Non-uniform Heat Transfer Research Articles

Natural convective heat transfer analysis of a vertical tapered inner annulus tube with dual inverted frusto-conical turbulator using CFD

Vertical tube heat exchangers play a pivotal role in various industrial processes, where efficient heat transfer is essential for optimal system performance. This research introduces a novel heat exchanger design, the Dual Inverted Frusto-Conical Turbulator Attached Tapered Inner Annulus Tube, aimed at enhancing natural convection in vertical annulus heat exchangers using nano-coolants. Traditional designs often suffer from non-uniform heat transfer due to varying boundary layer thicknesses along the height of the annulus. The proposed design mitigates this by incorporating a tapered inner annulus tube, which has a larger diameter at the bottom and gradually decreases towards the top. This taper reduces wall friction and boundary layer thickness, enhancing thermal diffusivity and improving the heat transfer rate. To further optimize heat transfer, Dual Inverted Frusto-Conical Turbulators are strategically placed around the tapered tube, generating controlled turbulence that minimizes drag and avoids unwanted flow reversals and recirculation. Simulation results show a Nusselt number of 321, a friction factor of 0.023, and a pressure drop of 154 Pa at a Reynolds number of 5000. The design also achieved a thermal conductivity of 0.3 kW/mK, thermal efficiency variation of 0.8658%, and a heat transfer coefficient of 26,000 W/m2K.

Flow and heat transfer characteristics of low water content jet fuel in U-bend tubes: A numerical study using LES and DPM approaches

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the flow and heat transfer behavior of low-water-content jet fuel (α ≤ 2 %) in U-bend tubes, utilizing Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and Discrete Phase Models (DPM). The research focus on the influence of radii of curvature ratio (r/D), flow rates (Qtp) and α on flow dynamics and heat transfer mechanisms. Flow fields for r/D = 1 and r/D ≥ 2.5, where distinct secondary flow structures, play a critical role in shaping internal flow behavior. These vortices significantly enhance flow mixing and heat transfer, especially on the inner wall, through complex multi-level vortex interactions. The local wall Nusselt number shows a close correlation with vorticity trends, initially increasing and then decreasing, with notable deviations near the inlet and outlet regions. This non-uniform heat transfer is primarily driven by the interaction of secondary flow structures and adverse pressure gradients near the inner wall, while higher Qtp and smaller r/D can improve heat transfer uniformity under certain flow conditions. The presence of droplets increases the total wall Nusselt number by 4 % to 60 % compared to single-phase jet fuel flow, due to two-phase interaction and boundary layer disruption. Finally, the study proposes modified correlations for pressure drop gradients and total wall Nusselt numbers, accounting for effects of r/D and multiphase heat transfer processes. These correlations, validated with RRMSEs of 3.54 % and 6.80 % respectively, provide valuable insights for improving heat transfer efficiency in fuel systems and form a theoretical foundation for real-time monitoring technologies in aircraft fuel lines.

Numerical study on fluid flow pattern regulation and heat transfer characteristics in oval-pit spiral tube

Spiral tube heat exchangers are widely applied in daily industrial production. In order to improve the comprehensive heat transfer performance of the spiral heat exchanger to meet industrial production and policy demands, improvements to spiral heat exchangers are necessary. In this study, a new type of oval-pit spiral tube is proposed. Ansys Fluent software was used to develop the numerical models and simulate the heat exchange conditions in smooth spiral tube and oval-pit spiral tube. The development and evolution of secondary flow and heat transfer characteristics in spiral tube were analyzed by theoretical analysis, and the heat transfer mechanism was explored. The dimensionless temperature parameter Θ and dimensionless acceleration number Ω were defined to explore the influence of secondary flow on heat transfer characteristics, which provided a new approach for improving spiral heat exchangers. The results show that the secondary flow in the smooth spiral tube has a symmetric double-vortex structure, and it has an asymmetric double-vortex structure in the oval-pit spiral tube. Compared with smooth spiral tube, the local dimensionless temperature parameter Θ in oval-pit spiral tube fluctuates more sharply, the heat transfer non-uniformity is greater, and the local Nu number is higher. Additionally, the fluid in the oval-pit tube is fully developed at the smaller axial angle, and the flow and heat transfer stability are better. In the working range of inlet Reynolds number of 1000∼5000, compared with smooth spiral tube, the heat transfer coefficient of oval-pit spiral tube increases by 11.58∼44.73 %, the pressure drop increases by 33.56∼119.27 %, and the comprehensive heat transfer performance increases by 1.23∼14.65 %.

Non-uniform flow and heat transfer characteristics and parametric study of generator hydrogen double-flow ring seal

Non-uniform flow and heat transfer characteristics and parametric study of generator hydrogen double-flow ring seal

Comparison with the effect of the cyclic liquid nitrogen jet and liquid nitrogen immersion cooling on the deterioration of mechanical properties of high temperature rocks

In order to study the effect of liquid nitrogen jet cooling on the deterioration of mechanical properties of high temperature rocks, the cyclic liquid nitrogen jet (LNJ) cooling and liquid nitrogen immersion (LNI) cooling were carried out on 200 °C and 400 °C granite. The variations of ultrasonic velocity, tensile strength, acoustic emission and energy evolution were analyzed. The results showed that with the increase of rock temperature and cooling cycles, the deterioration of mechanical properties of high temperature rock was enhanced by cyclic LNJ and LNI cooling. Differently, the deterioration effect of LNI cooling on mechanical properties was weakened with the increase of cycles. On the contrary, the deterioration effect caused by LNJ cooling was significantly enhanced with the increase of cycles. For example, when the LNI cooling cycles exceeded 5 times for 200 °C sample and 3 times for 400 °C sample, the tensile strength and absorbed energy at failure decreased limitedly with the growth of cooling cycles. However, the deterioration degree of rock mechanical properties at 400 °C showed a linear decline trend with the increase of LNJ cooling cycles. The temperature and the number of cycles had significant effects on mechanical properties, with temperature having the greatest influence. The difference between LNJ and LNI cooling became more pronounced with increasing cycles. LNJ cooling, by creating localized high thermal stresses and non-uniform heat transfer, led to continuous deterioration of mechanical properties with each cycle. In contrast, LNI cooling's effect saturated after initial cycles. The multi-cycle LNJ cooling method could improve the fracture degree of high temperature rock under low load level, so as to improve the efficiency of high temperature hard rock formation drilling.

Smoothed particle hydrodynamics simulation of transient heat transfer within rotary kiln

Rotary kilns are widely used in industries to heat or cool various materials. Previously the heat efficiency of rotary kiln is often evaluated by assuming the temperature is uniformly distributed within the particle bed, while lacking insights into the recirculating particle flows and the resulted non-uniform heat transfer. Here a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) approach is deployed to study the particle flow and particle–particle, particle–wall heat transfer in the rotary kilns. The results reveal that there exist low-temperature regimes in the core of rotary kilns depending on the filling levels. The temperature distribution is thus nonuniform and closely related to the particle flow pattern. In terms of heating efficiency, the thermal conductivity of particles exerts the greatest influence on the total heat transfer in rotary kiln. Other material and operational parameters, including the rotating speed, filling level, thermal load, and internal friction of particles, also remarkably affect the heat transfer according to the present simulation results, which are of significance to optimize the heating efficiency of rotary kiln.

An Experimental Study of a Grooved Aluminum-Ammonia Heat Pipe: The Effect of Tilting and Non-uniform Heat Transfer on Thermal Behavior

Much research has been done on aluminum/Ammonia heat pipes in recent years due to their wide applications in aerospace. Although lab-scale research regularly focuses on uniform heat input, heat generation is actually non-uniform in reality. Also, the circumferential temperature distribution and heat transfer coefficient (HTC) have not been reported yet. In this study, an axial grooved heat pipe, while the condenser state is kept constant, was experimentally tested to investigate the uniform and non-uniform heat modes, and the effect of tilted angle along with horizontal configurations were also examined in terms of circumferential temperature distribution and HTCs. Yet, a detailed explanation of the measured results is provided. For the same total heat load, it was found that the decreasing heat mode showed superior performance; the HTC at the evaporator is 72 % and 35 % higher than the increasing mode (the least performance heat mode) at 77 and 165 W, respectively. Upon inclination, the HTC in the evaporator is relatively independent of inclination. However, a sharp difference occurs in the condenser section where the HTC of the tilted configuration is more than twice higher than that of the horizontal configuration.

Experimental and numerical study of combined impinging jets at low nozzle-plate distance for confined and unconfined impingement plate

This study investigates the heat transfer and flow dynamics of combined impinging jets at low nozzle-plate distances. The combined jets comprise (i) circular and quadruple helical jets and (ii) circular and double helical jets. A conventional jet is generated from the only circular part of the combined jet. Experiments are conducted with a constant total flow rate (Qt = 85 LPM) and low nozzle-plate distances (H/D = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) for confined and unconfined jet cases. Flow rate ratios (Q*=0.176, 0.235, 0.352, 0.588, 0.823) are used for different swirl intensities. A numerical study was performed using ANSYS Fluent software. The results show that the numerical analysis is consistent with the experimental research. The combined impingement jet shows a potential to improve the low heat transfer occurring at the stagnation zone at low nozzle-plate distance in the swirl jet, leading to non-uniform heat transfer. The confined jet case at the low nozzle-plate distance reduces the heat transfer at the stagnation point and over the entire plate as regards the unconfined jet case. Increasing the H/D distance in the combined impinging jet improves the heat transfer in the confined jet case but reduces it in the unconfined case. Correlations are given for heat transfer prediction depending on H/D and Q* for unconfined and confined cases of the combined jet. Increasing the flow rate ratio and the nozzle-plate distance increases the heat transfer uniformity for the confined and unconfined jet cases. In contrast, the unconfined jet case is better regarding heat transfer uniformity. The confinement plate creates a negative pressure on the impingement plate in all conditions. In contrast, the unconfined jet case is precisely the opposite.

Non-uniform boiling heat transfer characteristics and calculation evaluation in U-tube steam generator tube bundle

U-tube steam generator, as one of the core equipment in nuclear power plants, has lateral non-uniform heating on the secondary side, which complicates the progress of heat transfer on the secondary side of the evaporator by causing fluid cross mixing. However, there is relatively little research on the properties of transverse non-uniform heat transfer in the secondary side tube bundle of the evaporator under natural circulation conditions with the free liquid surface. Therefore, to conduct comparative experiments and studies between uniform and non-uniform heating, an experimental setup with the natural circulation of the free liquid surface and the ability of transverse non-uniform heating was constructed, considering the characteristics mentioned above for the secondary side of the evaporator. The results indicate that higher proportions of gas-phase distribution are frequently found in the tube bundle on the high-power side, and corresponding positions usually have higher water temperature, heat transfer capacity, and heat transfer coefficient. Besides, four heat transfer correlations that are suitable for pool boiling are estimated, and the results show that the Rohsenow correlation has the best applicability to compute the heat transfer coefficient for uniform heating experiments while performing worse in non-uniform heating experiments. The main reason is the lack of consideration for the factors of fluid cross mixing in traditional correlations.

Graphics‐Processing‐Unit‐Accelerated 3D Online Heat Transfer and Solidification Model for Continuously Cast Slab

A graphics‐processing‐unit (GPU)‐accelerated 3D heat‐transfer and solidification model is proposed to predict the temperature field and solidification field for continuously cast slab. The fully 3D model is developed based on the finite difference method and implemented on the compute unified device architecture (CUDA)/C++ platform. The model is verified by solving the 1D Stefan problem and validated by surface temperature measurements. The model is proven to be 18.91 times faster for the coarsest mesh of 35 million nodes and 22.92 times faster for the finest mesh of 50 million nodes than a central‐processing‐unit (CPU)‐based parallel version with 28 threads. The corresponding relative calculational times are 0.19 and 0.32, which indicate that the model has great computation efficiency. The model is proven to be robust enough for the dynamic continuous casting (CC) process via a test of dynamic casting speed. Further analysis of the nonuniform heat transfer and solidification shows that the model is able to predict the nonuniform heat transfer efficiently. In the studied cases, a higher casting speed will lead to a remarkable enhancement of the unevenness of heat transfer and solidification in general.

Improved model for thermal transmission in evacuated tubes: Effect of non-uniform heat flux and circumferential conduction

Evacuated tubes are extensively utilized for converting solar energy into thermal energy owing to their exceptional thermal properties and affordability. The circumferential temperature gradient of the evacuated tube is significant to the heat and mass transfer inside, but it is often neglected. This research proposed an improved model incorporating non-uniform heat flux and circumferential conduction to obtain the temperature distribution. In the experiment, A thermal insulation material was inserted inside the inner tube to create an adiabatic boundary. Various conditions (non-uniform, rectangular, and uniform heat fluxes, circumferential conduction of the coating) were numerically compared. The enhanced combined thermal transmission model was validated, demonstrating a relative error of 6.45 % in temperature increase calculation and increasing the prediction accuracy by 42.15 % at least. The distribution of the heat flux and the thermal conduction of the coating were identified as the primary factors affecting the heat transfer properties of the evacuated tube. An imbalanced distribution of heat flux resulted in non-uniform heat transfer, whereas the circumferential conduction within the coating effectively modulated the temperature distribution to achieve uniformity. The local heat transfer coefficient exhibited non-uniformity, with calculated values ranging from 0.23 to 3.25 W/(m2∙K), and an error range of −16 to +3 %.

Experimental study of the noise suppression of supersonic impinging jets with chevrons

Supersonic impinging jets may cause many adverse ground effects, including surface erosion, nonuniform surface heat transfer, lift loss, and acoustic loading. In this study, chevron nozzles are used to suppress the noise generation of supersonic impinging jets originated from a circular convergent nozzle with the jet Mach number of 1.2. An array of microphones is used to measure the far-field acoustic fields, and a schlieren system is employed to measure the near-field flow structures. Three impinging distances are considered to examine the differences between the impinging jets and the free jet, and to assess the effect of impinging distance on the noise characteristics. Two chevron nozzles with different penetration angles are designed to investigate the potentials of chevron nozzles in controlling the supersonic-impinging-jet noise. Results show that the chevron nozzles do not alter the directivity of overall sound pressure levels, but significantly reduce the amplitude at all emission angles. The discrete tones in the impinging jets are dramatically mitigated or eliminated, and the levels of broadband noise are also significantly reduced over a wide range of frequency band, regardless of the impingement distance. The influences of chevrons on the near-field flow structures are checked with the root-mean-square values and proper orthogonal decomposition of schlieren images, which provide more evidence on the noise suppression mechanism with chevrons.

Model of heat transfer in pipeline insulation in a chamber with a rotating heating pipe

This study numerically investigates the effect of rotation on the uniformity of temperature distribution in pipeline insulation, as well as the accuracy of measuring thermal conductivity for a pipe using the steady- state flux approach with non-uniform external heat transfer. It is shown that the use of rotation uniforms temperature fields and radial heat flux inside the insulation, allowing thermal conductivity tests to be accurate to 0.1%. The effect has been validated for a variety of insulating properties, including porous materials with high permeability.

Modeling Analysis and Research on the Evaporation System of a Multisource Organic Solid Waste Incinerator

The co-incineration of multisource organic solid waste has gradually become an important method for solid waste recycling. Through a combination of computational fluid dynamics simulation and field monitoring, a distributed parameter model of the evaporative heating surface of an incinerator was developed. The distributions of heat flux, wall temperature, and steam quality in the incinerator were analyzed under four combustion conditions involving solid waste from various sources, types, and proportions. The results revealed that under the two working conditions with 20% waste cloth, as the calorific value of the mixed fuel increased, both the peak heat flux and the peak wall temperature increased, and the nonuniformity of heat transfer within the furnace intensified. Under the influence of the composition and calorific value of the mixed fuel, the steam quality of the working fluid at the outlet of the rear water wall in the cases with 20% waste cloth was significantly higher than that in the case of pure municipal solid waste combustion and the case with 20% sludge. This study offers valuable insights into the resource utilization of multisource organic solid waste in co-incinerators.

A comparative study of purge slot exit shape on the film cooling effectiveness of a gas turbine shroud

To achieve higher efficiency and performance, a modern gas turbine withstands the extremely high thermal environment. In the turbine endwall passage, a high and non-uniform heat transfer appears due to various secondary flow. The purge flow injected through the upstream slot between the stationary and rotating pars can thermally protect the endwall surface by forming air film layer on it. However, since an excessive amount of purge flow reduce the system efficiency, it is needed to effectively inject the purge flow with a limited amount. Accordingly, in the present study, the effect of purge slot exit shape on the film cooling effectiveness (hereby FCE) of a shroud surface was discussed. As nondimensional design parameters of the purge slot, L/Ws, RW/Ws, and RL/Ws were defined, representing the geometric features: the slot width (Ws), the fillet radius at the windward side (RW) and fillet radius at the leeward side (RL) of slot exit, respectively. The measurement of the FCE was performed in a five-blade linear cascade rig using the PSP (Pressure sensitive paint) technique. The results showed that the FCE increased for wider slot width at a given blowing ratio condition. In addition, the fillet radius at the windward side (RW) has a negative effect on the FCE regardless of blowing ratio condition since the purge flow was easily disturbed by the accelerated mainstream injection. On the other hand, the Case 7 with the RW/Ws = 0.9 showed 5.1 % of the improvement of FCE at a higher blowing ratio M = 0.25 compared with the Case 2 with RW/Ws = 0, which represents the sharp edge at the windward side of the slot exit.

Thermal-mechanical coupling analysis of the ribbed channels in regenerative cooling

Regenerative cooling plays a critical role in the thermal management for scramjet combustors, and the design of cooling channels is of utmost importance. To comprehensively analyze the performance of cooling channels, a validated thermal-mechanical coupling model was utilized in this study. The thermal and mechanical performance of both smooth and ribbed channels in regenerative cooling was investigated using Finite Volume Method and Finite Element Method. The findings indicate that the ribbed wall has a notable effect on enhancing the overall thermal performance of the channel. Moreover, the presence of ribs weakens the influence of buoyancy in the flow field, which can be one of the contributing factors in inhibiting heat transfer deterioration. Additionally, the design of ribs significantly reduces the average thermal stress experienced by the channel. However, it should be noted that the non-uniform heat transfer in the axial direction leads to a significant increase in local thermal stress. The triangular ribbed channel proves to be an effective approach in reducing thermal stress. Compared to rectangular ribbed ribs, the utilization of triangular ribs can result in a reduction of thermal stress by up to 30%. This observation highlights the advantage of triangular ribs in enhancing system life and safety by minimizing thermal stress.

Thermal performance research on a novel coupled heating system combined solar air heater with ventilation PCM wall

Solar heating technology is increasingly recognized as a prominent option for clean building heating. However, challenges such as intermittent thermal energy supply and supply–demand mismatch hinder its widespread adoption. To address this issue, this paper introduces a novel coupled heating system that combines a solar air heater with a ventilation Phase Change Material (PCM) wall. A rural residential house in Tianjin was chosen as an experimental platform and comparative experiments was conducted to compare the advantages of the ventilation PCM wall with the conventional wall. Additionally, numerical simulations were utilized to address the non-uniform heat transfer in the direction of the Heat Transfer Fluid (HTF) flow by employing cascaded PCM. The experimental results demonstrated that the coupled heating system exhibited high thermal storage and release efficiency, significantly improving indoor thermal comfort. Under optimal operating conditions (air supply temperature: 35-45℃, air supply speed: 3–4 m/s), the system achieved rapid thermal storage within 4 h, reaching a maximum thermal storage efficiency of up to 87.6 %. The test room maintained a nighttime temperature of 15.7 °C, exhibiting temperatures 6.3–10 °C higher than the control room. Numerical results revealed that the cascaded PCM enhanced the thermal storage rate, particularly at the first 2.8 h of the thermal storage period, contributing to the overall efficiency and flexibility of the system. This research provides theoretical guidance for the optimal design and practical application of the ventilation PCM wall.

Experimental studies of effects of temperature gradients on performance of pouch type large format NMC/C lithium-ion battery

Cell to pack design concept for energy storage in automotive applications leads to a substantially increased cell size that results in temperature gradients over the surface induced by non-uniform heat transfer linked to the cooling system design, which influences the cell performance. In this paper, temperature gradient effects on life performance of a large-format cell are experimentally investigated, using a developed device that can actively control appropriate gradients in the longitudinal direction and simultaneously measure the heat generation rate (HGR). Performances under uniform and non-uniform temperature conditions (MMM: uniform temperature, LMH: low-mean-high, HLH: high-low-high) are compared and quantified. At beginning of life (BOL), the low-temperature regions in the HLH and LMH conditions dominantly limit the cell capacity, and the HLH condition suppresses the HGR at high C-rates. During aging, the cell experiences a larger capacity fade and HGR increase under the HLH than MMM condition. The analyses of half coin cell, differential capacity (dQdV), dynamic resistance and impedance reveal that the attributing mechanisms are mainly the loss of Cathode active material, potentially the loss of lithium inventory, and the increase of impedances, indicating the electrochemically promoted side reactions and corrosions in the high-temperature regions of the HLH condition.

Topologically optimized mini-channel heat sinks for reduced temperature non-uniformity

Water-cooled mini-channel heat sinks are widely used for thermal management of electronic devices, but their flow paths are usually limited to simple designs, such as parallel channels, due to manufacturing limitations. Such designs do not distribute flow uniformly, resulting in non-uniform heat transfer across the heat sink and significant temperature gradients. A liquid-cooled heat sink with a millimeter high flow channel was designed and fabricated to cool an 86 mm x 63 mm uniformly distributed heat load. A density-based topology optimization model was implemented in COMSOL to generate a non-traditional internal geometry that minimizes temperature non-uniformity. The topologically optimized heat sink was made using a novel thermal spray additive manufacturing method in which molten aluminum was sprayed into a cavity machined in an aluminum plate through a polymer mask made in the shape of the desired flow channels by 3D printing. The cavity was closed with an aluminum plate to create a sealed heat sink. The thermal performance of the topologically optimized heat sink was compared experimentally to that of a heat sink with parallel channels. Each heat sink was placed on a uniformly heated copper block dissipating 180 – 630 W (corresponding to heat fluxes of 3.3 – 11.6 W/cm2) and its temperature measured by an array of 9 thermocouples embedded in the heated heat sink face while water flowed through it at rates of 100–1500 mL/min. The optimized heat sink maintained lower surface temperatures and reduced temperature non-uniformity on its surface at all flow rates tested. Numerical simulations demonstrated that this was due to better flow distribution by the topologically optimized flow channels.

Experimental study on friction pressure drop and circumferential heat transfer characteristics in helical tubes

Helical tubes are widely used in nuclear plants, heat recovery process, and refrigeration technology. The fluid is influenced by centrifugal force flow through the helical tube, accompanied by secondary flow which is conducive to the enhancement of heat transfer. However, the uneven circumferential heat transfer caused by the secondary flow was seldom reported, while the pressure drops and heat transfer characteristics of helical tubes under single-phase and two-phase flow conditions need to be supplemented. This paper investigated the friction pressure drop and circumferential heat transfer characteristics based on the experiments on helical tubes with the coil diameter to the tube diameter varying from 28.5 to 128.5 and lift angle varying from 3° to 10°. The results showed that the coil diameter was the key parameter affecting the pressure drop and non-uniform circumferential heat transfer, compared with the lift angle. At the same cross section, the heat transfer coefficient at the outside tube wall was the highest, which was more obvious under small coil diameter conditions. Correlations of flow resistance and heat transfer were proposed for the single-phase and saturated boiling two-phase flow, respectively, and the predicted values were improved compared with the prediction results of correlations in the existing literature.