Analysis of flow characteristics of cryogenic liquid in porous media

Abstract

Fluid flow related to heat transfer with a change in phase is an important phenomenon because many industrial processes rely on them for material processing and energy transfer. Examining fluid flow associated with heat transfer with a change in phase involves multiphase flow analysis, which can be utilized in various applications. In particular, studying the flow phenomena of a cryogenic liquid subjected to evaporation can help better understand cryogenic liquid behavior in a porous structure. In present study, the flow phenomena of a cryogenic liquid in a porous structure, glass wool, were examined. We conducted an experimental investigation of the behavior of a cryogenic liquid in porous media with various densities in order to understand how the cryogenic liquid behaves in a porous structure. The present study examined the thermophysical properties of glass wool media with different bulk densities and investigated its permeability under different injection pressures. The experimentally determined thermophysical properties and permeability were used to explain the experimental results. In two distinct experiments, temperature and pressure were measured to find the phase state of the flow and the tendency of propagation of the liquid-saturated region in glass wool media with different bulk densities. The results revealed that the nonlinearity of the pressure distribution over distance increased as the bulk density of the glass wool increased, and the rate at which the pressure gradient increase became conspicuously greater with accretion in injection pressure. Numerical simulation was conducted to further understand a cryogenic liquid’s flow behavior in porous media, and the simulation results were compared with the experimental results. The numerical simulation results were in good agreement with the experimental results.