Nan Gui

Advanced approaches of modeling and measurement for turbulence and heat transfer

Turbulent flow and heat transfer are key issues in nature and numerous engineering applications such as human body, fluid machinery, machining facilities, and refrigeration systems. Insight into relevant transient and steady-state thermo-fluidic physics in such scenarios acts as constructive guidance for both engineers and scientists to improve the performance and reliability of facilities, analyze engineering failures, and understand complicated natural phenomena. Unfortunately, such complex fluid flow and heat transfer problems can rarely be solved analytically due to the strong nonlinearity of the Navier–Stokes equations and the complex nature of turbulence with heat transfer. Instead, advanced modeling and measurement techniques become compensatory yet powerful tools and have been widely used. Especially in recent years, a large number of advanced analytical, computational, and experimental techniques have been developed, which greatly contribute to the exploration of turbulence and heat transfer mechanisms. The main objective of this Special Issue is to bring important information on advanced modeling and measurement techniques together. Their feasibility and performance in investigating various engineering problems are evaluated. In this Special Issue, five original research papers were accepted for publication based on critical peer review by qualified reviewers. We hope that such a frontier of turbulence and heat transfer could be continued to track the updated trend year by year. An introductory review of the accepted papers is presented here. In the paper entitled ‘‘The impact research of control modes in steam turbine control system (digital electric hydraulic) to the low frequency oscillation of grid,’’ theoretical models for frequency domain analysis were developed to investigate the effects of steam turbine control modes on low-frequency oscillation of grid. The effectiveness of such theoretical analysis was well validated by simulation using the control system’s toolbox in MATLAB. In the paper entitled ‘‘Research on the aerodynamic characteristics of a lift drag hybrid vertical axis wind turbine,’’ the effects of various parameters on unsteady aerodynamic and starting performances of a newly designed lift drag hybrid vertical axis wind turbine were numerically investigated. The performances of various turbulence models were evaluated based on experimental data. Fruitful guidance for engineering design was also obtained. In the paper entitled ‘‘Pressure fluctuation prediction in pump mode using large eddy simulation and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes in a pump-turbine,’’ both large eddy simulation and unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier– Stokes equations in conjunction with a two-equation turbulence model were adopted to predict pressure fluctuation in pump mode of a pump-turbine. By comparisons between experimental and numerical results, the performances of these two different modeling methods were evaluated. In the paper entitled ‘‘Temperature field measurement of spindle ball bearing under radial force based on fiber Bragg grating sensors,’’ fiber Bragg grating temperature sensors were proven to be an effective method in the measurement of temperature distribution in outer ring of a spindle ball bearing. Such a temperature field is physically beneficial for the reduction of spindle thermal error. Finally, in the paper entitled ‘‘Experimental investigation of flow boiling heat transfer and pressure drops characteristic of R1234ze(E), R600a, and a mixture of R1234ze(E)/R32 in a horizontal smooth tube,’’ the effects of mass flux, heat flux, and quality of several refrigerants on flow boiling and pressure drop characteristics in a horizontal smooth tube was experimentally investigated. The corresponding experimental methods and findings from this study are useful for the design of evaporators.

Experimental and numerical study of stagnant zones in pebble bed

The experimental method (side area method) and DEM simulation have been carried out to analyse the stagnant zone in the quasi-two-dimensional silos. The side area method is a phenomenological method by means of investigating the interface features of different areas composed of different coloured pebbles. Two methods have been discussed to define the stagnant zone. In particular, the area of the stagnant zone has been calculated with the mean-streamline method, and the tracking time of different marking pebbles has been investigated with the stagnant time method to explore the kinematics characteristics of the pebbles. The stagnant zone is crucial for the safety of the pebble-bed reactor, and the practical reactor core must avoid the existence of the stagnant zone. Furthermore, this paper also analyses the effects of bed configuration (the bed height, the base angle, and the friction coefficient) on stagnant zone with the two methods mentioned above. In detail, the bed height shows little impact on the stagnant zones when the bed height exceeds a certain limit, while the base angle has negative prominent correlation with the stagnant zone. The friction coefficient effect seems complicated and presents the great nonlinearity, which deserves to be deeply investigated.

Numerical Simulation and Analysis of Particle Mixing and Conduction in Wavy Drums

ABSTRACT A thermal discrete element method (DEM) is used to simulate particle mixing and heat conduction inside wavy drums to explore the effects of wavy walls. Sinusoidal configurations with different waves on the walls are simulated. The Lacey mixing index is applied to analyze the mixing characteristics. The driven forces from the wavy wall, either positive/negative or effective driven forces, are analyzed to explain the mechanisms of mixing enhancement in the wavy drum. A new control parameter is proposed to explain the mechanism of mixing enhancement. It is found that a locally oscillating effect exists in wavy drums, which is imparted on the bulk rotating motions of particles and enhances the characteristics of particle mixing and heat conduction significantly. Except over large wave numbers and rotating speeds when the flow regime is deteriorated for mixing, the wavy drum is generally beneficial for mixing augmentation as well as conduction enhancement.

Numerical Analysis of Granular Flows in a Silo Bed on Flow Regime Characterization

The flow characteristics of a gravity-driven dense granular flow in a granular bed with a contracted drainage orifice are studied by using discrete element method and quantitative analysis. Three values of discharging rates, ranging from fast to slow dense flows, are investigated. Time variations and derivatives of mean forces and velocities, as well as their respective correlations, are analyzed to quantitatively depict the characteristics of granular flow as well as flow regime categorization. The auto-correlation functions, as well as their Fourier spectrums, are utilized to characterize the differences between the mechanisms of slow and fast granular flows. Finally, it is suggested that the flow regimes of slow and fast flows can be characterized by the kinetic and kinematic flow properties of particles.

Experimental Research and DEM Simulations on Stagnant Region in Pebble Bed Reactor

In pebble bed reactor, pebbles flow very slowly in the stagnant region, which is defined according to the burn-up level of fuel pebbles. It is not allowed to exist in real reactor, since the stay time of fuel pebbles in these regions goes beyond the burn-up level, which increases the risk of leakage of radiation. This research shows that the stagnant region is related to the geometric parameters of the core and the physical properties of pebbles. Experimental setup has been designed to observe the phenomenon of stagnant region, and analysis based on a phenomenological method has been carried out. The phenomenological method is an approach to study the dense pebble flow by means of investigating the interface features of different areas composed of differently colored pebbles. In addition, additional simulations by the DEM model are in good agreement with the experimental results, which successfully verify the availability of the discrete element method. On the basis of these researches, several key parameters have been investigated through DEM simulations, including height of the experimental setup, friction coefficient between pebbles and base cone angle. It is proved that, the stagnant region existing in the pebble bed can be eliminated by improving the design of pebble bed and the physical properties of fuel pebbles. All of these are very helpful to guide the design of pebble-bed reactor.Copyright

Some Movement Mechanisms and Characteristics in Pebble Bed Reactor

The pebblebed-type high temperature gas-cooled reactor is considered to be one of the promising solutions for generation IV advanced reactors, and the two-region arranged reactor core can enhance its advantages by flattening neutron flux. However, this application is held back by the existence of mixing zone between central and peripheral regions, which results from pebbles’ dispersion motions. In this study, experiments have been carried out to study the dispersion phenomenon, and the variation of dispersion region and radial distribution of pebbles in the specifically shaped flow field are shown. Most importantly, the standard deviation of pebbles’ radial positions in dispersion region, as a quantitative index to describe the size of dispersion region, is gotten through statistical analysis. Besides, discrete element method has been utilized to analyze the parameter influence on dispersion region, and this practice offers some strategies to eliminate or reduce mixing zone in practical reactors.

Direct numerical simulation of confined swirling jets

This study investigates the Lagrangian acceleration and velocity of fluid particles in swirling flows via direct numerical simulation. The intermittency characteristics of acceleration and velocity of fluid particles are investigated at different swirl numbers and Reynolds numbers. The flatness factor and trajectory curvature are used to analyse the effect of Lagrangian intermittency. The joint probability density function of Lagrangian acceleration and turbulence intensity is shown to explain the augmentation effect of Lagrangian intermittency by the strongly swirling levels under the relatively low intensity of turbulence. In addition, the correlation between the Lagrangian acceleration and the turbulence intensity is enhanced as the swirl level increases. It shows the important effect of swirl on the motion behaviour of fluid particles in the strongly swirling flows.

LBE simulation of coherent vortex motion and heat transfer in jets of cross flow

Lattice Boltzmann equation method is used to simulate the coherent vortex motions and interactions and the heat transfer characteristics of jets in cross flow (JICFs) via TD2G9 model. After validation, the characteristics of cross flow under different Reynolds numbers are illustrated, including the mean profiles, the Reynolds stress tensor, the vortex and temperature fields, the temperature gradients near the walls, and the coherent correlation of vortex motions. The results show that the velocity profiles in JICF can be characterized by three basic regions, which are mainly caused by the mergence of JICF with the main flow. The temperature gradient near the walls can also be categorized by four basic regions, which are caused mainly by the impulse of JICFs too. Coherent vortex motions are found in JICF for Re = 3000, which are proved by strong periodic correlation of flow variables over a fixed area.

Modeling Effective Thermal Conductivity of Thermal Radiation for Nuclear Packed Pebble Beds

In nuclear packed pebble beds, it is a fundamental task to model effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of thermal radiation. Based on the effective heat transfer cells of structured packing, a short-range radiation model (SRM) and a subcell radiation model (SCM) are applied to obtain analytical results of ETC. It is shown that the SRM of present effective heat transfer cells are in good agreement with the numerical simulations of random packing and it is only slightly higher than empirical correlations when temperature exceeds 1200 °C. In order to develop a generic theoretical approach of modeling ETC, the subcell radiation model is presented and in good agreement with Kunii-Smith correlation, especially at very high temperature ranges (over 1500 °C). Based on SCM, one-dimensional (1D) radial heat transfer model is applied in the analysis of the HTTU experiments. The results of ETC and radial temperature distribution are in good agreement with the experimental data.

Direct Numerical Simulation of Particle-Laden Swirling Flows on Turbulence Modulation

The modulation of turbulence by the laden particles in swirling flows is studied via direct numerical simulation. The statistical characteristics of turbulence modulation are investigated in detail under the effects of different mass loadings as well as Stokes numbers. It is found that the characteristics of turbulence modulation for different Stokes numbers are very similar to each other when the mass loading is light. As the mass loading increases, small particles seem to modulate turbulence more rapidly than large particles. The number concentration or the number flow rate of particles plays an important role in modulation of turbulence. It induces the preferential attenuation of turbulence for small particles in the near field region. Moreover, the trends of modulation of the axial/azimuthal fluctuations, the turbulent kinetic energy, and the Reynolds stress tenor as well as its invariants are similar in the near field region. However, when the turbulence is decayed sufficiently in the downstream region, the inverse turbulence modulation may occur especially for the regions with local intensive accumulation of small particles.