energy production, desalination, and environmental control. Nanotechnology has created opportunities to manipulate this process through the precise control of surface structure and chemistry, thus enabling the biomimicry of natural surfaces, such as the leaves of certain plant species, to realize superhydrophobic condensation. However, this "bottom-up" wetting process is inadequately described using typical global thermodynamic analyses and remains poorly understood. In this work, we elucidate, through imaging experiments on surfaces with structure length scales ranging from 100 nm to 10 μm and wetting physics, how local energy barriers are essential to understand non-equilibrium condensed droplet morphologies and demonstrate that overcoming these barriers via nucleation-mediated droplet-droplet interactions leads to the emergence of wetting states not predicted by scale-invariant global thermodynamic analysis. This mechanistic understanding offers insight into the role of surface-structure length scale, provides a quantitative basis for designing surfaces optimized for condensation in engineered systems, and promises insight into ice formation on surfaces that initiates with the condensation of subcooled water.

Determination of descriptors for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and related compounds by chromatographic methods and liquid-liquid partition in totally organic biphasic systems.

PubMed

Ariyasena, Thiloka C; Poole, Colin F

2014-09-26

Retention factors on several columns and at various temperatures using gas chromatography and from reversed-phase liquid chromatography on a SunFire C18 column with various mobile phase compositions containing acetonitrile, methanol and tetrahydrofuran as strength adjusting solvents are combined with liquid-liquid partition coefficients in totally organic biphasic systems to calculate descriptors for 23 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and eighteen related compounds of environmental interest. The use of a consistent protocol for the above measurements provides descriptors that are more self consistent for the estimation of physicochemical properties (octanol-water, air-octanol, air-water, aqueous solubility, and subcooled liquid vapor pressure). The descriptor in this report tend to have smaller values for the L and E descriptors and random differences in the B and S descriptors compared with literature sources. A simple atom fragment constant model is proposed for the estimation of descriptors from structure for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. The new descriptors show no bias in the prediction of the air-water partition coefficient for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons unlike the literature values. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Performance Evaluation of 14 Neural Network Architectures Used for Predicting Heat Transfer Characteristics of Engine Oils

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Al-Ajmi, R. M.; Abou-Ziyan, H. Z.; Mahmoud, M. A.

2012-01-01

This paper reports the results of a comprehensive study that aimed at identifying best neural network architecture and parameters to predict subcooled boiling characteristics of engine oils. A total of 57 different neural networks (NNs) that were derived from 14 different NN architectures were evaluated for four different prediction cases. The NNs were trained on experimental datasets performed on five engine oils of different chemical compositions. The performance of each NN was evaluated using a rigorous statistical analysis as well as careful examination of smoothness of predicted boiling curves. One NN, out of the 57 evaluated, correctly predicted the boiling curves for all cases considered either for individual oils or for all oils taken together. It was found that the pattern selection and weight update techniques strongly affect the performance of the NNs. It was also revealed that the use of descriptive statistical analysis such as R2, mean error, standard deviation, and T and slope tests, is a necessary but not sufficient condition for evaluating NN performance. The performance criteria should also include inspection of the smoothness of the predicted curves either visually or by plotting the slopes of these curves.

Fabrication and testing of microchannel heat exchangers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cuta, Judith M.; Bennett, Wendy D.; McDonald, Carolyn E.; Ravigururajan, T. S.

1995-09-01

Micro-channel heat-exchanger test articles were fabricated and performance tested. The heat exchangers are being developed for innovative applications, and have been shown to be capable of handling heat loads of up to 100 W/cm2. The test articles were fabricated to represent two different designs for the micro-channel portion of the heat exchanger. One design consists of 166 micro-channels etched in silicon substrate, and a second design consists of 54 micro-channels machined in copper substrate. The devices were tested in an experimental loop designed for performance testing in single- and two-phase flow with water and R124. Pressure and liquid subcooling can be regulated over the range of interest, and a secondary heat removal loop provides stable loop performance for steady-state tests. The selected operating pressures are approximately 0.344 MPa for distilled water and 0.689 MPa for R124. The temperature ranges are 15.5 to 138 C for distilled water and 15.5 to 46 C for R-124. The mass flow range 7.6 X 10-8 to 7.6 X 10MIN5 kg/min for both distilled water and R124.

Analysis of Screen Channel LAD Bubble Point Tests in Liquid Oxygen at Elevated Temperature

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hartwig, Jason; McQuillen, John

2011-01-01

The purpose of this paper is to examine the key parameters that affect the bubble point pressure for screen channel Liquid Acquisition Devices in cryogenic liquid oxygen at elevated pressures and temperatures. An in depth analysis of the effect of varying temperature, pressure, and pressurization gas on bubble point is presented. Testing of a 200 x 1400 and 325 x 2300 Dutch Twill screen sample was conducted in the Cryogenics Components Lab 7 facility at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Test conditions ranged from 92 to 130K and 0.138 - 1.79 MPa. Bubble point is shown to be a strong function of temperature with a secondary dependence on pressure. The pressure dependence is believed to be a function of the amount of evaporation and condensation occurring at the screen. Good agreement exists between data and theory for normally saturated liquid but the model generally under predicts the bubble point in subcooled liquid. Better correlation with the data is obtained by using the liquid temperature at the screen to determine surface tension of the fluid, as opposed to the bulk liquid temperature.

Numerical simulation of condensation on structured surfaces.

PubMed

Fu, Xiaowu; Yao, Zhaohui; Hao, Pengfei

2014-11-25

Condensation of liquid droplets on solid surfaces happens widely in nature and industrial processes. This phase-change phenomenon has great effect on the performance of some microfluidic devices. On the basis of micro- and nanotechnology, superhydrophobic structured surfaces can be well-fabricated. In this work, the nucleating and growth of droplets on different structured surfaces are investigated numerically. The dynamic behavior of droplets during the condensation is simulated by the multiphase lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), which has the ability to incorporate the microscopic interactions, including fluid-fluid interaction and fluid-surface interaction. The results by the LBM show that, besides the chemical properties of surfaces, the topography of structures on solid surfaces influences the condensation process. For superhydrophobic surfaces, the spacing and height of microridges have significant influence on the nucleation sites. This mechanism provides an effective way for prevention of wetting on surfaces in engineering applications. Moreover, it suggests a way to prevent ice formation on surfaces caused by the condensation of subcooled water. For hydrophilic surfaces, however, microstructures may be submerged by the liquid films adhering to the surfaces. In this case, microstructures will fail to control the condensation process. Our research provides an optimized way for designing surfaces for condensation in engineering systems.

Mixing and transient interface condensation of a liquid hydrogen tank

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, C. S.; Hasan, M. M.; Nyland, T. W.

1993-01-01

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of axial jet-induced mixing on the pressure reduction of a thermally stratified liquid hydrogen tank. The tank was nearly cylindrical, having a volume of about 0.144 cu m with 0.559 m in diameter and 0.711 m length. A mixer/pump unit, which had a jet nozzle outlet of 0.0221 m in diameter was located 0.178 m from the tank bottom and was installed inside the tank to generate the axial jet mixing and tank fluid circulation. Mixing tests began with the tank pressures at which the thermal stratification results in 4.9-6.2 K liquid subcooling. The mixing time and transient vapor condensation rate at the liquid-vapor interface are determined. Two mixing time correlations, based on the thermal equilibrium and pressure equilibrium, are developed and expressed as functions of system and buoyancy parameters. The limited liquid hydrogen data of the present study shows that the modified steady state condensation rate correlation may be used to predict the transient condensation rate in a mixing process if the instantaneous values of jet sub cooling and turbulence intensity at the interface are employed.

Interfacial Dynamics of Condensing Vapor Bubbles in an Ultrasonic Acoustic Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boziuk, Thomas; Smith, Marc; Glezer, Ari

2016-11-01

Enhancement of vapor condensation in quiescent subcooled liquid using ultrasonic actuation is investigated experimentally. The vapor bubbles are formed by direct injection from a pressurized steam reservoir through nozzles of varying characteristic diameters, and are advected within an acoustic field of programmable intensity. While kHz-range acoustic actuation typically couples to capillary instability of the vapor-liquid interface, ultrasonic (MHz-range) actuation leads to the formation of a liquid spout that penetrates into the vapor bubble and significantly increases its surface area and therefore condensation rate. Focusing of the ultrasonic beam along the spout leads to ejection of small-scale droplets from that are propelled towards the vapor liquid interface and result in localized acceleration of the condensation. High-speed video of Schlieren images is used to investigate the effects of the ultrasonic actuation on the thermal boundary layer on the liquid side of the vapor-liquid interface and its effect on the condensation rate, and the liquid motion during condensation is investigated using high-magnification PIV measurements. High-speed image processing is used to assess the effect of the actuation on the dynamics and temporal variation in characteristic scale (and condensation rate) of the vapor bubbles.

TRACE/PARCS Analysis of ATWS with Instability for a MELLLA+BWR/5

DOE PAGES

L. Y. Cheng; Baek, J. S.; Cuadra, A.; ...

2016-06-06

A TRACE/PARCS model has been developed to analyze anticipated transient without SCRAM (ATWS) events for a boiling water reactor (BWR) operating in the maximum extended load line limit analysis-plus (MELLLA+) expanded operating domain. The MELLLA+ domain expands allowable operation in the power/flow map of a BWR to low flow rates at high power conditions. Such operation exacerbates the likelihood of large amplitude power/flow oscillations during certain ATWS scenarios. The analysis shows that large amplitude power/flow oscillations, both core-wide and out-of-phase, arise following the establishment of natural circulation flow in the reactor pressure vessel (RPV) after the trip of the recirculationmore » pumps and an increase in core inlet subcooling. The analysis also indicates a mechanism by which the fuel may experience heat-up that could result in localized fuel damage. TRACE predicts the heat-up to occur when the cladding surface temperature exceeds the minimum stable film boiling temperature after periodic cycles of dryout and rewet; and the fuel becomes “locked” into a film boiling regime. Further, the analysis demonstrates the effectiveness of the simulated manual operator actions to suppress the instability.« less

Combined buoyancy and flow direction effects on saturated boiling critical heat flux in liquid nitrogen

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Papell, S. S.

1972-01-01

Buoyancy effects on the critical heat flux and general data trends for a liquid nitrogen internal flow system were determined by comparison of upflow and downflow data under identical test conditions. The test section had a 1.28 cm diameter flow passage and a 30.5 cm heated length which was subjected to uniform heat fluxes through resistance heating. Test conditions covered a range of pressures from 3.4 to 10.2 atm, inlet velocities from 0.23 to 3.51 m/sec, with the liquid nitrogen temperature at saturated inlet conditions. Data comparisons showed that the critical heat flux for downflow could be up to 36 percent lower than for upflow. A nonmonotonic relationship between the critical heat flux and velocity was determined for upflow but not for downflow. A limiting inlet velocity of 4.12 m/sec was determined to be the minimum velocity required to completely suppress the influence of buoyancy on the critical heat flux for this saturated inlet flow system. A correlation of this limiting fluid velocity is presented that was developed from previously published subcooled liquid nitrogen data and the saturated data of this investigation.

Vapor condensation on liquid surface due to laminar jet-induced mixing: The effects of system parameters

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, Chin-Shun; Hasan, Mohammad M.

1989-01-01

The effects of system parameters on the interface condensation rate in a laminar jet induced mixing tank are numerically studied. The physical system consists of a partially filled cylindrical tank with a slightly subcooled jet discharged from the center of the tank bottom toward the liquid-vapor interface which is at a saturation temperature corresponding to the constant tank pressure. Liquid is also withdrawn from the outer part of the tank bottom to maintain the constant liquid level. The jet velocity is selected to be low enough such that the free surface is approximately flat. The effect of vapor superheat is assumed to be negligible. Therefore, the interface condensation rate can be determined from the resulting temperature field in the liquid region alone. The nondimensional form of the steady state conservation equations are solved by a finite difference method for various system parameters including liquid height to tank diameter ratio, tank to jet diameter ratio, liquid inflow to outflow area ratio, and a heat leak parameter which characterizes the uniform wall heat flux. Detailed analyses based on the numerical solutions are performed and simplified equations are suggested for the prediction of condensation rate.

CFD Analysis and Design of Detailed Target Configurations for an Accelerator-Driven Subcritical System

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kraus, Adam; Merzari, Elia; Sofu, Tanju

2016-08-01

High-fidelity analysis has been utilized in the design of beam target options for an accelerator driven subcritical system. Designs featuring stacks of plates with square cross section have been investigated for both tungsten and uranium target materials. The presented work includes the first thermal-hydraulic simulations of the full, detailed target geometry. The innovative target cooling manifold design features many regions with complex flow features, including 90 bends and merging jets, which necessitate three-dimensional fluid simulations. These were performed using the commercial computational fluid dynamics code STAR-CCM+. Conjugate heat transfer was modeled between the plates, cladding, manifold structure, and fluid. Steady-statemore » simulations were performed but lacked good residual convergence. Unsteady simulations were then performed, which converged well and demonstrated that flow instability existed in the lower portion of the manifold. It was established that the flow instability had little effect on the peak plate temperatures, which were well below the melting point. The estimated plate surface temperatures and target region pressure were shown to provide sufficient margin to subcooled boiling for standard operating conditions. This demonstrated the safety of both potential target configurations during normal operation.« less

When a water drop freezes before it solidifies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kavehpour, Pirouz; Davis, Stephen; Tavakoli, Faryar

2012-11-01

When a drop of liquid is placed on a substrate which temperature is below the melting point of the liquid, one would expect the drop to solidify instantaneously. However, many liquids, such as water, must be subcooled to solidify below its melting temperature due to homogeneous nucleation's high activation energy. Most of the drop solidification research, particularly for water, phase change is assumed to occur at equilibrium freezing temperature; however, this is not the case. We found that after a certain degree of supercooling, a kinetic based nucleation begins and latent heat of fusion is suddenly liberated, causing an increase in liquid temperature. At the end of this stage, approximately 20% of the drop is crystallized. This phenomenon is known among metallurgists as recalescence. This is followed by a slow solidification process at the melting point. As a water droplet spreads on a cold substrate, its contact line stops just prior to freezing inception from the liquid-solid interface. In this study, we assert that recalescence prior to solidification may be the cause of water's sudden immobility, which results in a fixed contact angle and droplet diameter. In our experiments, the nucleation front initiates from the trijunction point and propagates to the drop volume.

Impact of Fe powder sintering and soldering in production of porous heating surface on flow boiling heat transfer in minichannels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Depczyński, Wojciech; Piasecki, Artur; Piasecka, Magdalena; Strąk, Kinga

2017-10-01

This paper focuses on identification of the impact of porous heated surface on flow boiling heat transfer in a rectangular minichannel. The heated element for Fluorinert FC-72 was a thin plate made of Haynes-230. Infrared thermography was used to determine changes in the temperature on its outer smooth side. The porous surface in contact with the fluid in the minichannel was produced in two processes: sintering or soldering of Fe powder to the plate. The results were presented as relationships between the heat transfer coefficient and the distance from the minichannel inlet and as boiling curves. Results obtained for using a smooth heated plate at the saturated boiling region were also presented to compare. In the subcooled boiling region, at a higher heat flux, the heat transfer coefficient was slightly higher for the surface prepared via soldering. In the saturated boiling region, the local heat transfer coefficients obtained for the smooth plate surface were slightly higher than those achieved from the sintered plate surface. The porous structures formed have low thermal conductivity. This may induce noticeable thermal resistance at the diffusion bridges of the sintered structures, in particular within the saturated boiling region.

DNB heat flux on inner side of a vertical pipe in forced flow of liquid hydrogen and liquid nitrogen

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shirai, Yasuyuki; Tatsumoto, Hideki; Shiotsu, Masahiro; Hata, Koichi; Kobayashi, Hiroaki; Naruo, Yoshihiro; Inatani, Yoshifumi

2018-06-01

Heat transfer from inner side of a heated vertical pipe to liquid hydrogen flowing upward was measured at the pressures of 0.4, 0.7 and 1.1 MPa for wide ranges of flow rate and liquid temperature. Nine test heaters with different inner diameters of 3, 4, 6 and 9 mm and the lengths of 50, 100, 150, 200, 250 and 300 mm were used. The DNB (departure from nucleate boiling) heat fluxes in forced flow of liquid hydrogen were measured for various subcoolings and flow velocities at pressures of 0.4, 0.7 and 1.1 MPa. Effect of L/d (ratio of heater length to diameter) was clarified for the range of L / d ⩽ 50 . A new correlation of DNB heat flux was presented based on a simple model and the experimental data. Similar experiments were performed for liquid nitrogen at pressures of 0.5 MPa and 1.0 MPa by using the same experimental system and some of the test heaters. It was confirmed that the new correlation can describe not only the hydrogen data, but also the data of liquid nitrogen.

The behavior of vapor bubbles during boiling enhanced with acoustics and open microchannels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Boziuk, Thomas; Smith, Marc K.; Glezer, Ari

2012-11-01

Boiling heat transfer on a submerged heated surface is enhanced by combining a grid of surface micromachined open channels and ultrasonic acoustic actuation to control the formation and evolution of vapor bubbles and to inhibit the instability that leads to film boiling at the critical heat flux (CHF). The microchannels provide nucleation sites for vapor bubble formation and enable the entrainment of bulk subcooled fluid to these sites for sustained evaporation. Acoustic actuation excites interfacial oscillations of the detached bubbles and leads to accelerated condensation in the bulk fluid, thereby limiting the formation of vapor columns that precede the CHF instability. The combined effects of microchannels and acoustic actuation are investigated experimentally with emphasis on bubble nucleation, growth, detachment, and condensation. It is shown that this hybrid approach leads to a significant increase in the critical heat flux, a reduction of the vapor mass above the surface, and the breakup of low-frequency vapor slug formation. A large-scale model of the microchannel grid reveals details of the flow near the nucleation site and shows that the presence of the microchannels decreases the surface superheat at a given heat flux. Supported by ONR.

Cryogenic Propellant Management Device: Conceptual Design Study

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wollen, Mark; Merino, Fred; Schuster, John; Newton, Christopher

2010-01-01

Concepts of Propellant Management Devices (PMDs) were designed for lunar descent stage reaction control system (RCS) and lunar ascent stage (main and RCS propulsion) missions using liquid oxygen (LO2) and liquid methane (LCH4). Study ground rules set a maximum of 19 days from launch to lunar touchdown, and an additional 210 days on the lunar surface before liftoff. Two PMDs were conceptually designed for each of the descent stage RCS propellant tanks, and two designs for each of the ascent stage main propellant tanks. One of the two PMD types is a traditional partial four-screen channel device. The other type is a novel, expanding volume device which uses a stretched, flexing screen. It was found that several unique design features simplified the PMD designs. These features are (1) high propellant tank operating pressures, (2) aluminum tanks for propellant storage, and (3) stringent insulation requirements. Consequently, it was possible to treat LO2 and LCH4 as if they were equivalent to Earth-storable propellants because they would remain substantially subcooled during the lunar mission. In fact, prelaunch procedures are simplified with cryogens, because any trapped vapor will condense once the propellant tanks are pressurized in space.

Capillary Liquid Acquisition Device Heat Entrapment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolshinskiy, L. G.; Hastings, L. J.; Statham, G.; Turpin, J. B.

2007-01-01

Cryogenic liquid acquisition devices (LADs) for space-based propulsion interface directly with the feed system, which can be a significant heat leak source. Further, the accumulation of thermal energy within LAD channels can lead to the loss of subcooled propellant conditions and result in feed system cavitation during propellant outflow. Therefore, the fundamental question addressed by this program was: To what degree is natural convection in a cryogenic liquid constrained by the capillary screen meshes envisioned for LADs? Testing was first conducted with water as the test fluid, followed by LN2 tests. In either case, the basic experimental approach was to heat the bottom of a cylindrical column of test fluid to establish stratification patterns measured by temperature sensors located above and below a horizontal screen barrier position. Experimentation was performed without barriers, with screens, and with a solid barrier. The two screen meshes tested were those typically used by LAD designers, 200x1400 and 325x2300, both with Twill Dutch Weave. Upon consideration of both the water and LN2 data, it was concluded that heat transfer across the screen meshes was dependent upon barrier thermal conductivity and that the capillary screen meshes were impervious to natural convection currents.

Cryogenic Capillary Screen Heat Entrapment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolshinskiy, L.G.; Hastings, L.J.; Stathman, G.

2007-01-01

Cryogenic liquid acquisition devices (LADs) for space-based propulsion interface directly with the feed system, which can be a significant heat leak source. Further, the accumulation of thermal energy within LAD channels can lead to the loss of sub-cooled propellant conditions and result in feed system cavitation during propellant outflow. Therefore, the fundamental question addressed by this program was: "To what degree is natural convection in a cryogenic liquid constrained by the capillary screen meshes envisioned for LADs.?"Testing was first conducted with water as the test fluid, followed by LN2 tests. In either case, the basic experimental approach was to heat the bottom of a cylindrical column of test fluid to establish stratification patterns measured by temperature sensors located above and below a horizontal screen barrier position. Experimentation was performed without barriers, with screens, and with a solid barrier. The two screen meshes tested were those typically used by LAD designers, "200x1400" and "325x2300", both with Twill Dutch Weave. Upon consideration of both the water and LN2 data it was concluded that heat transfer across the screen meshes was dependent upon barrier thermal conductivity and that the capillary screen meshes were impervious to natural convection currents.

Theoretical study on bubble formation and flow condensation in downflow channel with horizontal gas injection

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Kang; Li, Yanzhong; Wang, Jiaojiao; Ma, Yuan; Wang, Lei; Xie, Fushou

2018-05-01

Bubble formation and condensation in liquid pipes occur widely in industrial systems such as cryogenic propellant feeding system. In this paper, an integrated theoretical model is established to give a comprehensive description of the bubble formation, motion and condensation process. The model is validated by numerical simulations and bubble condensation experiments from references, and good agreements are achieved. The bubble departure diameter at the orifice and the flow condensation length in the liquid channel are predicted by the model, and effects of various influencing parameters on bubble behaviors are analyzed. Prediction results indicate that the orifice diameter, the gas feeding rate, and the liquid velocity are the primary influence factors on the bubble departure diameter. The interfacial heat transfer as well as the bubble departure diameter has a direct impact on the bubble flow condensation length, which increases by 2.5 times over a system pressure range of 0.1 0.4 MPa, and decreases by 85% over a liquid subcooling range of 5 30 K. This work could be beneficial to the prediction of bubble formation and flow condensation processes and the design of cryogenic transfer pipes.

Analytical Approach in DeCoM

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Patel, Deepak

2011-01-01

There are many papers on describing a LHP as an overall system, but few detail on the condenser section of a loop heat pipe. The DeCoM (Deepak Condenser Model) method utilizes user set initial parameters in-order to simulate a condenser by calculating the interactions between the fluid and the wall. Equations are derived for two sections of the condenser: a two-phase section and a subcooled (liquid) section. All Equations are based upon the conservation of energy theory, from which fluid temperature, and fluid quality values are solved. In order to solve for the heat transfer value, between fluid and the wall in two phase section, the Lockhart-Martinelli correlation method was implemented as a solution approach. For Liquid phase, the Reynolds number was used in-order to differentiate the flow state, from either turbulent or laminar, and Nusselt number was used to solve for the film coefficient. To represent these calculations for both sections a flow chart is presented in order to display the execution process of DeCoM. The benefit of DeCoM is that it is capable of performing preliminary analysis without requiring a license and without much of users knowledge on condensers.

Investigation of natural circulation instability and transients in passively safe novel modular reactor

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shi, Shanbin

The Purdue Novel Modular Reactor (NMR) is a new type small modular reactor (SMR) that belongs to the design of boiling water reactor (BWR). Specifically, the NMR is one third the height and area of a conventional BWR reactor pressure vessel (RPV) with an electric output of 50 MWe. The fuel cycle length of the NMR-50 is extended up to 10 years due to optimized neutronics design. The NMR-50 is designed with double passive engineering safety system. However, natural circulation BWRs (NCBWR) could experience certain operational difficulties due to flow instabilities that occur at low pressure and low power conditions. Static instabilities (i.e. flow excursion (Ledinegg) instability and flow pattern transition instability) and dynamic instabilities (i.e. density wave instability and flashing/condensation instability) pose a significant challenge in two-phase natural circulation systems. In order to experimentally study the natural circulation flow instability, a proper scaling methodology is needed to build a reduced-size test facility. The scaling analysis of the NMR uses a three-level scaling method, which was developed and applied for the design of the Purdue Multi-dimensional Integral Test Assembly (PUMA). Scaling criteria is derived from dimensionless field equations and constitutive equations. The scaling process is validated by the RELAP5 analysis for both steady state and startup transients. A new well-scaled natural circulation test facility is designed and constructed based on the scaling analysis of the NMR-50. The experimental facility is installed with different equipment to measure various thermal-hydraulic parameters such as pressure, temperature, mass flow rate and void fraction. Characterization tests are performed before the startup transient tests and quasi-steady tests to determine the loop flow resistance. The controlling system and data acquisition system are programmed with LabVIEW to realize the real-time control and data storage. The thermal-hydraulic and nuclear coupled startup transients are performed to investigate the flow instabilities at low pressure and low power conditions. Two different power ramps are chosen to study the effect of power density on the flow instability. The experimental startup transient tests show the existence of three different flow instability mechanisms during the low pressure startup transients, i.e., flashing instability, condensation induced instability, and density wave oscillations. Flashing instability in the chimney section of the test loop and density wave oscillation are the main flow instabilities observed when the system pressure is below 0.5 MPa. They show completely different type of oscillations, i.e., intermittent oscillation and sinusoidal oscillation, in void fraction profile during the startup transients. In order to perform nuclear-coupled startup transients with void reactivity feedback, the Point Kinetics model is utilized to calculate the transient power during the startup transients. In addition, the differences between the electric resistance heaters and typical fuel element are taken into account. The reactor power calculated shows some oscillations due to flashing instability during the transients. However, the void reactivity feedback does not have significant influence on the flow instability during the startup procedure for the NMR-50. Further investigation of very small power ramp on the startup transients is carried out for the thermal-hydraulic startup transients. It is found that very small power density can eliminate the flashing oscillation in the single phase natural circulation and stabilize the flow oscillations in the phase of net vapor generation. Furthermore, initially pressurized startup procedure is investigated to eliminate the main flow instabilities. The results show that the pressurized startup procedure can suppress the flashing instability at low pressure and low power conditions. In order to have a deep understanding of natural circulation flow instability, the quasi-steady tests are performed using the test facility installed with preheater and subcooler. The effects of system pressure, core inlet subcooling, core power density, inlet flow resistance coefficient, and void reactivity feedback are investigated in the quasi-steady state tests. The stability boundaries are determined between unstable and stable flow conditions in the dimensionless stability plane of inlet subcooling number and Zuber number. In order to predict the stability boundary theoretically, linear stability analysis in the frequency domain is performed at four sections of the loop. The flashing in the chimney is considered as an axially uniform heat source. The dimensionless characteristic equation of the pressure drop perturbation is obtained by considering the void fraction effect and outlet flow resistance in the chimney section. The flashing boundary shows some discrepancies with previous experimental data from the quasi-steady state tests. In the future, thermal non-equilibrium is recommended to improve the accuracy of flashing instability boundary.

Hot-Fire Testing of 100 LB(sub F) LOX/LCH4 Reaction Control Engine at Altitude Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Marshall, William M.; Kleinhenz, Julie E.

2010-01-01

Liquid oxygen/liquid methane (LO2/LCH4 ) has recently been viewed as a potential green propulsion system for both the Altair ascent main engine (AME) and reaction control system (RCS). The Propulsion and Cryogenic Advanced Development Project (PCAD) has been tasked by NASA to develop these green propellant systems to enable safe and cost effective exploration missions. However, experience with LO2/LCH4 as a propellant combination is limited, so testing of these systems is critical to demonstrating reliable ignition and performance. A test program of a 100 lb f reaction control engine (RCE) is underway at the Altitude Combustion Stand (ACS) of the NASA Glenn Research Center, with a focus on conducting tests at altitude conditions. These tests include a unique propellant conditioning feed system (PCFS) which allows for the inlet conditions of the propellant to be varied to test warm to subcooled liquid propellant temperatures. Engine performance, including thrust, c* and vacuum specific impulse (I(sub sp,vac)) will be presented as a function of propellant temperature conditions. In general, the engine performed as expected, with higher performance at warmer propellant temperatures but better efficiency at lower propellant temperatures. Mixture ratio effects were inconclusive within the uncertainty bands of data, but qualitatively showed higher performance at lower ratios.

Analysis of pipeline transportation systems for carbon dioxide sequestration

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Witkowski, Andrzej; Majkut, Mirosław; Rulik, Sebastian

2014-03-01

A commercially available ASPEN PLUS simulation using a pipe model was employed to determine the maximum safe pipeline distances to subsequent booster stations as a function of carbon dioxide (CO2) inlet pressure, ambient temperature and ground level heat flux parameters under three conditions: isothermal, adiabatic and with account of heat transfer. In the paper, the CO2 working area was assumed to be either in the liquid or in the supercritical state and results for these two states were compared. The following power station data were used: a 900 MW pulverized coal-fired power plant with 90% of CO2 recovered (156.43 kg/s) and the monothanolamine absorption method for separating CO2 from flue gases. The results show that a subcooled liquid transport maximizes energy efficiency and minimizes the cost of CO2 transport over long distances under isothermal, adiabatic and heat transfer conditions. After CO2 is compressed and boosted to above 9 MPa, its temperature is usually higher than ambient temperature. The thermal insulation layer slows down the CO2 temperature decrease process, increasing the pressure drop in the pipeline. Therefore in Poland, considering the atmospheric conditions, the thermal insulation layer should not be laid on the external surface of the pipeline.

Numerical investigations on unstable direct contact condensation of cryogenic fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jayachandran, K. N.; Arnab, Roy; Parthasarathi, Ghosh

2017-02-01

A typical problem of Direct Contact Condensation (DCC) occurs at the liquid oxygen (LOX) booster turbopump exit of oxidiser rich staged combustion cycle based semi-cryogenic rocket engines, where the hot gas mixture (predominantly oxygen and small amounts of combustion products) that runs the turbine mixes with LOX from the pump exit. This complex multiphase phenomena leads to the formation of solid CO2 & H2O, which is undesirable for the functioning of the main LOX turbopump. As a starting point for solving this complex problem, in this study, the hot gas mixture is taken as pure oxygen and hence, DCC of pure oxygen vapour jets in subcooled liquid oxygen is simulated using the commercial CFD package ANSYS CFX®. A two fluid model along with the thermal phase change model is employed for capturing the heat and mass transfer effects. The study mainly focuses on the subsonic DCC bubbling regime, which is reported as unstable with bubble formation, elongation, necking and collapsing effects. The heat transfer coefficients over a period of time have been computed and the various stages of bubbling have been analysed with the help of vapour volume fraction and pressure profiles. The results obtained for DCC of oxygen vapour-liquid mixtures is in qualitative agreement with the experimental results on DCC of steam-water mixtures.

Performance Tests of a Liquid Hydrogen Propellant Densification Ground System for the X33/RLV

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tomsik, Thomas M.

1997-01-01

A concept for improving the performance of propulsion systems in expendable and single-stage-to-orbit (SSTO) launch vehicles much like the X33/RLV has been identified. The approach is to utilize densified cryogenic liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LOX) propellants to fuel the propulsion stage. The primary benefit for using this relatively high specific impulse densified propellant mixture is the subsequent reduction of the launch vehicle gross lift-off weight. Production of densified propellants however requires specialized equipment to actively subcool both the liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to temperatures below their normal boiling point. A propellant densification unit based on an external thermodynamic vent principle which operates at subatmospheric pressure and supercold temperatures provides a means for the LH2 and LOX densification process to occur. To demonstrate the production concept for the densification of the liquid hydrogen propellant, a system comprised of a multistage gaseous hydrogen compressor, LH2 recirculation pumps and a cryogenic LH2 heat exchanger was designed, built and tested at the NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC). This paper presents the design configuration of the LH2 propellant densification production hardware, analytical details and results of performance testing conducted with the hydrogen densifier Ground Support Equipment (GSE).

Cryogenic propulsion for the Titan Orbiter Polar Surveyor (TOPS) mission

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mustafi, S.; DeLee, C.; Francis, J.; Li, X.; McGuinness, D.; Nixon, C. A.; Purves, L.; Willis, W.; Riall, S.; Devine, M.; Hedayat, A.

2016-03-01

Liquid hydrogen (LH2) and liquid oxygen (LO2) cryogenic propellants can dramatically enhance NASA's ability to explore the solar system due to their superior specific impulse (Isp) capability. Although these cryogenic propellants can be challenging to manage and store, they allow significant mass advantages over traditional hypergolic propulsion systems and are therefore enabling for many planetary science missions. New cryogenic storage techniques such as subcooling and the use of advanced insulation and low thermal conductivity support structures will allow for the long term storage and use of cryogenic propellants for solar system exploration and hence allow NASA to deliver more payloads to targets of interest, launch on smaller and less expensive launch vehicles, or both. These new cryogenic storage technologies were implemented in a design study for the Titan Orbiter Polar Surveyor (TOPS) mission, with LH2 and LO2 as propellants, and the resulting spacecraft design was able to achieve a 43% launch mass reduction over a TOPS mission, that utilized a traditional hypergolic propulsion system with mono-methyl hydrazine (MMH) and nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) propellants. This paper describes the cryogenic propellant storage design for the TOPS mission and demonstrates how these cryogenic propellants are stored passively for a decade-long Titan mission that requires the cryogenics propellants to be stored for 8.5 years.

Flow field and friction factor of slush nitrogen in a horizontal circular pipe

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jin, Tao; Li, Yijian; Wu, Shuqin; Wei, Jianjian

2018-04-01

Slush nitrogen is the low-temperature two-phase fluid with solid nitrogen particle suspended in the liquid nitrogen. The flow characteristics of slush nitrogen in a horizontal pipe with the diameter of 16 mm have been experimentally and numerically investigated, under the operating conditions with the inlet flow velocity of 0-4 m/s and the solid volume fraction of 0-23%. The numerical results for pressure drop agree well with those of the experiments, with the relative errors of ±5%. The experimental and numerical results both show that the pressure drop of slush nitrogen is greater than that of subcooled liquid nitrogen and rises with the increasing particle concentration, under the working conditions in present work. Based on the simulation result, the flow pattern evolution of slush nitrogen with the increasing slush Reynolds number has been discussed, which can be classified into homogenous flow, heterogeneous flow and moving bed. The slush effective viscosity and the slush Reynolds number are calculated with Cheng & Law formula, which includes the effects of particle shape, size and type and has a high accuracy for high concentration slurries. Based on the slush Reynolds number, an experimental empirical correlation considering particle conditions for the friction factor of slush nitrogen flow is obtained.

Preliminary Thermal Design of Cryogenic Radiation Shielding

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Li, Xiaoyi; Mustafi, Shuvo; Boutte, Alvin

2015-01-01

Cryogenic Hydrogen Radiation Shielding (CHRS) is the most mass efficient material radiation shielding strategy for human spaceflight beyond low Earth orbit (LEO). Future human space flight, mission beyond LEO could exceed one year in duration. Previous radiation studies showed that in order to protect the astronauts from space radiation with an annual allowable radiation dose less than 500 mSv, 140 kgm2 of polyethylene is necessary. For a typical crew module that is 4 meter in diameter and 8 meter in length. The mass of polyethylene radiation shielding required would be more than 17,500 kg. The same radiation study found that the required hydrogen shielding for the same allowable radiation dose is 40 kgm2, and the mass of hydrogen required would be 5, 000 kg. Cryogenic hydrogen has higher densities and can be stored in relatively small containment vessels. However, the CHRS system needs a sophisticated thermal system which prevents the cryogenic hydrogen from evaporating during the mission. This study designed a cryogenic thermal system that protects the CHRS from hydrogen evaporation for one to up to three year mission. The design also includes a ground based cooling system that can subcool and freeze liquid hydrogen. The final results show that the CHRS with its required thermal protection system is nearly half of the mass of polyethylene radiation shielding.

Adaptability of optimization concept in the context of cryogenic distribution for superconducting magnets of fusion machine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sarkar, Biswanath; Bhattacharya, Ritendra Nath; Vaghela, Hitensinh; Shah, Nitin Dineshkumar; Choukekar, Ketan; Badgujar, Satish

2012-06-01

Cryogenic distribution system (CDS) plays a vital role for reliable operation of largescale fusion machines in a Tokamak configuration. Managing dynamic heat loads from the superconducting magnets, namely, toroidal field, poloidal field, central solenoid and supporting structure is the most important function of the CDS along with the static heat loads. Two concepts are foreseen for the configuration of the CDS: singular distribution and collective distribution. In the first concept, each magnet is assigned with one distribution box having its own sub-cooler bath. In the collective concept, it is possible to share one common bath for more than one magnet system. The case study has been performed with an identical dynamic heat load profile applied to both concepts in the same time domain. The choices of a combined system from the magnets are also part of the study without compromising the system functionality. Process modeling and detailed simulations have been performed for both the options using Aspen HYSYS®. Multiple plasma pulses per day have been considered to verify the residual energy deposited in the superconducting magnets at the end of the plasma pulse. Preliminary 3D modeling using CATIA® has been performed along with the first level of component sizing.

Flow condensation on copper-based nanotextured superhydrophobic surfaces.

PubMed

Torresin, Daniele; Tiwari, Manish K; Del Col, Davide; Poulikakos, Dimos

2013-01-15

Superhydrophobic surfaces have shown excellent ability to promote dropwise condensation with high droplet mobility, leading to enhanced surface thermal transport. To date, however, it is unclear how superhydrophobic surfaces would perform under the stringent flow condensation conditions of saturated vapor at high temperature, which can affect superhydrophobicity. Here, we investigate this issue employing "all-copper" superhydrophobic surfaces with controlled nanostructuring for minimal thermal resistance. Flow condensation tests performed with saturated vapor at a high temperature (110 °C) showed the condensing drops penetrate the surface texture (i.e., attain the Wenzel state with lower droplet mobility). At the same time, the vapor shear helped ameliorate the mobility and enhanced the thermal transport. At the high end of the examined vapor velocity range, a heat flux of ~600 kW m(-2) was measured at 10 K subcooling and 18 m s(-1) vapor velocity. This clearly highlights the excellent potential of a nanostructured superhydrophobic surface in flow condensation applications. The surfaces sustained dropwise condensation and vapor shear for five days, following which mechanical degradation caused a transition to filmwise condensation. Overall, our results underscore the need to investigate superhydrophobic surfaces under stringent and realistic flow condensation conditions before drawing conclusions regarding their performance in practically relevant condensation applications.

Effect of surface oxidation on the onset of nucleate boiling in a materials test reactor coolant channel

DOE PAGES

Forrest, Eric C.; Don, Sarah M.; Hu, Lin -Wen; ...

2016-02-29

The onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) serves as the thermal-hydraulic operating limit for many research and test reactors. However, boiling incipience under forced convection has not been well-characterized in narrow channel geometries or for oxidized surface conditions. This study presents experimental data for the ONB in vertical upflow of deionized (DI) water in a simulated materials test reactor (MTR) coolant channel. The channel gap thickness and aspect ratio were 1.96 mm and 29:1, respectively. Boiling surface conditions were carefully controlled and characterized, with both heavily oxidized and native oxide surfaces tested. Measurements were performed for mass fluxes ranging from 750more » to 3000 kg/m 2s and for subcoolings ranging from 10 to 45°C. ONB was identified using a combination of high-speed visual observation, surface temperature measurements, and channel pressure drop measurements. Surface temperature measurements were found to be most reliable in identifying the ONB. For the nominal (native oxide) surface, results indicate that the correlation of Bergles and Rohsenow, when paired with the appropriate single-phase heat transfer correlation, adequately predicts the ONB heat flux. Furthermore, incipience on the oxidized surface occurred at a higher heat flux and superheat than on the plain surface.« less

Experimental Solubility Approach to Determine PDMS-Water Partition Constants and PDMS Activity Coefficients.

PubMed

Grant, Sharon; Schacht, Veronika J; Escher, Beate I; Hawker, Darryl W; Gaus, Caroline

2016-03-15

Freely dissolved aqueous concentration and chemical activity are important determinants of contaminant transport, fate, and toxic potential. Both parameters are commonly quantified using Solid Phase Micro-Extraction (SPME) based on a sorptive polymer such as polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). This method requires the PDMS-water partition constants, KPDMSw, or activity coefficient to be known. For superhydrophobic contaminants (log KOW >6), application of existing methods to measure these parameters is challenging, and independent measures to validate KPDMSw values would be beneficial. We developed a simple, rapid method to directly measure PDMS solubilities of solid contaminants, SPDMS(S), which together with literature thermodynamic properties was then used to estimate KPDMSw and activity coefficients in PDMS. PDMS solubility for the test compounds (log KOW 7.2-8.3) ranged over 3 orders of magnitude (4.1-5700 μM), and was dependent on compound class. For polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins (PCDDs), solubility-derived KPDMSw increased linearly with hydrophobicity, consistent with trends previously reported for less chlorinated congeners. In contrast, subcooled liquid PDMS solubilities, SPDMS(L), were approximately constant within a compound class. SPDMS(S) and KPDMSw can therefore be predicted for a compound class with reasonable robustness based solely on the class-specific SPDMS(L) and a particular congener's entropy of fusion, melting point, and aqueous solubility.

Supermarket refrigeration assessment for the Commonwealth Electric Company

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tsaros, T.L.; Walker, D.H.

The Commonwealth Electric Company (COM/Electric) has initiated an incentive program to promote electric energy conservation within its service territory. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has assisted COM/Electric in assessing the impact on the utility and its customers of implementing energy efficient supermarket refrigeration in retrofit applications. The primary task of this assessment was to contact the supermarket chains and refrigeration contractors and suppliers in the COM/Electric service territory to determine the type of refrigeration employed and standard or novel retrofit equipment implemented in supermarkets. With this information, estimates were made of the potential energy savings that COM/Electric and themore » supermarkets could realize if supermarkets were retrofitted with energy efficient refrigeration equipment. It was determined that the refrigerated display case features offering the greatest potential for savings through retrofit installations include doors for medium temperature multideck cases, high-efficiency fan motors, anti-sweat heater controls, and vinyl strip curtains for walk-in coolers. The retrofit components associated with the compressor machine room that offer the greatest potential for savings include the use of low heat pressure control, hot gas defrost, and external liquid-suction heat exchangers and remote evaporative subcoolers for low temperature refrigeration. 6 refs., 14 figs., 26 tabs.« less

Development of a wet vapor homogeneous liquid metal MHD power system

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

1989-04-01

During the period covered by this report (October 1988 to March 1989), the following work was done: the mixing stream condensation process was analyzed, and a theoretical model for simulating this process was modified. A parametric study is being conducted at the present time; the separation processes were analyzed; and the experimental system was specified and its design is at present in an advanced stage. The mixing stream condensation process was analyzed. For the parameters defined in the SOW of this project the process was found to be a mist flow direct contact condensation, where the hot gas mixture consisting of inert gas and vapor is the continuous phase, and the subcooled liquid on which the vapor is condensed if the droplets dispersed phase. Two possibilities of creating the mist flow were considered. The first, injecting the cold Liquid Metal (LM) into the Mixing Streams Condenser (MSC) entrance as a jet and breaking it into LM fragments and the fragments into droplets by momentum transfer breakup mechanism. The second, atomizing the cooled LM stream into little droplets (approximately 100 micrometers in diameter) and accelerating them by the gas. The second possibility was preferred due to its much higher heat and mass transfer surface and coefficients relative to the first one.

Thermal State-of-Charge in Solar Heat Receivers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Carsie A., Jr.; Glakpe, Emmanuel K.; Cannon, Joseph N.; Kerslake, Thomas W.

1998-01-01

A theoretical framework is developed to determine the so-called thermal state-of-charge (SOC) in solar heat receivers employing encapsulated phase change materials (PCMS) that undergo cyclic melting and freezing. The present problem is relevant to space solar dynamic power systems that would typically operate in low-Earth-orbit (LEO). The solar heat receiver is integrated into a closed-cycle Brayton engine that produces electric power during sunlight and eclipse periods of the orbit cycle. The concepts of available power and virtual source temperature, both on a finite-time basis, are used as the basis for determining the SOC. Analytic expressions for the available power crossing the aperture plane of the receiver, available power stored in the receiver, and available power delivered to the working fluid are derived, all of which are related to the SOC through measurable parameters. Lower and upper bounds on the SOC are proposed in order to delineate absolute limiting cases for a range of input parameters (orbital, geometric, etc.). SOC characterization is also performed in the subcooled, two-phase, and superheat regimes. Finally, a previously-developed physical and numerical model of the solar heat receiver component of NASA Lewis Research Center's Ground Test Demonstration (GTD) system is used in order to predict the SOC as a function of measurable parameters.

Modeling Cyclic Phase Change and Energy Storage in Solar Heat Receivers

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, Carsie A., III; Glakpe, Emmanuel K.; Cannon, Joseph N.; Kerslake, Thomas W.

1997-01-01

Numerical results pertaining to cyclic melting and freezing of an encapsulated phase change material (PCM), integrated into a solar heat receiver, have been reported. The cyclic nature of the present melt/freeze problem is relevant to latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) systems used to power solar Brayton engines in microgravity environments. Specifically, a physical and numerical model of the solar heat receiver component of NASA Lewis Research Center's Ground Test Demonstration (GTD) project was developed and results compared with available experimental data. Multi-conjugate effects such as the convective fluid flow of a low-Prandtl-number fluid, coupled with thermal conduction in the phase change material, containment tube and working fluid conduit were accounted for in the model. A single-band thermal radiation model was also included to quantify reradiative energy exchange inside the receiver and losses through the aperture. The eutectic LiF-CaF2 was used as the phase change material (PCM) and a mixture of He/Xe was used as the working fluid coolant. A modified version of the computer code HOTTube was used to generate results for comparisons with GTD data for both the subcooled and two-phase regimes. While qualitative trends were in close agreement for the balanced orbit modes, excellent quantitative agreement was observed for steady-state modes.

UManSysProp: an online facility for molecular property prediction and atmospheric aerosol calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topping, D.; Barley, M. H.; Bane, M.; Higham, N.; Aumont, B.; McFiggans, G.

2015-11-01

In this paper we describe the development and application of a new web based facility, UManSysProp (http://umansysprop.seaes.manchester.ac.uk), for automating predictions of molecular and atmospheric aerosol properties. Current facilities include: pure component vapour pressures, critical properties and sub-cooled densities of organic molecules; activity coefficient predictions for mixed inorganic-organic liquid systems; hygroscopic growth factors and CCN activation potential of mixed inorganic/organic aerosol particles; absorptive partitioning calculations with/without a treatment of non-ideality. The aim of this new facility is to provide a single point of reference for all properties relevant to atmospheric aerosol that have been checked for applicability to atmospheric compounds where possible. The group contribution approach allows users to upload molecular information in the form of SMILES strings and UManSysProp will automatically extract the relevant information for calculations. Built using open source chemical informatics, and hosted at the University of Manchester, the facilities are provided via a browser and device-friendly web-interface, or can be accessed using the user's own code via a JSON API. In this paper we demonstrate its use with specific examples that can be simulated using the web-browser interface.

Space Shuttle Upgrade Liquid Oxygen Tank Thermal Stratification

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Tunc, Gokturk; Wagner, Howard; Bayazitoglu, Yildiz

2001-01-01

In 1997, NASA initiated a study of a liquid oxygen and ethanol orbital maneuvering and reaction control system for space shuttle upgrades as well as other reusable launch vehicle applications. The pressure-fed system uses sub-cooled liquid oxygen at 2413.2 KPa (350 psia) stored passively using insulation. Thermal stratification builds up while the space shuttle is docked at the international space station. The venting from the space shuttle's liquid oxygen tank is not desired during this 96-hr time period. Once the shuttle undocks from the space station there could be a pressure collapse in the liquid oxygen tank caused by fluid mixing due to the thruster fU"ings . The thermal stratification and resulting pressure rise in the tank were examined by a computational fluid dynamic model. Since the heat transfer from the pressurant gas to the liquid will result in a decrease in tank pressure the final pressure after the 96 hours will be significantly less when the tank is pressurized with ambient temperature helium. Therefore, using helium at ambient temperature to pressurize the tank is preferred to pressurizing the tank with helium at the liquid oxygen temperature. The higher helium temperature will also result in less mass of helium to pressurize the tank.

Modeling of thermodynamic non-equilibrium flows around cylinders and in channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sinha, Avick; Gopalakrishnan, Shiva

2017-11-01

Numerical simulations for two different types of flash-boiling flows, namely shear flow (flow through a de-Laval nozzle) and free shear flow (flow past a cylinder) are carried out in the present study. The Homogenous Relaxation Model (HRM) is used to model the thermodynamic non-equilibrium process. It was observed that the vaporization of the fluid stream, which was initially maintained at a sub-cooled state, originates at the nozzle throat. This is because the fluid accelerates at the vena-contracta and subsequently the pressure falls below the saturation vapor pressure, generating a two-phase mixture in the diverging section of the nozzle. The mass flow rate at the nozzle was found to decrease with the increase in fluid inlet temperature. A similar phenomenon also occurs for the free shear case due to boundary layer separation, causing a drop in pressure behind the cylinder. The mass fraction of vapor is maximum at rear end of the cylinder, where the size of the wake is highest. As the back pressure is reduced, severe flashing behavior was observed. The numerical simulations were validated against available experimental data. The authors gratefully acknowledge funding from the public-private partnership between DST, Confederation of Indian Industry and General Electric Pvt. Ltd.

The gas/particle partitioning of nitro- and oxy-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the atmosphere of northern China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Wei; Shen, Guofeng; Yuan, Chenyi; Wang, Chen; Shen, Huizhong; Jiang, Huai; Zhang, Yanyan; Chen, Yuanchen; Su, Shu; Lin, Nan; Tao, Shu

2016-05-01

The gas/particle partitioning of nitro-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nPAHs) and oxy-PAHs (oPAHs) is pivotal to estimate their environmental fate. Simultaneously measured atmospheric concentrations of nPAHs and oPAHs in both gaseous and particulate phases at 18 sites in northern China make it possible to investigate their partitioning process in a large region. The gas/particle partitioning coefficients (Kp) in this study were higher than those measured in the emission exhausts. The Kp for most individual nPAHs was higher than those for their corresponding parent PAHs. Generally higher Kp values were found at rural field sites compared to values in the rural villages and cities. Temperature, subcooled liquid-vapor pressure (Pl0) and octanol-air partition coefficient (Koa) were all significantly correlated with Kp. The slope values between log Kp and log Pl0, ranging from - 0.54 to - 0.34, indicate that the equilibrium of gas/particle partitioning might not be reached, which could be also revealed from a positive correlation between log Kp and particulate matter (PM) concentrations. Underestimation commonly exists in all three partitioning models, but the predicted values of Kp from the dual model are closer to the measured Kp for derivative PAHs in northern China.

Development of an Efficient Meso- scale Multi-phase Flow Solver in Nuclear Applications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lee, Taehun

2015-10-20

The proposed research aims at formulating a predictive high-order Lattice Boltzmann Equation for multi-phase flows relevant to nuclear energy related application - namely, saturated and sub-cooled boiling in reactors, and liquid- liquid mixing and extraction for fuel cycle separation. An efficient flow solver will be developed based on the Finite Element based Lattice Boltzmann Method (FE- LBM), accounting for phase-change heat transfer and capable of treating multiple phases over length scales from the submicron to the meter. A thermal LBM will be developed in order to handle adjustable Prandtl number, arbitrary specific heat ratio, a wide range of temperature variations,more » better numerical stability during liquid-vapor phase change, and full thermo-hydrodynamic consistency. Two-phase FE-LBM will be extended to liquid–liquid–gas multi-phase flows for application to high-fidelity simulations building up from the meso-scale up to the equipment sub-component scale. While several relevant applications exist, the initial applications for demonstration of the efficient methods to be developed as part of this project include numerical investigations of Critical Heat Flux (CHF) phenomena in nuclear reactor fuel bundles, and liquid-liquid mixing and interfacial area generation for liquid-liquid separations. In addition, targeted experiments will be conducted for validation of this advanced multi-phase model.« less

Steady State Vapor Bubble in Pool Boiling

PubMed Central

Zou, An; Chanana, Ashish; Agrawal, Amit; Wayner, Peter C.; Maroo, Shalabh C.

2016-01-01

Boiling, a dynamic and multiscale process, has been studied for several decades; however, a comprehensive understanding of the process is still lacking. The bubble ebullition cycle, which occurs over millisecond time-span, makes it extremely challenging to study near-surface interfacial characteristics of a single bubble. Here, we create a steady-state vapor bubble that can remain stable for hours in a pool of sub-cooled water using a femtosecond laser source. The stability of the bubble allows us to measure the contact-angle and perform in-situ imaging of the contact-line region and the microlayer, on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces and in both degassed and regular (with dissolved air) water. The early growth stage of vapor bubble in degassed water shows a completely wetted bubble base with the microlayer, and the bubble does not depart from the surface due to reduced liquid pressure in the microlayer. Using experimental data and numerical simulations, we obtain permissible range of maximum heat transfer coefficient possible in nucleate boiling and the width of the evaporating layer in the contact-line region. This technique of creating and measuring fundamental characteristics of a stable vapor bubble will facilitate rational design of nanostructures for boiling enhancement and advance thermal management in electronics. PMID:26837464

Functional Dependence of Thermodynamic and Thermokinetic Parameters of Refrigerants Used in Mine Air Refrigerators. Part 1 - Refrigerant R407C

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nowak, Bernard; Życzkowski, Piotr; Łuczak, Rafał

2017-03-01

The authors of this article dealt with the issue of modeling the thermodynamic and thermokinetic properties (parameters) of refrigerants. The knowledge of these parameters is essential to design refrigeration equipment, to perform their energy efficiency analysis, or to compare the efficiency of air refrigerators using different refrigerants. One of the refrigerants used in mine air compression refrigerators is R407C. For this refrigerant, 23 dependencies were developed, determining its thermodynamic and thermokinetic parameters in the states of saturated liquid, dry saturated vapour, superheated vapor, subcooled liquid, and in the two-phase region. The created formulas have been presented in Tables 2, 5, 8, 10 and 12, respectively. It should be noted that the scope of application of these formulas is wider than the range of changes of that refrigerant during the normal operation of mine refrigeration equipment. The article ends with the statistical verification of the developed dependencies. For this purpose, for each model correlation coefficients and coefficients of determination were calculated, as well as absolute and relative deviations between the given values from the program REFPROP 7 (Lemmon et al., 2002) and the calculated ones. The results of these calculations have been contained in Tables 14 and 15.

Ignition Characterization Test Results for the LO2/Ethanol Propellant Combination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Popp, Christopher G.; Robinson, Phillip J.; Veith, Eric M.

2006-01-01

A series of contracts were issued by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the auspices of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to develop and expand the maturity of candidate technologies considered to be important for future space exploration. One such technology was to determine the viability of incorporating non-toxic propellants for Reaction Control Subsystems (RCS). Contract NAS8-01109 was issued to Aerojet to develop a dual thrust Reaction Control Engine (RCE) that utilized liquid oxygen and ethanol as the propellants. The dual thrust RCE incorporated a primary thrust level of 870 lbf, and a vernier thrust level of 10 - 30 lbf. The preferred RCS approach for the dual thrust RCE was to utilize pressure-fed liquid oxygen (LOX) and ethanol propellants; however, previous dual thrust feasibility testing incorporated GOX/Ethanol igniters as opposed to LOX/Ethanol igniters in the design. GOX/Ethanol was easier to ignite, but this combination had system design implications of providing GOX for the igniters. A LOX/Ethanol igniter was desired; however, extensive LOX/Ethanol ignition data over the anticipated operating range for the dual thrust RCE did not exist. Therefore, Aerojet designed and tested a workhorse LOX igniter to determine LOX/Ethanol ignition characteristics as part of a risk mitigation effort for the dual thrust RCE design. LOX, encompassing potential two-phase flow conditions anticipated being present in real mission applications. A workhorse igniter was designed to accommodate the hll LOX design flowrate, as well as a reduced GOX flowrate. It was reasoned that the initial LOX flow through the igniter would flash to GOX due to the latent heat stored in the hardware, causing a reduced oxygen flowrate because of a choked, or sonic, flow condition through the injection elements. As LOX flow continued, the hardware would chill-in, with the injected oxygen flow transitioning from cold GOX through two-phase flow to subcooled LOX. permitted oxygen state points to be determined in the igniter oxidizer manifold, and gas-side igniter chamber thermocouples provided chamber thermal profile characteristics. The cold flow chamber pressure (P(sub c)) for each test was determined and coupled with the igniter chamber diameter (D(sub c)) to calculate the characteristic quench parameter (P(sub c) x D(sub c)), which was plotted as a function of core mixture ratio, m. Ignition limits were determined over a broad range of valve inlet conditions, and ignition was demonstrated with oxygen inlet conditions that ranged from subcooled 210 R LOX to 486 R GOX. Once ignited at cold GOX conditions, combustion was continuous as the hardware chilled in and the core mixture ratio transitioned from values near 1.0 to over 12.5. Pulsing is required in typical RCS engines; therefore, the workhorse igniter was pulse tested to verify the ability to provide the required ignition for a pulsing RCE. The minimum electrical pulse width (EPW) of the dual thrust RCE was 0.080 seconds.

Ventless pressure control of two-phase propellant tanks in microgravity.

PubMed

Kassemi, Mohammad; Panzarella, Charles H

2004-11-01

This work studies pressurization and pressure control of a large liquid hydrogen storage tank. A finite element model is developed that couples a lumped thermodynamic formulation for the vapor region with a complete solution of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations for the flow and temperature fields in the liquid. Numerical results show that buoyancy effects are strong, even in microgravity, and can reposition a vapor bubble that is initially at the center of the tank to a region near the tank wall in a relatively short time. Long-term tank pressurization with the vapor bubble at the tank wall shows that after an initial transient lasting about a week, the final rate of pressure increase agrees with a purely thermodynamic analysis of the entire tank. However, the final pressure levels are quite different from thermodynamic predictions. Numerical results also show that there is significant thermal stratification in the liquid due to the effects of natural convection. A subcooled jet is used to provide simultaneous cooling and mixing in order to bring the tank pressure back down to its initial value. Three different jet speeds are examined. Although the lowest jet speed is ineffective at controlling the pressure because of insufficient penetration into the liquid region, the highest jet speed is shown to be quite effective at disrupting thermal stratification and reducing the tank pressure in reasonable time.

Ventless pressure control of two-phase propellant tanks in microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kassemi, Mohammad; Panzarella, Charles H.

2004-01-01

This work studies pressurization and pressure control of a large liquid hydrogen storage tank. A finite element model is developed that couples a lumped thermodynamic formulation for the vapor region with a complete solution of the Navier-Stokes and energy equations for the flow and temperature fields in the liquid. Numerical results show that buoyancy effects are strong, even in microgravity, and can reposition a vapor bubble that is initially at the center of the tank to a region near the tank wall in a relatively short time. Long-term tank pressurization with the vapor bubble at the tank wall shows that after an initial transient lasting about a week, the final rate of pressure increase agrees with a purely thermodynamic analysis of the entire tank. However, the final pressure levels are quite different from thermodynamic predictions. Numerical results also show that there is significant thermal stratification in the liquid due to the effects of natural convection. A subcooled jet is used to provide simultaneous cooling and mixing in order to bring the tank pressure back down to its initial value. Three different jet speeds are examined. Although the lowest jet speed is ineffective at controlling the pressure because of insufficient penetration into the liquid region, the highest jet speed is shown to be quite effective at disrupting thermal stratification and reducing the tank pressure in reasonable time.

Brominated flame retardants in the urban atmosphere of Northeast China: concentrations, temperature dependence and gas-particle partitioning.

PubMed

Qi, Hong; Li, Wen-Long; Liu, Li-Yan; Song, Wei-Wei; Ma, Wan-Li; Li, Yi-Fan

2014-09-01

57 pairs of air samples (gas and particle phases) were collected using a high volume air sampler in a typical city of Northeast China. Brominated flame retardants (BFRs) including 13 polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs, including BDEs 17, 28, 47, 49, 66, 85, 99, 100, 138, 153, 154, 183, and 209) and 9 alternative BFRs (p-TBX, PBBZ, PBT, PBEB, DPTE, HBBZ, γ-HBCD, BTBPE, and DBDPE) were analyzed. The annual average total concentrations of the 13 PBDEs and the 9 alternative BFRs were 69 pg/m(3) and 180 pg/m(3), respectively. BDE 209 and γ-HBCD were the dominant congeners, according to the one-year study. The partial pressure of BFRs in the gas phase was significantly correlated with the ambient temperature, except for BDE 85, γ-HBCD and DBDPE, indicating the important influence of ambient temperature on the behavior of BFRs in the atmosphere. It was found that the gas-particle partitioning coefficients (logKp) for most low molecular weight BFRs were highly temperature dependent as well. Gas-particle partitioning coefficients (logKp) also correlated with the sub-cooled liquid vapor pressure (logPL(o)). Our results indicated that absorption into organic matter is the main control mechanism for the gas-particle partitioning of atmospheric PBDEs. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Role of black carbon in the sorption of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans at the Diamond Alkali superfund site, Newark Bay, New Jersey.

PubMed

Lambert, Matthew K; Friedman, Carey; Luey, Pamela; Lohmann, Rainer

2011-05-15

The sorption of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) to organic carbon (OC) and black carbon (BC) was measured in two sediment cores taken near the Diamond Alkali superfund site (DA) in the Passaic River and Newark Bay, New Jersey (U.S.A.). An OC partitioning model and a BC-inclusive, Freundlich distribution model were used to interpret measurements of freely dissolved PCDD/Fs using passive samplers in sediment incubations, together with measured sedimentary concentrations of OC, BC, and PCDD/Fs. Samples were also analyzed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as controls on the two distribution models. The OC partitioning model underpredicted the distribution of PAHs and PCDD/Fs by 10-100-fold. The Freundlich model predicted the distribution of PAHs at the DA to within a factor of 2-3 of observations. Black carbon-water partition coefficients (K(iBC)) for PCDD/Fs, derived from literature results of both field and laboratory studies differed up to 1000-fold from values derived from this study. Contrary to expectations, PCDDs displayed stronger sorption than either PCDFs or PAHs relative to their subcooled liquid aqueous solubilities. Even though the presence of BC in the sediments reduced the overall bioavailability of PCDD/Fs by >90%, the sediments at 2 m depth continue to display the highest pore water activities of PCDD/Fs.

Fractal Loop Heat Pipe Performance Comparisons of a Soda Lime Glass and Compressed Carbon Foam Wick

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Myre, David; Silk, Eric A.

2014-01-01

This study compares heat flux performance of a Loop Heat Pipe (LHP) wick structure fabricated from compressed carbon foam with that of a wick structure fabricated from sintered soda lime glass. Each wick was used in an LHP containing a fractal based evaporator. The Fractal Loop Heat Pipe (FLHP) was designed and manufactured by Mikros Manufacturing Inc. The compressed carbon foam wick structure was manufactured by ERG Aerospace Inc., and machined to specifications comparable to that of the initial soda lime glass wick structure. Machining of the compressed foam as well as performance testing was conducted at the United States Naval Academy. Performance testing with the sintered soda lime glass wick structures was conducted at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center. Heat input for both wick structures was supplied via cartridge heaters mounted in a copper block. The copper heater block was placed in contact with the FLHP evaporator which had a circular cross-sectional area of 0.88 cm(sup 2). Twice distilled, deionized water was used as the working fluid in both sets of experiments. Thermal performance data was obtained for three different Condenser/Subcooler temperatures under degassed conditions. Both wicks demonstrated comparable heat flux performance with a maximum of 75 W/cm observed for the soda lime glass wick and 70 W /cm(sup 2) for the compressed carbon foam wick.

Volume-Of-Fluid Simulation for Predicting Two-Phase Cooling in a Microchannel

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorle, Catherine; Parida, Pritish; Houshmand, Farzad; Asheghi, Mehdi; Goodson, Kenneth

2014-11-01

Two-phase flow in microfluidic geometries has applications of increasing interest for next generation electronic and optoelectronic systems, telecommunications devices, and vehicle electronics. While there has been progress on comprehensive simulation of two-phase flows in compact geometries, validation of the results in different flow regimes should be considered to determine the predictive capabilities. In the present study we use the volume-of-fluid method to model the flow through a single micro channel with cross section 100 × 100 μm and length 10 mm. The channel inlet mass flux and the heat flux at the lower wall result in a subcooled boiling regime in the first 2.5 mm of the channel and a saturated flow regime further downstream. A conservation equation for the vapor volume fraction, and a single set of momentum and energy equations with volume-averaged fluid properties are solved. A reduced-physics phase change model represents the evaporation of the liquid and the corresponding heat loss, and the surface tension is accounted for by a source term in the momentum equation. The phase change model used requires the definition of a time relaxation parameter, which can significantly affect the solution since it determines the rate of evaporation. The results are compared to experimental data available from literature, focusing on the capability of the reduced-physics phase change model to predict the correct flow pattern, temperature profile and pressure drop.

Experimental study on the performance of the vapor injection refrigeration system with an economizer for intermediate pressures

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moon, Chang-Uk; Choi, Kwang-Hwan; Yoon, Jung-In; Kim, Young-Bok; Son, Chang-Hyo; Ha, Soo-Jung; Jeon, Min-Ju; An, Sang-Young; Lee, Joon-Hyuk

2018-04-01

In this study, to investigate the performance characteristics of vapor injection refrigeration system with an economizer at an intermediate pressure, the vapor injection refrigeration system was analyzed under various experiment conditions. As a result, the optimum design data of the vapor injection refrigeration system with an economizer were obtained. The findings from this study can be summarized as follows. The mass flow rate through the compressor increases with intermediate pressure. The compression power input showed an increasing trend under all the test conditions. The evaporation capacity increased and then decreased at the intermediate pressure, and as such, it became maximum at the given intermediate pressure. The increased mass flow rate of the by-passed refrigerant enhanced the evaporation capacity at the low medium pressure range, but the increased saturation temperature limited the subcooling degree of the liquid refrigerant after the application of the economizer when the intermediate pressure kept rising, and degenerated the evaporation capacity. The coefficient of performance (COP) increased and then decreased with respect to the intermediate pressures under all the experiment conditions. Nevertheless, there was an optimum intermediate pressure for the maximum COP under each experiment condition. Therefore, the optimum intermediate pressure in this study was found at -99.08 kPa, which is the theoretical standard medium pressure under all the test conditions.

Fabrication and Properties of Micro-Nanoencapsulated Phase Change Materials for Internally-Cooled Liquid Desiccant Dehumidification.

PubMed

Niu, Xiaofeng; Xu, Qing; Zhang, Yi; Zhang, Yue; Yan, Yufeng; Liu, Tao

2017-04-29

Micro-nanoencapsulated phase change materials (M-NEPCMs) are proposed to be useful in liquid desiccant dehumidification by restraining the temperature rise in the moisture-removal process and improving the dehumidification efficiency. In this paper, the n -octadecane M-NEPCMs with desirable thermal properties for internally-cooled dehumidification were fabricated by using compound emulsifiers through the in-situ polymerization method. Melamine-formaldehyde resin was used as the shell material. The effects of the mixing ratio, emulsification methods and amount of the compound emulsifiers on the morphology, size and thermal properties of the M-NEPCMs were investigated experimentally. The optimum weight mixing ratio of the compound emulsifiers is SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate):Tween80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate):Span80 (sorbitan monooleate) = 0.1:0.6:0.3, which achieves the best stability of the n -octadecane emulsion. When the compound emulsifiers are 10 wt. % of the core material, the melting enthalpy of M-NEPCMs reaches its maximum of 145.26 J/g of capsules, with an encapsulation efficiency of 62.88% and a mean diameter of 636 nm. The sub-cooling of the prepared M-NEPCMs is lower than 3 °C, with an acceptable thermal reliability after the thermal cycling test. A pre-emulsification prior to the addition of deionized water in the emulsification is beneficial to the morphology of the capsules, as the phase change enthalpy can be increased by 123.7%.

Performance of the supercritical helium cooling loop for the JET divertor cryopump

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Obert, W.; Mayaux, C.; Barth, K.

1996-12-31

A supercritical helium cooling loop for the two JET divertor cryopumps has been tested, commissioned and is operational practically uninterrupted for over one year. Operation experience under a number of different boundary and transient conditions have been obtained. The flow of the supercritical helium (6 g/s, 2.7 bar) is driven by the main compressor of the JET helium refrigerator passing a heat exchanger where it is subcooled to 4.1 K before entering the two cryopumps which are an assembly of two 60 m long and 20 mm diameter corrugated stainless steel tubes. By using a dedicated cold ejector which ismore » driven by the main flow and where the expansion from 12 bar to 2.7 bar takes place increases the flow of supercritical helium up to {approximately}17 g/s. The steady state thermal load to the cooling loop of the cryopump is < 80 W but during transient conditions in particular due to nuclear heating in the active phase of JET considerably higher transient heat loads can be accepted by the loop. Details about the steady state and transient thermal conditions as well as the cooldown and warm up behavior of the loop and the interaction of the supercritical loop with the operation of other plant equipment will be discussed in the paper.« less

Ice Generation and the Heat and Mass Transfer Phenomena of Introducing Water to a Cold Bath of Brine.

PubMed

Yun, Xiao; Quarini, Giuseppe L

2017-03-13

We demonstrate a method for the study of the heat and mass transfer and of the freezing phenomena in a subcooled brine environment. Our experiment showed that, under the proper conditions, ice can be produced when water is introduced to a bath of cold brine. To make ice form, in addition to having the brine and water mix, the rate of heat transfer must bypass that of mass transfer. When water is introduced in the form of tiny droplets to the brine surface, the mode of heat and mass transfer is by diffusion. The buoyancy stops water from mixing with the brine underneath, but as the ice grows thicker, it slows down the rate of heat transfer, making ice more difficult to grow as a result. When water is introduced inside the brine in the form of a flow, a number of factors are found to influence how much ice can form. Brine temperature and concentration, which are the driving forces of heat and mass transfer, respectively, can affect the water-to-ice conversion ratio; lower bath temperatures and brine concentrations encourage more ice to form. The flow rheology, which can directly affect both the heat and mass transfer coefficients, is also a key factor. In addition, the flow rheology changes the area of contact of the flow with the bulk fluid.

Dynamics of the Molten Contact Line

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sonin, Ain A.; Schiaffino, Stefano

1996-01-01

In contrast to the ordinary contact line problem, virtually no information is available on the similar problem associated with a molten material spreading on a solid which is below the melt's fusion point. The latter is a more complex problem which heat transfer and solidification take place simultaneously with spreading, and requires answers not only for the hot melt's advance speed over the cold solid as a function of contact angle, but also for how one is to predict the point of the molten contact line's arrest by freezing. This issues are of importance in evolving methods of materials processing. The purpose of our work is to develop, based on both experiments and theory, an understanding of the dynamic processes that occur when a molten droplet touches a subcooled solid, spreads partly over it by capillary action, and freezes. We seek answers to the following basic questions. First, what is the relationship between the melt's contact line speed and the apparent (dynamic) contact angle? Secondly, at what point will the contact line modon be arrested by freezing? The talk will describe three components of our work: (1) deposition experiments with small molten droplets; (2) investigation of the dynamics of the molten contact line by means of a novel forced spreading method; and (3) an attempt to provide a theoretical framework for answering the basic questions posed above.

Boiling characteristics of dilute polymer solutions and implications for the suppression of vapor explosions

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bang, K.H.; Kim, M.H.

Quenching experiments of hot solid spheres in dilute aqueous solutions of polyethylene oxide polymer have been conducted for the purpose of investigating the physical mechanisms of the suppression of vapor explosions in this polymer solutions. Two spheres of 22.2mm and 9.5mm-diameter were tested in the polymer solutions of various concentrations at 30{degrees}C. Minimum film boiling temperature ({Delta}T{sub MFB}) in this highly-subcooled liquid rapidly decreased from over 700{degrees}c for pure water to about 150{degrees}C as the polymer concentration was increased up to 300ppm for 22.2mm sphere, and it decreased to 350{degrees}C for 9.5mm sphere. This rapid reduction of minimum film boilingmore » temperature in the PEO aqueous solutions can explain its ability of the suppression of spontaneous vapor explosions. The ability of suppression of vapor explosions by dilute polyethylene oxide solutions against an external trigger pressure was tested by dropping molten tin into the polymer solutions at 25{degrees}C. It was observed that in 50ppm solutions more mass fragmented than in pure water, but produced weaker explosion pressures. The explosion was completely suppressed in 300ppm solutions with the external trigger. The debris size distributions of fine fragments smaller than 0.7mm were shown almost identical regardless of the polymer concentrations.« less

Endocrine disrupting compounds in the atmosphere of the urban area of Thessaloniki, Greece

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salapasidou, M.; Samara, C.; Voutsa, D.

2011-07-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) in a complex urban atmosphere. Target compounds were alkylphenols (NP, tOP, nOP), nonylphenol monoethoxylate (NP1EO), bisphenol A (BPA), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), and phthalates (DMP, DEP, DBP, BBP, DEHP, DNOP). EDCs were determined in ambient PM10 from two sampling sites, one urban-traffic and one urban-industrial, located in the city of Thessaloniki, northern Greece. At both sites, DEHP and NP were found to be the predominant EDCs in airborne PM10. Concentrations of NP did not exhibit any spatial difference, whereas concentrations of DEHP were significantly higher at the urban-traffic site. Wind direction was not found to have any significant effect on ambient EDCs concentrations suggesting impact from local sources rather than transport; however some peak concentrations might be attributed to short-distance sources. The gas/particle partition coefficient, Kp, and the gaseous phase of EDCs were calculated by employing two approaches based on literature data (a) for the subcooled liquid vapor pressure ( PL0) and (b) the octanol-air partition coefficient ( KOA). It appeared that the g/ p partition of phthalates estimated by the KOA approach is in better agreement with experimental partition data reported by other investigators. Absorption in organic matter was found to be significant partition mechanism at the urban-traffic site.

High Pressure Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessel (COPV) Development Tests at Cryogenic Temperatures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ray, David M.; Greene, Nathanael J.; Revilock, Duane; Sneddon, Kirk; Anselmo, Estelle

2008-01-01

Development tests were conducted to evaluate the performance of 2 COPV designs at cryogenic temperatures. This allows for risk reductions for critical components for a Gaseous Helium (GHe) Pressurization Subsystem for an Advanced Propulsion System (APS) which is being proposed for NASA s Constellation project and future exploration missions. It is considered an advanced system since it uses Liquid Methane (LCH4) as the fuel and Liquid Oxygen (LO2) as the oxidizer for the propellant combination mixture. To avoid heating of the propellants to prevent boil-off, the GHe will be stored at subcooled temperatures equivalent to the LO2 temperature. Another advantage of storing GHe at cryogenic temperatures is that more mass of the pressurized GHe can be charged in to a vessel with a smaller volume, hence a smaller COPV, and this creates a significant weight savings versus gases at ambient temperatures. The major challenge of this test plan is to verify that a COPV can safely be used for spacecraft applications to store GHe at a Maximum Operating Pressure (MOP) of 4,500 psig at 140R to 160R (-320 F to -300 F). The COPVs for these tests were provided by ARDE , Inc. who developed a resin system to use at cryogenic conditions and has the capabilities to perform high pressure testing with LN2.

Long-Term Cryogenic Propellant Storage for the Titan Orbiter Polar Surveyor (TOPS) Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mustafi, Shuvo; Francis, John; Li, Xiaoyi; DeLee, Hudson; Purves, Lloyd; Willis, Dewey; Nixon, Conor; Mcguinness, Dan; Riall, Sara; Devine, Matt;

Long-Term Cryogenic Propellant Storage for the TOPS Mission

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mustafi, Shuvo; Francis, John; Li, Xiaoyi; Purves, Lloyd; DeLee, Hudson; Riall, Sara; McGuinness, Dan; Willis, Dewey; Nixon, Conor; Devine Matt;

Study of the Effect of Heat Supply on the Hydrodynamics of the Flow and Heat Transfer in Capillary Elements of Mixing Heads Jet Thrusters

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nigodjuk, V. E.; Sulinov, A. V.

2018-01-01

The article presents the results of experimental studies of hydrodynamics and those of loobman single-phase and two-phase flows in capillary nozzle elements propellant thrusters and the proposed method of their calculation. An experimental study was performed in capillaries with a sharp entrance edge of the internal diameter of 0.16 and 0.33 mm and a relative length 188 and 161, respectively, in pouring distilled water and acetone in the following range of parameters Reynolds number Re = (0,3 ... 10) · 103, Prandtl number Pr = (2 ... 10), pressure p = (0,1 ... 0,3) MPa, the heat flux q = (0...2)×106 W/m2, the difference of temperature under-heating of liquid Δtn = (5 ... 80)K. The dependences for calculation of single phase boundaries, the undeveloped and the developed surface of the bubble and film key singing of subcooled liquid. It is shown theoretically and experimentally confirmed the virtual absence of areas of undeveloped nucleate boiling in laminar flow. The dependence for calculation of hydraulic resistance and heat transfer in the investigated areas of current. It is shown that in the region of nucleate boiling surface in the flow in capillary tubes, influence of the formed vapor phase on the hydrodynamics and heat transfer substantially higher than in larger diameter pipes.

Implicitly solving phase appearance and disappearance problems using two-fluid six-equation model

DOE PAGES

Zou, Ling; Zhao, Haihua; Zhang, Hongbin

2016-01-25

Phase appearance and disappearance issue presents serious numerical challenges in two-phase flow simulations using the two-fluid six-equation model. Numerical challenges arise from the singular equation system when one phase is absent, as well as from the discontinuity in the solution space when one phase appears or disappears. In this work, a high-resolution spatial discretization scheme on staggered grids and fully implicit methods were applied for the simulation of two-phase flow problems using the two-fluid six-equation model. A Jacobian-free Newton-Krylov (JFNK) method was used to solve the discretized nonlinear problem. An improved numerical treatment was proposed and proved to be effectivemore » to handle the numerical challenges. The treatment scheme is conceptually simple, easy to implement, and does not require explicit truncations on solutions, which is essential to conserve mass and energy. Various types of phase appearance and disappearance problems relevant to thermal-hydraulics analysis have been investigated, including a sedimentation problem, an oscillating manometer problem, a non-condensable gas injection problem, a single-phase flow with heat addition problem and a subcooled flow boiling problem. Successful simulations of these problems demonstrate the capability and robustness of the proposed numerical methods and numerical treatments. As a result, volume fraction of the absent phase can be calculated effectively as zero.« less

Conceptual overview and preliminary risk assessment of cryogen use in deep underground mine production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sivret, J.; Millar, D. L.; Lyle, G.

2017-12-01

This research conducts a formal risk assessment for cryogenic fueled equipment in underground environments. These include fans, load haul dump units, and trucks. The motivating advantage is zero-emissions production in the subsurface and simultaneous provision of cooling for ultra deep mine workings. The driving force of the engine is the expansion of the reboiled cryogen following flash evaporation using ambient temperature heat. The cold exhaust mixes with warm mine air and cools the latter further. The use of cryogens as ‘fuel’ leads to much increased fuel transport volumes and motivates special considerations for distribution infrastructure and process including: cryogenic storage, distribution, handling, and transfer systems. Detailed specification of parts and equipment, numerical modelling and preparation of design drawings are used to articulate the concept. The conceptual design process reveals new hazards and risks that the mining industry has not yet encountered, which may yet stymie execution. The major unwanted events include the potential for asphyxiation due to oxygen deficient atmospheres, or physical damage to workers due to exposure to sub-cooled liquids and cryogenic gases. The Global Minerals Industry Risk Management (GMIRM) framework incorporates WRAC and Bow-Tie techniques and is used to identify, assess and mitigate risks. These processes operate upon the competing conceptual designs to identify and eliminate high risk options and improve the safety of the lower risk designs.

Determination of the Accommodation Coefficient Using Vapor/gas Bubble Dynamics in an Acoustic Field

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gumerov, Nail A.; Hsiao, Chao-Tsung; Goumilevski, Alexei G.; Allen, Jeff (Technical Monitor)

2001-01-01

Nonequilibrium liquid/vapor phase transformations can occur in superheated or subcooled liquids in fast processes such as in evaporation in a vacuum. The rate at which such a phase transformation occurs depends on the "condensation" or "accommodation" coefficient, Beta, which is a property of the interface. Existing measurement techniques for Beta are complex and expensive. The development of a relatively inexpensive and reliable technique for measurement of Beta for a wide range of substances and temperatures is of great practical importance. The dynamics of a bubble in an acoustic field strongly depends on the value of Beta. It is known that near the saturation temperature, small vapor bubbles grow under the action of an acoustic field due to "rectified heat transfer." This finding can be used as the basis for an effective measurement technique of Beta. We developed a theory of vapor bubble behavior in an isotropic acoustic wave and in a plane standing acoustic wave. A numerical code was developed which enables simulation of a variety of experimental situations and accurately takes into account slowly evolving temperature. A parametric study showed that the measurement of Beta can be made over a broad range of frequencies and bubble sizes. We found several interesting regimes and conditions which can be efficiently used for measurements of Beta. Measurements of Beta can be performed in both reduced and normal gravity environments.

Significance of population centers as sources of gaseous and dissolved PAHs in the lower Great Lakes.

PubMed

McDonough, Carrie A; Khairy, Mohammed A; Muir, Derek C G; Lohmann, Rainer

2014-07-15

Polyethylene passive samplers (PEs) were used to measure concentrations of gaseous and dissolved polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the air and water throughout the lower Great Lakes during summer and fall of 2011. Atmospheric Σ15PAH concentrations ranged from 2.1 ng/m3 in Cape Vincent (NY) to 76.4 ng/m3 in downtown Cleveland (OH). Aqueous Σ18PAH concentrations ranged from 2.4 ng/L at an offshore Lake Erie site to 30.4 ng/L in Sheffield Lake (OH). Gaseous PAH concentrations correlated strongly with population within 3-40 km of the sampling site depending on the compound considered, suggesting that urban centers are a primary source of gaseous PAHs (except retene) in the lower Great Lakes region. The significance of distant population (within 20 km) versus local population (within 3 km) increased with subcooled liquid vapor pressure. Most dissolved aqueous PAHs did not correlate significantly with population, nor were they consistently related to river discharge, wastewater effluents, or precipitation. Air-water exchange calculations implied that diffusive exchange was a source of phenanthrene to surface waters, while acenaphthylene volatilized out of the lakes. Comparison of air-water fluxes with temperature suggested that the significance of urban centers as sources of dissolved PAHs via diffusive exchange may decrease in warmer months.

Steam--water mixing and system hydrodynamics program. Task 4. Quarterly progress report, October 1, 1977--December 31, 1977. [PWR

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Carbiener, W.A.; Cudnik, R.A.; Dykhuizen, R.C.

Experimental studies were conducted in a /sup 2///sub 15/-scale model of a four-loop pressurized water reactor at pressures to 75 psia to extend the understanding of steam-water interaction phenomena and processes associated with a loss-of-coolant accident. Plenum filling studies were conducted with hydraulic communication between the cold leg and core steam supplies and hot walls, with both fixed and ramped steam flows. Comparisons of correlational fits have been made for penetration data obtained with hydraulic communication, fixed cold leg steam, and no cold leg steam. Statistical tests applied to these correlational fits have indicated that the hydraulic communication and fixedmore » cold leg steam data can be considered to be a common data set. Comparing either of these data sets to the no cold leg steam data using the statistical test indicated that it was unlikely that these sets could be considered to be a common data set. The introduction of cold leg steam results in a slight decrease in penetration relative to that obtained without cold leg steam at the same value of subcooling of water entering the downcomer. A dimensionless parameter which is a weighted mean of a modified Froude number and the Weber number has been proposed as a scaling parameter for penetration data. This parameter contains an additional degree of freedom which allows data from different scales to collapse more closely to a single curve than current scaling parameters permit.« less

Thermodynamic Vent System Test in a Low Earth Orbit Simulation

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

VanOverbeke, Thomas J.

2004-01-01

A thermodynamic vent system for a cryogenic nitrogen tank was tested in a vacuum chamber simulating oxygen storage in low earth orbit. The nitrogen tank was surrounded by a cryo-shroud at -40 F. The tank was insulated with two layers of multi-layer insulation. Heat transfer into cryogenic tanks causes phase change and increases tank pressure which must be controlled. A thermodynamic vent system was used to control pressure as the location of vapor is unknown in low gravity and direct venting would be wasteful. The thermodynamic vent system consists of a Joule-Thomson valve and heat exchanger installed on the inlet side of the tank mixer-pump. The combination is used to extract thermal energy from the tank fluid, reducing temperature and ullage pressure. The system was sized so that the tank mixer-pump operated a small fraction of the time to limit motor heating. Initially the mixer used sub-cooled liquid to cool the liquid-vapor interface inducing condensation and pressure reduction. Later, the thermodynamic vent system was used. Pressure cycles were performed until steady-state operation was demonstrated. Three test runs were conducted at tank fills of 97, 80, and 63 percent. Each test was begun with a boil-off test to determine heat transfer into the tank. The lower tank fills had time averaged vent rates very close to steady-state boil-off rates showing the thermodynamic vent system was nearly as efficient as direct venting in normal gravity.

Thermodynamic Vent System for an On-Orbit Cryogenic Reaction Control Engine

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hurlbert, Eric A.; Romig, Kris A.; Jimenez, Rafael; Flores, Sam

2012-01-01

A report discusses a cryogenic reaction control system (RCS) that integrates a Joule-Thompson (JT) device (expansion valve) and thermodynamic vent system (TVS) with a cryogenic distribution system to allow fine control of the propellant quality (subcooled liquid) during operation of the device. It enables zero-venting when coupled with an RCS engine. The proper attachment locations and sizing of the orifice are required with the propellant distribution line to facilitate line conditioning. During operations, system instrumentation was strategically installed along the distribution/TVS line assembly, and temperature control bands were identified. A sub-scale run tank, full-scale distribution line, open-loop TVS, and a combination of procured and custom-fabricated cryogenic components were used in the cryogenic RCS build-up. Simulated on-orbit activation and thruster firing profiles were performed to quantify system heat gain and evaluate the TVS s capability to maintain the required propellant conditions at the inlet to the engine valves. Test data determined that a small control valve, such as a piezoelectric, is optimal to provide continuously the required thermal control. The data obtained from testing has also assisted with the development of fluid and thermal models of an RCS to refine integrated cryogenic propulsion system designs. This system allows a liquid oxygenbased main propulsion and reaction control system for a spacecraft, which improves performance, safety, and cost over conventional hypergolic systems due to higher performance, use of nontoxic propellants, potential for integration with life support and power subsystems, and compatibility with in-situ produced propellants.

Effect of mass concentration of composite phase change material CA-DE on HCFC-141b hydrate induction time and system stability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Li, Juan; Sun, Zhigao; Liu, Chenggang; Zhu, Minggui

2018-03-01

HCFC-141b hydrate is a new type of environment-friendly cold storage medium which may be adopted to balance energy supply and demand, achieve peak load shifting and energy saving, wherein the hydrate induction time and system stability are key factors to promote and realize its application in industrial practice. Based on step cooling curve measurement, two kinds of aliphatic hydrocarbon organics, n-capric acid (CA) and lauryl alcohol (DE), were selected to form composite phase change material and to promote the generation of HCFC-141b hydrate. Five kinds of CA-DE mass concentration were chosen to compare the induction time and hydration system stability. In order to accelerate temperature reduction rate, the metal Cu with high heat conductivity performance was adopted to conduct out the heat generated during phase change. Instability index was introduced to appraise system stability. Experimental results show that phase change temperature and sub-cooling degree of CA-DE is 11.1°C and 3.0°C respectively, which means it is a preferable medium for HCFC-141b hydrate formation. For the experimental hydration systems, segmented emulsification is achieved by special titration manner to avoid rapid layering under static condition. Induction time can achieve up to 23.3min with the densest HCFC-141b hydrate and the lowest instability index, wherein CA-DE mass concentration is 3%.

Cavitation Modeling in Euler and Navier-Stokes Codes

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Deshpande, Manish; Feng, Jinzhang; Merkle, Charles L.

1993-01-01

Many previous researchers have modeled sheet cavitation by means of a constant pressure solution in the cavity region coupled with a velocity potential formulation for the outer flow. The present paper discusses the issues involved in extending these cavitation models to Euler or Navier-Stokes codes. The approach taken is to start from a velocity potential model to ensure our results are compatible with those of previous researchers and available experimental data, and then to implement this model in both Euler and Navier-Stokes codes. The model is then augmented in the Navier-Stokes code by the inclusion of the energy equation which allows the effect of subcooling in the vicinity of the cavity interface to be modeled to take into account the experimentally observed reduction in cavity pressures that occurs in cryogenic fluids such as liquid hydrogen. Although our goal is to assess the practicality of implementing these cavitation models in existing three-dimensional, turbomachinery codes, the emphasis in the present paper will center on two-dimensional computations, most specifically isolated airfoils and cascades. Comparisons between velocity potential, Euler and Navier-Stokes implementations indicate they all produce consistent predictions. Comparisons with experimental results also indicate that the predictions are qualitatively correct and give a reasonable first estimate of sheet cavitation effects in both cryogenic and non-cryogenic fluids. The impact on CPU time and the code modifications required suggests that these models are appropriate for incorporation in current generation turbomachinery codes.

Clogging of Joule-Thomson Devices in Liquid Hydrogen Handling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Jurns, John M.; Lekki, John D.

2009-01-01

Experiments conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center indicate that Joule-Thomson devices become clogged when transferring liquid hydrogen (LH2), operating at a temperature range from 20.5 to 24.4 K. Blockage does not exist under all test conditions but is found to be sensitive to the inlet temperature of the LH2. At a subcooled inlet temperature of 20.5 K blockage consistently appears but is dissipated when the fluid temperature is raised above 24.5 K. Clogging steadily reduced flow rate through the orifices, eventually resulting in complete blockage. This tendency poses a threat to spacecraft cryogenic propulsion systems that would utilize passive thermal control systems. We propose that this clogging is due to trace amounts of neon in the regular LH2 supply. Neon freezes at 24.5 K at one atmosphere pressure. It is postulated that between 20.5 and 24.5 K, neon remains in a meta-stable, supercooled liquid state. When impacting the face of an orifice, liquid neon droplets solidify and accumulate, blocking flow over time. The purpose of this test program was to definitively quantify the phenomena experimentally by obtaining direct visual evidence of orifice clogging by accretion from neon contaminates in the LH2 flow stream, utilizing state of the art imaging technology. Tests were conducted with LH2 flowing in the temperature range of 20.5 to 24.4 K. Additional imaging was also done at LH2 temperatures with no flow to verify clear view through the orifice.

Effect of Residual Noncondensables on Pressurization and Pressure Control of a Zero-Boil-Off Tank in Microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kassemi, Mohammad; Hylton, Sonya; Kartizova, Olga

2013-01-01

The Zero-Boil-Off Tank (ZBOT) Experiment is a small-scale experiment that uses a transparent ventless Dewar and a transparent simulant phase-change fluid to study sealed tank pressurization and pressure control with applications to on-surface and in-orbit storage of propellant cryogens. The experiment will be carried out under microgravity conditions aboard the International Space Station in the 2014 timeframe. This paper presents preliminary results from ZBOT's ground-based research that focuses on the effects of residual noncondensable gases in the ullage on both pressurization and pressure reduction trends in the sealed Dewar. Tank pressurization is accomplished through heating of the test cell wall in the wetted and un-wetted regions simultaneously or separately. Pressure control is established through mixing and destratification of the bulk liquid using a temperature controlled forced jet flow with different degrees of liquid jet subcooling. A Two-Dimensional axisymmetric two-phase CFD model for tank pressurization and pressure control is also presented. Numerical prediction of the model are compared to experimental 1g results to both validate the model and also indicate the effect of the noncondensable gas on evolution of pressure and temperature distributions in the ullage during pressurization and pressure control. Microgravity simulations case studies are also performed using the validated model to underscore and delineate the profound effect of the noncondensables on condensation rates and interfacial temperature distributions with serious implications for tank pressure control in reduced gravity.

Novel load responsive multilayer insulation with high in-atmosphere and on-orbit thermal performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dye, S.; Kopelove, A.; Mills, G. L.

2012-04-01

Aerospace cryogenic systems require lightweight, high performance thermal insulation to preserve cryopropellants both pre-launch and on-orbit. Current technologies have difficulty meeting all requirements, and advances in insulation would benefit cryogenic upper stage launch vehicles, LH2 fueled aircraft and ground vehicles, and provide capabilities for sub-cooled cryogens for space-borne instruments and orbital fuel depots. This paper reports the further development of load responsive multilayer insulation (LRMLI) that has a lightweight integrated vacuum shell and provides high thermal performance both in-air and on-orbit. LRMLI is being developed by Quest Product Development and Ball Aerospace under NASA contract, with prototypes designed, built, installed and successfully tested. A 3-layer LRMLI blanket (0.63 cm thick, 77 K cold, 295 K hot) had a measured heat leak of 6.6 W/m2 in vacuum and 40.6 W/m2 in air at one atmosphere. In-air LRMLI has an 18× advantage over Spray On Foam Insulation (SOFI) in heat leak per thickness and a 16× advantage over aerogel. On-orbit LRMLI has a 78× lower heat leak than SOFI per thickness and 6× lower heat leak than aerogel. The Phase II development of LRMLI is reported with a modular, flexible, thin vacuum shell and improved on-orbit performance. Structural and thermal analysis and testing results are presented. LRMLI mass and thermal performance is compared to SOFI, aerogel and MLI over SOFI.

The Stationary Condensation and Radial Outflow of a Liquid Film on a Horizontal Disk

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bolshinskiy, Leonid; Frenkel, Alexander

2008-01-01

The application of capillary screen liquid acquisition devices to space-based cryogenic propulsion systems is expected to necessitate thermodynamic conditioning in order to stabilize surface tension retention characteristics. The present results have been obtained in the framework of the research of low gravity condensation-flow processes for conditioning cryogenic liquid acquisition devices. The following system is studied: On the top of a subcooled horizontal disk, a liquid film condenses from the ambient saturated vapor. The liquid is forcedly removed at the disk edge, and there is an outward radial flow of the film. Stationary regimes of the flow are uncovered such that (i) the gravity is negligible, being eclipsed by the capillary forces; (ii) the film thickness is everywhere much smaller than the disk radius; and (iii) the slow-flow lubrication approximation is valid. A nonlinear differential equation for the film thickness as a function of the radial coordinate is obtained. The (two-dimensional) fields of velocities, temperature and pressure in the film are explicitly determined by the radial profile of its thickness. The equilibrium is controlled by two parameters: (i) the vapor-disk difference of temperatures and (ii) the liquid exhaust rate. For the flow regimes with a nearly uniform film thickness, the governing equation linearizes, and the film interface is analytically predicted to have a concave-up quartic parabola profile. Thus, perhaps counter-intuitively, the liquid film is thicker at the edge and thinner at the center of the disk.

Gas/solid particulate phthalic esters (PAEs) in Masson pine (Pinus massoniana L.) needles and rhizosphere surface soils.

PubMed

Wang, Wen-xin; Fan, Chinbay Q

2014-07-15

Phthalic acid esters (PAEs) are used in many branches of industry and are produced in huge amounts throughout the world. An investigation on particulate- and gas-phase distribution of PAEs has been conducted between January 2011 and December 2012 in Nanjing (China). Masson pine (Pinus massoniana L.) needles and rhizosphere surface soils were sampled from urban to suburban/remote sites, to investigate the pine needle/soil distribution of PAEs. The results showed that the average total PAE concentration (gas+particle) was 97.0ngm(-3). The six PAE congeners considered predominantly existed in the gas phase and the average contribution of gas phase to total PAEs ranged from 75.0% to 89.1%. The PAE concentrations in rhizosphere soils and pine needles were positively correlated with their particulate- and gas-phase concentrations, respectively, which suggested that surface soils accumulated PAEs mainly through gravity deposition of particles and pine needle stomata absorbed PAEs mainly from the gas phase. The gas/particle partitioning (KP) and soil-pine needle ratio (Rs/n) were determined. Experimentally determined KP values correlated well with the subcooled liquid vapor pressures (PL). A set of interesting relationships of logRs/n-logKP-logPL was employed to explain the experimental findings of PAEs deposition to surface soils and to needles. This data set offered a unique perspective into the influence that Rs/n played in KP and correlated with PL. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Critical heat flux (CHF) phenomenon on a downward facing curved surface

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cheung, F.B.; Haddad, K.H.; Liu, Y.C.

1997-06-01

This report describes a theoretical and experimental study of the boundary layer boiling and critical heat flux phenomena on a downward facing curved heating surface, including both hemispherical and toroidal surfaces. A subscale boundary layer boiling (SBLB) test facility was developed to measure the spatial variation of the critical heat flux and observe the underlying mechanisms. Transient quenching and steady-state boiling experiments were performed in the SBLB facility under both saturated and subcooled conditions to obtain a complete database on the critical heat flux. To complement the experimental effort, an advanced hydrodynamic CHF model was developed from the conservation lawsmore » along with sound physical arguments. The model provides a clear physical explanation for the spatial variation of the CHF observed in the SBLB experiments and for the weak dependence of the CHF data on the physical size of the vessel. Based upon the CHF model, a scaling law was established for estimating the local critical heat flux on the outer surface of a heated hemispherical vessel that is fully submerged in water. The scaling law, which compares favorably with all the available local CHF data obtained for various vessel sizes, can be used to predict the local CHF limits on large commercial-size vessels. This technical information represents one of the essential elements that is needed in assessing the efficacy of external cooling of core melt by cavity flooding as a severe accident management strategy. 83 figs., 3 tabs.« less

Fabrication and Properties of Micro-Nanoencapsulated Phase Change Materials for Internally-Cooled Liquid Desiccant Dehumidification

PubMed Central

Niu, Xiaofeng; Xu, Qing; Zhang, Yi; Zhang, Yue; Yan, Yufeng; Liu, Tao

2017-01-01

Micro-nanoencapsulated phase change materials (M-NEPCMs) are proposed to be useful in liquid desiccant dehumidification by restraining the temperature rise in the moisture-removal process and improving the dehumidification efficiency. In this paper, the n-octadecane M-NEPCMs with desirable thermal properties for internally-cooled dehumidification were fabricated by using compound emulsifiers through the in-situ polymerization method. Melamine-formaldehyde resin was used as the shell material. The effects of the mixing ratio, emulsification methods and amount of the compound emulsifiers on the morphology, size and thermal properties of the M-NEPCMs were investigated experimentally. The optimum weight mixing ratio of the compound emulsifiers is SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate):Tween80 (polyoxyethylene sorbitan monooleate):Span80 (sorbitan monooleate) = 0.1:0.6:0.3, which achieves the best stability of the n-octadecane emulsion. When the compound emulsifiers are 10 wt. % of the core material, the melting enthalpy of M-NEPCMs reaches its maximum of 145.26 J/g of capsules, with an encapsulation efficiency of 62.88% and a mean diameter of 636 nm. The sub-cooling of the prepared M-NEPCMs is lower than 3 °C, with an acceptable thermal reliability after the thermal cycling test. A pre-emulsification prior to the addition of deionized water in the emulsification is beneficial to the morphology of the capsules, as the phase change enthalpy can be increased by 123.7%. PMID:28468282

Occurrence and gas/particle partitioning of short- and medium-chain chlorinated paraffins in the atmosphere of Fildes Peninsula of Antarctica

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Xindong; Zhang, Haijun; Zhou, Hongqiang; Na, Guangshui; Wang, Zhen; Chen, Chen; Chen, Jingwen; Chen, Jiping

2014-06-01

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) were measured in air samples at a remote air monitoring site established in Georgia King Island, Fildes Peninsula of Antarctica (Great Wall Station, China) to study the long-range atmospheric transport of these anthropogenic pollutants to the Antarctic. Gas- and particle-phase CPs were collected using polyurethane foam plugs (PUF) and glass fiber filters (GFF) respectively during summertime of 2012. The total atmospheric levels of SCCPs and MCCPs ranged from 9.6 to 20.8 pg m-3 (average: 14.9 pg m-3) and 3.7-5.2 pg m-3 (average: 4.5 pg m-3), respectively. C10 and C11 carbon chain homologues with Cl5 and Cl6 chlorine atoms predominated in SCCP formula groups both in gas- and particle-phase. Significant linear correlation was found between gas/particle partition coefficients (KP) and sub-cooled liquid vapor pressures (pL°) (R2 = 0.437, p < 0.01), as well as KP and octanol-air partition coefficients (KOA) (R2 = 0.442, p < 0.01). Absolute slope values of two regression models (0.31 and 0.39) were less than 0.6 indicating that the way of absorption into organic matter of aerosol played a more important role on atmospheric partitioning and transferring of CPs in remote Antarctic area. Both the Junge-Pankow model and the KOA-based model tended to underestimate the sorption of lower chlorinated CPs and overestimate the sorption of highly chlorinated CPs.

Modeling Droplet Heat and Mass Transfer during Spray Bar Pressure Control of the Multipurpose Hydrogen Test Bed (MHTB) Tank in Normal Gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kartuzova, O.; Kassemi, M.

2016-01-01

A CFD model for simulating pressure control in cryogenic storage tanks through the injection of a subcooled liquid into the ullage is presented and applied to the 1g MHTB spray bar cooling experiments. An Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is utilized to track the spray droplets and capture the interaction between the discrete droplets and the continuous ullage phase. The spray model is coupled with the VOF model by performing particle tracking in the ullage, removing particles from the ullage when they reach the interface, and then adding their contributions to the liquid. A new model for calculating the droplet-ullage heat and mass transfer is developed. In this model, a droplet is allowed to warm up to the saturation temperature corresponding to the ullage vapor pressure, after which it evaporates while remaining at the saturation temperature. The droplet model is validated against the results of the MHTB spray-bar cooling experiments with 50% and 90% tank fill ratios. The predictions of the present T-sat based model are compared with those of a previously developed kinetic-based droplet mass transfer model. The predictions of the two models regarding the evolving tank pressure and temperature distributions, as well as the droplets' trajectories and temperatures, are examined and compared in detail. Finally, the ullage pressure and local vapor and liquid temperature evolutions are validated against the corresponding data provided by the MHTB spray bar mixing experiment.

Application of the Activity Framework for Assessing Aquatic Ecotoxicology Data for Organic Chemicals.

PubMed

Thomas, Paul; Dawick, James; Lampi, Mark; Lemaire, Philippe; Presow, Shaun; van Egmond, Roger; Arnot, Jon A; Mackay, Donald; Mayer, Philipp; Galay Burgos, Malyka

2015-10-20

Toxicological research in the 1930s gave the first indications of the link between narcotic toxicity and the chemical activity of organic chemicals. More recently, chemical activity has been proposed as a novel exposure parameter that describes the fraction of saturation and that quantifies the potential for partitioning and diffusive uptake. In the present study, more than 2000 acute and chronic algal, aquatic invertebrates and fish toxicity data, as well as water solubility and melting point values, were collected from a series of sources. The data were critically reviewed and grouped by mode of action (MoA). We considered 660 toxicity data to be of acceptable quality. The 328 data which applied to the 72 substances identified as MoA 1 were then evaluated within the activity-toxicity framework: EC50 and LC50 values for all three taxa correlated generally well with (subcooled) liquid solubilities. Acute toxicity was typically exerted within the chemical activity range of 0.01-0.1, whereas chronic toxicity was exerted in the range of 0.001-0.01. These results confirm that chemical activity has the potential to contribute to the determination, interpretation and prediction of toxicity to aquatic organisms. It also has the potential to enhance regulation of organic chemicals by linking results from laboratory tests, monitoring and modeling programs. The framework can provide an additional line of evidence for assessing aquatic toxicity, for improving the design of toxicity tests, reducing animal usage and addressing chemical mixtures.

Construction of testing facilities and verifying tests of a 22.9 kV/630 A class superconducting fault current limiter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yim, S.-W.; Yu, S.-D.; Kim, H.-R.; Kim, M.-J.; Park, C.-R.; Yang, S.-E.; Kim, W.-S.; Hyun, O.-B.; Sim, J.; Park, K.-B.; Oh, I.-S.

2010-11-01

We have constructed and completed the preparation for a long-term operation test of a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) in a Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) test grid. The SFCL with rating of 22.9 kV/630 A, 3-phases, has been connected to the 22.9 kV test grid equipped with reclosers and other protection devices in Gochang Power Testing Center of KEPCO. The main goals of the test are the verification of SFCL performance and protection coordination studies. A line-commutation type SFCL was fabricated and installed for this project, and the superconducting components were cooled by a cryo-cooler to 77 K in the sub-cooled liquid nitrogen pressurized by 3 bar of helium gas. The verification test includes un-manned - long-term operation with and without loads and fault tests. Since the test site is 170 km away from the laboratory, we will adopt the un-manned operation with real-time remote monitoring and controlling using high speed internet. For the fault tests, we will apply fault currents up to around 8 kArms to the SFCL using an artificial fault generator. The fault tests may allow us not only to confirm the current limiting capability of the SFCL, but also to adjust the SFCL - recloser coordination such as resetting over-current relay parameters. This paper describes the construction of the testing facilities and discusses the plans for the verification tests.

Temperature Oscillation in a Loop Heat Pipe with Gravity Assist

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ku, Jentung; Garrison, Matt; Patel, Deepak; Ottenstein, Laura; Robinson, Frank

2014-01-01

ATLAS Laser Thermal Control System (LTCS) thermal vacuum testing where the condenser-radiator was placed in a vertical position, it was found that the loop heat pipe (LHP) reservoir required much more control heater power than the analytical model had predicted. The required control heater power was also higher than the liquid subcooling entering the reservoir using the measured temperatures and the calculated mass flow rate based on steady state LHP operation. This presentation describes the investigation of the LHP behaviors under a gravity assist mode with a very cold radiator sink temperature and a large thermal mass attached to the evaporator. It is concluded that gravity caused the cold liquid to drop from the condenser-radiator to the reservoir, resulting in a rapid decrease of the reservoir temperature. When the reservoir temperature was increasing, a reverse flow occurred in the liquid line, carrying warm liquid to the condenser-radiator. Both events consumed the reservoir control heater power. The fall and rise of the reservoir temperature also caused the net heat input to the evaporator to vary due to the release and storage of the sensible heat of the thermal mass. The combination of these effects led to a persistent reservoir temperature oscillation and a repeated influx of cold liquid from the condenser. This was the root cause of the extraordinary high control heater power requirement in the LTCS TV test. Without gravity assist, such a persistent temperature oscillation will not be present.

Recent Patents on Nano-Enhanced Materials for Use in Thermal Energy Storage (TES).

PubMed

Ferrer, Gerard; Barreneche, Camila; Solé, Aran; Juliá, José Enrique; Cabeza, Luisa F

2017-07-10

Thermal energy storage (TES) systems using phase change materials (PCM) have been lately studied and are presented as one of the key solutions for the implementation of renewable energies. These systems take advantage of the latent heat of phase change of PCM during their melting/ solidification processes to store or release heat depending on the needs and availability. Low thermal conductivity and latent heat are the main disadvantages of organic PCM, while corrosion, subcooling and thermal stability are the prime problems that inorganic PCM present. Nanotechnology can be used to overcome these drawbacks. Nano-enhanced PCM are obtained by the dispersion of nanoparticles in the base material and thermal properties such as thermal conductivity, viscosity and specific heat capacity, within others, can be enhanced. This paper presents a review of the patents regarding the obtaining of nano-enhanced materials for thermal energy storage (TES) in order to realize the development nanotechnologies have gained in the TES field. Patents regarding the synthesis methods to obtain nano-enhanced phase materials (NEPCM) and TES systems using NEPCM have been found and are presented in the paper. The few existing number of patents found is a clear indicator of the recent and thus low development nanotechnology has in the TES field so far. Nevertheless, the results obtained with the reviewed inventions already show the big potential that nanotechnology has in TES and denote a more than probable expansion of its use in the next years. Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.

Test program, helium II orbital resupply coupling

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hyatt, William S.

1991-01-01

The full scope of this program was to have included development tests, design and production of custom test equipment and acceptance and qualification testing of prototype and protoflight coupling hardware. This program was performed by Ball Aerospace Systems Division, Boulder, Colorado until its premature termination in May 1991. Development tests were performed on cryogenic face seals and flow control devices at superfluid helium (He II) conditions. Special equipment was developed to allow quantified leak detection at large leak rates up to 8.4 x 10(exp -4) SCCS. Two major fixtures were developed and characterized: The Cryogenic Test Fixture (CTF) and the Thermal Mismatch Fixture (Glovebox). The CTF allows the coupling hardware to be filled with liquid nitrogen (LN2), liquid helium (LHe) or sub-cooled liquid helium when hardware flow control valves are either open or closed. Heat leak measurements, internal and external helium leakage measurements, cryogenic proof pressure tests and external load applications are performed in this fixture. Special reusable MLI closures were developed to provide repeatable installations in the CTF. The Thermal Mismatch Fixture allows all design configurations of coupling hardware to be engaged and disengaged while measuring applied forces and torques. Any two hardware components may be individually thermally preconditioned within the range of 117 deg K to 350 deg K prior to engage/disengage cycling. This verifies dimensional compatibility and operation when thermally mismatched. A clean, dry GN2 atmosphere is maintained in the fixture at all times. The first shipset of hardware was received, inspected and cycled at room temperature just prior to program termination.

Marangoni Effects in the Boiling of Binary Fluid Mixtures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ahmed, Sayeed; Carey, Van P.; Motil, Brian

1996-01-01

Results of very recent experimental studies indicate that during nucleate boiling in some binary mixture, Marangoni effects augment the gravity driven flow of liquid towards the heated surface. With gravity present, it is impossible to separate the two effects. The reduced gravity environment gives an unique opportunity to explore th role of Marangoni effects on the boiling mechanisms free of gravitational body forces that obscure the role of such effects. However, recent experimental results suggest that under reduced gravity conditions, Marangoni effects is the dominant mechanism of vapor-liquid exchange at the surface for some binary mixture. To further explore such effects, experiments have been conducted with water/2-propanol mixtures at three different concentrations under normal gravity with different orientations of the heater surface and under reduce gravity aboard the DC-9 aircraft at NASA Lewis Research Center. The system pressure was sub atmospheric (approx. 8 kP at 1g(n)) and the bulk liquid temperature varied from low subcooling to near saturation. The molar concentrations of 2-propanol tested were 0.015, 0.025, and 0.1. Boiling curves were obtained both for high gravity (approx. 2g(n)) and reduce gravity (approx. 0.01g(n)). For each concentration of 2-propanol, the critical heat flux has been determined in the flight experiments only for reduced gravity conditions. Comparison of boiling curves and CHF obtained under l-g(n) an reduced gravity indicates that boiling mechanism in this mixtures is nearly independent of gravity. The results also indicate that the Marangoni mechanism is strong enough in these mixtures to sustain the boiling under reduced gravity conditions.

Airborne polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PBDD/Fs), and dechlorane plus (DP) in concentrated vehicle parking areas.

PubMed

Li, Huiru; Liu, Hehuan; Mo, Ligui; Sheng, Guoying; Fu, Jiamo; Peng, Ping'an

2016-06-01

This study investigated polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), polybrominated dibenzo-p-dioxins/furans (PBDD/Fs), and dechlorane plus (DP) in air around three concentrated vehicle parking areas (underground, indoor, and outdoor) in a metropolitan of South China. The parking areas showed higher concentrations of PBDEs, PBDD/Fs, and DP than their adjacent urban area or distinct congener/isomer profiles, which indicate their local emission sources. The highest PBDE and DP concentrations were found in the outdoor parking lot, which might be related to the heating effect of direct sunlight exposure. Multi-linear regression analysis results suggest that deca-BDEs without noticeable transformation contributed most to airborne PBDEs in all studied areas, followed by penta-BDEs. The statistically lower anti-DP fractions in the urban area than that of commercial product signified its degradation/transformation during transportation. Neither PBDEs nor vehicle exhaust contributed much to airborne PBDD/Fs in the parking areas. There were 68.1-100 % of PBDEs, PBDD/Fs, and DP associated with particles. Logarithms of gas-particle distribution coefficients (K ps) of PBDEs were significantly linear-correlated with those of their sub-cooled vapor pressures (p Ls) and octanol-air partition coefficients (K OAs) in all studied areas. The daily inhalation doses of PBDEs, DP, and PBDD/Fs were individually estimated as 89.7-10,741, 2.05-39.4, and 0.12-4.17 pg kg(-1) day(-1) for employees in the parking areas via Monte Carlo simulation.

Occurrence and carcinogenic potential of airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in some large-scale enclosed/semi-enclosed vehicle parking areas.

PubMed

Li, Huiru; Zeng, Xiangying; Zhang, Delin; Chen, Pei; Yu, Zhiqiang; Sheng, Guoying; Fu, Jiamo; Peng, Ping'an

2014-06-15

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) originating from vehicle exhaust have aroused much attention due to their potential healthy effect. In this study, air samples were collected from three representative parking lots in a metropolitan area, analyzed for PAHs and evaluated for inhalation risk. Atmospheric PAH levels of these parking areas ranged between 1,178-4,793 ng m(-3), one order of magnitude higher than general urban areas. Their benzo[a]pyrene equivalent (BaPeq) values varied in 11.0-98.0 ng m(-3), far exceeding the air quality standard of WHO (1.0 ng m(-3)). Monte Carlo simulation (100,000 trials) results suggest that the potential lifetime inhalation cancer risks of PAHs were 0.27 × 10(-5) to 7.11 × 10(-5) for park employees, which are in the acceptable range acknowledged by US EPA (1.0 × 10(-6) to 1.0 × 10(-4)). Several source diagnostic methods proved that vehicle exhaust was the dominant PAH contributor of these parks with the contribution percentages being >53%; oil combustion and/or coal combustion were other important sources. Logarithms of gas-particle distribution coefficients (Kps) of PAHs in all studied parks were linearly correlated with those of both their sub-cooled vapor pressures (pLs) and octanol-air partition coefficients (KOAs). The correlation coefficients indicated that both adsorption onto black carbon and absorption into organic matter were involved in the partition process, but the latter was dominant. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A numerical framework for bubble transport in a subcooled fluid flow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jareteg, Klas; Sasic, Srdjan; Vinai, Paolo; Demazière, Christophe

2017-09-01

In this paper we present a framework for the simulation of dispersed bubbly two-phase flows, with the specific aim of describing vapor-liquid systems with condensation. We formulate and implement a framework that consists of a population balance equation (PBE) for the bubble size distribution and an Eulerian-Eulerian two-fluid solver. The PBE is discretized using the Direct Quadrature Method of Moments (DQMOM) in which we include the condensation of the bubbles as an internal phase space convection. We investigate the robustness of the DQMOM formulation and the numerical issues arising from the rapid shrinkage of the vapor bubbles. In contrast to a PBE method based on the multiple-size-group (MUSIG) method, the DQMOM formulation allows us to compute a distribution with dynamic bubble sizes. Such a property is advantageous to capture the wide range of bubble sizes associated with the condensation process. Furthermore, we compare the computational performance of the DQMOM-based framework with the MUSIG method. The results demonstrate that DQMOM is able to retrieve the bubble size distribution with a good numerical precision in only a small fraction of the computational time required by MUSIG. For the two-fluid solver, we examine the implementation of the mass, momentum and enthalpy conservation equations in relation to the coupling to the PBE. In particular, we propose a formulation of the pressure and liquid continuity equations, that was shown to correctly preserve mass when computing the vapor fraction with DQMOM. In addition, the conservation of enthalpy was also proven. Therefore a consistent overall framework that couples the PBE and two-fluid solvers is achieved.

New controlled environment vitrification system for preparing wet samples for cryo-SEM.

PubMed

Ge, H; Suszynski, W J; Davis, H T; Scriven, L E

2008-01-01

A new controlled environment vitrification system (CEVS) has been designed and constructed to facilitate examination by cryogenic scanning electron microscopy (Cryo-SEM) of initial suspension state and of microstructure development in latex, latex-composite and other coatings while they still contain solvent. The new system has a main chamber with provisions for coating as well as drying, and for well-controlled plunging into cryogen. An added subsidiary chamber holds samples for drying or annealing over minutes to days before they are returned to the main chamber and plunged from it. In the main chamber, samples are blade-coated on 5 x 7 mm pieces of silicon wafer and held at selected temperature and humidity for successively longer times, either there or after transfer along a rail into the subsidiary chamber. They are then placed in the sample holder mounted on the plunge rod, so as to permit adjustment of the sample's attitude when it plunges, at controlled speed, into liquid ethane at its freezing point, to a chosen depth, in order to solidify the sample without significant shear or freezing artifacts. The entries of plunging samples and related sample holders into liquid ethane were recorded with a high-speed, high-resolution Photron digital camera. The data were interpreted with a new hypothesis about the width of the band of extremely rapid cooling by deeply subcooled nucleate boiling below the line of entry. Complementary cryo-SEM images revealed that the freezing rate and surface shearing of a sample need to be balanced by adjusting the plunging attitude.

Subcooled Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Mechanisms in Microgravity: Terrier-improved Orion Sounding Rocket Experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Kim, Jungho; Benton, John; Kucner, Robert

2000-01-01

A microscale heater array was used to study boiling in earth gravity and microgravity. The heater array consisted of 96 serpentine heaters on a quartz substrate. Each heater was 0.27 square millimeters. Electronic feedback loops kept each heater's temperature at a specified value. The University of Maryland constructed an experiment for the Terrier-Improved Orion sounding rocket that was delivered to NASA Wallops and flown. About 200 s of high quality microgravity and heat transfer data were obtained. The VCR malfunctioned, and no video was acquired. Subsequently, the test package was redesigned to fly on the KC-135 to obtain both data and video. The pressure was held at atmospheric pressure and the bulk temperature was about 20 C. The wall temperature was varied from 85 to 65 C. Results show that gravity has little effect on boiling heat transfer at wall superheats below 25 C, despite vast differences in bubble behavior between gravity levels. In microgravity, a large primary bubble was surrounded by smaller bubbles, which eventually merged with the primary bubble. This bubble was formed by smaller bubbles coalescing, but had a constant size for a given superheat, indicating a balance between evaporation at the base and condensation on the cap. Most of the heaters under the bubble indicated low heat transfer, suggesting dryout at those heaters. High heat transfer occurred at the contact line surrounding the primary bubble. Marangoni convection formed a "jet" of fluid into the bulk fluid that forced the bubble onto the heater.

LN2 spray droplet size measurement via ensemble diffraction technique

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Saiyed, N. H.; Jurns, J.; Chato, David J.

1991-01-01

The size of subcooled liquified nitrogen droplets are measured with a 5 mW He-Ne laser as a function of pressure difference (delta P) across flat spray and full cone pressure atomizing nozzles. For delta P's of 3 to 30 psid, the spray sauter mean diameter (SMD) ranged between 250 to 50 microns. The pressure range tested is representative of those expected during cryogenic fluid transfer operations in space. The droplet sizes from the flat spray nozzles were greater than those from the full cone nozzle. A power function of the form, SMD varies as delta P(exp a), describes the spray SMD as a function of the delta P very well. The values of a were -0.36 for the flat spray and -0.87 for the full cone. The reduced dependence of the flat spray SMD on the delta P was probably because of: (1) the absence of a swirler that generates turbulence within the nozzle to enhance atomization, and (2) a possible increase in shearing stress resulting from the delayed atomization due to the absence of turbulence. The nitrogen quality, up to 1.5 percent is based on isenthalpic expansion, did not have a distinct and measurable effect on the spray SMD. Both bimodal and monomodal droplet size population distributions were measured. In the bimodal distribution, the frequency of the first mode was much greater than the frequency of the second mode. Also, the frequency of the second mode was low enough such that a monomodal approximation probably would give reasonable results.

Mixing and transient interface condensation of a liquid hydrogen tank

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Lin, C. S.; Hasan, M. M.; Nyland, T. W.

1993-01-01

Experiments were conducted to investigate the effect of axial jet-induced mixing on the pressure reduction of a thermally stratified liquid hydrogen tank. The tank was nearly cylindrical, having a volume of about 0.144 cu m with 0.559 m in diameter and 0.711 m long. A mixer/pump unit, which had a jet nozzle outlet of 0.0221 m in diameter was located 0.178 m from the tank bottom and was installed inside the tank to generate the axial jet mixing and tank fluid circulation. The liquid fill and jet flow rate ranged from 42 to 85 percent (by volume) and 0.409 to 2.43 cu m/hr, respectively. Mixing tests began with the tank pressure ranging from 187.5 to 238.5 kPa at which the thermal stratification results in 4.9 to 6.2 K liquid sub cooling. The mixing time and transient vapor condensation rate at the liquid-vapor interface are determined. Two mixing time correlations, based on the thermal equilibrium and pressure equilibrium, are developed. Both mixing time correlations are expressed as functions of system and buoyancy parameters and compared well with other experimental data. The steady state condensation rate correlation of Sonin et al. based on steam-water data is modified and expressed as a function of jet subcooling. The limited liquid hydrogen data of the present study shows that the modified steady state condensation rate correlation may be used to predict the transient condensation rate in a mixing process if the instantaneous values of jet sub cooling and turbulence intensity at the interface are employed.

UManSysProp: An online and open-source facility for molecular property prediction and atmospheric aerosol calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topping, David; Barley, Mark; McFiggans, Gordon; Aumont, Bernard

2016-04-01

The many thousands of individual aerosol components ensure that explicit manual calculation of properties that influence their environmental impacts is laborious and time-consuming. The emergence of explicit automatic mechanism generation techniques, including up to many millions of individual gas phase products as aerosol precursors, renders manual calculations impossible and automation is necessary. It can be difficult to establish what factors are responsible for the outcome of a model prediction. This is particularly true when the number of components might be high in, for example, SOA mass partitioning simulations. It then becomes difficult for others in the community to assess the results presented. This might be complicated by the need to include pure component vapour pressures or activity coefficient predictions for a wide range of highly multifunctional compounds. It isn't clear to what extent replication of results is ever achieved for a range of aerosol simulations. Whilst this might also be an issue with results from instrumentation, the development of community driven software at least enables modellers to tackle this problem directly. Here we describe the development and application of a new web based facility, UManSysProp, to tackle such issues. Current facilities include: pure component vapour pressures, critical properties and sub-cooled densities of organic molecules; activity coefficient predictions for mixed inorganic-organic liquid systems; hygroscopic growth factors and CCN activation potential of mixed inorganic/organic aerosol particles with associated Kappa-Kohler values; absorptive partitioning calculations with/without a treatment of non-ideality. The website can be found here: http://umansysprop.seaes.manchester.ac.uk/

Influence of Sodium Chloride on the Formation and Dissociation Behavior of CO2 Gas Hydrates.

PubMed

Holzammer, Christine; Schicks, Judith M; Will, Stefan; Braeuer, Andreas S

2017-09-07

We present an experimental study on the formation and dissociation characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) gas hydrates using Raman spectroscopy. The CO 2 hydrates were formed from sodium chloride/water solutions with salinities of 0-10 wt %, which were pressurized with liquid CO 2 in a stirred vessel at 6 MPa and a subcooling of 9.5 K. The formation of the CO 2 hydrate resulted in a hydrate gel where the solid hydrate can be considered as the continuous phase that includes small amounts of a dispersed liquid water-rich phase that has not been converted to hydrate. During the hydrate formation process we quantified the fraction of solid hydrate, x H , and the fraction of the dispersed liquid water-rich phase, x L , from the signature of the hydroxyl (OH)-stretching vibration of the hydrate gel. We found that the fraction of hydrate x H contained in the hydrate gel linearly depends on the salinity of the initial liquid water-rich phase. In addition, the ratio of CO 2 and water was analyzed in the liquid water-rich phase before hydrate formation, in the hydrate gel during growth and dissociation, and after its complete dissociation again in the liquid water-rich phase. We observed a supersaturation of CO 2 in the water-rich phase after complete dissociation of the hydrate gel and were able to show that the excess CO 2 exists as dispersed micro- or nanoscale liquid droplets in the liquid water-rich phase. These residual nano- and microdroplets could be a possible explanation for the so-called memory effect.

UManSysProp v1.0: an online and open-source facility for molecular property prediction and atmospheric aerosol calculations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Topping, David; Barley, Mark; Bane, Michael K.; Higham, Nicholas; Aumont, Bernard; Dingle, Nicholas; McFiggans, Gordon

2016-03-01

In this paper we describe the development and application of a new web-based facility, UManSysProp (http://umansysprop.seaes.manchester.ac.uk), for automating predictions of molecular and atmospheric aerosol properties. Current facilities include pure component vapour pressures, critical properties, and sub-cooled densities of organic molecules; activity coefficient predictions for mixed inorganic-organic liquid systems; hygroscopic growth factors and CCN (cloud condensation nuclei) activation potential of mixed inorganic-organic aerosol particles; and absorptive partitioning calculations with/without a treatment of non-ideality. The aim of this new facility is to provide a single point of reference for all properties relevant to atmospheric aerosol that have been checked for applicability to atmospheric compounds where possible. The group contribution approach allows users to upload molecular information in the form of SMILES (Simplified Molecular Input Line Entry System) strings and UManSysProp will automatically extract the relevant information for calculations. Built using open-source chemical informatics, and hosted at the University of Manchester, the facilities are provided via a browser and device-friendly web interface, or can be accessed using the user's own code via a JSON API (application program interface). We also provide the source code for all predictive techniques provided on the site, covered by the GNU GPL (General Public License) license to encourage development of a user community. We have released this via a Github repository (doi:10.5281/zenodo.45143). In this paper we demonstrate its use with specific examples that can be simulated using the web-browser interface.

Climate Adaptivity and Field Test of the Space Heating Used Air-Source Transcritical CO2 Heat Pump

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Song, Yulong; Ye, Zuliang; Cao, Feng

2017-08-01

In this study, an innovation of air-sourced transcritical CO2 heat pump which was employed in the space heating application was presented and discussed in order to solve the problem that the heating performances of the transcritical CO2 heat pump water heater deteriorated sharply with the augment in water feed temperature. An R134a cycle was adopted as a subcooling device in the proposed system. The prototype of the presented system was installed and supplied hot water for three places in northern China in winter. The field test results showed that the acceptable return water temperature can be increased up to 55°C, while the supply water temperature was raised rapidly by the presented prototype to up to 70°C directly, which was obviously appropriate to the various conditions of heating radiator in space heating application. Additionally, though the heating capacity and power dissipation decreased with the decline in ambient temperature or the augment in water temperature, the presented heat pump system performed efficiently whatever the climate and water feed temperature were. The real time COP of the presented system was generally more than 1.8 in the whole heating season, while the seasonal performance coefficient (SPC) was also appreciable, which signified that the economic efficiency of the presented system was more excellent than other space heating approaches such as fuel, gas, coal or electric boiler. As a result, the novel system will be a promising project to solve the energy issues in future space heating application.

Tank Pressure Control Experiment: Thermal Phenomena in Microgravity. Video 3 of 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

The report presents the results of the flight experiment Tank Pressure Control Experiment/Thermal Phenomena (TPCE/TP) performed in the microgravity environment of the space shuttle. TPCE/TP, flown on the Space Transportation System STS-52, was a second flight of the Tank Pressure Control Experiment (TPCE). The experiment used Freon 113 at near saturation conditions. The test tank was filled with liquid to about 83 percent by volume. The experiment consisted of 21 tests. Each test generally started with a heating phase to increase the tank pressure and to develop temperature stratification in the fluid, followed by a fluid mixing phase for the tank pressure reduction and fluid temperature equilibration. The heating phase provided pool boiling data from large (relative to bubble sizes) heating surfaces (0.1046 m by 0.0742 m) at low heat fluxes (0.23 to 1.16 kW/m(exp 2)). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied from 39 to 78 kPa and 1 to 3 deg C, respectively. The boiling process during the entire heating period, as well a jet-induced mixing process for the first 2 min. of the mixing period, was also recorded on video. Analyses of data from the two flight experiments (TPCE and TPCE/TP) and their comparison with the results obtained in drop tower experiments suggest that as Bond number approaches zero the flow pattern produced by an axial jet and the mixing time can be predicted by the Weber number. This is video 3 of 4.

Tank Pressure Control Experiment: Thermal Phenomena in Microgravity. Video 4 of 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

The report presents the results of the flight experiment Tank Pressure Control Experiment/Thermal Phenomena (TPCE/TP) performed in the microgravity environment of the space shuttle. TPCE/TP, flown on the Space Transportation System STS-52, was a second flight of the Tank Pressure Control Experiment (TPCE). The experiment used Freon 113 at near saturation conditions. The test tank was filled with liquid to about 83 percent by volume. The experiment consisted of 21 tests. Each test generally started with a heating phase to increase the tank pressure and to develop temperature stratification in the fluid, followed by a fluid mixing phase for the tank pressure reduction and fluid temperature equilibration. The heating phase provided pool boiling data from large (relative to bubble sizes) heating surfaces (0.1046 m by 0.0742 m) at low heat fluxes (0.23 to 1.16 kW/m(exp 2)). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied from 39 to 78 kPa and 1 to 3 deg C, respectively. The boiling process during the entire heating period, as well a jet-induced mixing process for the first 2 min. of the mixing period, was also recorded on video. Analyses of data from the two flight experiments (TPCE and TPCE/TP) and their comparison with the results obtained in drop tower experiments suggest that as Bond number approaches zero the flow pattern produced by an axial jet and the mixing time can be predicted by the Weber number. This is video 4 of 4.

Tank Pressure Control Experiment: Thermal Phenomena in Microgravity. Video 1 of 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

The report presents the results of the flight experiment Tank Pressure Control Experiment/Thermal Phenomena (TPCE/TP) performed in the microgravity environment of the space shuttle. TPCE/TP, flown on the Space Transportation System STS-52, was a second flight of the Tank Pressure Control Experiment (TPCE). The experiment used Freon 113 at near saturation conditions. The test tank was filled with liquid to about 83 percent by volume. The experiment consisted of 21 tests. Each test generally started with a heating phase to increase the tank pressure and to develop temperature stratification in the fluid, followed by a fluid mixing phase for the tank pressure reduction and fluid temperature equilibration. The heating phase provided pool boiling data from large (relative to bubble sizes) heating surfaces (0.1046 m by 0.0742 m) at low heat fluxes (0.23 to 1.16 kW/m(exp 2)). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied from 39 to 78 kPa and 1 to 3 deg C, respectively. The boiling process during the entire heating period, as well a jet-induced mixing process for the first 2 min. of the mixing period, was also recorded on video. Analyses of data from the two flight experiments (TPCE and TPCE/TP) and their comparison with the results obtained in drop tower experiments suggest that as Bond number approaches zero the flow pattern produced by an axial jet and the mixing time can be predicted by the Weber number. This is video 1 of 4.

Tank Pressure Control Experiment: Thermal Phenomena in Microgravity. Video 2 of 4

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1996-01-01

The report presents the results of the flight experiment Tank Pressure Control Experiment/Thermal Phenomena (TPCE/TP) performed in the microgravity environment of the space shuttle. TPCE/TP, flown on the Space Transportation System STS-52, was a second flight of the Tank Pressure Control Experiment (TPCE). The experiment used Freon 113 at near saturation conditions. The test tank was filled with liquid to about 83 percent by volume. The experiment consisted of 21 tests. Each test generally started with a heating phase to increase the tank pressure and to develop temperature stratification in the fluid, followed by a fluid mixing phase for the tank pressure reduction and fluid temperature equilibration. The heating phase provided pool boiling data from large (relative to bubble sizes) heating surfaces (0.1046 m by 0.0742 m) at low heat fluxes (0.23 to 1.16 kW/m(exp 2)). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied from 39 to 78 kPa and 1 to 3 deg C, respectively. The boiling process during the entire heating period, as well a jet-induced mixing process for the first 2 min. of the mixing period, was also recorded on video. Analyses of data from the two flight experiments (TPCE and TPCE/TP) and their comparison with the results obtained in drop tower experiments suggest that as Bond number approaches zero the flow pattern produced by an axial jet and the mixing time can be predicted by the Weber number. This is video 2 of 4.

Empirical equations for viscosity and specific heat capacity determination of paraffin PCM and fatty acid PCM

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Barreneche, C.; Ferrer, G.; Palacios, A.; Solé, A.; Inés Fernández, A.; Cabeza, L. F.

2017-10-01

Phase change materials (PCM) used in thermal energy storage (TES) systems have been presented, over recent years, as one of the most effective options in energy storage. Paraffin and fatty acids are some of the most used PCM in TES systems, as they have high phase change enthalpy and in addition they do not present subcooling nor hysteresis and have proper cycling stability. The simulations and design of TES systems require the knowledge of the thermophysical properties of PCM. Thermal conductivity, viscosity, specific heat capacity (Cp) can be experimentally determined, but these are material and time consuming tasks. To avoid or to reduce them, and to have reliable data without the need of experimentation, thermal properties can be calculated by empirical equations. In this study, five different equations are given to calculate the viscosity and specific heat capacity of fatty acid PCM and paraffin PCM. Two of these equations concern, respectively, the empirical calculation of the viscosity and liquid Cp of the whole paraffin PCM family, while the other three equations presented are for the corresponding calculation of viscosity, solid Cp, liquid Cp of the whole fatty acid family of PCM. Therefore, this study summarize the work performed to obtain the main empirical equations to measure the above mentioned properties for whole fatty acid PCM family and whole paraffin PCM family. Moreover, empirical equations have been obtained to calculate these properties for other materials of these PCM groups and these empirical equations can be extrapolated for PCM with higher or lower phase change temperatures within a lower relative error 4%.

Nucleate pool boiling in the long duration low gravity environment of the space shuttle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hasan, M. M.; Lin, C. S.; Knoll, R. H.; Bentz, M. D.; Meserole, J. S.

1993-01-01

The results are presented of an experimental study of nucleate pool boiling performed in the low gravity environment of the space shuttle. Photographic observations of pool boiling in Freon 113 were obtained during the 'Tank Pressure Control Experiment', flown on the Space Transportation System STS-43 in August 1991. Nucleate boiling data from large (relative to bubble size) flat heating surfaces (0.1046 by 0.0742 m) was obtained at very low heat fluxes (0.22 to 1.19 kw/so m). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied in the range of 40 to 60 kPa and 3 to 5 C respectively. Thirty-eight boiling tests, each of 10 min duration for a given heat flux, were conducted. Measurements included the heater power, heater surface temperature, the liquid temperature and the system pressure as functions of heating time. Video data of the first 2 min of heating was recorded for each test. In some tests the video clearly shows the inception of boiling and the growth and departure of bubbles from the surface during the first 2 min of heating. In the absence of video data, the heater temperature variation during heating shows the inception of boiling and stable nucleate boiling. During the stable nucleate boiling, the wall superheat varied between 2.8 to 3.8 C for heat fluxes in the range of 0.95 to 1.19 kw/so m. The wall superheat at the inception of boiling varied between 2 to 13 C.

Nucleate pool boiling in the long duration low gravity environment of the Space Shuttle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hasan, M. M.; Lin, C. S.; Knoll, R. H.; Bentz, M. D.; Meserole, J. S.

1993-01-01

The results are presented of an experimental study of nucleate pool boiling performed in the low gravity environment of the space shuttle. Photographic observations of pool boiling in Freon 113 were obtained during the 'Tank Pressure Control Experiment,' flown on the Space Transportation System, STS-43 in August 1991. Nucleate boiling data from large (relative to bubble size) flat heating surfaces (0.1046 by 0.0742 m) was obtained at very low heat fluxes (0.22 to 1.19 kW/sq m). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied in the range of 40 to 60 kPa and 3 to 5 C respectively. Thirty-eight boiling tests, each of 10-min duration for a given heat flux, were conducted. Measurements included the heater power, heater surface temperature, the liquid temperature and the system pressure as functions of heating time. Video data of the first 2 min of heating was recorded for each test. In some tests the video clearly shows the inception of boiling and the growth and departure of bubbles from the surface during the first 2 min of heating. In the absence of video data, the heater temperature variation during heating shows the inception of boiling and stable nucleate boiling. During the stable nucleate boiling, the wall superheat varied between 2.8 to 3.8 C for heat fluxes in the range of 0.95 to 1.19 kW/sq m. The wall superheat at the inception of boiling varied between 2 to 13 C.

Loop Heat Pipe Operation with Thermoelectric Converters and Coupling Blocks

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ku, Jentung; Nagano, Hosei

2007-01-01

This paper presents theoretical and experimental studies on using thermoelectric converters (TECs) and coupling blocks to control the operating temperature of a miniature loop heat pipes (MLHP). The MLHP has two parallel evaporators and two parallel condensers, and each evaporator has its own integral compensation chamber (CC). A TEC is attached to each CC, and connected to the evaporator via a copper thermal strap. The TEC can provide both heating and cooling to the CC, therefore extending the LHP operating temperature over a larger range of the evaporator heat load. A bi-polar power supply is used for the TEC operation. The bipolar power supply automatically changes the direction of the current to the TEC, depending on whether the CC requires heating or cooling, to maintain the CC temperature at the desired set point. The TEC can also enhance the startup success by maintaining a constant CC temperature during the start-up transient. Several aluminum coupling blocks are installed between the vapor line and liquid line. The coupling blocks serve as a heat exchanger which preheats the cold returning liquid so as to reduce the amount of liquid subcooling, and hence the power required to maintain the CC at the desired set point temperature. This paper focuses on the savings of the CC control heater power afforded by the TECs when compared to traditional electric heaters. Tests were conducted by varying the evaporator power, the condenser sink temperature, the CC set point temperature, the number of coupling blocks, and the thermal conductance of the thermal strap. Test results show that the TECs are able to control the CC temperature within k0.5K under all test conditions, and the required TEC heater power is only a fraction of the required electric heater power.

Measurements of gas and particle polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in air at urban, rural and near-roadway sites

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pratt, G. C.; Herbrandson, C.; Krause, M. J.; Schmitt, C.; Lippert, C. J.; McMahon, C. R.; Ellickson, K. M.

2018-04-01

We measured polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in gas and particle phases over two years using high volume samplers equipped with quartz fiber filters and XAD-4 at a rural site, an urban site, and a site adjacent to a heavily trafficked roadway. Overall results were generally as expected, in that concentrations increased from rural to urban to near-roadway sites, and PAHs with high vapor pressures (liquid subcooled, PoL) and low octanol-air partition coefficients (Koa) were mainly in the gas phase, while those with low PoL and high Koa were predominantly in the particle phase. Intermediate PAHs existed in both phases with the phase distribution following a seasonal pattern of higher gas phase concentrations in summer due to temperature effects. The overall pattern of phase distribution was consistent with PAH properties and ambient conditions and was similar at all three sites. The particle-bound fraction (ϕ) was well-described empirically by nonlinear regressions with log Koa and log PoL as predictors. Adsorption and absorption models underestimated the particle-bound fraction for most PAHs. The dual aerosol-air/soot-air model generally represented the gas-particle partitioning better than the other models across all PAHs, but there was a tendency to underestimate the range in the particle-bound fraction seen in measurements. There was a statistically insignificant tendency for higher PAHs in the particle phase at the near roadway site, and one piece of evidence that PAHs may be enriched on ultrafine particles at the near roadway site. Understanding the phase and particle size distributions of PAHs in highly polluted, high exposure microenvironments near traffic sources will help shed light on potential health effects.

PBDE emission from E-wastes during the pyrolytic process: Emission factor, compositional profile, size distribution, and gas-particle partitioning.

PubMed

Cai, ChuanYang; Yu, ShuangYu; Liu, Yu; Tao, Shu; Liu, WenXin

2018-04-01

Polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) pollution in E-waste recycling areas has garnered great concern by scientists, the government and the public. In the current study, two typical kinds of E-wastes (printed wiring boards and plastic casings of household or office appliances) were selected to investigate the emission behaviors of individual PBDEs during the pyrolysis process. Emission factors (EFs), compositional profile, particle size distribution and gas-particle partitioning of PBDEs were explored. The mean EF values of the total PBDEs were determined at 8.1 ± 4.6 μg/g and 10.4 ± 11.3 μg/g for printed wiring boards and plastic casings, respectively. Significantly positive correlations were observed between EFs and original addition contents of PBDEs. BDE209 was the most abundant in the E-waste materials, while lowly brominated and highly brominated components (excluding BDE209) were predominant in the exhaust fumes. The distribution of total PBDEs on different particle sizes was characterized by a concentration of finer particles with an aerodynamic diameter between 0.4 μm and 2.1 μm and followed by less than 0.4 μm. Similarly, the distribution of individual species was dominated by finer particles. Most of the freshly emitted PBDEs (via pyrolysis) were liable to exist in the particulate phase with respect to the gaseous phase, particularly for finer particles. In addition, a linear relationship between the partitioning coefficient (K P ) and the subcooled liquid vapor pressure (P L 0 ) of the different components indicated non-equilibrium gas-particle partitioning during the pyrolysis process and suggested that absorption by particulate organic carbon, rather than surface adsorption, governed gas-particle partitioning. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Structures for handling high heat fluxes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Watson, R. D.

1990-12-01

The divertor is reconized as one of the main performance limiting components for ITER. This paper reviews the critical issues for structures that are designed to withstand heat fluxes > 5 MW/m 2. High velocity, sub-cooled water with twisted tape inserts for enhanced heat transfer provides a critical heat flux limit of 40-60 MW/m 2. Uncertainties in physics and engineering heat flux peaking factors require that the design heat flux not exceed 10 MW/m 2 to maintain an adequate burnout safety margin. Armor tiles and heat sink materials must have a well matched thermal expansion coefficient to minimize stresses. The divertor lifetime from sputtering erosion is highly uncertain. The number of disruptions specified for ITER must be reduced to achieve a credible design. In-situ plasma spray repair with thick metallic coatings may reduce the problems of erosion. Runaway electrons in ITER have the potential to melt actively cooled components in a single event. A water leak is a serious accident because of steam reactions with hot carbon, beryllium, or tungsten that can mobilize large amounts of tritium and radioactive elements. If the plasma does not shutdown immediately, the divertor can melt in 1-10 s after a loss of coolant accident. Very high reliability of carbon tile braze joints will be required to achieve adequate safety and performance goals. Most of these critical issues will be addressed in the near future by operation of the Tore Supra pump limiters and the JET pumped divertor. An accurate understanding of the power flow out of edge of a DT burning plasma is essential to successful design of high heat flux components.

Direct numerical simulation of reactor two-phase flows enabled by high-performance computing

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Fang, Jun; Cambareri, Joseph J.; Brown, Cameron S.

Nuclear reactor two-phase flows remain a great engineering challenge, where the high-resolution two-phase flow database which can inform practical model development is still sparse due to the extreme reactor operation conditions and measurement difficulties. Owing to the rapid growth of computing power, the direct numerical simulation (DNS) is enjoying a renewed interest in investigating the related flow problems. A combination between DNS and an interface tracking method can provide a unique opportunity to study two-phase flows based on first principles calculations. More importantly, state-of-the-art high-performance computing (HPC) facilities are helping unlock this great potential. This paper reviews the recent researchmore » progress of two-phase flow DNS related to reactor applications. The progress in large-scale bubbly flow DNS has been focused not only on the sheer size of those simulations in terms of resolved Reynolds number, but also on the associated advanced modeling and analysis techniques. Specifically, the current areas of active research include modeling of sub-cooled boiling, bubble coalescence, as well as the advanced post-processing toolkit for bubbly flow simulations in reactor geometries. A novel bubble tracking method has been developed to track the evolution of bubbles in two-phase bubbly flow. Also, spectral analysis of DNS database in different geometries has been performed to investigate the modulation of the energy spectrum slope due to bubble-induced turbulence. In addition, the single-and two-phase analysis results are presented for turbulent flows within the pressurized water reactor (PWR) core geometries. The related simulations are possible to carry out only with the world leading HPC platforms. These simulations are allowing more complex turbulence model development and validation for use in 3D multiphase computational fluid dynamics (M-CFD) codes.« less

The use of experimental data in an MTR-type nuclear reactor safety analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Day, Simon E.

Reactivity initiated accidents (RIAs) are a category of events required for research reactor safety analysis. A subset of this is unprotected RIAs in which mechanical systems or human intervention are not credited in the response of the system. Light-water cooled and moderated MTR-type ( i.e., aluminum-clad uranium plate fuel) reactors are self-limiting up to some reactivity insertion limit beyond which fuel damage occurs. This characteristic was studied in the Borax and Spert reactor tests of the 1950s and 1960s in the USA. This thesis considers the use of this experimental data in generic MTR-type reactor safety analysis. The approach presented herein is based on fundamental phenomenological understanding and uses correlations in the reactor test data with suitable account taken for differences in important system parameters. Specifically, a semi-empirical approach is used to quantify the relationship between the power, energy and temperature rise response of the system as well as parametric dependencies on void coefficient and the degree of subcooling. Secondary effects including the dependence on coolant flow are also examined. A rigorous curve fitting approach and error assessment is used to quantify the trends in the experimental data. In addition to the initial power burst stage of an unprotected transient, the longer term stability of the system is considered with a stylized treatment of characteristic power/temperature oscillations (chugging). A bridge from the HEU-based experimental data to the LEU fuel cycle is assessed and outlined based on existing simulation results presented in the literature. A cell-model based parametric study is included. The results are used to construct a practical safety analysis methodology for determining reactivity insertion safety limits for a light-water moderated and cooled MTR-type core.

Verification of RELAP5-3D code in natural circulation loop as function of the initial water inventory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bertani, C.; Falcone, N.; Bersano, A.; Caramello, M.; Matsushita, T.; De Salve, M.; Panella, B.

2017-11-01

High safety and reliability of advanced nuclear reactors, Generation IV and Small Modular Reactors (SMR), have a crucial role in the acceptance of these new plants design. Among all the possible safety systems, particular efforts are dedicated to the study of passive systems because they rely on simple physical principles like natural circulation, without the need of external energy source to operate. Taking inspiration from the second Decay Heat Removal system (DHR2) of ALFRED, the European Generation IV demonstrator of the fast lead cooled reactor, an experimental facility has been built at the Energy Department of Politecnico di Torino (PROPHET facility) to study single and two-phase flow natural circulation. The facility behavior is simulated using the thermal-hydraulic system code RELAP5-3D, which is widely used in nuclear applications. In this paper, the effect of the initial water inventory on natural circulation is analyzed. The experimental time behaviors of temperatures and pressures are analyzed. The experimental matrix ranges between 69 % and 93%; the influence of the opposite effects related to the increase of the volume available for the expansion and the pressure raise due to phase change is discussed. Simulations of the experimental tests are carried out by using a 1D model at constant heat power and fixed liquid and air mass; the code predictions are compared with experimental results. Two typical responses are observed: subcooled or two phase saturated circulation. The steady state pressure is a strong function of liquid and air mass inventory. The numerical results show that, at low initial liquid mass inventory, the natural circulation is not stable but pulsated.

Evidence of micropore filling for sorption of nonpolar organic contaminants by condensed organic matter.

PubMed

Ran, Yong; Yang, Yu; Xing, Baoshan; Pignatello, Joseph J; Kwon, Seokjoo; Su, Wei; Zhou, Li

2013-01-01

Although microporosity and surface area of natural organic matter (NOM) are crucial for mechanistic evaluation of the sorption process for nonpolar organic contaminants (NOCs), they have been underestimated by the N adsorption technique. We investigated the CO-derived internal hydrophobic microporosity () and specific surface area (SSA) obtained on dry samples and related them to sorption behaviors of NOCs in water for a wide range of condensed NOM samples. The is obtained from the total CO-derived microporosity by subtracting out the contribution of the outer surfaces of minerals and NOM using N adsorption-derived parameters. The correlation between or CO-SSA and fractional organic carbon content () is very significant, demonstrating that much of the microporosity is associated with internal NOM matrices. The average and CO-SSA are, respectively, 75.1 μL g organic carbon (OC) and 185 m g OC from the correlation analysis. The rigid aliphatic carbon significantly contributes to the microporosity of the Pahokee peat. A strong linear correlation is demonstrated between / and the OC-normalized sorption capacity at the liquid or subcooled liquid-state water solubility calculated via the Freundlich equation for each of four NOCs (phenanthrene, naphthalene, 1,3,5-trichlorobenzene, and 1,2-dichlorobenzene). We concluded that micropore filling ("adsorption") contributes to NOC sorption by condensed NOM, but the exact contribution requires knowing the relationship between the dry-state, CO-determined microporosity and the wet-state, NOC-available microporosity of the organic matter. The findings offer new clues for explaining the nonideal sorption behaviors of NOCs. Copyright © by the American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of America, Inc.

Particle size distribution and gas-particle partitioning of polychlorinated biphenyls in the atmosphere in Beijing, China.

PubMed

Zhu, Qingqing; Zheng, Minghui; Liu, Guorui; Zhang, Xian; Dong, Shujun; Gao, Lirong; Liang, Yong

2017-01-01

Size-fractionated samples of urban particulate matter (PM; ≤1.0, 1.0-2.5, 2.5-10, and >10 μm) and gaseous samples were simultaneously obtained to study the distribution of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in the atmosphere in Beijing, China. Most recent investigations focused on the analysis of gaseous PCBs, and much less attention has been paid to the occurrence of PCBs among different PM fractions. In the present study, the gas-particle partitioning and size-specific distribution of PCBs in atmosphere were investigated. The total concentrations (gas + particle phase fractions) of Σ 12 dioxin-like PCBs, Σ 7 indicator PCBs, and ΣPCBs were 1.68, 42.1, and 345 pg/m 3 , respectively. PCBs were predominantly in the gas phase (86.8-99.0 % of the total concentrations). The gas-particle partition coefficients (K p ) of PCBs were found to be a significant linear correlated with the subcooled liquid vapor pressures (P L 0 ) (R 2  = 0.83, P < 0.01). The slope (m r ) implied that the gas-particle partitioning of PCBs was affected both by the mechanisms of adsorption and absorption. In addition, the concentrations of PCBs increased as the particle size decreased (>10, 2.5-10, 1.0-2.5, and ≤1.0 μm), with most of the PCBs contained in the fraction of ≤1.0 μm (53.4 % of the total particulate concentrations). Tetra-CBs were the main homolog in the air samples in the gas phase and PM fractions, followed by tri-CBs. This work will contribute to the knowledge of PCBs among different PM fractions and fill the gap of the size distribution of particle-bound dioxin-like PCBs in the air.

Influence of Sodium Chloride on the Formation and Dissociation Behavior of CO2 Gas Hydrates

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

We present an experimental study on the formation and dissociation characteristics of carbon dioxide (CO2) gas hydrates using Raman spectroscopy. The CO2 hydrates were formed from sodium chloride/water solutions with salinities of 0–10 wt %, which were pressurized with liquid CO2 in a stirred vessel at 6 MPa and a subcooling of 9.5 K. The formation of the CO2 hydrate resulted in a hydrate gel where the solid hydrate can be considered as the continuous phase that includes small amounts of a dispersed liquid water-rich phase that has not been converted to hydrate. During the hydrate formation process we quantified the fraction of solid hydrate, xH, and the fraction of the dispersed liquid water-rich phase, xL, from the signature of the hydroxyl (OH)-stretching vibration of the hydrate gel. We found that the fraction of hydrate xH contained in the hydrate gel linearly depends on the salinity of the initial liquid water-rich phase. In addition, the ratio of CO2 and water was analyzed in the liquid water-rich phase before hydrate formation, in the hydrate gel during growth and dissociation, and after its complete dissociation again in the liquid water-rich phase. We observed a supersaturation of CO2 in the water-rich phase after complete dissociation of the hydrate gel and were able to show that the excess CO2 exists as dispersed micro- or nanoscale liquid droplets in the liquid water-rich phase. These residual nano- and microdroplets could be a possible explanation for the so-called memory effect. PMID:28817275

Reciprocating and Screw Compressor semi-empirical models for establishing minimum energy performance standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Javed, Hassan; Armstrong, Peter

2015-08-01

The efficiency bar for a Minimum Equipment Performance Standard (MEPS) generally aims to minimize energy consumption and life cycle cost of a given chiller type and size category serving a typical load profile. Compressor type has a significant chiller performance impact. Performance of screw and reciprocating compressors is expressed in terms of pressure ratio and speed for a given refrigerant and suction density. Isentropic efficiency for a screw compressor is strongly affected by under- and over-compression (UOC) processes. The theoretical simple physical UOC model involves a compressor-specific (but sometimes unknown) volume index parameter and the real gas properties of the refrigerant used. Isentropic efficiency is estimated by the UOC model and a bi-cubic, used to account for flow, friction and electrical losses. The unknown volume index, a smoothing parameter (to flatten the UOC model peak) and bi-cubic coefficients are identified by curve fitting to minimize an appropriate residual norm. Chiller performance maps are produced for each compressor type by selecting optimized sub-cooling and condenser fan speed options in a generic component-based chiller model. SEER is the sum of hourly load (from a typical building in the climate of interest) and specific power for the same hourly conditions. An empirical UAE cooling load model, scalable to any equipment capacity, is used to establish proposed UAE MEPS. Annual electricity use and cost, determined from SEER and annual cooling load, and chiller component cost data are used to find optimal chiller designs and perform life-cycle cost comparison between screw and reciprocating compressor-based chillers. This process may be applied to any climate/load model in order to establish optimized MEPS for any country and/or region.

Alternative refrigerants and refrigeration cycles for domestic refrigerators

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Sand, J.R.; Rice, C.L.; Vineyard, E.A.

1992-12-01

This project initially focused on using nonazeotropic refrigerant mixtures (NARMs) in a two-evaporator refrigerator-freezer design using two stages of liquid refrigerant subcooling. This concept was proposed and tested in 1975. The work suggested that the concept was 20% more efficient than the conventional one-evaporator refrigerator-freezer (RF) design. After considerable planning and system modeling based on using a NARM in a Lorenz-Meutzner (L-M) RF, the program scope was broadened to include investigation of a ``dual-loop`` concept where energy savings result from exploiting the less stringent operating conditions needed to satisfy cooling, of the fresh food section. A steady-state computer model (CYCLE-Z)more » capable of simulating conventional, dual loop, and L-M refrigeration cycles was developed. This model was used to rank the performance of 20 ozone-safe NARMs in the L-M refrigeration cycle while key system parameters were systematically varied. The results indicated that the steady-state efficiency of the L-M design was up to 25% greater than that of a conventional cycle. This model was also used to calculate the performance of other pure refrigerants relative to that of dichlorodifluoromethane, R-12, in conventional and dual-loop RF designs. Projected efficiency gains for these cycles were more modest, ranging from 0 to 10%. Individual compressor calorimeter tests of nine combinations of evaporator and condenser temperatures usually used to map RF compressor performance were carried out with R-12 and two candidate L-M NARMs in several compressors. Several models of a commercially produced two-evaporator RF were obtained as test units. Two dual-loop RF designs were built and tested as part of this project.« less

Seasonal variations in atmospheric concentrations and gas-particle partitioning of PCDD/Fs and dioxin-like PCBs around industrial sites in Shanghai, China

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Die, Qingqi; Nie, Zhiqiang; Liu, Feng; Tian, Yajun; Fang, Yanyan; Gao, Hefeng; Tian, Shulei; He, Jie; Huang, Qifei

2015-10-01

Gas and particle phase air samples were collected in summer and winter around industrial sites in Shanghai, China, to allow the concentrations, profiles, and gas-particle partitioning of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans (PCDD/Fs) and dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (dl-PCBs) to be determined. The total 2,3,7,8-substituted PCDD/F and dl-PCB toxic equivalent (TEQ) concentrations were 14.2-182 fg TEQ/m3 (mean 56.8 fg TEQ/m3) in summer and 21.9-479 fg TEQ/m3 (mean 145 fg TEQ/m3) in winter. The PCDD/Fs tended to be predominantly in the particulate phase, while the dl-PCBs were predominantly found in the gas phase, and the proportions of all of the PCDD/F and dl-PCB congeners in the particle phase increased as the temperature decreased. The logarithms of the gas-particle partition coefficients correlated well with the subcooled liquid vapor pressures of the PCDD/Fs and dl-PCBs for most of the samples. Gas-particle partitioning of the PCDD/Fs deviated from equilibrium either in summer or winter close to local sources, and the Junge-Pankow model and predictions made using a model based on the octanol-air partition coefficient fitted the measured particulate PCDD/F fractions well, indicating that absorption and adsorption mechanism both contributed to the partitioning process. However, gas-particle equilibrium of the dl-PCBs was reached more easily in winter than in summer. The Junge-Pankow model predictions fitted the dl-PCB data better than did the predictions made using the model based on the octanol-air partition coefficient, indicating that adsorption mechanism made dominated contribution to the partitioning process.

Application of the Junge- and Pankow-equation for estimating indoor gas/particle distribution and exposure to SVOCs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Salthammer, Tunga; Schripp, Tobias

2015-04-01

In the indoor environment, distribution and dynamics of an organic compound between gas phase, particle phase and settled dust must be known for estimating human exposure. This, however, requires a detailed understanding of the environmentally important compound parameters, their interrelation and of the algorithms for calculating partitioning coefficients. The parameters of major concern are: (I) saturation vapor pressure (PS) (of the subcooled liquid); (II) Henry's law constant (H); (III) octanol/water partition coefficient (KOW); (IV) octanol/air partition coefficient (KOA); (V) air/water partition coefficient (KAW) and (VI) settled dust properties like density and organic content. For most of the relevant compounds reliable experimental data are not available and calculated gas/particle distributions can widely differ due to the uncertainty in predicted Ps and KOA values. This is not a big problem if the target compound is of low (<10-6 Pa) or high (>10-2 Pa) volatility, but in the intermediate region even small changes in Ps or KOA will have a strong impact on the result. Moreover, the related physical processes might bear large uncertainties. The KOA value can only be used for particle absorption from the gas phase if the organic portion of the particle or dust is high. The Junge- and Pankow-equation for calculating the gas/particle distribution coefficient KP do not consider the physical and chemical properties of the particle surface area. It is demonstrated by error propagation theory and Monte-Carlo simulations that parameter uncertainties from estimation methods for molecular properties and variations of indoor conditions might strongly influence the calculated distribution behavior of compounds in the indoor environment.

Concentrations, atmospheric partitioning, and air-water/soil surface exchange of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofuran along the upper reaches of the Haihe River basin, North China.

PubMed

Nie, Zhiqiang; Die, Qingqi; Yang, Yufei; Tang, Zhenwu; Wang, Qi; Huang, Qifei

2014-01-01

Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxin and dibenzofuran (PCDD/PCDF) were overall measured and compared in ambient air, water, soils, and sediments along the upper reaches of the Haihe River of North China, so as to evaluate their concentrations, profiles, and to understand the processes of gas-particle partitioning and air-water/soil exchange. The following results were obtained: (1) The average concentrations (toxic equivalents, TEQs) of 2,3,7,8-PCDD/PCDF in air, water, sediment, and soil samples were 4,855 fg/m(3), 9.5 pg/L, 99.2 pg/g dry weight (dw), and 56.4 pg/g (203 fg TEQ/m(3), 0.46 pg TEQ/L, 2.2 pg TEQ/g dw, and 1.3 pg TEQ/g, respectively), respectively. (2) Although OCDF, 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDF, OCDD, and 1,2,3,4,6,7,8-HpCDD were the dominant congeners among four environmental sinks, obvious discrepancies of these congener and homologue patterns of PCDD/PCDF were observed still. (3) Significant linear correlations for PCDD/PCDF were observed between the gas-particle partition coefficient (K p) and the subcooled liquid vapor pressure (P L (0)) and octanol-air partition coefficient (K oa). (4) Fugacity fraction values of air-water exchange indicated that most of PCDD/PCDF homologues were dominated by net volatilization from water into air. The low-chlorinated PCDD/PCDF (tetra- to hexa-) presented a strong net volatilization from the soil into air, while high-chlorinated PCDD/PCDF (hepta- to octa-) were mainly close to equilibrium for air-soil exchange.

A User’s Guide to the PLTEMP/ANL Code

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Olson, A. P.; Kalimullah, M.; Feldman, E. E.

2016-07-25

PLTEMP/ANL V4.2 is a program that obtains a steady-state flow and temperature solution for a nuclear reactor core, or for a single fuel assembly. It is based on an evolutionary sequence of codes originally used for plate temperatures, hence “PLTEMP”, developed at Argonne National Laboratory over several decades. Fueled and non-fueled regions are modeled. Each fuel assembly consists of one or more plates or tubes separated by coolant channels. The fuel plates may have one to five layers of different materials, each with heat generation. The width of a fuel plate may be divided into multiple longitudinal stripes, each withmore » its own axial power shape. The temperature solution is effectively 2-dimensional. It begins with a one-dimensional solution across all coolant channels and fuel plates or tubes within a given fuel assembly, at the entrance to the assembly. The temperature solution is repeated for each axial node along the length of the fuel assembly. The geometry may be either slab or radial, corresponding to fuel assemblies made of a series of flat (or slightly curved) plates, or of nested tubes. A variety of thermal-hydraulic correlations are available with which to determine safety margins such as onset-of-nucleate boiling ratio(ONBR), departure from nucleate boiling ratio (DNBR), and onset of flow instability ratio (OFIR). Coolant properties for either light or heavy water are obtained from FORTRAN functions rather than from tables. The code is intended for thermal-hydraulic analysis of research reactor performance in the sub-cooled boiling regime. Both turbulent and laminar flow regimes can be modeled. Options to calculate both forced flow and natural circulation are available. A general search capability is available (Appendix XII) to greatly reduce the reactor analyst’s time.« less

Levels, profiles and gas-particle distribution of atmospheric PCDD/Fs in vehicle parking lots of a South China metropolitan area.

PubMed

Li, Huiru; Zhou, Lin; Ren, Man; Sheng, Guoying; Fu, Jiamo; Peng, Ping'an

2014-01-01

Vehicle exhaust is one important PCDD/F source in urban areas. In this study, occurrence and inhalation of atmospheric PCDD/Fs in three enclosed/semi-enclosed large-scale vehicle parks were investigated. The park for heavy-duty diesel-trucks exhibited the highest atmospheric 2,3,7,8-PCDD/F concentrations (17.7 ± 4.3 pg m(-3), 0.818 ± 0.264 pg I-TEQm(-3)), followed sequentially by those for liquefied petroleum gas-buses and for unleaded gasoline-cars. High-chlorinated congeners/homologues dominated 2,3,7,8-PCDD/F profiles. Principal component analysis indicated their similarities with tailpipe studies. More than 70% of PCDD/Fs were particle-bound and their congener/homologue patterns differed from those of gaseous PCDD/Fs. In all studied parks logarithms of the gas/particle partitioning coefficients (Kps) of PCDD/F homologues were linearly correlated with those of their sub-cooled vapor pressures (pLs). Daily PCDD/F doses inhaled by park-workers were estimated to be between 0.099-0.227 pg I-TEQ kg(-1)d(-1). Their probabilistic incremental lifetime cancer risks were 1.08 × 10(-5)-2.07 × 10(-5), which were in the acceptable range (1.0 × 10(-4)-1.0 × 10(-6)). However, all data from the diesel-truck park significantly exceeded the upper limit for PCDD/Fs in ambient air of Japan (0.6 pg TEQm(-3)). Hence, air pollution and adequate ventilation should be considered during the design and construction of such enclosed/semi-enclosed parks. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ignition Characterization Test Results for the LO2/Ethanol Propellant Combination

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Robinson, Philip J.; Popp, Christopher G.; veith, Eric M.

2007-01-01

A series of contracts were issued by the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) un der the auspices of the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate to de velop and expand the maturity of candidate technologies considered to be important for future space exploration. One such technology was to determine the viability of incorporating non-toxic propellants for R eaction Control Subsystems (RCS). Contract NAS8-01109 was issued to A erojet to develop a dual thrust Reaction Control Engine (RCE) that ut ilized liquid oxygen and ethanol as the propellants. The dual thrust RCE incorporated a primary thrust level of 870 lbf, and a vernier thru st level of 10 - 30 lbf. The preferred RCS approach for the dual thru st RCE was to utilize pressure-fed liquid oxygen (LOX) and ethanol pr opellants; however, previous dual thrust feasibility testing incorporated GOX/Ethanol igniters as opposed to LOX/Ethanol igniters in the de sign. GOX/Ethanol was easier to ignite, but this combination had syst em design implications of providing GOX for the igniters. A LOX/Ethan ol igniter was desired; however, extensive LOX/Ethanol ignition data over the anticipated operating range for the dual thrust RCE did not e xist. Therefore, Aerojet designed and tested a workhorse LOX igniter to determine LOX/Ethanol ignition characteristics as part of a risk m itigation effort for the dual thrust RCE design. The objective of the ignition testing was to demonstrate successful ignition from GOX to LOX, encompassing potential two-phase flow conditions anticipated being present in real mission applications. A workhorse igniter was desig ned to accommodate the full LOX design flowrate, as well as a reduced GOX flowrate. It was reasoned that the initial LOX flow through the igniter would flash to GOX due to the latent heat stored in the hardwa re, causing a reduced oxygen flowrate because of a choked, or sonic, flow condition through the injection elements. As LOX flow continued, the hardware would chill-in, with the injected oxygen flow transitioning from cold GOX through two'phase flow to subcooled LOX. The Workh orse igniter was well instrumented: Pressure and temperature instrumentation permitted oxygen state points to be determined in the igniter oxidizer manifold, and gas-side igniter chamber thermocouples provide d chamber thermal profile characteristics. The cold flow chamber pres sure (Pc) for each test was determined and coupled with the igniter chamber diameter (De) to calculate the characteristic quench parameter (Pc x Dc), which was plotted as a function of core mixture ratio, MRc . Ignition limits were determined over a broad range of valve inlet conditions, and ignition was demonstrated with oxygen inlet conditions that ranged from subcooled 210 deg R LOX to 486 deg R GOX. Once ign ited at cold GOX conditions, combustion was continuous as the hardwar e chilled in and the core mixture ratio transitioned from values near 1.0 to over 12.5. Pulsing is required in typical RCS engines; therefore, the workhorse igniter was pulse tested to verify the ability to pr ovide the required ignition for a pulsing RCE. The minimum electrical pulse width (EPW) of the dual thrust RCE was 0.080 seconds. Igniter pulse tests were performed at three conditions: (1) an EPW of 0.080 se conds at 25% duty cycle for 400 pulses; (2) an EPW of 0.160 seconds a nd a 5% duty cycle for 124 pulses; (3) an EPW of 0.160 seconds and a 50% duty cycle for 380 pulses. Successful ignition of LOX/Ethanol was demonstrated over a broad range of valve inlet conditions, with the empirically determined LOX/Ethanol ignition limits extending the previous database established for GOX/Ethanol ignition limits. Although th e observed chill-in characteristics of the hardware varied significan tly with flowrate, ignition was readily achieved. Combustion was marg inal at extremely fuel-rich conditions, and it fluctuated as the oxygen passed rough the twophase flow regime during the period of hardware chill-in. Pulse testing showed good repeatability with 100 percent r e-ignition for all pulses. Certain pulse-to-pulse repeatability requirements for actual RCS operation may necessitate establishment of mini mum oxygen flow rates and engine thrust levels for satisfactory engin e performance.

Air-sea exchange and gas-particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons over the northwestern Pacific Ocean: Role of East Asian continental outflow

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wu, Z.; Guo, Z.

2017-12-01

We measured 15 parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmosphere and water during a research cruise from the East China Sea (ECS) to the northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWP) in the spring of 2015 to investigate the occurrence, air-sea gas exchange, and gas-particle partitioning of PAHs with a particular focus on the influence of East Asian continental outflow. The gaseous PAH composition and identification of sources were consistent with PAHs from the upwind area, indicating that the gaseous PAHs (three- to five-ring PAHs) were influenced by upwind land pollution. In addition, air-sea exchange fluxes of gaseous PAHs were estimated to be -54.2 to 107.4 ng m-2 d-1, and was indicative of variations of land-based PAH inputs. The logarithmic gas-particle partition coefficient (logKp) of PAHs regressed linearly against the logarithmic subcooled liquid vapor pressure, with a slope of -0.25. This was significantly larger than the theoretical value (-1), implying disequilibrium between the gaseous and particulate PAHs over the NWP. The non-equilibrium of PAH gas-particle partitioning was shielded from the volatilization of three-ring gaseous PAHs from seawater and lower soot concentrations in particular when the oceanic air masses prevailed. Modeling PAH absorption into organic matter and adsorption onto soot carbon revealed that the status of PAH gas-particle partitioning deviated more from the modeling Kp for oceanic air masses than those for continental air masses, which coincided with higher volatilization of three-ring PAHs and confirmed the influence of air-sea exchange. Meanwhile, significant linear regressions between logKp and logKoa (logKsa) for PAHs were observed for continental air masses, suggesting the dominant effect of East Asian continental outflow on atmospheric PAHs over the NWP during the sampling campaign.

Modeling and simulation challenges pursued by the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Turinsky, Paul J.; Kothe, Douglas B.

2016-05-01

The Consortium for the Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the first Energy Innovation Hub of the Department of Energy, was established in 2010 with the goal of providing modeling and simulation (M&S) capabilities that support and accelerate the improvement of nuclear energy's economic competitiveness and the reduction of spent nuclear fuel volume per unit energy, and all while assuring nuclear safety. To accomplish this requires advances in M&S capabilities in radiation transport, thermal-hydraulics, fuel performance and corrosion chemistry. To focus CASL's R&D, industry challenge problems have been defined, which equate with long standing issues of the nuclear power industry that M&S can assist in addressing. To date CASL has developed a multi-physics ;core simulator; based upon pin-resolved radiation transport and subchannel (within fuel assembly) thermal-hydraulics, capitalizing on the capabilities of high performance computing. CASL's fuel performance M&S capability can also be optionally integrated into the core simulator, yielding a coupled multi-physics capability with untapped predictive potential. Material models have been developed to enhance predictive capabilities of fuel clad creep and growth, along with deeper understanding of zirconium alloy clad oxidation and hydrogen pickup. Understanding of corrosion chemistry (e.g., CRUD formation) has evolved at all scales: micro, meso and macro. CFD R&D has focused on improvement in closure models for subcooled boiling and bubbly flow, and the formulation of robust numerical solution algorithms. For multiphysics integration, several iterative acceleration methods have been assessed, illuminating areas where further research is needed. Finally, uncertainty quantification and data assimilation techniques, based upon sampling approaches, have been made more feasible for practicing nuclear engineers via R&D on dimensional reduction and biased sampling. Industry adoption of CASL's evolving M&S capabilities, which is in progress, will assist in addressing long-standing and future operational and safety challenges of the nuclear industry.

Surface Instability of Liquid Propellant under Vertical Oscillatory Forcing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Yang, H. Q.; Peugeot, John

2011-01-01

Fluid motion in a fuel tank produced during thrust oscillations can circulate sub-cooled hydrogen near the liquid-vapor interface resulting in increased condensation and ullage pressure collapse. The first objective of this study is to validate the capabilities of a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool, CFD-ACE+, in modeling the fundamental interface transition physics occurring at the propellant surface. The second objective is to use the tool to assess the effects of thrust oscillations on surface dynamics. Our technical approach is to first verify the CFD code against known theoretical solutions, and then validate against existing experiments for small scale tanks and a range of transition regimes. A 2D axisymmetric, multi-phase model of gases, liquids, and solids is used to verify that CFD-ACE+ is capable of modeling fluid-structure interaction and system resonance in a typical thrust oscillation environment. Then, the 3D mode is studied with an assumed oscillatory body force to simulate the thrust oscillating effect. The study showed that CFD modeling can capture all of the transition physics from solid body motion to standing surface wave and to droplet ejection from liquid-gas interface. Unlike the analytical solutions established during the 1960 s, CFD modeling is not limited to the small amplitude regime. It can extend solutions to the nonlinear regime to determine the amplitude of surface waves after the onset of instability. The present simulation also demonstrated consistent trends from numerical experiments through variation of physical properties from low viscous fluid to high viscous fluids, and through variation of geometry and input forcing functions. A comparison of surface wave patterns under various forcing frequencies and amplitudes showed good agreement with experimental observations. It is concluded that thrust oscillations can cause droplet formation at the interface, which results in increased surface area and enhanced heat transfer between the liquid and gas phases as the ejected droplets travel well into the warmer gas region.

Liquid Methane Conditioning Capabilities Developed at the NASA Glenn Research Center's Small Multi- Purpose Research Facility (SMiRF) for Accelerated Lunar Surface Storage Thermal Testing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Bamberger, Helmut H.; Robinson, R. Craig; Jurns, John M.; Grasl, Steven J.

2011-01-01

Glenn Research Center s Creek Road Cryogenic Complex, Small Multi-Purpose Research Facility (SMiRF) recently completed validation / checkout testing of a new liquid methane delivery system and liquid methane (LCH4) conditioning system. Facility checkout validation was conducted in preparation for a series of passive thermal control technology tests planned at SMiRF in FY10 using a flight-like propellant tank at simulated thermal environments from 140 to 350K. These tests will validate models and provide high quality data to support consideration of LCH4/LO2 propellant combination option for a lunar or planetary ascent stage.An infrastructure has been put in place which will support testing of large amounts of liquid methane at SMiRF. Extensive modifications were made to the test facility s existing liquid hydrogen system for compatibility with liquid methane. Also, a new liquid methane fluid conditioning system will enable liquid methane to be quickly densified (sub-cooled below normal boiling point) and to be quickly reheated to saturation conditions between 92 and 140 K. Fluid temperatures can be quickly adjusted to compress the overall test duration. A detailed trade study was conducted to determine an appropriate technique to liquid conditioning with regard to the SMiRF facility s existing infrastructure. In addition, a completely new roadable dewar has been procured for transportation and temporary storage of liquid methane. A new spherical, flight-representative tank has also been fabricated for integration into the vacuum chamber at SMiRF. The addition of this system to SMiRF marks the first time a large-scale liquid methane propellant test capability has been realized at Glenn.This work supports the Cryogenic Fluid Management Project being conducted under the auspices of the Exploration Technology Development Program, providing focused cryogenic fluid management technology efforts to support NASA s future robotic or human exploration missions.

Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer Studied Under Reduced-Gravity Conditions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Chao, David F.; Hasan, Mohammad M.

2000-01-01

Boiling is known to be a very efficient mode of heat transfer, and as such, it is employed in component cooling and in various energy-conversion systems. In space, boiling heat transfer may be used in thermal management, fluid handling and control, power systems, and on-orbit storage and supply systems for cryogenic propellants and life-support fluids. Recent interest in the exploration of Mars and other planets and in the concept of in situ resource utilization on the Martian and Lunar surfaces highlights the need to understand how gravity levels varying from the Earth's gravity to microgravity (1g = or > g/g(sub e) = or > 10(exp -6)g) affect boiling heat transfer. Because of the complex nature of the boiling process, no generalized prediction or procedure has been developed to describe the boiling heat transfer coefficient, particularly at reduced gravity levels. Recently, Professor Vijay K. Dhir of the University of California at Los Angeles proposed a novel building-block approach to investigate the boiling phenomena in low-gravity to microgravity environments. This approach experimentally investigates the complete process of bubble inception, growth, and departure for single bubbles formed at a well-defined and controllable nucleation site. Principal investigator Professor Vijay K. Dhir, with support from researchers from the NASA Glenn Research Center at Lewis Field, is performing a series of pool boiling experiments in the low-gravity environments of the KC 135 microgravity aircraft s parabolic flight to investigate the inception, growth, departure, and merger of bubbles from single- and multiple-nucleation sites as a function of the wall superheat and the liquid subcooling. Silicon wafers with single and multiple cavities of known characteristics are being used as test surfaces. Water and PF5060 (an inert liquid) were chosen as test liquids so that the role of surface wettability and the magnitude of the effect of interfacial tension on boiling in reduced gravity can be investigated.

Application of high-order numerical schemes and Newton-Krylov method to two-phase drift-flux model

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zou, Ling; Zhao, Haihua; Zhang, Hongbin

This study concerns the application and solver robustness of the Newton-Krylov method in solving two-phase flow drift-flux model problems using high-order numerical schemes. In our previous studies, the Newton-Krylov method has been proven as a promising solver for two-phase flow drift-flux model problems. However, these studies were limited to use first-order numerical schemes only. Moreover, the previous approach to treating the drift-flux closure correlations was later revealed to cause deteriorated solver convergence performance, when the mesh was highly refined, and also when higher-order numerical schemes were employed. In this study, a second-order spatial discretization scheme that has been tested withmore » two-fluid two-phase flow model was extended to solve drift-flux model problems. In order to improve solver robustness, and therefore efficiency, a new approach was proposed to treating the mean drift velocity of the gas phase as a primary nonlinear variable to the equation system. With this new approach, significant improvement in solver robustness was achieved. With highly refined mesh, the proposed treatment along with the Newton-Krylov solver were extensively tested with two-phase flow problems that cover a wide range of thermal-hydraulics conditions. Satisfactory convergence performances were observed for all test cases. Numerical verification was then performed in the form of mesh convergence studies, from which expected orders of accuracy were obtained for both the first-order and the second-order spatial discretization schemes. Finally, the drift-flux model, along with numerical methods presented, were validated with three sets of flow boiling experiments that cover different flow channel geometries (round tube, rectangular tube, and rod bundle), and a wide range of test conditions (pressure, mass flux, wall heat flux, inlet subcooling and outlet void fraction).« less

Water activity and mobility in solutions of glycerol and small molecular weight sugars: Implication for cryo- and lyopreservation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

He, Xiaoming; Fowler, Alex; Toner, Mehmet

2006-10-01

In this study, the free volume models, originally developed for large molecular weight polymer-solvent systems, were used to study the water activity and mobility in solutions of four small molecular weight cryo-/lyoprotectants, viz., glycerol, a monosaccharide (fructose), and two disaccharides (sucrose and trehalose). The free volume model parameters were determined by fitting the models to available experimental data using a nonlinear optimization procedure. It was found that free volume models could accurately predict the available experimental data, which suggests that the free volume models might be generally applicable to aqueous solutions of small molecular weight cryo-/lyoprotectants. Furthermore, several models for estimating the mutual diffusion coefficient were tested using available experimental data for aqueous solutions of glycerol and a better method to estimate the mutual diffusion coefficient was proposed. Free volume models were used to predict and analyze the water activity and mobility in solutions of four cryo-/lyoprotectants under conditions frequently encountered in cryo-/lyopreservation applications. It was found that the water mobility in the glassy state of the above four solutions is essentially negligible in the case of cryopreservation with storage temperature lower than -110°C. However, the water mobility in a glass at higher temperature (>-80°C) may be significant. As a result, a subcooling of up to 50°C may be necessary for the long-term cryo-/lyopreservation of biomaterials depending on the water content and the type of cryo-/lyoprotectants. It was further shown that trehalose might be the best of the four protectants studied for lyopreservation (water mass fraction ⩽0.1) when the storage temperature is above the room temperature. The results from this study might be useful for the development of more effective protocols for both cryopreservation and lyopreservation of living cells and other biomaterials.

Rapid Generation of Superheated Steam Using a Water-containing Porous Material

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mori, Shoji; Okuyama, Kunito

Heat treatment by superheated steam has been utilized in several industrial fields including sterilization, desiccation, and cooking. In particular, cooking by superheated steam is receiving increased attention because it has advantages of reducing the salt and fat contents in foods as well as suppressing the oxidation of vitamin C and fat. In this application, quick startup and cut-off responses are required. Most electrically energized steam generators require a relatively long time to generate superheated steam due to the large heat capacities of the water in container and of the heater. Zhao and Liao (2002) introduced a novel process for rapid vaporization of subcooled liquid, in which a low-thermal-conductivity porous wick containing water is heated by a downward-facing grooved heating block in contact with the upper surface of the wick structure. They showed that saturated steam is generated within approximately 30 seconds from room-temperature water at a heat flux 41.2 kW⁄m2. In order to quickly generate superheated steam of approximately 300°C, which is required for cooking, the heat capacity of the heater should be as small as possible and the imposed heat flux should be so high enough that the porous wick is able to dry out in the vicinity of the contact with the heater and that the resulting heater temperature becomes much higher than the saturation temperature. The present paper proposes a simple structured generator to quickly produce superheated steam. Only a fine wire heater is contacted spirally on the inside wall in a hollow porous material. The start-up, cut-off responses and the rate of energy conversion for input power are investigated experimentally. Superheated steam of 300°C is produced in approximately 19 seconds from room-temperature water for an input power of 300 W. The maximum rate of energy conversion in the steady state is approximately 0.9.

Development of Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment on the International Space Station- Normal and Low Gravity Flow Boiling Experiment Development and Test Results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Nahra, Henry K.; Hall, Nancy R.; Hasan, Mohammad M.; Wagner, James D.; May, Rochelle L.; Mackey, Jeffrey R.; Kolacz, John S.; Butcher, Robert L.; Frankenfield, Bruce J.; Mudawar, Issam;

Surface Deformation by Thermo-capillary Convection -Sounding Rocket COMPERE Experiment SOURCE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fuhrmann, Eckart; Dreyer, Michael E.

The sounding rocket COMPERE experiment SOURCE was successfully flown on MASER 11, launched in Kiruna (ESRANGE), May 15th, 2008. SOURCE has been intended to partly ful-fill the scientific objectives of the European Space Agency (ESA) Microgravity Applications Program (MAP) project AO-2004-111 (Convective boiling and condensation). Three parties of principle investigators have been involved to design the experiment set-up: ZARM for thermo-capillary flows, IMFT (Toulouse, France) for boiling studies, EADS Astrium (Bremen, Ger-many) for depressurization. The scientific aims are to study the effect of wall heat flux on the contact line of the free liquid surface and to obtain a correlation for a convective heat transfer coefficient. The experiment has been conducted along a predefined time line. A preheating sequence at ground was the first operation to achieve a well defined temperature evolution within the test cell and its environment inside the rocket. Nearly one minute after launch, the pressurized test cell was filled with the test liquid HFE-7000 until a certain fill level was reached. Then the free surface could be observed for 120 s without distortion. Afterwards, the first depressurization was started to induce subcooled boiling, the second one to start saturated boiling. The data from the flight consists of video images and temperature measurements in the liquid, the solid, and the gaseous phase. Data analysis provides the surface shape versus time and the corresponding apparent contact angle. Computational analysis provides information for the determination of the heat transfer coefficient in a compensated gravity environment where a flow is caused by the temperature difference between the hot wall and the cold liquid. Correlations for the effective contact angle and the heat transfer coefficient shall be delivered as a function of the relevant dimensionsless parameters. The data will be used for benchmarking of commercial CFD codes and the tank design (using these codes) of future cryogenic upper stages.

Evolutionary space station fluids management strategies

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1989-01-01

Results are summarized for an 11-month study to define fluid storage and handling strategies and requirements for various specific mission case studies and their associated design impacts on the Space Station. There are a variety of fluid users which require a variety of fluids and use rates. Also, the cryogenic propellants required for NASA's STV, Planetary, and Code Z missions are enormous. The storage methods must accommodate fluids ranging from a high pressure gas or supercritical state fluid to a sub-cooled liquid (and superfluid helium). These requirements begin in the year 1994, reach a maximum of nearly 1800 metric tons in the year 2004, and trail off to the year 2018, as currently planned. It is conceivable that the cryogenic propellant needs for the STV and/or Lunar mission models will be met by LTCSF LH2/LO2 tanksets attached to the SS truss structure. Concepts and corresponding transfer and delivery operations have been presented for STV propellant provisioning from the SS. A growth orbit maneuvering vehicle (OMV) and associated servicing capability will be required to move tanksets from delivery launch vehicles to the SS or co-orbiting platforms. Also, appropriate changes to the software used for OMV operation are necessary to allow for the combined operation of the growth OMV. To support fluid management activities at the Space Station for the experimental payloads and propellant provisioning, there must be truss structure space allocated for fluid carriers and propellant tanksets, and substantial beam strengthening may be required. The Station must have two Mobile Remote Manipulator Systems (MRMS) and the growth OMV propellant handling operations for the STV at the SS. Propellant needs for the Planetary Initiatives and Code Z mission models will most likely be provided by co-orbiting propellant platform(s). Space Station impacts for Code Z mission fluid management activities will be minimal.

Synergistic hydrate inhibition of monoethylene glycol with poly(vinylcaprolactam) in thermodynamically underinhibited system.

PubMed

Kim, Jakyung; Shin, Kyuchul; Seo, Yutaek; Cho, Seong Jun; Lee, Ju Dong

2014-07-31

This study investigates the hydrate inhibition performance of monoethylene glycol (MEG) with poly(vinylcaprolactam) (PVCap) for retarding the hydrate onset as well as preventing the agglomeration of hydrate particles. A high-pressure autoclave was used to determine the hydrate onset time, subcooling temperature, hydrate fraction in the liquid phase, and torque changes during hydrate formation in pure water, 0.2 wt % PVCap solution, and 20 and 30 wt % MEG solutions. In comparison to water with no inhibitors, the addition of PVCap delays the hydrate onset time but cannot reduce the hydrate fraction, leading to a sharp increase in torque. The 20 and 30 wt % MEG solutions also delay the hydrate onset time slightly and reduce the hydrate fraction to 0.15. The addition of 0.2 wt % PVCap to the 20 wt % MEG solution, however, delays the hydrate onset time substantially, and the hydrate fraction was less than 0.19. The torque changes were negligible during the hydrate formation, suggesting the homogeneous dispersion of hydrate particles in the liquid phase. The well-dispersed hydrate particles do not agglomerate or deposit under stirring. Moreover, when 0.2 wt % PVCap was added to the 30 wt % MEG solution, no hydrate formation was observed for at least 24 h. These results suggest that mixing of MEG with a small amount of PVCap in underinhibited conditions will induce the synergistic inhibition of hydrate by delaying the hydrate onset time as well as preventing the agglomeration and deposition of hydrate particles. Decreasing the hydrate fraction in the liquid phase might be the reason for negligible torque changes during the hydrate formation in the 0.2 wt % PVCap and 20 wt % MEG solution. Simple structure II was confirmed by in situ Raman spectroscopy for the synergistic inhibition system, while coexisting structures I and II are observed in 0.2 wt % PVCap solution.

Cryogenic On-Orbit Liquid Depot Storage, Acquisition, and Transfer Satellite (COLD-SAT)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Schuster, John R.; Russ, Edwin J.; Wachter, Joseph P.

1990-01-01

The Cryogenic On-Orbit Liquid Depot Storage, Acquisition, and Transfer Satellite (COLD-SAT) will perform subcritical liquid hydrogen handling experiments under low gravity conditions to provide engineering data for future space transportation missions. Comprising the four Class 1 enabling experiments are tank press control, tank chilldown, tank no-vent fill, and liquid acquisition device fill/refill. The nine Class 2 enhancing experiments are tanker thermal performance, pressurization, low-gravity setting and outflow, liquid acquisition device performance, transfer line chilldown, outflow subcooling, low-gravity vented fill, fluid dumping, and advanced instrumentation. Consisting of an experiment module mated to a spacecraft bus, COLD-SAT will be placed in an initial 1300 km circular orbit by an Atlas commercial launch vehicle, and will perform experiments in a semi-autonomous mode for a period of up to six months. The three-axis controlled spacecraft bus provides electric power, control and data management, communications, and attitude control along with propulsive acceleration levels ranging from 10(exp -6) to 10(exp -4) g. It is desired to understand the effects that low acceleration levels might have on the heat and mass transfer processes involved in some of the experiments. The experiment module contains the three liquid hydrogen tanks, valves, pressurization and pumping equipment, and instrumentation. Within the highly insulated tanks are specialized fluid management equipment that might be used in future space transportation systems. At launch all the liquid hydrogen for the experiments is contained in the largest tank, which has helium-purged insulation to prevent cryo-pumping of air on the launch pad. The tank is loaded by the hydrogen tanking system used for the Centaur upper stage of the Atlas. After reaching orbit the two smaller tanks become receivers for fluid transfers, and when tanked, become the vessels for performing many of the experiments.

Design and test of a compact optics system for the pool boiling experiment

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Ling, Jerri S.; Laubenthal, James R.

1990-01-01

The experiment described seeks to improve the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that constitute nucleate pool boiling. The vehicle for accomplishing this is an investigation, including tests to be conducted in microgravity and coupled with appropriate analyses, of the heat transfer and vapor bubble dynamics associated with nucleation, bubble growth/collapse and subsequent motion, considering the interrelations between buoyancy, momentum and surface tension which will govern the motion of the vapor and surrounding liquid, as a function of the heating rate at the heat transfer surface and the temperature level and distribution in the bulk liquid. The experiment is designed to be contained within the confines of a Get-Away-Special Canister (GAS Can) installed in the bay of the space shuttle. When the shuttle reaches orbit, the experiment will be turned on and testing will proceed automatically. In the proposed Pool Boiling Experiment a pool of liquid, initially at a precisely defined pressure and temperature, will be subjected to a step imposed heat flux from a semitransparent thin-film heater forming part of one wall of the container such that boiling is initiated and maintained for a defined period of time at a constant pressure level. Transient measurements of the heater surface and fluid temperatures near the surface will be made, noting especially the conditions at the onset of boiling, along with motion photography of the boiling process in two simultaneous views, from beneath the heating surface and from the side. The conduct of the experiment and the data acquisition will be completely automated and self-contained. For the initial flight, a total of nine tests are proposed, with three levels of heat flux and three levels of subcooling. The design process used in the development and check-out of the compact photographic/optics system for the Pool Boiling Experiment is documented.

Application of high-order numerical schemes and Newton-Krylov method to two-phase drift-flux model

DOE PAGES

Zou, Ling; Zhao, Haihua; Zhang, Hongbin

2017-08-07

This study concerns the application and solver robustness of the Newton-Krylov method in solving two-phase flow drift-flux model problems using high-order numerical schemes. In our previous studies, the Newton-Krylov method has been proven as a promising solver for two-phase flow drift-flux model problems. However, these studies were limited to use first-order numerical schemes only. Moreover, the previous approach to treating the drift-flux closure correlations was later revealed to cause deteriorated solver convergence performance, when the mesh was highly refined, and also when higher-order numerical schemes were employed. In this study, a second-order spatial discretization scheme that has been tested withmore » two-fluid two-phase flow model was extended to solve drift-flux model problems. In order to improve solver robustness, and therefore efficiency, a new approach was proposed to treating the mean drift velocity of the gas phase as a primary nonlinear variable to the equation system. With this new approach, significant improvement in solver robustness was achieved. With highly refined mesh, the proposed treatment along with the Newton-Krylov solver were extensively tested with two-phase flow problems that cover a wide range of thermal-hydraulics conditions. Satisfactory convergence performances were observed for all test cases. Numerical verification was then performed in the form of mesh convergence studies, from which expected orders of accuracy were obtained for both the first-order and the second-order spatial discretization schemes. Finally, the drift-flux model, along with numerical methods presented, were validated with three sets of flow boiling experiments that cover different flow channel geometries (round tube, rectangular tube, and rod bundle), and a wide range of test conditions (pressure, mass flux, wall heat flux, inlet subcooling and outlet void fraction).« less

Air-sea exchange and gas-particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons over the northwestern Pacific Ocean: Role of East Asian continental outflow.

PubMed

Wu, Zilan; Lin, Tian; Li, Zhongxia; Jiang, Yuqing; Li, Yuanyuan; Yao, Xiaohong; Gao, Huiwang; Guo, Zhigang

2017-11-01

We measured 15 parent polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in atmosphere and water during a research cruise from the East China Sea (ECS) to the northwestern Pacific Ocean (NWP) in the spring of 2015 to investigate the occurrence, air-sea gas exchange, and gas-particle partitioning of PAHs with a particular focus on the influence of East Asian continental outflow. The gaseous PAH composition and identification of sources were consistent with PAHs from the upwind area, indicating that the gaseous PAHs (three-to five-ring PAHs) were influenced by upwind land pollution. In addition, air-sea exchange fluxes of gaseous PAHs were estimated to be -54.2-107.4 ng m -2 d -1 , and was indicative of variations of land-based PAH inputs. The logarithmic gas-particle partition coefficient (logK p ) of PAHs regressed linearly against the logarithmic subcooled liquid vapor pressure (logP L 0 ), with a slope of -0.25. This was significantly larger than the theoretical value (-1), implying disequilibrium between the gaseous and particulate PAHs over the NWP. The non-equilibrium of PAH gas-particle partitioning was shielded from the volatilization of three-ring gaseous PAHs from seawater and lower soot concentrations in particular when the oceanic air masses prevailed. Modeling PAH absorption into organic matter and adsorption onto soot carbon revealed that the status of PAH gas-particle partitioning deviated more from the modeling K p for oceanic air masses than those for continental air masses, which coincided with higher volatilization of three-ring PAHs and confirmed the influence of air-sea exchange. Meanwhile, significant linear regressions between logK p and logK oa (logK sa ) for PAHs were observed for continental air masses, suggesting the dominant effect of East Asian continental outflow on atmospheric PAHs over the NWP during the sampling campaign. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Spatial and temporal dependencies of structure II to structure I methane hydrate transformation in porous media under moderate pressure and temperature conditions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dong, T.; Lin, J. F.; Gu, J. T.; Polito, P. J.; O'Connell, J.; Flemings, P. B.

2017-12-01

We used Raman spectroscopy to monitor methane hydrates transforming from structure II to structure I at the pore scale as a function of space and time. It is well documented that structure I hydrate is the thermodynamically stable phase for pure methane hydrate (<100 MPa, < 20 °C), but due to kinetic limitation, initial methane hydrate formation produces a mixture of structure I and structure II hydrates. We observed that the structure transformation originated around the porous medium grains and over time slowly migrated into the pore space. We synthesized methane hydrates in spherical glass beads (210-297 µm in diameter) in a pressure cell with a sapphire window to integrate optical observations with Raman measurements. We injected CH4 vapor into the cell and supplied only deionized water thereafter to maintain a constant pressure of 14.6 MPa at 3.5 °C, with 14.5 °C subcooling. We used Raman spectroscopy to map the methane hydrates in pore spaces at 5-25 µm resolution, in order to monitor the occupancy ratio of CH4 in large cages to CH4 in small cages, by their Raman peak intensity ratio, i.e., I( 2905 cm-1)/I( 2915 cm-1). We identified 3 stages of hydrate formation at the pore scale: (1) after the initial hydrate formation, Raman mapping revealed that the occupancy ratio ranged from 0.5 to 3, indicating a mixture of structure I and II hydrates; (2) within 1 week, we observed that all structure I hydrates occurred on the glass bead surfaces and structure II hydrates occupied the pore spaces; (3) over the following 2 weeks, structure II hydrates gradually recrystallized into structure I hydrates from glass bead surfaces towards the pore space. These results imply that (1) due to kinetics, the formation of methane hydrate in porous media is more complex than previously thought, and (2) the bulk physical and chemical properties of laboratory-synthesized methane hydrates in porous media may drift over time, as methane hydrates recrystallize from a metastable phase (structure II) to the thermodynamically stable phase (structure I).

An experimental investigation of liquid methane convection and boiling in rocket engine cooling channels

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Trujillo, Abraham Gerardo

In the past decades, interest in developing hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engines for deep spaceflight missions has continued to grow. In particular, liquid methane (LCH4) has been of interest due to the weight efficiency, storage, and handling advantages it offers over several currently used propellants. Deep space exploration requires reusable, long life rocket engines. Due to the high temperatures reached during combustion, the life of an engine is significantly impacted by the cooling system's efficiency. Regenerative (regen) cooling is presented as a viable alternative to common cooling methods such as film and dump cooling since it provides improved engine efficiency. Due to limited availability of experimental sub-critical liquid methane cooling data for regen engine design, there has been an interest in studying the heat transfer characteristics of the propellant. For this reason, recent experimental studies at the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) have focused on investigating the heat transfer characteristics of sub-critical CH4 flowing through sub-scale cooling channels. To conduct the experiments, the csETR developed a High Heat Flux Test Facility (HHFTF) where all the channels are heated using a conduction-based thermal concentrator. In this study, two smooth channels with cross sectional geometries of 1.8 mm x 4.1 mm and 3.2 mm x 3.2 mm were tested. In addition, three roughened channels all with a 3.2 mm x 3.2 mm square cross section were also tested. For the rectangular smooth channel, Reynolds numbers ranged between 68,000 and 131,000, while the Nusselt numbers were between 40 and 325. For the rough channels, Reynolds numbers ranged from 82,000 to 131,000, and Nusselt numbers were between 65 and 810. Sub-cooled film-boiling phenomena were confirmed for all the channels presented in this work. Film-boiling onset at Critical Heat Flux (CHF) was correlated to a Boiling Number (Bo) of approximately 0.1 for all channels. Convective Nusselt number follows predicted trends for Reynolds number with a wall temperature correction for both the boiling and non-boiling regimes.

Heat Deposition and Heat Removal in the UCLA Continuous Current Tokamak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, Michael Lee

1990-01-01

Energy transfer processes in a steady-state tokamak are examined both theoretically and experimentally in order to determine the patterns of plasma heat deposition to material surfaces and the methods of heat removal. Heat transfer experiments involving actively cooled limiters and heat flux probes were performed in the UCLA Continuous Current Tokamak (CCT). The simple exponential model of plasma power deposition was extended to describe the global heat deposition to the first wall of a steady-state tokamak. The heat flux distribution in CCT was determined from measurements of heat flow to 32 large-area water-cooled Faraday shield panels. Significant toroidal and poloidal asymmetries were observed, with the maximum heat fluxes tending to fall on the lower outside panels. Heat deposition to the water-cooled guard limiters of an ion Bernstein wave antenna in CCT was measured during steady-state operation. Very strong asymmetries were observed. The heat distribution varied greatly with magnetic field. Copper heat flux sensors incorporating internal thermocouples were developed to measure plasma power deposition to exterior probe surfaces and heat removal from water -cooled interior surfaces. The resulting inverse heat conduction problem was solved using the function specification method. Cooling by an impinging liquid jet was investigated. One end of a cylindrical copper heat flux sensor was heated by a DC electrical arc and the other end was cooled by a low velocity water jet at 1 atm. Critical heat flux (CHF) values for the 55-80 ^circC sub-cooled free jets were typically 2.5 times published values for saturated free jets. For constrained jets, CHF values were about 20% lower. Heat deposition and heat removal in thick (3/4 inch diameter) cylindrical metal probes (SS304 or copper) inserted into a steady-state tokamak plasma were measured for a broad range of heat loads. The probes were cooled internally by a constrained jet of either air or water. Steady -state heat removal rates of up to 400 W/cm^2 were attained at the water cooled surface, and conditions of CHF were experimentally identified. Heat transfer in a hemispherical limiter is discussed.

Heat Transfer by Thermo-capillary Convection -Sounding Rocket COMPERE Experiment SOURCE

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dreyer, Michael; Fuhrmann, Eckart

The sounding rocket COMPERE experiment SOURCE was successfully flown on MASER 11, launched in Kiruna (ESRANGE), May 15th, 2008. SOURCE has been intended to partly ful-fill the scientific objectives of the European Space Agency (ESA) Microgravity Applications Program (MAP) project AO-2004-111 (Convective boiling and condensation). Three parties of principle investigators have been involved to design the experiment set-up: ZARM for thermo-capillary flows, IMFT (Toulouse, France) for boiling studies, EADS Astrium (Bremen, Ger-many) for depressurization. The topic of this paper is to study the effect of wall heat flux on the contact line of the free liquid surface and to obtain a correlation for a convective heat trans-fer coefficient. The experiment has been conducted along a predefined time line. A preheating sequence at ground was the first operation to achieve a well defined temperature evolution within the test cell and its environment inside the rocket. Nearly one minute after launch, the pressurized test cell was filled with the test liquid HFE-7000 until a certain fill level was reached. Then the free surface could be observed for 120 s without distortion. Afterwards, the first depressurization was started to induce subcooled boiling, the second one to start saturated boiling. The data from the flight consists of video images and temperature measurements in the liquid, the solid, and the gaseous phase. Data analysis provides the surface shape versus time and the corresponding apparent contact angle. Computational analysis provides information for the determination of the heat transfer coefficient in a compensated gravity environment where a flow is caused by the temperature difference between the hot wall and the cold liquid. The paper will deliver correlations for the effective contact angle and the heat transfer coefficient as a function of the relevant dimensionsless parameters as well as physical explanations for the observed behavior. The data will be used for benchmarking of commercial CFD codes and the tank design (using these codes) of future cryogenic upper stages. References Eckart Fuhrmann, Michael E. Dreyer, Description of the Sounding Rocket Experiment SOURCE, Microgravity sci. technol., 20/3-4, 206 (2008)

Transient nucleate pool boiling in microgravity: Some initial results

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Merte, Herman, Jr.; Lee, H. S.; Ervin, J. S.

1994-01-01

Variable gravity provides an opportunity to test the understanding of phenomena which are considered to depend on buoyancy, such as nucleate pool boiling. The active fundamental research in nucleate boiling has sought to determine the mechanisms or physical processes responsible for its high effectiveness, manifested by the high heat flux levels possible with relatively low temperature differences. Earlier research on nucleate pool boiling at high gravity levels under steady conditions demonstrated quantitatively that the heat transfer is degraded as the buoyancy normal to the heater surfaced increases. Correspondingly, it was later shown, qualitatively for short periods of time only, that nucleate boiling heat transfer is enhanced as the buoyancy normal to the heater surface is reduced. It can be deduced that nucleate pool boiling can be sustained as a quasi-steady process provided that some means is available to remove the vapor generated from the immediate vicinity of the heater surface. One of the objectives of the research, the initial results of which are presented here, is to quantify the heat transfer associated with boiling in microgravity. Some quantitative results of nucleate pool boiling in high quality microgravity (a/g approximately 10(exp -5)) of 5s duration, obtained in an evacuated drop tower, are presented here. These experiments were conducted as precursors of longer term space experiments. A transient heating technique is used, in which the heater surface is a transparent gold film sputtered on a qua rtz substrate, simultaneously providing the mean surface temperature from resistance thermometry and viewing of the boiling process both from beneath and across the surface. The measurement of the transient mean heater surface temperature permits the computation, by numerical means, of the transient mean heat transfer coefficient. The preliminary data obtained demonstrates that a quasi-steady boiling process can occur in microgravity if the bulk liquid subcooling is sufficiently high and if the imposed heat flux is sufficiently low. This is attributed to suface tension effects at the liquid-vapor-solid junction causing rewetting to take place, sustaining the nucleate boiling. Otherwise, dryout at the heater surface will occur, as observed.

Modeling of Vapor Bubble Growth Under Nucleate Boiling Conditions in Reduced Gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Buyevich, Yu A.; Webbon, Bruce W.

1995-01-01

A dynamic model is developed to describe the evolution of a vapor bubble growing at a nucleation site on a superheated surface under arbitrary gravity. The bubble is separated from the surface by a thin microlayer and grows due to the evaporation from the microlayer interface. The average thickness of the microlayer increases as the bubble expands along the surface if the evaporation rate is lower than some critical value. The corresponding threshold value of the surface temperature has to be associated with the burn-out crisis. Two main reasons make for bubble separation, which are the buoyancy force and a force caused by the vapor momentum that comes to the bubble with vapor molecules. The latter force is somewhat diminished if condensation takes place at the upper bubble surface in subcooled liquids. The action of the said forces is opposed by inertia of the additional mass of liquid as the bubble center rises above the surface and by inertia of liquid being expelled by the growing bubble in radial directions. An extra pressure force arises due to the liquid inflow into the microlayer with a finite velocity. The last force helps in holding the bubble close to the surface during an initial stage of bubble evolution. Two limiting regimes with distinctly different properties can be singled out, depending on which of the forces that favor bubble detachment dominates. Under conditions of moderately reduced gravity, the situation is much the same as in normal gravity, although the bubble detachment volume increases as gravity diminishes. In microgravity, the buoyancy force is negligible. Then the bubble is capable of staying near the surface for a long time, with intensive evaporation from the microlayer. It suggests a drastic change in the physical mechanism of heat removal as gravity falls below a certain sufficiently low level. Inferences of the model and conclusions pertaining to effects caused on heat transfer processes by changes in bubble hydrodynamics induced by gravity are discussed in connection with experimental evidence, both available in current and in as yet unpublished literature.

Dynamics of face and annular seals with two-phase flow

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hughes, William F.; Basu, Prithwish; Beatty, Paul A.; Beeler, Richard M.; Lau, Stephen

1989-01-01

A detailed study was made of face and annular seals under conditions where boiling, i.e., phase change of the leaking fluid, occurs within the seal. Many seals operate in this mode because of flashing due to pressure drop and/or heat input from frictional heating. High pressure, water pumps, industrial chemical pumps, and cryogenic pumps are mentioned as a few of many applications. The initial motivation was the LOX-GOX seals for the space shuttle main engine, but the study was expanded to include any face or annular seal where boiling occurs. Some of the distinctive behavior characteristics of two-phase seals were discussed, particularly their axial stability. While two-phase seals probably exhibit instability to disturbances of other degrees of freedom such as wobble, etc., under certain conditions, such analyses are too complex to be treated at present. Since an all liquid seal (with parallel faces) has a neutral axial stiffness curve, and is stabilized axially by convergent coning, other degrees of freedom stability analyses are necessary. However, the axial stability behavior of the two-phase seal is always a consideration no matter how well the seal is aligned and regardless of the speed. Hence, axial stability is thought of as the primary design consideration for two-phase seals and indeed the stability behavior under sub-cooling variations probably overshadows other concerns. The main thrust was the dynamic analysis of axial motion of two-phase face seals, principally the determination of axial stiffness, and the steady behavior of two-phase annular seals. The main conclusions are that seals with two-phase flow may be unstable if improperly balanced. Detailed theoretical analyses of low (laminar) and high (turbulent) leakage seals are presented along with computer codes, parametric studies, and in particular a simplified PC based code that allows for rapid performance prediction. A simplified combined computer code for the performance prediction over the laminar and turbulent ranges of a two-phase seal is described and documented. The analyses, results, and computer codes are summarized.

Modeling and simulation challenges pursued by the Consortium for Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL)

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Turinsky, Paul J., E-mail: turinsky@ncsu.edu; Kothe, Douglas B., E-mail: kothe@ornl.gov

The Consortium for the Advanced Simulation of Light Water Reactors (CASL), the first Energy Innovation Hub of the Department of Energy, was established in 2010 with the goal of providing modeling and simulation (M&S) capabilities that support and accelerate the improvement of nuclear energy's economic competitiveness and the reduction of spent nuclear fuel volume per unit energy, and all while assuring nuclear safety. To accomplish this requires advances in M&S capabilities in radiation transport, thermal-hydraulics, fuel performance and corrosion chemistry. To focus CASL's R&D, industry challenge problems have been defined, which equate with long standing issues of the nuclear powermore » industry that M&S can assist in addressing. To date CASL has developed a multi-physics “core simulator” based upon pin-resolved radiation transport and subchannel (within fuel assembly) thermal-hydraulics, capitalizing on the capabilities of high performance computing. CASL's fuel performance M&S capability can also be optionally integrated into the core simulator, yielding a coupled multi-physics capability with untapped predictive potential. Material models have been developed to enhance predictive capabilities of fuel clad creep and growth, along with deeper understanding of zirconium alloy clad oxidation and hydrogen pickup. Understanding of corrosion chemistry (e.g., CRUD formation) has evolved at all scales: micro, meso and macro. CFD R&D has focused on improvement in closure models for subcooled boiling and bubbly flow, and the formulation of robust numerical solution algorithms. For multiphysics integration, several iterative acceleration methods have been assessed, illuminating areas where further research is needed. Finally, uncertainty quantification and data assimilation techniques, based upon sampling approaches, have been made more feasible for practicing nuclear engineers via R&D on dimensional reduction and biased sampling. Industry adoption of CASL's evolving M&S capabilities, which is in progress, will assist in addressing long-standing and future operational and safety challenges of the nuclear industry. - Highlights: • Complexity of physics based modeling of light water reactor cores being addressed. • Capability developed to help address problems that have challenged the nuclear power industry. • Simulation capabilities that take advantage of high performance computing developed.« less

Investigation of Natural Circulation Instability and Transients in Passively Safe Small Modular Reactors

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ishii, Mamoru

The NEUP funded project, NEUP-3496, aims to experimentally investigate two-phase natural circulation flow instability that could occur in Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), especially for natural circulation SMRs. The objective has been achieved by systematically performing tests to study the general natural circulation instability characteristics and the natural circulation behavior under start-up or design basis accident conditions. Experimental data sets highlighting the effect of void reactivity feedback as well as the effect of power ramp-up rate and system pressure have been used to develop a comprehensive stability map. The safety analysis code, RELAP5, has been used to evaluate experimental results andmore » models. Improvements to the constitutive relations for flashing have been made in order to develop a reliable analysis tool. This research has been focusing on two generic SMR designs, i.e. a small modular Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (SBWR) like design and a small integral Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) like design. A BWR-type natural circulation test facility was firstly built based on the three-level scaling analysis of the Purdue Novel Modular Reactor (NMR) with an electric output of 50 MWe, namely NMR-50, which represents a BWR-type SMR with a significantly reduced reactor pressure vessel (RPV) height. The experimental facility was installed with various equipment to measure thermalhydraulic parameters such as pressure, temperature, mass flow rate and void fraction. Characterization tests were performed before the startup transient tests and quasi-steady tests to determine the loop flow resistance. The control system and data acquisition system were programmed with LabVIEW to realize the realtime control and data storage. The thermal-hydraulic and nuclear coupled startup transients were performed to investigate the flow instabilities at low pressure and low power conditions for NMR-50. Two different power ramps were chosen to study the effect of startup power density on the flow instability. The experimental startup transient results showed the existence of three different flow instability mechanisms, i.e., flashing instability, condensation induced flow instability, and density wave oscillations. In addition, the void-reactivity feedback did not have significant effects on the flow instability during the startup transients for NMR-50. ii Several initial startup procedures with different power ramp rates were experimentally investigated to eliminate the flow instabilities observed from the startup transients. Particularly, the very slow startup transient and pressurized startup transient tests were performed and compared. It was found that the very slow startup transients by applying very small power density can eliminate the flashing oscillations in the single-phase natural circulation and stabilize the flow oscillations in the phase of net vapor generation. The initially pressurized startup procedure was tested to eliminate the flashing instability during the startup transients as well. The pressurized startup procedure included the initial pressurization, heat-up, and venting process. The startup transient tests showed that the pressurized startup procedure could eliminate the flow instability during the transition from single-phase flow to two-phase flow at low pressure conditions. The experimental results indicated that both startup procedures were applicable to the initial startup of NMR. However, the pressurized startup procedures might be preferred due to short operating hours required. In order to have a deeper understanding of natural circulation flow instability, the quasi-steady tests were performed using the test facility installed with preheater and subcooler. The effect of system pressure, core inlet subcooling, core power density, inlet flow resistance coefficient, and void reactivity feedback were investigated in the quasi-steady state tests. The experimental stability boundaries were determined between unstable and stable flow conditions in the dimensionless stability plane of inlet subcooling number and Zuber number. To predict the stability boundary theoretically, linear stability analysis in the frequency domain was performed at four sections of the natural circulation test loop. The flashing phenomena in the chimney section was considered as an axially uniform heat source. And the dimensionless characteristic equation of the pressure drop perturbation was obtained by considering the void fraction effect and outlet flow resistance in the core section. The theoretical flashing boundary showed some discrepancies with previous experimental data from the quasi-steady state tests. In the future, thermal non-equilibrium was recommended to improve the accuracy of flashing instability boundary. As another part of the funded research, flow instabilities of a PWR-type SMR under low pressure and low power conditions were investigated experimentally as well. The NuScale reactor design was selected as the prototype for the PWR-type SMR. In order to experimentally study the natural circulation behavior of NuScale iii reactor during accidental scenarios, detailed scaling analyses are necessary to ensure that the scaled phenomena could be obtained in a laboratory test facility. The three-level scaling method is used as well to obtain the scaling ratios derived from various non-dimensional numbers. The design of the ideally scaled facility (ISF) was initially accomplished based on these scaling ratios. Then the engineering scaled facility (ESF) was designed and constructed based on the ISF by considering engineering limitations including laboratory space, pipe size, and pipe connections etc. PWR-type SMR experiments were performed in this well-scaled test facility to investigate the potential thermal hydraulic flow instability during the blowdown events, which might occur during the loss of coolant accident (LOCA) and loss of heat sink accident (LOHS) of the prototype PWR-type SMR. Two kinds of experiments, normal blowdown event and cold blowdown event, were experimentally investigated and compared with code predictions. The normal blowdown event was experimentally simulated since an initial condition where the pressure was lower than the designed pressure of the experiment facility, while the code prediction of blowdown started from the normal operation condition. Important thermal hydraulic parameters including reactor pressure vessel (RPV) pressure, containment pressure, local void fraction and temperature, pressure drop and natural circulation flow rate were measured and analyzed during the blowdown event. The pressure and water level transients are similar to the experimental results published by NuScale [51], which proves the capability of current loop in simulating the thermal hydraulic transient of real PWR-type SMR. During the 20000s blowdown experiment, water level in the core was always above the active fuel assemble during the experiment and proved the safety of natural circulation cooling and water recycling design of PWR-type SMR. Besides, pressure, temperature, and water level transient can be accurately predicted by RELAP5 code. However, the oscillations of natural circulation flow rate, water level and pressure drops were observed during the blowdown transients. This kind of flow oscillations are related to the water level and the location upper plenum, which is a path for coolant flow from chimney to steam generator and down comer. In order to investigate the transients start from the opening of ADS valve in both experimental and numerical way, the cold blow-down experiment is conducted. For the cold blowdown event, different from setting both reactor iv pressure vessel (RPV) and containment at high temperature and pressure, only RPV was heated close to the highest designed pressure and then open the ADS valve, same process was predicted using RELAP5 code. By doing cold blowdown experiment, the entire transients from the opening of ADS can be investigated by code and benchmarked with experimental data. Similar flow instability observed in the cold blowdown experiment. The comparison between code prediction and experiment data showed that the RELAP5 code can successfully predict the pressure void fraction and temperature transient during the cold blowdown event with limited error, but numerical instability exists in predicting natural circulation flow rate. Besides, the code is lack of capability in predicting the water level related flow instability observed in experiments.« less

Dynamics of the Molten Contact Line

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sonin, Ain A.; Duthaler, Gregg; Liu, Michael; Torresola, Javier; Qiu, Taiqing

1999-01-01

The purpose of this program is to develop a basic understanding of how a molten material front spreads over a solid that is below its melting point, arrests, and freezes. Our hope is that the work will contribute toward a scientific knowledge base for certain new applications involving molten droplet deposition, including the "printing" of arbitrary three-dimensional objects by precise deposition of individual molten microdrops that solidify after impact. Little information is available at this time on the capillarity-driven motion and arrest of molten contact line regions. Schiaffino and Sonin investigated the arrest of the contact line of a molten microcrystalline wax spreading over a subcooled solid "target" of the same material. They found that contact line arrest takes place at an apparent liquid contact angle that depends primarily on the Stefan number S=c(T(sub f) -T(sub t)/L based on the temperature difference between the fusion point and the target temperature, and proposed that contact line arrest occurs when the liquid's dynamic contact angle approaches the angle of attack of the solidification front just behind the contact line. They also showed, however, that the conventional continuum equations and boundary conditions have no meaningful solution for this angle. The solidification front angle is determined by the heat flux just behind the contact line, and the heat flux is singular at that point. By comparing experiments with numerical computations, Schiaffino and Sonin estimated that the conventional solidification model must break down within a distance of order 0.1 - 1 microns of the contact line. The physical mechanism for this breakdown is as yet undetermined, and no first-principles theory exists for the contact angle at arrest. Schiaffino and Sonin also presented a framework for understanding how to moderate Weber number molten droplet deposition in terms of similarity laws and experimentation. The study is based on experiments with three molten materials- molten wax on solid wax, water on ice, and mercury on frozen mercury- which between them span a considerable range of the deposition/solidification similarity parameters. Correlations are obtained for the spreading velocity, spreading time scales, the spreading factor (i.e. ratio of deposited drop's final footprint radius and the drop's initial radius), post-spreading liquid oscillation amplitudes and time scales, and bulk solidification time scales. Duthaler carried out an experimental and theoretical investigation of the relationship between the liquid's apparent contact angle and the Capillary number Ca=mu U/sigma based on contact line speed, for molten materials spreading over subcooled solids. This relationship is required for modeling of melt spreading. We have adapted Voinov's methodology to the molten contact line and formulated a theoretical model for the Ca vs. contact angle relationship, based Schiaffino and Sonin#s (1997a,b) wedge-like solidification front model. With the solidification front angle taken from Schiaffino and Sonin, the model is in good agreement with the experimental results for Ca vs. contact angle. Duthaler also extended the experimental investigation of droplet deposition and contact line freezing to more materials, including solder on glass, solder on solder, water on ice, and molten microcrystalline wax on wax. The latter also included tests on inclined targets. Deposition tests have also been done with molten octacosane (C28H58) on various targets. An important objective of our program has been the development of micron-scale sensors for measuring the transient temperature at a point on the substrate surface as a molten contact line moves over it. The expectation is that this temperature history will yield a better understanding of the thermal process in the contact line region. The sensors are of the thermistor type, either 2.5 microns or 1.5 microns square, microfabricated with silicon-based technology on either pure silicon or amorphous silicon dioxide chips. Each chip has 32 sensors distributed on its surface in arrays. The time response is better than 10 ms. At the time of writing, sensor calibration is in progress. Results on thermal transients during contact line passage will be discussed at the conference. While we expect that the data will provide information on the near-contact-line heat transfer process, we also foresee possible problems. First, the spatial resolution of the sensors may be insufficient to resolve the near-contact-line region. Second, the sensors protrude about 0.5 microns above the substrate surface, and may affect the contact line motion. Third, a sensor's temperature history depends on both the heat flux distribution into it from the fusion front and the thermal properties of the substrate below it and the solidified melt between it and the fusion front. The heat flux distribution in the contact line region must therefore be unfolded from computations of the overall system's transient thermal response.

A numerical study of thermal stratification due to transient natural convection in densified liquid propellant tanks

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manalo, Lawrence B.

A comprehensive, non-equilibrium, two-domain (liquid and vapor), physics based, mathematical model is developed to investigate the onset and growth of the natural circulation and thermal stratification inside cryogenic propellant storage tanks due to heat transfer from the surroundings. A two-dimensional (planar) model is incorporated for the liquid domain while a lumped, thermodynamic model is utilized for the vapor domain. The mathematical model in the liquid domain consists of the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy equations and incorporates the Boussinesq approximation (constant fluid density except in the buoyancy term of the momentum equation). In addition, the vapor is assumed to behave like an ideal gas with uniform thermodynamic properties. Furthermore, the time-dependent nature of the heat leaks from the surroundings to the propellant (due to imperfect tank insulation) is considered. Also, heterogeneous nucleation, although not significant in the temperature range of study, has been included. The transport of mass and energy between the liquid and vapor domains leads to transient ullage vapor temperatures and pressures. (The latter of which affects the saturation temperature of the liquid at the liquid-vapor interface.) This coupling between the two domains is accomplished through an energy balance (based on a micro-layer concept) at the interface. The resulting governing, non-linear, partial differential equations (which include a Poisson's equation for determining the pressure distribution) in the liquid domain are solved by an implicit, finite-differencing technique utilizing a non-uniform (stretched) mesh (in both directions) for predicting the velocity and temperature fields. (The accuracy of the numerical scheme is validated by comparing the model's results to a benchmark numerical case as well as to available experimental data.) The mass, temperature, and pressure of the vapor is determined by using a simple explicit finite-differencing technique. With the model at hand, the effects of variable fluid transport/thermo-physical properties, levels of initial sub-cooling, operating pressure, and initial liquid aspect ratio on the natural circulation patterns and thermal stratification are numerically investigated. Liquid oxygen (LOx) is the primary working fluid in the study. However, a simulation with liquid nitrogen (LN2) as the propellant is also carried out for comparison purposes.

The Fate of Volatiles in Subaqueous Explosive Eruptions: An Analysis of Steam Condensation in the Water Column

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cahalan, R. C.; Dufek, J.

2015-12-01

A model has been developed to determine the theoretical limits of steam survival in a water column during a subaqueous explosive eruption. Understanding the role of steam dynamics in particle transport and the evolution of the thermal budget is critical to addressing the first order questions of subaqueous eruption mechanics. Ash transport in subaqueous eruptions is initially coupled to the fate of volatile transport. The survival of steam bubbles to the water surface could enable non-wetted ash transport from the vent to a subaerial ash cloud. Current eruption models assume a very simple plume mixing geometry, that cold water mixes with the plume immediately after erupting, and that the total volume of steam condenses in the initial phase of mixing. This limits the survival of steam to within tens of meters above the vent. Though these assumptions may be valid, they are unproven, and the calculations based on them do not take into account any kinetic constraints on condensation. The following model has been developed to evaluate the limits of juvenile steam survival in a subaqueous explosive eruption. This model utilizes the analytical model for condensation of steam injected into a sub-cooled pool produced in Park et al. (2007). Necessary parameterizations require an iterative internal calculation of the steam saturation temperature and vapor density for each modeled time step. The contribution of volumetric expansion due to depressurization of a rising bubble is calculated and used in conjunction with condensation rate to calculate the temporal evolution of bubble volume and radius. Using steam bubble volume with the BBO equation for Lagrangian transport in a fluid, the bubble rise velocity is calculated and used to evaluate the rise distance. The steam rise model proves a useful tool to compare the effects of steam condensation, volumetric expansion, volume flux, and water depth on the dynamics of juvenile steam. The modeled results show that a sufficiently high volatile flux could lead to the survival of steam bubbles from >1km depths to the ocean surface, though low to intermediate fluxes lead to fairly rapid condensation. Building on this result we also present the results of simulations of multiphase steam jets and consider the likelihood of collapse inside a vapor envelope.

Tank Pressure Control Experiment: Thermal Phenomena in Microgravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hasan, Mohammad M.; Lin, Chin S.; Knoll, Richard H.; Bentz, Michael D.

1996-01-01

The report presents the results of the flight experiment Tank Pressure Control Experiment/Thermal Phenomena (TPCE/TP) performed in the microgravity environment of the space shuttle. TPCE/TP, flown on the Space Transportation System STS-52, was a second flight of the Tank Pressure Control Experiment (TPCE). The experiment used Freon 113 at near saturation conditions. The test tank was filled with liquid to about 83% by volume. The experiment consisted of 21 tests. Each test generally started with a heating phase to increase the tank pressure and to develop temperature stratification in the fluid, followed by a fluid mixing phase for the tank pressure reduction and fluid temperature equilibration. The heating phase provided pool boiling data from large (relative to bubble sizes) heating surfaces (0.1046 m by 0.0742 m) at low heat fluxes (0.23 to 1.16 kW/sq m). The system pressure and the bulk liquid subcooling varied from 39 to 78 kPa and 1 to 3 C, respectively. The boiling process during the entire heating period, as well as the jet-induced mixing process for the first 2 min of the mixing period, was also recorded on video. The unique features of the experimental results are the sustainability of high liquid superheats for long periods and the occurrence of explosive boiling at low heat fluxes (0.86 to 1.1 kW/sq m). For a heat flux of 0.97 kW/sq m, a wall superheat of 17.9 C was attained in 10 min of heating. This superheat was followed by an explosive boiling accompanied by a pressure spike of about 38% of the tank pressure at the inception of boiling. However, at this heat flux the vapor blanketing the heating surface could not be sustained. Steady nucleate boiling continued after the explosive boiling. The jet-induced fluid mixing results were obtained for jet Reynolds numbers of 1900 to 8000 and Weber numbers of 0.2 to 6.5. Analyses of data from the two flight experiments (TPCE and TPCE/TP) and their comparison with the results obtained in drop tower experiments suggest that as Bond number approaches zero the flow pattern produced by an axial jet and the mixing time can be predicted by the Weber number.

Characterization of Deuteron-Deuteron Neutron Generators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Waltz, Cory Scott

A facility based on a next-generation, high-flux D-D neutron generator (HFNG) was commissioned at the University of California Berkeley. The characterization of the HFNG is presented in the following study. The current generator design produces near mono-energetic 2.45 MeV neutrons at outputs of 108 n/s. Calculations provided show that future conditioning at higher currents and voltages will allow for a production rate over 1010 n/s. Characteristics that effect the operational stability include the suppression of the target-emitted back streaming electrons, target sputtering and cooling, and ion beam optics. Suppression of secondary electrons resulting from the deuterium beam striking the target was achieved via the implementation of an electrostatic shroud with a voltage offset of greater than -400 V relative to the target. Ion beam optics analysis resulted in the creation of a defocussing extraction nozzle, allowing for cooler target temperatures and a more compact design. To calculate the target temperatures, a finite difference method (FDM) solver incorporating the additional heat removal effects of subcooled boiling was developed. Validation of the energy balance results from the finite difference method calculations showed the iterative solver converged to heat removal results within about 3% of the expected value. Testing of the extraction nozzle at 1.43 mA and 100 kV determined that overheating of the target did not occur as the measured neutron flux of the generator was near predicted values. Many factors, including the target stopping power, deuterium atomic species, and target loading ratio, affect the flux distribution of the HFNG neutron generator. A detailed analysis to understand these factors effects is presented. Comparison of the calculated flux of the neutron generator using deuteron depth implantation data, neutron flux distribution data, and deuterium atomic species data matched the experimentally calculated flux determined from indium foil irradiations. An overview of experiments using the HFNG, including medical isotope cross section measurements, geochronology, delayed gamma measurements from uranium fission, and single event upset of cpu's is discussed. Future work should focus on the reduction of beam induced arcing between the shroud and the vacuum chamber. Investigation of insulator charge build-up, as well as electrical ash-over of insulators should be explored. The reduction of beam induced arcing will allow for larger beam currents and acceleration voltages, therefore increasing the neutron flux.

The Behavior of IAPWS-95 from 250 to 300 K and Pressures up to 400 MPa: Evaluation Based on Recently Derived Property Data

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Wagner, Wolfgang, E-mail: Wagner@thermo.rub.de; Thol, Monika

2015-12-15

Over the past several years, considerable scientific and technical interest has been focused on accurate thermodynamic properties of fluid water covering part of the subcooled (metastable) region and the stable liquid from the melting line up to about 300 K and pressures up to several hundred MPa. Between 2000 and 2010, experimental density data were published whose accuracy was not completely clear. The scientific standard equation of state for fluid water, the IAPWS-95 formulation, was developed on the basis of experimental data for thermodynamic properties that were available by 1995. In this work, it is examined how IAPWS-95 behaves withmore » respect to the experimental data published after 1995. This investigation is carried out for temperatures from 250 to 300 K and pressures up to 400 MPa. The starting point is the assessment of the current data situation. This was mainly performed on the basis of data for the density, expansivity, compressibility, and isobaric heat capacity, which were derived in 2015 from very accurate speed-of-sound data. Apart from experimental data and these derived data, property values calculated from the recently published equation of state for this region of Holten et al. (2014) were also used. As a result, the unclear data situation could be clarified, and uncertainty values could be estimated for the investigated properties. In the region described above, detailed comparisons show that IAPWS-95 is able to represent the latest experimental data for the density, expansivity, compressibility, speed of sound, and isobaric heat capacity to within the uncertainties given in the release on IAPWS-95. Since the release does not contain uncertainty estimates for expansivities and compressibilities, the statement relates to the error propagation of the given uncertainty in density. Due to the lack of experimental data for the isobaric heat capacity for pressures above 100 MPa, no uncertainty estimates are given in the release for this pressure range. Results of the investigation of IAPWS-95 concerning its behavior with regard to the isobaric heat capacity in the high-pressure low-temperature region are also presented. Comparisons with very accurate speed-of-sound data published in 2012 showed that the uncertainty estimates of IAPWS-95 in speed of sound could be decreased for temperatures from 283 to 473 K and pressures up to 400 MPa.« less

Chemical evolution of multicomponent aerosol particles during evaporation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zardini, Alessandro; Riipinen, Ilona; Pagels, Joakim; Eriksson, Axel; Worsnop, Douglas; Switieckli, Erik; Kulmala, Markku; Bilde, Merete

2010-05-01

Atmospheric aerosol particles have an important but not well quantified effect on climate and human health. Despite the efforts made in the last decades, the formation and evolution of aerosol particles in the atmosphere is still not fully understood. The uncertainty is partly due to the complex chemical composition of the particles which comprise inorganic and organic compounds. Many organics (like dicarboxylic acids) can be present both in the gas and in the condensed phase due to their low vapor pressure. Clearly, an understanding of this partition is crucial to address any other issue in atmospheric physics and chemistry. Moreover, many organics are water soluble, and their influence on the properties of aqueous solution droplets is still poorly characterized. The solid and sub-cooled liquid state vapor pressures of some organic compounds have been previously determined by measuring the evaporation rate of single-compound crystals [1-3] or binary aqueous droplets [4-6]. In this work, we deploy the HTDMA technique (Hygroscopicity Tandem Differential Mobility Analyzer) coupled with a 3.5m laminar flow-tube and an Aerosol Mass Spectrometer (AMS) for determining the chemical evolution during evaporation of ternary droplets made of one dicarboxylic acid (succinic acid, commonly found in atmospheric samples) and one inorganic compound (sodium chloride or ammonium sulfate) in different mixing ratios, in equilibrium with water vapor at a fixed relative humidity. In addition, we investigate the evaporation of multicomponent droplets and crystals made of three organic species (dicarboxylic acids and sugars), of which one or two are semi-volatile. 1. Bilde M. and Pandis, S.N.: Evaporation Rates and Vapor Pressures of Individual Aerosol Species Formed in the Atmospheric Oxidation of alpha- and beta-Pinene. Environmental Science and Technology, 35, 2001. 2. Bilde M., et al.: Even-Odd Alternation of Evaporation Rates and Vapor Pressures of C3-C9 Dicarboxylic Acid Aerosols, Environmental. Science and Technology, 37, 2003. 5. Koponen I.K., et al.: Thermodynamic properties of malonic, succinic, and glutaric acids: Evaporation rates and saturation vapor pressures. Environmental Science and Technology, 41, 2007. 4. Zardini A.A., et al.: White light Mie resonance spectroscopy used to measure very low vapor pressures of substances in aqueous solution aerosol particles. Optics Express, 14, 2006. 3. Zardini A.A. and Krieger, U.K.: Evaporation kinetics of a non-spherical, levitated aerosol particle using optical resonance spectroscopy for precision sizing. Optics Express, 17, 2009. 6. Riipinen, I., et al.: Adipic and Malonic Acid Aqueous Solutions: Surface Tensions and Saturation Vapor Pressures, J. Phys. Chem., 111, 2007.

Transition from Pool to Flow Boiling: The Effect of Reduced Gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Dhir, Vijay K.

2004-01-01

Applications of boiling heat transfer in space can be found in the areas of thermal management, fluid handling and control, power systems, on-orbit storage and supply systems for cryogenic propellants and life support fluids, and for cooling of electronic packages for power systems associated with various instrumentation and control systems. Recent interest in exploration of Mars and other planets, and the concepts of in-situ resource utiliLation on Mars highlights the need to understand the effect of gravity on boiling heat transfer at gravity levels varying from 1>= g/g(sub e) >=10(exp -6). The objective of the proposed work was to develop a mechanistic understanding of nucleate boiling and critical heat flux under low and micro-gravity conditions when the velocity of the imposed flow is small. For pool boiling, the effect of reduced gravity is to stretch both the length scale as well as the time scale for the boiling process. At high flow velocities, the inertia of the liquid determines the time and the length scales and as such the gravitational acceleration plays little role. However, at low velocities and at low gravity levels both liquid inertia and buoyancy are of equal importance. At present, we have little understanding of the interacting roles of gravity and liquid inertia on the nucleate boiling process. Little data that has been reported in the literature does not have much practical value in that it can not serve as a basis for design of heat exchange components to be used in space. Both experimental and complete numerical simulations of the low velocity, low-gravity nucleate boiling process were carried out. A building block type of approach was used in that first the growth and detachment process of a single bubble and flow and heat transfer associated with the sliding motion of the bubble over the heater surface after detachment was studied. Liquid subcooling and flow velocity were varied parametrically. The experiments were conducted at 1 g(sub e), while varying the orientation of surface with respect to the gravity vector. In the laboratory experiments, holographic interferometry was used to obtain data on velocity and temperature fields associated with a bubble prior to, and after detachment and during sliding motion. A test rig for conducting experiments in the KC-135 was developed, but experiments could not be conducted due to the unavailability of the aircraft prior to completion of the project. Numerical simulations modeling the micro and macro regions of the bubble were carried out in three dimensions. The results of the experiments were used to validate analytical/numerical models.

A Report from the Thermal Science Research Center (TSRC)

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Boyd, Ronald D.

1998-01-01

A vertical flow loop was designed and assembled to determine the local (circumferential and axial) and mean wall temperature distributions for single-phase and two-phase (subcooled and saturated) downward flow in both uniformly-heated and single-side heated vertical channels. Freon-11 was used as the working fluid in order to directly relate and compare the results with a previous experimental campaign which employed this same working fluid. For a given steady-state experiment, the following parameters were held constant: (1) exit pressure, (2) inlet temperature, and (3) mass velocity. For a given configuration of the 2.2 m long cylindrical channel test section, which had a 1.2 m long heated section, the applied heat rate was varied from zero through successive quasi-steady states to a level which corresponded to localized film boiling in the test section. The measurements showed that the boiling curve changes significantly at higher mass velocities with respect to both the circumferential and axial directions. The slope of the boiling curve changes in a non-monotonic fashion with respect to the circumferential directions. The slope of the boiling curve changes in a non-monotonic fashion with respect to the circumferential direction. The measurements point to the existence of a dry-out phenomenon occurring at multiple levels of the applied heat for the single-side heated channel. In comparing the heat transfer for horizontal channel flow with a vertically downward flow, the results show that significantly lower heat transfer occurs in the horizontal flow. However, this trend reverses as both the Reynolds number and the applied heat rate increase. Both the Liu-Winterton and Shah correlations were compared with the experimental data. The Shah correlation predicted the uniformly heated tube data better. When a thermal hydraulic diameter approach was used for the single-side heated case, the data at upstream locations for Z/L less than 0.5 was bounded above by the Liu-Winterton correlation and below by the Shah correlation. At Z/L = 0.5, the Shah correlation bounded the data; and for Z/L greater than 0.5, both correlations overpredicted the data with the Shah correlation being closest to the data. The present results indicate that additional correlational development is needed. In addressing some of the advanced space thermal management objectives concerning accommodating high heat fluxes in non-uniformly heated systems, a large battery of experiments 88 have been completed where local two-dimensional wall temperature variations were measured for both single-phase and two-phase flow in a single-side heated circular tube. As noted above, the results show significant axial and circumferential variations. Accurately accounting for such variations can result in optimized future advanced space, enhanced (high heat flux) thermal management systems.

Cooling a solar telescope enclosure: plate coil thermal analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gorman, Michael; Galapon, Chriselle; Montijo, Guillermo; Phelps, LeEllen; Murga, Gaizka

2016-08-01

The climate of Haleakalā requires the observatories to actively adapt to changing conditions in order to produce the best possible images. Observatories need to be maintained at a temperature closely matching ambient or the images become blurred and unusable. The Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is a unique telescope as it will be active during the day as opposed to the other night-time stellar observatories. This means that it will not only need to constantly match the ever-changing temperature during the day, but also during the night so as not to sub-cool and affect the view field of other telescopes while they are in use. To accomplish this task, plate coil heat exchanger panels will be installed on the DKIST enclosure that are designed to keep the temperature at ambient temperature +0°C/-4°C. To verify the feasibility of this and to validate the design models, a test rig has been installed at the summit of Haleakalā. The project's purpose is to confirm that the plate coil panels are capable of maintaining this temperature throughout all seasons and involved collecting data sets of various variables including pressures, temperatures, coolant flows, solar radiations and wind velocities during typical operating hours. Using MATLAB, a script was written to observe the plate coil's thermal performance. The plate coil did not perform as expected, achieving a surface temperature that was generally 2ºC above ambient temperature. This isn't to say that the plate coil does not work, but the small chiller used for the experiment was undersized resulting in coolant pumped through the plate coil that was not supplied at a low enough temperature. Calculated heat depositions were about 23% lower than that used as the basis of the design for the hillers to be used on the full system, a reasonable agreement given the fact that many simplifying assumptions were used in the models. These were not carried over into the testing. The test rig performance showing a 23% margin provides a high degree of confidence for the performance of the full system when it is installed. If time allows, additional testing could be done that includes additional incident angles and times of day. This would allow a more complete analysis. If additional testing were to be performed, it's recommended to use a larger chiller capable of reaching lower temperatures. The test rig design could also be optimized in order to bring the plate coil up to its maximum efficiency. In the future, the script could be rewritten in a different computer language, so that the data could be solved for quicker. Further analysis could also include different types of coolants.

Scavenging ratios of polycyclic aromatic compounds in rain and snow in the Athabasca oil sands region

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhang, L.; Cheng, I.; Muir, D.; Charland, J.-P.

2015-02-01

The Athabasca oil sands industry in northern Alberta, Canada, is a possible source of polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs). Monitored PACs, including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), alkylated PAHs, and dibenzothiophenes (DBTs), in precipitation and in air at three near-source sites in the Fort MacKay and Fort McMurray area during January 2011 to May 2012, were used to generate a database of scavenging ratios (Wt) for PACs scavenged by both snow and rain. Higher concentrations in precipitation and air were observed for alkylated PAHs and DBTs compared to the other PACs. The sums of the median precipitation concentrations over the period of data analyzed were 0.48 μ g L-1 for the 18 PAHs, 3.38 μ g L-1 for the 20 alkylated PAHs, and 0.94 μ g L-1 for the 5 DBTs. The sums of the median air concentrations for parent PAHs, alkylated PAHs, and DBTs were 8.37, 67.26, and 11.83 ng m-3, respectively. Median Wt over the measurement period were 6100 - 1.1 × 106 from snow scavenging and 350 - 2.3 × 105 from rain scavenging depending on the PAC species. Median Wt for parent PAHs were within the range of those observed at other urban and suburban locations, but Wt for acenaphthylene in snow samples were 2-7 times higher compared to other urban and suburban locations. Wt for some individual snow and rain samples exceeded literature values by a factor of 10. Wt for benzo(a)pyrene, dibenz(a,h)anthracene, and benzo(g,h,i)perylene in snow samples had reached 107, which is the maximum for PAH snow scavenging ratios reported in the literature. From the analysis of data subsets, Wt for particulate-phase dominant PACs were 14-20 times greater than gas-phase dominant PACs in snow samples and 7-20 times greater than gas-phase dominant PACs in rain samples. Wt from snow scavenging were ~ 9 times greater than from rain scavenging for particulate-phase dominant PACs and 4-9.6 times greater than from rain scavenging for gas-phase dominant PACs. Gas-particle fractions of each PAC, particle size distributions of particulate-phase dominant PACs, and the Henry's law constant of gas-phase dominant PACs explained, to a large extent, the different Wt values among the different PACs and precipitation types. The trend in Wt with increasing alkyl substitutions may be attributed to their physico-chemical properties, such as octanol-air and particle partition coefficients and subcooled vapor pressure, which increases gas-particle partitioning and, subsequently, the particulate mass fraction. This study verified findings from a previous study of Wang et al. (2014) that suggested that snow scavenging is more efficient than rain scavenging of particles for equivalent precipitation amounts, and also provided new knowledge of the scavenging of gas-phase PACs and alkylated PACs by snow and rain.

Carbon-based nanostructured surfaces for enhanced phase-change cooling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Selvaraj Kousalya, Arun

To maintain acceptable device temperatures in the new generation of electronic devices under development for high-power applications, conventional liquid cooling schemes will likely be superseded by multi-phase cooling solutions to provide substantial enhancement to the cooling capability. The central theme of the current work is to investigate the two-phase thermal performance of carbon-based nanostructured coatings in passive and pumped liquid-vapor phase-change cooling schemes. Quantification of the critical parameters that influence thermal performance of the carbon nanostructured boiling surfaces presented herein will lead to improved understanding of the underlying evaporative and boiling mechanisms in such surfaces. A flow boiling experimental facility is developed to generate consistent and accurate heat transfer performance curves with degassed and deionized water as the working fluid. New means of boiling heat transfer enhancement by altering surface characteristics such as surface energy and wettability through light-surface interactions is explored in this work. In this regard, carbon nanotube (CNT) coatings are exposed to low-intensity irradiation emitted from a light emitting diode and the subcooled flow boiling performance is compared against a non-irradiated CNT-coated copper surface. A considerable reduction in surface superheat and enhancement in average heat transfer coefficient is observed. In another work involving CNTs, the thermal performance of CNT-integrated sintered wick structures is evaluated in a passively cooled vapor chamber. A physical vapor deposition process is used to coat the CNTs with varying thicknesses of copper to promote surface wetting with the working fluid, water. Thermal performance of the bare sintered copper powder sample and the copper-functionalized CNT-coated sintered copper powder wick samples is compared using an experimental facility that simulates the capillary fluid feeding conditions of a vapor chamber. Nanostructured samples having a thicker copper coating provided a considerable increase in dryout heat flux while maintaining lower surface superheat temperatures compared to a bare sintered powder sample; this enhancement is attributed primarily to the improved surface wettability. Dynamic contact angle measurements are conducted to quantitatively compare the surface wetting trends for varying copper coating thicknesses and confirm the increase in hydrophilicity with increasing coating thickness. The second and relatively new carbon nanostructured coating, carbon nanotubes decorated with graphitic nanopetals, are used as a template to manufacture boiling surfaces with heterogeneous wettability. Heat transfer surfaces with parallel alternating superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic stripes are fabricated by a combination of oxygen plasma treatment, Teflon coating and shadow masking. Such composite wetting surfaces exhibit enhanced flow-boiling performance compared to homogeneous wetting surfaces. Flow visualization studies elucidate the physical differences in nucleate boiling mechanisms between the different heterogeneous wetting surfaces. The third and the final carbon nanomaterial, graphene, is examined as an oxidation barrier coating for liquid and liquid-vapor phase-change cooling systems. Forced convection heat transfer experiments on bare and graphene-coated copper surfaces reveal nearly identical liquid-phase and two-phase thermal performance for the two surfaces. Surface analysis after thermal testing indicates significant oxide formation on the entire surface of the bare copper substrate; however, oxidation is observed only along the grain boundaries of the graphene-coated substrate. Results suggest that few-layer graphene can act as a protective layer even under vigorous flow boiling conditions, indicating a broad application space of few-layer graphene as an ultra-thin oxidation barrier coating.

Nuclear-coupled thermal-hydraulic stability analysis of boiling water reactors

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Karve, Atul A.

We have studied the nuclear-coupled thermal-hydraulic stability of boiling water reactors (BWRs) using a model we developed from: the space-time modal neutron kinetics equations based on spatial omega-modes, the equations for two-phase flow in parallel boiling channels, the fuel rod heat conduction equations, and a simple model for the recirculation loop. The model is represented as a dynamical system comprised of time-dependent nonlinear ordinary differential equations, and it is studied using stability analysis, modern bifurcation theory, and numerical simulations. We first determine the stability boundary (SB) in the most relevant parameter plane, the inlet-subcooling-number/external-pressure-drop plane, for a fixed control rod induced external reactivity equal to the 100% rod line value and then transform the SB to the practical power-flow map. Using this SB, we show that the normal operating point at 100% power is very stable, stability of points on the 100% rod line decreases as the flow rate is reduced, and that points are least stable in the low-flow/high-power region. We also determine the SB when the modal kinetics is replaced by simple point reactor kinetics and show that the first harmonic mode has no significant effect on the SB. Later we carry out the relevant numerical simulations where we first show that the Hopf bifurcation, that occurs as a parameter is varied across the SB is subcritical, and that, in the important low-flow/high-power region, growing oscillations can result following small finite perturbations of stable steady-states on the 100% rod line. Hence, a point on the 100% rod line in the low-flow/high-power region, although stable, may nevertheless be a point at which a BWR should not be operated. Numerical simulations are then done to calculate the decay ratios (DRs) and frequencies of oscillations for various points on the 100% rod line. It is determined that the NRC requirement of DR < 0.75-0.8 is not rigorously satisfied in the low-flow/high-power region and hence these points should be avoided during normal startup and shutdown operations. The frequency of oscillation is shown to decrease as the flow rate is reduced and the frequency of 0.5Hz observed in the low-flow/high-power region is consistent with those observed during actual instability incidents. Additional numerical simulations show that in the low-flow/high-power region, for the same initial conditions, the use of point kinetics leads to damped oscillations, whereas the model that includes the modal kinetics equations results in growing nonlinear oscillations. Thus, we show that side-by-side out-of-phase growing power oscillations result due to the very important first harmonic mode effect and that the use of point kinetics, which fails to predict these growing oscillations, leads to dramatically nonconservative results. Finally, the effect of a simple recirculation loop model that we develop is studied by carrying out additional stability analyses and additional numerical simulations. It is shown that the loop has a stabilizing effect on certain points on the 100% rod line for time delays equal to integer multiples of the natural period of oscillation, whereas it has a destabilizing effect for half-integer multiples. However, for more practical time delays, it is determined that the overall effect generally is destabilizing.

Marangoni Effects on Near-Bubble Microscale Transport During Boiling of Binary Fluid Mixtures

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

V. Carey; Sun, C.; Carey, V. P.

2000-01-01

In earlier investigations, Marangoni effects were observed to be the dominant mechanism of boiling transport in 2-propanol/water mixtures under reduced gravity conditions. In this investigation we have examined the mechanisms of binary mixture boiling by exploring the transport near a single bubble generated in a binary mixture between a heated surface and cold surface. The temperature field created in the liquid around the bubble produces vaporization over the portion of its interface near the heated surface and condensation over portions of its interface near the cold surface. Experiments were conducted using different mixtures of water and 2-propanol under 1g conditions and under reduced gravity conditions aboard the KC135 aircraft. Since 2-propanol is more volatile than water, there is a lower concentration of 2-propanol near the hot surface and a higher concentration of 2-propanol near the cold plate relative to the bulk quantity. This difference in interface concentration gives rise to strong Marangoni effects that move liquid toward the hot plate in the near bubble region for 2-propanol and water mixtures. In the experiments in this study, the pressure of the test system was maintained at about 5 kPa to achieve the full spectrum of boiling behavior (nucleate boiling, critical heat flux and film boiling) at low temperature and heat flux levels. Heat transfer data and visual documentation of the bubble shape were extracted from the experimental results. In the 1-g experiments at moderate to high heat flux levels, the bubble was observed to grow into a mushroom shape with a larger top portion near the cold plate due to the buoyancy effect. The shape of the bubble was somewhat affected by the cold plate subcooling and the superheat of the heated surface. At low superheat levels for the heated surface, several active nucleation sites were observed, and the vapor stems from them merged to form a larger bubble. The generation rate of vapor is moderate in this regime and the bubble shape is cylindrical in appearance. In some instances, the bubble interface appeared to oscillate. At higher applied heat flux levels, the top of the bubble became larger, apparently to provide more condensing interface area adjacent to the cold plate. Increasing the applied heat flux ultimately led to dry-out of the heated surface, with conditions just prior to dryout corresponding to the maximum heat flux (CHF). A more stable bubble was observed when the system attained the minimum heat flux (for film boiling). In this regime, most of the surface under the bottom of the bubble was dry with nucleate boiling sometimes occuring around the contact perimeter of the bubble at heated surface. Different variations (e.g. gap between two plates, molar concentration of the liquid mixture) of the experiments were examined to determine parametric effects on the boiling process and to determine the best conditions for the KC135 reduced gravity tests. Variation of the gap was found to have a minor impact on the CHF. However, reducing the gap between the hot and cold surface was observed to significantly reduce the minimum heat flux for fixed molar concentration of 2-propanol. In the reduced gravity experiments aboard the KC135 aircraft, the bubble formed in the 6.4 mm gap was generally cylindrical or barrel shaped and it increased its extent laterally as the surface superheat increased. In reduced gravity experiments, dryout of the heated surface under the bubble was observed to occur at a lower superheated temperature than for 1g conditions. Observed features of the boiling process and heat transfer data under reduced gravity will be discussed in detail. The results of the reduced gravity experiments will also be compared to those obtained in comparable 1g experiments. In tandem with the experiments we are also developing a computational model of the transport in the liquid surrounding the bubble during the boiling process. The computational model uses a level set method to model motion of the interface. It will incorporate a macroscale treatment of the transport in the liquid gap between the surfaces and a microscale treatment of transport in the regions between the bubble interface and the solid surfaces. The features of the model will be described in detail. Future research directions suggested by the results to date will also be discussed.

Thermal Analysis of Hybrid Thermal Control System and Experimental Investigation of Flow Boiling in Micro-channel Heat Exchangers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Seunghyun

Future manned space endeavors will require a new class of vehicles, capable of conducting different types of missions and enduring varying gravitational and temperature environments. Thermal management will play a vital role in these new vehicles, and is complicated by the need to tackle both low and high heat sink temperatures. The present study assesses the feasibility of hybrid thermal control system by thermodynamic analysis and investigates the heat transfer mechanisms in two large micro-channel heat exchangers in vapor compression mode and two-phase mode. Unlike prior published two-phase micro-channel studies that concern mostly miniature heat sinks, this study addresses transport characteristics of a heat sink containing large length-to-diameter ratio, up to 609.6 to 1,micro-channels. In the thermodynamic analysis, four different operational modes are considered: single-phase, two-phase, basic heat pump and heat pump with liquid-side, suction-side heat exchanger. A thermodynamic trade study is conducted for six different working fluids to assess important performance parameters including mass flow rate of the working fluid, maximum pressure, radiator area, compressor/pump work, and coefficient of performance (COP). R134a is determined to be most suitable based on its ability to provide a balanced compromise between reducing flow rate and maintaining low system pressure, and a moderate coefficient of performance (COP); this fluid is also both nontoxic and nonflammable, and features zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and low global warming potential (GWP). It is shown how specific mission stages dictate which mode of operation is most suitable, and this information is used to size the radiator for the H-TCS. The experimental flow boiling investigation consists of exploring the steady-state and the transient two-phase heat transfer characteristics of two large micro-channel heat exchangers that serve as evaporators in the vapor compression loop using R134a as refrigerant. Both heat exchangers feature parallel micro-channels with identical 1x1-mm2 cross-sections. The evaporators are connected in series, with the smaller 152.4-mm long heat exchanger situated upstream of the larger 609.6-mm long heat exchanger. In the steady-state characteristics part, it is shown low qualities are associated with slug flow and dominated by nucleate boiling, and high qualities with annular flow and convective boiling. Important transition points between the different heat transfer regimes are identified as (1) intermittent dryout, resulting from vapor blanket formation in liquid slugs and/or partial dryout in the liquid film surrounding elongated bubbles, (2) incipient dryout, resulting from dry patch formation in the annular film, and (3) complete dryout, following which the wall has to rely entirely on the mild cooling provided by droplets deposited from the vapor core. In the transient characteristics part, heat transfer measurement and high speed video are used to investigate variations of heat transfer coefficient with quality for different mass velocities and heat fluxes, as well as transient fluid flow and heat transfer behavior. An important transient phenomenon that influences both fluid flow and heat transfer is a liquid wave composed of remnants of liquid slugs from the slug flow regime. The liquid wave serves to replenish dry wall patches in the slug flow regime and to a lesser extent the annular regime. Unlike small heat sinks employed in the electronics industry, TCS heat sinks are characterized by large length-to-diameter ratio, for which limited information is presently available. The large length-to-diameter ratio of 609.6 is especially instrumental to capturing detailed axial variations of flow pattern and corresponding variations in local heat transfer coefficient. High-speed video analysis of the inlet plenum shows appreciable vapor backflow under certain operating conditions, which is also reflected in periodic oscillations in the measured pressure drop. In fact, the backflow frequency captured by video matches closely the frequency obtained from Fourier analysis of the pressure drop signal. It is shown the periodic oscillations and vapor backflow are responsible for initiating intermittent dryout and appreciable drop in local heat transfer coefficient in the downstream regions of the channels. A parametric study of oscillation frequency shows a dependence on four dimensionless parameters that account for amount of vapor generation, subcooling, and upstream liquid length, in addition to Weber number. A new correlation for oscillation frequency is constructed that captures the frequency variations relative to these individual parameters. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).

Experimental Investigation of Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement in Microgravity in the Presence of Electric Fields

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Herman, Cila

1999-01-01

In boiling high heat fluxes are possible driven by relatively small temperature differences, which make its use increasingly attractive in aerospace applications. The objective of the research is to develop ways to overcome specific problems associated with boiling in the low gravity environment by substituting the buoyancy force with the electric force to enhance bubble removal from the heated surface. Previous studies indicate that in terrestrial applications nucleate boiling heat transfer can be increased by a factor of 50, as compared to values obtained for the same system without electric fields. The goal of our research is to experimentally explore the mechanisms responsible for EHD heat transfer enhancement in boiling in low gravity conditions, by visualizing the temperature distributions in the vicinity of the heated surface and around the bubble during boiling using real-time holographic interferometry (HI) combined with high-speed cinematography. In the first phase of the project the influence of the electric field on a single bubble is investigated. Pool boiling is simulated by injecting a single bubble through a nozzle into the subcooled liquid or into the thermal boundary layer developed along the flat heater surface. Since the exact location of bubble formation is known, the optical equipment can be aligned and focused accurately, which is an essential requirement for precision measurements of bubble shape, size and deformation, as well as the visualization of temperature fields by HI. The size of the bubble and the frequency of bubble departure can be controlled by suitable selection of nozzle diameter and mass flow rate of vapor. In this approach effects due to the presence of the electric field can be separated from effects caused by the temperature gradients in the thermal boundary layer. The influence of the thermal boundary layer can be investigated after activating the heater at a later stage of the research. For the visualization experiments a test cell was developed. All four vertical walls of the test cell are transparent, and they allow transillumination with laser light for visualization experiments by HI. The bottom electrode is a copper cylinder, which is electrically grounded. The copper block is heated with a resistive heater and it is equipped with 6 thermocouples that provide reference temperatures for the measurements with HI. The top electrode is a mesh electrode. Bubbles are injected with a syringe into the test cell through the bottom electrode. The working fluids presently used in the interferometric visualization experiments, water and PF 5052, satisfy requirements regarding thermophysical, optical and electrical properties. A 30kV power supply equipped with a voltmeter allows to apply the electric field to the electrodes during the experiments. The magnitude of the applied voltage can be adjusted either manually or through the LabVIEW data acquisition and control system connected to a PC. Temperatures of the heated block are recorded using type-T thermocouples, whose output is read by a data acquisition system. Images of the bubbles are recorded with 35mm photographic and 16mm high-speed cameras, scanned and analyzed using various software packages. Visualized temperature fields HI allows the visualization of temperature fields in the vicinity of bubbles during boiling in the form of fringes. Typical visualized temperature distributions around the air bubbles injected into the thermal boundary layer in PF5052 are shown. The temperature of the heated surface is 35 C. The temperature difference for a pair of fringes is approximately 0.05 C. The heat flux applied to the bottom surface is moderate, and the fringe patterns are regular. In the image a bubble penetrating the thermal boundary layer is visible. Because of the axial symmetry of the problem, simplified reconstruction techniques can be applied to recover the temperature field. The thermal plume developing above the heated surface for more intensive heating is shown. The temperature distribution in the liquid is clearly 3D, and tomographic techniques have to be applied to recover the temperature distribution in such a physical situation. A sequence of interferometric images showing the temperature distribution around the rising bubble, recorded with a high-speed camera is shown. Again, the temperature distribution is 3D, and a more complex approach to the evaluation, the tomographic reconstruction has to be taken. Measurement of the temperature distribution from the fringe pattern temperature distributions that yield important information regarding heat transfer are determined. Two algorithms that allow the quantitative evaluation of interferometric fringe patterns and the reconstruction of temperature fields during boiling have been developed at the Heat Transfer Laboratory of the Johns Hopkins University. In the first algorithm the bubble is assumed to be axially symmetrical, which significantly reduces the computational effort for quantifying the temperature distribution around the bubble. For this purpose the thermal boundary layer around the bubble is divided into equidistant concentric shells, and the refractive index is assumed to be constant in each of the shells. Since large temperature gradients are expected in the vicinity of the bubble during boiling, the deflection of the light beam cannot be neglected in boiling experiments. Since the exit angle of the light beam is known, this allows to account for the deflections and phase shifts outside the boundary layer (in the bulk fluid and in the windows of the test cell). Three dimensional temperature distributions in the vicinity of the bubble are reconstructed using tomographic techniques. In tomography, the measurement volume is sliced into 2D planes. In the present study these planes are parallel to the heated surface. The objective is to determine the values of the field parameter of interest in form of the field function in these 2D planes. The field parameter is the change of the refractive index of the liquid in the measurement volume caused by temperature changes. By superimposing data for many 2D planes recorded at the same time instant, the 3D temperature distribution in the measurement volume is recovered.