Geometrical Parameter Effects on Solidification/Melting Processes Using Twin Concentric Helical Coil: Experimental Investigations

Moving the load peak to consume electrical power is valuable in air conditioning systems. Consequently, the current study presents an experimental thermal investigation of an ice storage system. For this purpose, a twin concentric helical coil (TCHC) is utilized. The coil is submerged in distilled water in an insulated tank. The main aim is to explore the effect of geometrical/operating conditions for the TCHC on percentage energy stored/regained, solidified/melted mass fraction, and average charging/discharging rate. The main parameters are twin coil pitch and tube diameter while keeping the cold heat transfer fluid (HTF) inlet conditions at −12 °C and 10 L/min. The results disclosed that the discharge time increases by about 79% for total energy gained as the coil pitch rises from 30 to 50 mm at a smaller tube diameter of 9.52 mm. At the same time, the discharge time is doubled when the tube diameter is 15.88 mm. Furthermore, the complete solidification needs half the time (time reduced to 50%) to be achieved as the tube diameter increases from 9.52 mm to 15.88 mm (68% increases in diameter) for lower pitch (P = 30 mm).

Experimental Investigation of Micro-Scale Heat Transfer at an Evaporating Moving 3-Phase Contact Line

An experimental study is conducted to investigate the micro-scale heat transfer at an evaporating moving 3-phase contact line. The moving evaporating meniscus is formed by pushing or sucking a liquid column of HFE7100 in a vertical channel of 600 μm width using a syringe pump. The gas atmosphere is pure HFE7100 vapor. This channel is built using two parallel flat plates. A 10 μm thick stainless steel heating foil forms a part of one of the flat plates. Two-dimensional micro-scale temperature field at the back side of the heating foil is observed with a high speed infrared camera with a spatial resolution of 14.8 μm × 14.8 μm and an in-situ calibration procedure is used at each pixel element. A high speed CMOS camera is used to capture the shape of the moving meniscus, the images are post-processed to track the free surface of the meniscus. Local heat fluxes from the heater to the evaporating meniscus are calculated from the measured transient wall temperature distributions using an energy balance for each pixel element. In the vicinity of the 3-phase contact line the heat flux distribution shows a local maximum due to high evaporation rates at this small region. The local maximum heat flux at the 3-phase contact line area is found to be dependent on the input heat flux, the velocity and the direction of the meniscus movement. The results give detailed insight into the specific dynamic micro-scale heat and fluid transport process.

Combustion Quasi-Two Zone Predictive Model for Dual Fuel Engines

A quasi-two zone predictive model developed in the present work for the prediction of the combustion processes in dual fuel engines and some of their performance features. Methane is used as the main fuel while employing a small quantity of liquid fuel (pilot) injected through the conventional diesel fuel system. This model emphasizes the effects of chemical kinetics activity of the premixed gaseous fuel on the combustion performance, while the role of the pilot fuel in the ignition and heat release processes is considered. A detailed chemical kinetic scheme consists of 178 elementary reaction steps and 41 chemical species is employed to describe the oxidation of the gaseous fuel from the start of compression to the end of expansion process. The associated formation and concentrations of exhaust emissions are correspondingly established. This combustion model is able to establish the development of the combustion process with time and the associated important operating parameters such as pressure, temperature, rates of energy release and composition. Predicted values for methane operation show good agreement with corresponding previous experimental values over a range of operating conditions mainly associated with high load operation.

Preliminary Investigation Into the Utilization of Gas Containing 21% H2S in Oilfield Gas Turbines

Oil fields electrical power generation is commonly dependent on separated sweet gas for fuel in typical turbine/generators set up. As discoveries and subsequent development of sour oil and gas fields are becoming common place, either the produced sour gas is sweetened or diesel is used for fue-lling the gas turbine/generators. However, due to the high cost of diesel fuel, most operating companies opt for sweetening the gas for fuelling gas turbines. Sour gas of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) content above 2% was always discarded as fuel for fear of hot corrosion (sulphodation) of the hot section of the gas turbine would lead to catastrophic failure. This paper is set out to investigate possible modifications to a typical oil field gas turbine in order to economically allow for burning sour gas without the onset of hot corrosion. The study looked at a typical example of an oil field gas turbine generator currently being operated by diesel fuel and discussed the necessary modifications to operate the turbine on sour gas containing upto 21% H2S by volume. The economies of diesel, sour and sweetened gas operations were highlighted.