Sergei Fomin

Contact melting inside an elastic capsule

Abstract An approximate mathematical model of contact melting of an unfixed material in elastic cylindrical and spherical capsules is developed. Since the density of the solid is higher than that of the melt, the melting solid resides at the bottom supported by a thin layer of the generated, convecting, melt, and the capsule swells. The main characteristic scales and non-dimensional parameters, which describe the principal features of the melting process and the liquid flow, are found. Linearisation with regard to the Stefan number as well as the small difference between the densities of the solid and liquid enables us to derive a closed-form evolution equation for the motion of the solid, which also determines the melting rate. Numerical solution of the evolution equation shows that the swelling of the capsule during melting, which is caused by the decrease of the density during phase transition, leads to slowing down of the melting process. This effect is due to flattening of the lower surface of the capsule, which entails fall of the pressure along with thickening of the molten layer. The latter determines the decrease of the melting rate.

Shape-factor effect on melting in an elliptic capsule

Abstract An approximate mathematical model of contact melting of an unfixed material in an elliptical capsule is developed. The main characteristic scales and non-dimensional parameters which describe the principal features of the melting process are found. Choosing a special heat flux distribution on the wall of the capsule allows us to derive a closed-form evolution equation for the motion of the solid accounting for the energy convection in the liquid, expressed through the non-linearity of the temperature distribution across the molten layer. It is shown that the melting rate of the solid depends on the shape of the capsule. Generally, elliptical capsules show higher rate of melting than circular ones. Elongated capsules provide more effective melting than oblate ones, even though they have the same aspect ratios and vertical cross-sectional areas. This phenomenon is caused by the fact, that the pressure necessary to support the solid is larger for the elongated capsules than that for oblate ones, which leads to thinning of the molten layer along with the increase of the heat flux across it. The time required for complete melting can be achieved by the right choice of the shape of the capsule, which is specified by the value of the aspect ratio. The found influence of the capsule shape on the melting rate can be used for design and optimization of practical latent-heat–thermal-energy systems.

Steady-State Rimming Flow of the Generalized Newtonian Fluid

Rimming flow of a liquid polymer on the inner surface of a horizontal rotating cylinder is investigated. Using a scale analysis, a theoretical description for steady-state non-Newtonian flow is obtained. Simple lubrication theory is applied since the Reynolds number is small and the liquid film thin. Since a steady-state viscometric flow is considered, the general constitutive law requires only a single function relating shear stress and shear rate that corresponds to a generalized Newtonian liquid. For this case the existence of a continuous steady-state solution is proved. The properties of the solution for the different flow regimes are discussed. Numerical results are carried out for the Carreau–Yasuda model, which exhibits the Newtonian behavior at low shear rates with transition to power-law shear thinning at moderate shear rates.

Analysis of Water Injection in Fractured Reservoirs Using a Fractional-Derivative-Based Mass and Heat Transfer Model

This research proposes a numerical scheme for evaluating the effect of cold-water injection into a geothermal reservoir. A fractional heat transfer equation (fHTE) is derived based on the fractional advection–dispersion equation (fADE) that describes non-Fickian dispersion in a fractured reservoir. Numerical simulations are conducted to examine the applicability of the fADE and the fHTE in interpreting tracer and thermal responses in a fault-related subsidiary structure associated with fractal geometry. A double-peak is exhibited when the surrounding rocks have a constant permeability. On the other hand, the peak in the tracer response gradually decreases when the permeability varies with distance from the fault zone according to a power law, which can be described by the fADE. The temperature decline is more gradual when the permeability of surrounding rocks varies spatially than when they have a constant permeability. The fHTE demonstrates good agreement with the temperature profiles for the different permeabilities of surrounding rocks. The retardation parameters in the fADE and the fHTE increase with the permeability of the surrounding rocks. The orders of the temporal fractional derivatives in the fADE and the fHTE vary with the permeability patterns.

The effect of non-Fickian diffusion into surrounding rocks on contaminant transport in a fractured porous aquifer

Solute transport in a fractured porous confined aquifer is modelled by using an equation with a fractional-in-time derivative of order γ, which may vary from 0 to 1. Accounting for non-Fickian diffusion into the surrounding rock mass, which is modelled by a fractional spatial derivative of order α, leads to the introduction of an additional fractional-in-time derivative of order α/(1+α) in the equation for solute transport. Closed-form solutions for solute concentrations in the aquifer and surrounding rocks are obtained for an arbitrary time-dependent source of contamination located at the inlet of the aquifer. Based on these solutions, different regimes of contaminant transport in aquifers with various physical properties are modelled and analysed.

Fundamentals of steady-state non-Newtonian rimming flow

Abstract Rimming flow on the inner surface of a horizontal rotating cylinder is investigated. Using a scale analysis, a theoretical description is obtained for steady-state non-Newtonian flow. Simple lubrication theory is applied since the Reynolds number is small and the liquid film is thin. Since the Deborah number is very small the flow is viscometric. The shear-thinning number, which characterizes the shear-thinning effect, may be small or large. A general constitutive law for this kind of flow requires only a single function relating shear stress and shear rate that corresponds to a generalized Newtonian liquid. For this case the run-off condition for rimming flow is derived. Provided the run-off condition is satisfied, the existence of a continuous steady-state solution is proved. The rheological models, which show Newtonian behavior at low shear rates with transition to power-law shear thinning at moderate shear rates, are considered. Numerical results are carried out for the Carreau and Ellis models, which exhibit Newtonian behavior near the free surface and power-law behavior near the wall of the rotating cylinder.

Heat flow rate at a bore-face and temperature in the multi-layer media surrounding a borehole

Abstract Assessment of the heat either delivered from high temperature rocks to the borehole or transmitted to the rock formation from circulating fluid is of crucial importance for a number of technological processes related to borehole drilling and exploitation. Normally the temperature fields in the well and surrounding rocks are calculated numerically by finite difference method or analytically by applying the Laplace-transform method. The former approach requires tedious and, in certain cases, non-trivial numerical computations. The latter method leads to rather bulky formulae that are inconvenient for further numerical evaluation. Moreover, in previous studies where the solution is obtained analytically, the heat interaction of the circulating fluid with the formation was treated on the condition of constant bore-face temperature. In the present study the temperature field in the rock formation disturbed by the heat flow from the borehole is modeled by a heat conduction equation, assuming the Newton model for the convective heat transfer on the bore-face, with boundary conditions that account for the thermal history of the borehole exploitation. The problem is solved analytically by the generalized heat balance integral method. Within this method the approximate solution of the heat conduction problem is sought in the form of a finite sum of functions that belong to a complete set of linearly independent functions defined at the finite interval bounded by the radius of thermal influence and that satisfy the homogeneous boundary conditions on the bore-face. In the present study first and second order approximations are obtained for the composite multi-layer domain. The numerical results illustrate that the second approximation is in a good agreement with the exact solution. The only disadvantage of this solution is that it depends on the radius of thermal influence, which is an implicit function of time and can only be found numerically by iterative algorithms. In order to eliminate this complication, in this study an approximate explicit formula for the radius of thermal influence and new close-form approximate solution are proposed on the basis of the approximate solution obtained by the integral-balance method. Employing the non-liner regression method the coefficients for this simplified solution are obtained. The accuracy of the approximate solution is validated by comparison with the exact analytical solution found by Carslaw and Jaeger for the homogeneous domain.

Three Regimes of Non-Newtonian Rimming Flow

The present study is related to the rimming flow of non-Newtonian fluid on the inner surface of a horizontal rotating cylinder. Using a scale analysis, the main characteristic scales and nondimensional parameters, which describe the principal features of the process, are found. Exploiting the fact that one of the parameters is very small, an approximate asymptotic mathematical model of the process is developed and justified. For a wide range of fluids, a general constitutive law can be presented by a single function relating shear stress and shear rate that corresponds to a generalized Newtonian model. For this case, the run-off condition for rimming flow is derived. Provided the run-off condition is satisfied, the existence of a steady-state solution is proved. Within the bounds stipulated by this condition, film thickness admits a continuous solution, which corresponds to subcritical and critical flow regimes. It is proved that for the critical regime the solution has a corner on the rising wall of the cylinder. In the supercritical flow regime, a discontinuous solution is possible and a hydraulic jump may occur. It is shown that straightforward leading order steady-state theory can work well to study the shock location and height. For the particular case of a power-law model, the analytical solution of a steady-state equation for the fluid film thickness is found in explicit form. More complex rheological models, which show linear Newtonian behavior at low shear rates with transition to power law at moderate shear rates, are also considered. In particular, numerical computations were carried out for the Ellis model. For this model, some analytical asymptotic solutions have also been obtained in explicit form and compared with the results of numerical computations. Based on these solutions, the optimal values of parameters, which should be used in the Ellis equation for the correct simulation of the coating flows, are determined; the criteria that guarantee the steady-state continuous solutions are defined; and the size and location of the stationary hydraulic jumps, which form when the flow is in the supercritical state, are obtained for the different flow parameters.

Close-Contact Melting Inside an Elliptical Cylinder

An approximate mathematical model of contact melting in a horizontal elliptic cylinder is developed. The main characteristic scales and nondimensional parameters that describe the principal features of the melting process are found. It is shown that melting rate depends on the shape of the capsule. This is especially important for the design of practical latent heat thermal energy systems.

Rimming flow of a power-law fluid: Qualitative analysis of the mathematical model and analytical solutions

Rimming flow of a non-Newtonian fluid on the inner surface of a horizontal rotating cylinder is investigated. Simple lubrication theory is applied since the Reynolds number is small and liquid film is thin. For the steady-state flow of a power-law fluid the mathematical model reduces to a simple algebraic equation regarding the thickness of the liquid film. The qualitative analysis of this equation is carried out and the existence of two possible solutions is rigorously proved. Based on this qualitative analysis, different regimes of the rimming flow are defined and analyzed analytically. For the particular case, when the flow index in a power-law constitutive equation is equal to 1/2, the problem reduces to the fourth order algebraic equation which is solved analytically by Ferrari method.