Flow physics of a subcritical carbon dioxide jet in a multiphase ejector

Abstract

Existing literature on ejectors, different researchers utilized different turbulence models by their choice, neither analyzing the physics of turbulence nor providing any sufficient optical diagnostics of the flow field. In this article, the physics captured by the Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier–Stokes (URANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) are compared based on well-posed boundary conditions obtained experimentally from a carbon dioxide (CO2) vapor compression cycle with an error ≤2.5%. The experimental results utilized for this study are at Reynold’s number (Re) 1.2e5 at the high-pressure inlet (motive flow) maintaining CO2 in subcritical state. The low-pressure inlet (suction flow) is maintained at Re = 9.8e4 with CO2 in vapor state, providing a pressure lift ratio of 1.2 at the diffuser outlet. Comparison of flow topologies with different URANS models reveals that only standard, Shear Stress Transport (SST) k−ω, and Reynold’s Stress Model-Shear Stress Gradient (RSM-SSG) are the suitable URANS models capturing a linearly increasing anisotropy tensor component with increasing strain in the flow. LES also predicted the similar physics. However, standard k−ω overpredicted the suction pressure beyond the acceptable uncertainty limits, which made it inapplicable. For the first time, a spatio-temporal representation of the flow topology with LES revealed the actual jet morphology of a CO2 ejector. Specifically, finger-like structures are key features to entrain more surrounding warm fluid into the colder dense core fluid at the cost of destabilizing and breaking up the jet by stretching the streamwise vortices and obstructing the increase in pressure-lift ratio.