Zi-Tao Yu

Experimental Measurements of Thermal Conductivity of Wood Species in China: Effects of Density, Temperature, and Moisture Content

Experimental measurements of thermal conductivity of wood were performed using the heat flow meter and transient plane source technique. The specimens were prepared from five species of both softwoods and hardwoods widely available and used in China, with a wide range of density and moisture content. The transverse thermal conductivity of ovendry specimens is presented as a function of density and temperature up to 90°C and is compared with that along the grain direction for two select species. The influence of moisture content up to 23 percent, which is below the typical fiber saturation point of wood, on the transverse thermal conductivity is presented as well. It is shown that the transverse thermal conductivity of wood increases with density, temperature, and moisture content. Linear correlating equations are proposed in terms of these factors.

A Parametric Study of Prandtl Number Effects on Laminar Natural Convection Heat Transfer From a Horizontal Circular Cylinder to Its Coaxial Triangular Enclosure

A parametric study of Prandtl number effects on laminar natural convection heat transfer in a horizontal equilateral triangular cylinder with a coaxial circular cylinder is conducted. The Prandtl number is varied over a wide range from 10−2 to 105, which corresponds to a variety of working fluids. The governing equations with the Boussinesq approximation for buoyancy are iteratively solved using the finite volume approach. It is shown that the flow patterns and temperature distributions are unique for low-Prandtl-number fluids (Pr ≤ 0.1), and are nearly independent of Prandtl number when Pr ≥ 0.7. In addition, the inclination angle of the triangular enclosure is found to noticeably affect the variations of the local Nusselt number, and to have insignificant influence on the average Nusselt numbers for low Rayleigh numbers when Pr ≥ 0.7.

Thermal Conductivity Enhancement of Ethylene Glycol-Based Suspensions in the Presence of Silver Nanoparticles of Various Shapes

In this technical brief, the effect of adding silver (Ag) nanoparticles of various shapes on the thermal conductivity enhancement of ethylene glycol (EG)-based suspensions was investigated experimentally. These included Ag nanospheres (Ag NSs), Ag nanowires (Ag NWs), and Ag nanoflakes (Ag NFs). Measurements of the thermal conductivity of the suspensions were performed from 10 to 30 °C at an increment of 5 °C. It was shown that the thermal conductivity of the EG-based suspensions increases with raising the temperature. The Ag NWs of a high aspect ratio (∼500) caused greatest relative enhancement up to 15.6% at the highest loading of nearly 0.1 vol. %, whereas the other two shapes of nanoparticles, Ag NSs and Ag NFs with much smaller aspect ratios, only led to enhancements up to 5%. The formation of a network of Ag NWs that facilitates heat conduction was likely responsible for their better performance. The relative enhancement was also predicted by the Hamilton-Crosser model that takes the particle shape effect into consideration. It was shown that the predictions far underestimate the thermal conductivity enhancements but are qualitatively consistent with their shape dependence. As a penalty, however, the presence of Ag NWs was shown to give rise to significant increase in the viscosity of the EG-based suspensions.

Enhanced Critical Heat Flux During Quenching of Extremely Dilute Aqueous Colloidal Suspensions With Graphene Oxide Nanosheets

In this Technical Brief, we report on preliminary results of an experimental investigation of quenching of aqueous colloidal suspensions with graphene oxide nanosheets (GONs). Extremely dilute suspensions with only 0.0001% and 0.0002% (in mass fraction) of GONs were studied and their critical heat fluxes (CHF) during quenching were determined to increase markedly by 13.2% and 25.0%, respectively, as compared to that of pure water. Such efficient CHF enhancement was interpreted to be caused primarily by the improved wettability of the quenched surfaces, due to deposition of the fish-scale-shaped GONs resulting in self-assembly quasi-ordered microscale morphologies.

Subcooled Pool Film Boiling Heat Transfer From Spheres With Superhydrophobic Surfaces: An Experimental Study

Pool film boiling was studied by visualized quenching experiments on stainless steel spheres in water at the atmospheric pressure. The surfaces of the spheres were coated to be superhydrophobic (SHB), having a static contact angle greater than 160 deg. Subcooled conditions were concerned parametrically with the subcooling degree being varied from 0 °C (saturated) to 70 °C. It was shown that film boiling is the overwhelming mode of heat transfer during the entire course of quenching as a result of the retention of stable vapor film surrounding the SHB spheres, even at very low wall superheat that normally corresponds to nucleate boiling. Pool boiling heat transfer is enhanced with increasing the subcooling degree, in agreement with the thinning trend of the vapor film thickness. The heat flux enhancement was found to be up to fivefold for the subcooling degree of 70 °C in comparison to the saturated case, at the wall superheat of 200 °C. A modified correlation in the ratio form was proposed to predict pool film boiling heat transfer from spheres as a function of the subcooling degree.

Pool boiling heat transfer and quench front velocity during quenching of a rodlet in subcooled water: Effects of the degree of subcooling

ABSTRACT Pool boiling heat transfer and quench front propagation were investigated during quenching of cylindrical stainless steel rodlets in subcooled water. The degree of subcooling was varied from 0°C (saturated) to 40°C at an increment of 10°C at atmospheric pressure. The results showed that the increase of degree of subcooling accelerates quenching, with the total quenching time being shortened from 90 second (saturated) to 12 second (subcooled by 40°C). As revealed by the boiling curves that were obtained via solving an inverse heat conduction problem in cylindrical coordinates, boiling heat transfer is enhanced significantly for all boiling modes with raising the degree of subcooling. At the highest degree of subcooling of 40°C, the critical heat flux is improved by nearly 300% as compared to that in saturated water. In addition, the rewetting temperature (i.e., Leidenfrost point) was found to increase as a nearly linear function of the degree of subcooling. The quench front was observed to propagate upward from the bottom of the rodlet, which is accelerated noticeably with increasing the degree of subcooling. The average quench front velocity was shown to agree well with the predicted value of an existing theoretical model that was modified to take the influence of subcooling into consideration.

An Experimental Study of Thermal Performance of a Two-Phase Loop Thermosyphon (TPLT)-Based Steam Generator: Effects of Thermal Boundary Conditions

For the Parabolic trough collector (PTC) system, thermal boundary condition of the receiver (or heating section) is important for the thermal optimization. In this work, effects of thermal boundary on thermal performance of the two-phase loop thermosyphon (TPLT) natural circulation PTC system was investigated experimentally. Three kinds of thermal boundary heating conditions (upper and lower half, and whole circular heated) and two filling ratios (FR = 0.6, 1.2) were adopted in this paper. The results show that half heating condition can improve heat transfer performance in receiver and system thermal resistance. But the preferred half heating boundary was varied as the filling ratio was changed. However, a lower thermal efficiency was observed for the partly heating boundary conditions. For a low heat flux condition in this work, the effects of thermal boundary on flow instability were not obvious, especially for the bigger filling ratio condition.Copyright

Enhanced Thermal Conductivity of Ethylene Glycol-Based Suspensions in the Presence of Silver Nanoparticles of Various Sizes and Shapes

Engineered suspensions in the presence of highly-conductive nanoparticles, coined as nanofluids, have been studied extensively as a novel family of advanced heat transfer fluids. Attention has been paid primarily to the enhanced thermal conductivity of the suspensions that depends significantly on the material, size, shape, dispersion and loading of the nanoparticles. In this paper, the effects of adding silver (Ag) nanoparticles of various sizes and shapes on the thermal conductivity of ethylene glycol (EG)-based suspensions were investigated experimentally. These included Ag nanospheres (Ag NSs), Ag nanowires (Ag NWs) and Ag nanoflakes (Ag NFs). The suspensions were prepared at concentrations of 1, 5 and 10 mg/mL. The size and shape of the various Ag nanoparticles were observed by means of microscopy techniques. The dispersion and stability of the suspensions were also inspected. Measurements of the thermal conductivity of the suspensions were performed on a Hot Disk Thermal Constants Analyzer, which is based on the transient plane source technique, at elevated temperatures from 10 to 30 °C at an increment of 5 °C. It was shown that the thermal conductivity of the EG-based suspensions increases with raising the temperature. The Ag NWs of a very high aspect ratio (∼400) caused greatest relative enhancement up to 15.6% at the highest loading of 10 mg/mL (∼0.1 vol.%). The other two types of nanoparticles, Ag NSs and Ag NFs with much smaller aspect ratios, only led to enhancements up to 5%. The formation of a network of Ag NWs that facilitates heat conduction was likely responsible for their better performance. In addition, the relative enhancement was predicted by the Hamilton-Crosser (H-C) equation that takes the shape effect of the particles into consideration. It was shown that the predictions far underestimate the thermal conductivity enhancements but are qualitatively consistent with their shape dependence.Copyright

A Numerical Investigation of Constrained Melting of Nanostructure-Enhanced Phase Change Materials in a Rectangular Cavity Heated From Below

A numerical study of constrained melting of nanostructure-enhanced phase change materials (NEPCM) consisting of eicosane and various loadings of CNTs in a rectangular cavity heated from below was performed. Assuming that the NEPCM are single-phase PCMs with homogeneous thermophysical properties, the problem was solved using a finite volume method based on the enthalpy-porosity scheme for solid-liquid phase change. The effective thermophysical properties of NEPCM were predicted using the mixture models and empirical equation with respect to the loading of CNTs. Three nominal Grashof numbers corresponding to three sizes of the cavity were considered. Evolutions of the constrained melting processes were presented by means of snapshots of the temperature contour at representative time instants. The melting rates and local heat transfer along the heated bottom were compared quantitatively based on the variations of the instantaneous liquid fraction and average Nusselt number over the bottom during melting, respectively. It was shown that at a given size of the cavity, melting was expedited as more CNTs were introduced. The expediting of melting was mainly attributed to the enhanced thermal conductivity and lowering of latent heat of fusion of NEPCM. The inclusion of CNTs, however, increases considerably the viscosity of melted NEPCM, which in turn leads to less significant natural convection effect during melting. As a result, increase of loading of CNTs was shown to lead to two competing effects. The feasibility of NEPCM in melting is justified when the enhanced heat conduction overweighs the suppressed natural convection.Copyright