Experimental evaluation on pre-swirling cold air for flue cooling

Abstract

The operation of a diesel engine leads to the emission of a substantial amount of waste heat flue gas, resulting in a continuous increase in the wall temperature of the exhaust system. To mitigate this continuous rise in temperature, a pre-swirling device has been developed to enhance the heat exchange between cold air and the wall, thus averting heating wall by the hot air. In this study, an experimental system was devised and implemented to analyze the dynamic behavior of the wall temperature in an air duct. The system considered both with and without the pre-swirling device, incorporating different cold air temperatures and flow rates to examine its impact on the increase in wall temperature. The results revealed a gradual rise in wall temperature after reaching a steady state, particularly demonstrating lower wall temperatures at 19 measurement points in the presence of pre-swirl compared to without swirl. Notably, the maximum temperature rise in the air duct wall was reduced by 55.7 %, from 7.9 °C without pre-swirl to 3.5 °C with the inclusion of the pre-swirling device, highlighting the significant thermal protection it provides and suggesting potential applications in exhaust thermal protection engineering. Moreover, the experimental findings consistently indicate that the incorporation of a pre-swirling device effectively diminishes the increase in wall temperature across different cold air flow rates and temperatures.