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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 October 2022

Babak Lotfi and Bengt Ake Sunden

This study aims to computational numerical simulations to clarify and explore the influences of periodic cellular lattice (PCL) morphological parameters – such as lattice…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to computational numerical simulations to clarify and explore the influences of periodic cellular lattice (PCL) morphological parameters – such as lattice structure topology (simple cubic, body-centered cubic, z-reinforced body-centered cubic [BCCZ], face-centered cubic and z-reinforced face-centered cubic [FCCZ] lattice structures) and porosity value ( ) – on the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the novel trussed fin-and-elliptical tube heat exchanger (FETHX), which has led to a deeper understanding of the superior heat transfer enhancement ability of the PCL structure.

Design/methodology/approach

A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is proposed in this paper to provide better understanding of the fluid flow and heat transfer behavior of the PCL structures in the trussed FETHXs associated with different structure topologies and high-porosities. The flow governing equations of the trussed FETHX are solved by the CFD software ANSYS CFX® and use the Menter SST turbulence model to accurately predict flow characteristics in the fluid flow region.

Findings

The thermal-hydraulic performance benchmarks analysis – such as field synergy performance and performance evaluation criteria – conducted during this research successfully identified demonstrates that if the high porosity of all PCL structures decrease to 92%, the best thermal-hydraulic performance is provided. Overall, according to the obtained outcomes, the trussed FETHX with the advantages of using BCCZ lattice structure at 92% porosity presents good thermal-hydraulic performance enhancement among all the investigated PCL structures.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first in the literature that provides thorough thermal-hydraulic characteristics of a novel trussed FETHX with high-porosity PCL structures.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 33 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Jian Liu, Gongnan Xie, Bengt Ake Sunden, Lei Wang and Martin Andersson

The purpose of this paper is to augment heat transfer rates of traditional rib-elements with minimal pressure drop penalties.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to augment heat transfer rates of traditional rib-elements with minimal pressure drop penalties.

Design/methodology/approach

The novel geometries in the present research are conventional cylindrical ribs with rounded transitions to the adjacent flat surfaces and with modifications at their bases. All turbulent fluid flow and heat transfer results are presented using computation fluid dynamics with a validated v2f turbulence closure model. Turbulent flow characteristics and heat transfer performances in square channels with improved ribbed structures are numerically analyzed in this research work.

Findings

Based on the results, it is found that rounded transition cylindrical ribs have a large advantage over the conventional ribs in both enhancing heat transfer and reducing pressure loss penalty. In addition, cylindrical ribs increase the flow impingement at the upstream of the ribs, which will effectively increase the high heat transfer areas. The design of rounded transition cylindrical ribs and grooves will be an effective way to improve heat transfer enhancement and overall thermal performance of internal channels within blade cooling.

Originality/value

The novel geometries in this research are conventional cylindrical ribs with rounded transitions to the adjacent flat surfaces and with modifications at their bases. The combination of cylindrical ribs and grooves to manipulate the turbulent flow.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 27 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 May 2021

Zhiqi Zhao, Lei Luo, Dandan Qiu, Songtao Wang, Zhongqi Wang and Bengt Ake Sunden

This study aims to explore the 3 D separated flow fields and heat transfer characteristics at the end wall of a serpentine channel with various turn clearances using topological…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore the 3 D separated flow fields and heat transfer characteristics at the end wall of a serpentine channel with various turn clearances using topological analysis and critical points principles of three-dimensional vortex flow.

Design/methodology/approach

This aims to explore the 3 D separated flow fields and heat transfer characteristics at the end wall of a serpentine channel with various turn clearances using topological analysis as well as critical points principles of three-dimensional vortex flow.

Findings

The endwall heat transfer in the narrow spacing passage is significantly stronger than that in a wide spacing channel. As the gap clearance is kept at 0.87 times of the hydraulic diameter, the endwall heat transfer and thermal performance can be accordingly enhanced with low pressure drops, which is because a relatively strong concentrated impingement flow for the medium gap clearance helps to restrain the downstream fluid flow and enhance the shear effect of the secondary flow.

Practical implications

The numerical results can be applied in designing sharp turn of serpentine channel in heat exchangers, heat sinks, piping system, solar receiver and gas turbine blades.

Originality/value

The evolution mechanism of the vortices in the turning region under different gap clearance was analyzed, and thermal enhancement characteristics were predicted innovatively using topological analysis method.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 March 2018

Jinsheng Wang, Lei Luo, Lei Wang, Bengt Ake Sunden and Songtao Wang

The fluid flow in a rotating channel is obviously different from that in a stationary channel due to the existence of Coriolis force, which, in turn, enhances the heat transfer on…

Abstract

Purpose

The fluid flow in a rotating channel is obviously different from that in a stationary channel due to the existence of Coriolis force, which, in turn, enhances the heat transfer on the trailing side and reduces the heat transfer on the leading side. The purpose of this paper is to study various rib configurations combined with channel orientation on heat transfer and frictional loss in a rotating channel.

Design/methodology/approach

In the present study, the k-ω SST model was used as the turbulence model. The fluid flow direction in the channel is radially outward. The angle between the rotation axis and leading side is 45°. The channel aspect ratio (W/H) is 2, the blockage ratio (e/Dn ) is 0.1 and the pitch ratio (P/e) is 10. The Reynolds number is fixed at 10,000 and the rotation number varies from 0 to 0.7. Angled ribs, reversed angled ribs, standard V-shaped ribs and outer-leaning V-shaped ribs, are examined.

Findings

It is found that the reversed angled rib configuration and the outer-leaning V-shaped rib configuration display better heat transfer performance than the V-shaped ribs in rotating condition, which is in contrast to stationary condition. At the leading side, the reversed angled rib and the outer-leaning V-shaped rib show better performance in recovering the heat transfer recession due to the negative effects of the Coriolis force.

Research limitations/implications

In the present study, the fluid is incompressible with constant thermophysical properties and the flow is steady.

Practical implications

The results of this study will be helpful in design of ribbed channels internal cooling for turbine blade.

Originality/value

The results imply that the rib configuration combined with channel orientation significantly impacts the heat transfer performance in a rotating channel. The reversed angled rib and the outer-leaning V-shaped rib show better heat transfer performance than standard V-shaped ribs, especially at high Rotating numbers, which is in contrast to stationary condition. The outer-leaning V-shaped rib has a relatively good heat transfer uniformity along the widthwise direction.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 28 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2018

Seyyed Mostafa Hoseinalipour, Hamidreza Shahbazian and Bengt Ake Sunden

The study aims to focus on rotation effects on a ribbed channel of gas turbine blades for internal cooling. The combination and interaction between secondary flows generated by…

Abstract

Purpose

The study aims to focus on rotation effects on a ribbed channel of gas turbine blades for internal cooling. The combination and interaction between secondary flows generated by angled rib geometry and Coriolis forces in the rotating channel are studied numerically.

Design/methodology/approach

A radially outward flow passage as an internal cooling test model with and without ribs is used to perform the investigation. Aspect ratio of the passage is 1:1. Square ribs with e/Dh = 0.1, p/e = 10 and four various rib angles of 90°, 75°, 60° and 45° are configured on both the leading and trailing surfaces along the rotating duct. The study covers a Reynolds number of 10,000 and Rotation number in the range of 0-0.15.

Findings

Nusselt numbers in the ribbed duct are 2.5 to 3.5 times those of a smooth square duct, depending on the Rotation number and rib angle. The maximum value is attained for the 45° ribbed surface. The synergy angle between the velocity and temperature gradients is improved by the angled rib secondary flows and Coriolis vortex. The decrease of the synergy angle is 8.9, 13.4, 12.1 and 10.1 per cent for the 90°, 75°, 60° and 45° ribbed channels with rotation, respectively. Secondary flow intensity is increased by rotation in the 90° and 75° ribbed ducts and is decreased in 45° and 60° ribbed cases for which the rib-induced secondary flow dominates.

Originality/value

The primary motivation behind this work is to investigate the possibility of heat transfer enhancement by vortex flow with developing turbulence in the view point of the field synergy principle and secondary flow intensity.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 29 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 August 2019

Jin-yuan Qian, Zan Wu, Qian-Kun Zhang, Zhi-Jiang Jin and Bengt Ake Sunden

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of dimple geometries and arrangements on the heat transfer enhancement in a dimple jacketed heat exchanger.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of dimple geometries and arrangements on the heat transfer enhancement in a dimple jacketed heat exchanger.

Design/methodology/approach

For the purpose of this paper, with the experimental validated numerical model, this paper carries out numerical simulations of both single dimples with different geometries and the whole dimple jacketed heat exchanger with different dimple arrangements. For a single dimple, its secondary vortex flow, temperature differences and the pressure drop performance for different geometries are analyzed. For the whole dimple jacketed heat exchanger, the heat transfer and pressure drop performances are investigated by comparing the no dimple, triangular and rectangular dimple arrangements.

Findings

Results show that dimples can improve the heat transfer efficiency compared with conventional jacketed heat exchanger, and specific geometries and arrangement of dimples for better heat transfer performance are figured out.

Originality/value

This paper considers both dimple geometries and arrangements, which can be useful for further applications in specific integrated devices or similar applications.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 29 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2020

Yong Li, Gongnan Xie and Bengt Ake Sunden

The purpose of this paper is to numerically study the influence of wall conduction on the heat transfer of supercritical n-decane in the active regenerative cooling channels.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to numerically study the influence of wall conduction on the heat transfer of supercritical n-decane in the active regenerative cooling channels.

Design/methodology/approach

A horizontally placed rectangular pipe with a solid zone and another one without a solid zone were used. A drastic variation of thermo-physical properties was emphatically addressed. After the verification of mesh and turbulence models comparing with the experimental results, a mesh number of 4.5 M and the low Reynolds number SST k-ω turbulence model were chosen. The solution of the governing equations and the acquisition of the numerical results were executed by the commercial software FLUENT 2020 R1.

Findings

The numerical results indicate that there is a heat transfer deterioration (HTD) potential for the upper wall, lower wall and sidewall with the decrease of mass flux. Due to wall conduction, the distribution of the fluid temperature at spanwise-normal planes becomes uniform and this feature also takes advantage of the relatively uniform transverse velocity. For the streamwise-normal planes, the low fluid temperature appears close to the upper wall at the region near the sidewall and vice versa for the region near the centre. Undoubtedly, the secondary flow at the cross-section plays a crucial role in this process and the relatively cool mainstream is affected by the vortices.

Originality/value

This study warns that the wall conduction must be considered in the practical design and thermal optimization due to the sensibility of thermo-physical properties to the heat flux. The secondary flow caused by the buoyancy force (gravity) plays a significant role in the supercritical heat transfer and mixed convection heat transfer should be further studied.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 3 February 2022

Shian Li, Zhi Yang, Yihui Liu, Qiuwan Shen, Guogang Yang and Bengt Ake Sunden

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the heat and mass transport characteristics in microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the heat and mass transport characteristics in microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions.

Design/methodology/approach

A two-dimensional model is developed to study the heat and mass transport characteristics in microchannel reactors. The heat and mass transport processes in the microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distribution in the catalytic combustion channel are also studied.

Findings

The simulated results are compared in terms of the distributions of species mole fraction, temperature and reaction rate for the conventional and new designed reactors. It is found that the chemical reaction, heat and mass transport processes are significantly affected and the maximum temperature in the reactor is also greatly reduced when a non-uniform catalyst distribution is applied in the combustion catalyst layer.

Practical implications

This study can improve the understanding of the transportation characteristics in microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions and provide guidance for the design of microchannel reactors.

Originality/value

The design of microchannel reactors with non-uniform catalyst distributions can be used in methane steam reforming to reduce the maximum temperature inside the reactor.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 32 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 September 2020

Lei Luo, Yifeng Zhang, Chenglong Wang, Songtao Wang and Bengt Ake Sunden

The pin fin is applied into a Lamilloy cooling structure which is broadly used in the leading edge region of the modern gas turbine vane. The purpose of this paper is to…

Abstract

Purpose

The pin fin is applied into a Lamilloy cooling structure which is broadly used in the leading edge region of the modern gas turbine vane. The purpose of this paper is to investigate effects of the layout, diameter and shape of pin fins on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics in a newly improved Lamilloy structure at the leading edge region of a turbine vane.

Design/methodology/approach

A numerical method is applied to investigate effects of the layout, diameter and shape of pin fins on the flow structure and heat transfer characteristics in a newly improved Lamilloy structure at the leading edge of a turbine vane. The diverse locations of pin fins are Lp = 0.35, 0.5, 0.65. The diameter of the pin fins varies from 8 mm to 32 mm. Three different ratios of root to roof diameter for pin fins are also investigated, i.e. k = 0.5, 1, 2. The Reynolds number ranges from 10,000 and 50,000. Results of the flow structures, heat transfer on the target surface and pin fin surfaces, and friction factor are studied.

Findings

The heat transfer on the pin fin surface gradually decreases and then increases as the location of the pin fins increases. Increasing the diameter of the pin fins causes the heat transfer on the pin fin surface to gradually increase, while a lower value of the friction factor occurs. Besides, the heat transfer on the pin fin surface at a small root diameter increases remarkably, but a slight heat transfer penalty is found at the target surface. It is also found that both the Reynolds analogy performance and the thermal performance are increased compared to the baseline whose diameter and normalized location of pin fins are set as 16 and 0.5 mm, respectively.

Social implications

The models provide a basic theoretical study to deal with nonuniformity of the temperature field for the turbine vane leading edge. The investigation also provides a better understanding of the heat transfer and flow characteristics in the leading edge region of a modern turbine vane.

Originality/value

This is a novel method to adopt pin fins into a Lamilloy cooling structure with curvature. It presents that the heat transfer of the pin fin surface in a pin-fin Lamilloy cooling structure with curvature can be significantly increased by changing the parameters of the pin fins which may lead to various flow behavior. In addition, the shape of the pin fin also shows great influence on the heat transfer and flow characteristics. However, the heat transfer of the target surface shows a small sensitivity to different layouts, diameter and shape of pin fin.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 31 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 June 2020

Guohua Zhang, Gongnan Xie and Bengt Ake Sunden

In this study, numerical simulations are performed to compare the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness and reveal the difference of film cooling mechanisms of two models with the…

Abstract

Purpose

In this study, numerical simulations are performed to compare the adiabatic film cooling effectiveness and reveal the difference of film cooling mechanisms of two models with the same geometries and cross-section areas of film holes’ exits at three typical blowing ratios (M = 0.5, 1 and 1.5). The two models are an elliptical model and a cylindrical model with 90° compound angle, respectively.

Design/methodology/approach

Three different cases are considered in this work and the baseline is the model with a cylindrical film hole. The same boundary conditions and a validated turbulence model (realizable k-ε) are adopted for all cases.

Findings

The results show that both the elliptical and cylindrical models with 90° compound angle can enhance the film cooling effectiveness compared with the baseline. However, the elliptical model performs well at lower blowing ratios and in the near region at each blowing ratio because of the wider width of the film hole’s exit. The cylindrical model with 90° compound angle provides better film cooling effectiveness in the further downstream area of the film hole at higher blowing ratio because of the less lift-off and better coolant coverage in the larger x/D region along the mainstream direction.

Originality/value

Overall, it can be concluded that although the elliptical and cylindrical models with 90° compound angle have identical hole exits, the different inlet direction and cross-sectional geometry affect the flow structures when the coolant enters, moves through and exits the hole and finally different film cooling results appear.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

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