The arrangement orientation effect on turbulent convection heat transfer of supercritical LNG in submerged combustion vaporizer

Abstract

A numerical model is established to simulate the thermal performance of supercritical LNG (SLNG) at different arrangement orientations in submerged combustion vaporizer (SCV). The SST k-ω turbulent model is employed after validating against classic experimental data. The arrangement orientation effect of serpentine tube on turbulent convection heat transfer is explored based on the comparison of that at horizontal orientation tube and vertical one, the integrated effect and dominance relation between buoyancy force and centrifugal force are discussed. The influential factors such as heat flux and pressure on the turbulent convection heat transfer are analyzed. The simulation results indicate that: (1) The heat transfer of SLNG in serpentine tube is different significantly at variable arrangement orientations, and the gasification rate related to the fluid temperature is higher in the horizontal orientation serpentine tube than that in the vertical one. (2) Both for the horizontal and vertical orientations, the centrifugal force dominates the heat transfer in the bend region, even affects the heat transfer in straight segments, and the influence of buoyancy force is exhibited obviously near the pseudo critical point owing to the thermophysical properties. (3) The heat flux and pressure always play an important role on the flow and heat transfer of SLNG in serpentine tube at different arrangement orientations.