Free convection heat transfer with surface radiation from infrared suppression system and estimation of cooling time

Abstract

• The thermo-fluid characteristics of the full-scale infrared suppression (IRS) system used in the marine gas turbine as an exhaust system are numerically investigated here. • The combined impact of conduction, convection, and radiation on the cooling of the IRS system is intended to be explored. • Various relevant parameters are taken for the analysis, viz., Rayleigh number (Ra), number of funnels, funnel wall temperature, diameter ratio (DR), funnel overlapping (OL), and emissivity of the surface (ε). • A generalized correlation for Nusselt number is developed, considering surface emissivity and the number of funnels as an independent parameter that can be used for academic and industrial applications. • The novelty of the work lies in finding the heat transfer rate and cooling time of the IRS device with varying numbers of funnels (3 to 6 funnels) subjected to the combined effect of free convection and surface radiation. A numerical study is performed on Infrared Suppression (IRS) system having finite wall thickness to observe the combined effect of free convection and surface radiation. The main focus of this work is to obtain thermo-fluid characteristics of natural convection phenomena from the IRS system due to conjugate heat transfer and surface radiation. In addition, the time required to cool down the hot IRS system to atmospheric temperature is also estimated. For the numerical analysis, different governing equations (Navier-Stokes equation, energy equation, and radiation equation) are solved using the finite volume method (FVM) based solver of ANSYS Fluent v 15. Several pertinent parameters, viz., the number of funnels, Rayleigh number, inner surface temperature, geometric ratio, funnel overlapping, and surface emissivity, are varied to elucidate the heat transfer behavior. It is evident from the research that surface radiation has a significant influent on total heat transfer and should not be ignored. In addition, the total heat transfer rate rises with the number of funnels. Both non-dimensional induced mass flow rate and total heat transfer rate have maximum value for zero overlapping cases. At constant temperature contribution of radiative heat transfer varies from 10 to 38% with the rise in emissivity. The inclusion of radiation with convection lowers the cooling time significantly compared to convection alone.