Metal oxide nanocrystals have attracted significant interests due to their unique chemical, physical, and electrical properties which depend on their size and structure. In this study, a continuous flow microreactor system was employed to synthesize metal oxide nanocrystals in aqueous solution. Assembly of nanocrystals is considered one of the most promising approaches to design nano-, microstructures, and complex mesoscopic architectures. A variety of strategies to induce nanocrystal assembly have been reported, including directed assembly methods that apply external forces to fabricate assembled structures. In this study ZnO nanocrystals were synthesized in an aqueous solution using a continuous flow microreactor. The growth mechanism and stability of ZnO nanocrystals were studied by varying the pH and flow conditions of the aqueous solution. It was found that convective fluid flow from Dean vortices in a winding microcapillary tube could be used for the assembly of ZnO nanocrystals. The ZnO nanocrystal assemblies formed three-dimensional mesoporous structures of different shapes including a tactoid, a retangle and a sphere. The assembly results from a competing interaction between electrostatic forces caused by surface charge of nanocrystals and collision of nanocrystals associated with Dean vortices. The as synthesized colloidal ZnO nanocrystals or assembly were directly deposited onto a substrate to fabricate ZnO nanostructured surfaces. The rectangular assembly led to flower-like ZnO nanostructured films, while the spherical assembly resulted in amorphous ZnO thin film and vertical ZnO nanowire (NW) arrays. In contrast to the formation of flower structure or amorphous thin film, only colloidal ZnO nanocrystals were used as the building blocks for forming vertical ZnO NW arrays. This study demonstrates the versatility of the microreactor-assisted nanomaterial synthesis and deposition process for the production of nanostrucuturesres with various morphologies by tuning the physical parameters while using the same chemical precursors for the synthesis. ZnO flower structure was coated on a microwick structure to improve the capillary flow. The coated microwick structure showed an enhanced capillary rise, which was attributed to the hydrophilic property and geometrical modification of ZnO nanostructure. Two-phase boiling heat transfer was performed using ZnO nanostructured surfaces. ZnO nanocoating altered the important characteristics including surface roughness and wettability. Hydrophilic nature of the ZnO nanocoating generally enhanced the boiling heat transfer performance, resulting in higher heat transfer coefficient (HTC), higher critical heat flux (CHF), and lower surface superheat comparing to the bare surface. Octahedral SnO and porous NiO films, fabricated by a continuous flow microreactor system, were suggested as potential boiling surfaces for the high porosity and irregularity of their structures. / Graduation date: 2013

Purpose To investigate the possibility to reduce the number of failures caused by moisture and dust ingress in lighting equipment by looking towards customer acceptance and warranty claims, and then translate the result to technical attributes. Methodology The methodology is set up to be a part of a Design for Six Sigma project including the steps up to Concept development and business/customer approval. Known product development tools are used to evaluate existing techniques and generate new concepts. Customer analysis is done by surveys and investigating warranty claims. Result & Conclusions The customer analysis in this thesis show that Brazil and to some extent UK is the countries where the problem is seen as most severe. It also shows that complaints regarding dust are far more common than complaints regarding moisture when it comes to lamps placed at the lower part at the front of the truck. When the results from the customer analysis are compared with the technical aspects it shows that the most beneficial way to deal with the problem is to create a good air flow while still keeping the pore size, which could be done by using membranes and the help from CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulations. Trapping solutions are also welcomed by the customer as long as they can be part of the regular service. / Syfte Att undersöka behov och möjligheter att reducera problem med fukt och damminträngning i exteriöra belysningsartiklar på lastbilar genom att titta på kundacceptans och garantiärenden samt översätta detta till tekniska attribut. Metod Arbetet är upplagt som en del av ett Design for Six Sigma-projekt och innefattar stegen fram till Concept development and business/customer approval. Kända produktutvecklingsverktyg används för att ta fram underlag till konceptgenerering. Kundanalys utförs med hjälp av enkäter och undersökningar av garantiärenden. Resultat & slutsats Kundanalysen i denna examensrapport visar att Brasilien och Storbritannien är de länder där problemet uppfattas som störst. Den visar också att klagomål gällande damm är mycket vanligare än klagomål gällande fukt när det gäller lyktor placerade i den nedre delen i fronten på lastbilen. När resultaten från kundanalysen jämförs med de tekniska aspekterna finner man att det mest gynnsamma sättet att ta sig an problemet är att försöka få bra ett bra luftflöde i lyktorna men samtidigt minimera porstorleken. Detta kan man åstadkomma med hjälp av membran och CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simuleringar. Lösningar som handlar om att fånga upp dammet och fukten accepteras också av kunden så länge som detta kan lösas med hjälp av den vanliga servicen.

In this work, a source term model for estimating the rate of spreading and vaporization of LNG on land and sea is introduced. The model takes into account the composition changes of the boiling mixture, the varying thermodynamic properties due to preferential boiling within the mixture and the effect of boiling on conductive heat transfer. The heat, mass and momentum balance equations are derived for continuous and instantaneous spills and mixture thermodynamic effects are incorporated. A parameter sensitivity analysis was conducted to determine the effect of boiling heat transfer regimes, friction, thermal contact/roughness correction parameter and VLE/mixture thermodynamics on the pool spreading behavior. The aim was to provide a better understanding of these governing phenomena and their relative importance throughout the pool lifetime. The spread model was validated against available experimental data for pool spreading on concrete and sea. The model is solved using Matlab for two continuous and instantaneous spill scenarios and is validated against experimental data on cryogenic pool spreading found in literature.

The level set method offers a simple and robust approach to modeling liquid-vapor interfaces that arise in boiling and condensing flows. The current liquid-vapor phase-transition techniques used with the level set method are not able to account for different thermal conductivities and specific heats in each respective phase, nor are they able to accurately account for latent heat absorption and release. This paper presents a new level set based technique for liquid-vapor phase-transition that accounts for different material properties in each respective phase, such as thermal conductivity and specific heat, while maintaining the interface at the saturation temperature. The phase-transition technique is built on the ghost fluid framework coupled with the standard level set method. A new technique is presented for constructing ghost nodes that implicitly captures the immersed boundary conditions and is second order accurate. The method is tested against analytical solutions, and it is used to model film boiling. The new phase-transition technique will greatly assist efforts to accurately capture the physics of boiling and condensing flows. In addition to presenting a new phase transition technique, a coupled level set volume of fluid advection scheme is developed for phase transition flows. The new scheme resolves the mass loss problem associated with the level set method, and the method provides an easy way to accurately calculate the curvature of an interface, which can be difficult with the volume of fluid method. A film boiling simulation is performed to illustrate the superior performance of the coupled level set volume of fluid approach over the level set method and the volume of fluid method.

Multiphase flow is a familiar phenomenon from daily life and occupies an important role in physics, engineering, and medicine. The understanding of multiphase flows relies largely on the theory of interfaces, which is not well understood in many cases. To date, the Navier-Stokes-Korteweg equations and the Cahn-Hilliard equation have represented two major branches of phase-field modeling. The Navier-Stokes-Korteweg equations describe a single component fluid material with multiple states of matter, e.g., water and water vapor; the Cahn-Hilliard type models describe multi-component materials with immiscible interfaces, e.g., air and water. In this dissertation, a unified multiphase fluid modeling framework is developed based on rigorous mathematical and thermodynamic principles. This framework does not assume any ad hoc modeling procedures and is capable of formulating meaningful new models with an arbitrary number of different types of interfaces. In addition to the modeling, novel numerical technologies are developed in this dissertation focusing on the Navier-Stokes-Korteweg equations. First, the notion of entropy variables is properly generalized to the functional setting, which results in an entropy-dissipative semi-discrete formulation. Second, a family of quadrature rules is developed and applied to generate fully discrete schemes. The resulting schemes are featured with two main properties: they are provably dissipative in entropy and second-order accurate in time. In the presence of complex geometries and high-order differential terms, isogeometric analysis is invoked to provide accurate representations of computational geometries and robust numerical tools. A novel periodic transformation operator technology is also developed within the isogeometric context. It significantly simplifies the procedure of the strong imposition of periodic boundary conditions. These attributes make the proposed technologies an ideal candidate for credible numerical simulation of multiphase flows. A general-purpose parallel computing software, named PERIGEE, is developed in this work to provide an implementation framework for the above numerical methods. A comprehensive set of numerical examples has been studied to corroborate the aforementioned theories. Additionally, a variety of application examples have been investigated, culminating with the boiling simulation. Importantly, the boiling model overcomes several challenges for traditional boiling models, owing to its thermodynamically consistent nature. The numerical results indicate the promising potential of the proposed methodology for a wide range of multiphase flow problems. / text

This thesis is based on eight articles all related to the characteristics of the cooling system and plate evaporator of a household refrigerator. Through these articles, knowledge is provided that can be used to increase the operational efficiency in household refrigeration. Papers A, B and C focus on heat transfer and pressure drop in a commonly used free convection evaporator – the plate evaporator. Applicable correlations are suggested on how to estimate the air side heat transfer, the refrigerant side pressure drop and the refrigerant side heat transfer. Papers D, E and F hold a unique experimental study of the refrigerant charge distribution in the cooling system at transient and steady state conditions. From this cyclic losses are identified and estimated and ways to overcome them are suggested. In paper G the topic “charging and throttling” is investigated in an unparalleled experimental study based on more than 600 data points at different quantities of charge and expansions device capacities. It results in recommendations on how to optimize the capillary tube length and the quantity of refrigerant charge. Finally, Paper H holds a thermographic study of the overall cooling system operating at transient conditions. Overall, a potential to lower the energy use by as much as 25 % was identified in the refrigerator studied. About 10 % was found on the evaporator’s air side. 1-2 % was identified as losses related to the edge effect of the evaporator plate. About 8 % was estimated to be cyclic losses. About 5 % was found in cycle length optimization.  It is believed that most of these findings are of general interest for the whole field of household refrigeration even though the results come from one type of refrigerator. Suggestions of simple means to reduce the losses without increasing the unit price are provided within the thesis / <p>QC 20120411</p>

Cette thèse porte sur la simulation des jets de gouttes générés par des pulvérisateurs essence haute pression, pulvérisateurs qui sont un point clef des systèmes de combustion automobile de la présente et future génération devant diminuer les émissions de CO2 et de polluants. Dans un premier temps les jets de gouttes (" sprays ") sont simulés par simulation moyennée. Les résultats de simulation d'un jet donnant des résultats en moyenne satisfaisant, l'interaction de jets en injecteurs multi-trous est alors simulée. Les résultats sont cohérents par rapport aux mesures d'entraînement d'air. La simulation permettant d'avoir accès au champ complet 3D, le mécanisme d'interaction jet à jet et de développement instationnaire du spray est décrit en détail. La formation d'un mouvement descendant au centre du spray et celle d'un point d'arrêt central sont trouvés. Finalement, Ces résultats sont étendus au cas surchauffé, cas où la pression dans la chambre est inférieure à la pression de vapeur saturante. Un modèle simple semi-empirique est proposé pour tenir compte de la modification des conditions proches de la buse d'injection. Le modèle prédit correctement les tendances des variations de paramètres et capture la forme générale du spray qui se referme sur lui-même. La seconde grande partie est consacrée au développement d'un modèle de spray par l'approche des grandes échelles (SGE), limité ici aux cas non évaporant. Il comprend la modélisation de sous-maille de la dispersion turbulente, des collisions-coalescence et des termes d'échange de quantité de mouvement de sous-maille. L'effet du choix du modèle de sous-maille pour la viscosité turbulente de sous-maille est montré, le choix retenu étant le modèle de Smagorinski dynamique. Afin d'améliorer la représentativité cruciale des conditions d'injections, un couplage faible est réalisé à partir de résultats de simulations existantes de l'écoulement interne aux buses. Les fonctions densité de probabilité simple et jointes extraits des résultats de simulations sont validés par rapport aux mesures PDA en situation pseudo-stationnaire et la pénétration liquide et la forme du spray est comparée aux visualisations par ombroscopie. Enfin, différentes zones caractéristiques sont identifiées et des longueurs sont notées pour les cas d'injection à 100 et 200bar.

Cette étude concerne la caractérisation des écoulements diphasiques bouillants convectifs à haute pression rencontrés dans les réacteurs à eau sous pression (REP). La simulation de ces écoulements est aujourd'hui identifiée comme une voie possible d'amélioration pouvant conduire à la compréhension des mécanismes physiques menant à la crise d'ébullition en réacteur. La première partie de ce travail présente un modèle bi-dimensionnel quasi-établi capable de prédire de façon indépendante les profils de température et de vitesse dans un écoulement diphasique. Le découplage des équations implique de disposer de paramètres d'entrée (taux de vide, vitesse). Ce modèle est basé sur une approche de type modèle de mélange et sur la fermeture des termes de transport turbulent avec le concept de viscosité turbulente. La seconde partie généralise le modèle au cas bi-dimensionnel non-établi en proposant un outil qui résout de façon couplée toutes les équations de bilan et qui est basé sur l'utilisation d'un modèle original de type modèle homogène local avec relaxation thermodynamique. Une confrontation des résultats du modèle à des résultats expérimentaux fournis par la banque de données DEBORA a révélé que notre approche semblait suffisante pour rendre compte d'une bonne partie des données expérimentales en conditions REP. Mais néanmoins qu'elle présentait quelques limites dans des conditions poches du flux critique. Ce travail a permis de mettre en évidence les paramètres sensibles du modèle qui sont aujourd'hui bien identifiés à savoir les mécanismes de transport turbulent d'énergie et le choix du temps de relaxation. / This study is a contribution to the modelling of multidimentional high pressure boiling flows relative to PWR. Numerical simulation of such two-phase flows is considered to be an interesting way for the DNB understanding. The first part of this study exposes a two-dimentional steady state twophase flows model abble to predict velocity and temperature profiles in tube. The mixture balanced equations are used with the eddy diffusivity concept to close the turbulent transport terms. The second part is devoted to the development of the model in the general two dimentional case. Contrary to the steady state model, this model is indenpendant of experimental data and implies the use of an original local homogeneous relaxation modèle (HRM). The results obtained from the comparison with the data bank DEBORA reveals that in a mixture approch two submodel are sufficients to obtain a physial good description of turbulent boiling flows. Some limitations appear at conditions close to DNB conditions. The turbulent closures and the relaxation time in the HRM model have been clearly identified as the most important and sensitive parameters in the model.

Cette thèse est motivée par le besoin de compléter les connaissances actuelles des phénomènes ayant lieu lors d’un renvoi d’eau dans un lit de débris radioactifs, opération appelée « renoyage » et qui intervient dans une séquence d’accident grave où un cœur de réacteur nucléaire est dégradé suite à une perte prolongée de refroidissement primaire. Notre étude, de nature expérimentale, vise à mieux caractériser la crise d’ébullition en convection forcée, dans un milieu poreux chauffant. Le cœur du dispositif expérimental est un milieu poreux modèle quasibidimensionnel, composé de 276 cylindres disposés entre deux plaques de céramique distantes de 3 mm, dont l’une, transparente, permet de visualiser les écoulements. Les cylindres, de 2 mm de diamètre, sont des sondes thermo-résistives qui ont une double fonction : elles sont utilisées comme éléments chauffants et comme capteurs de température. Une boucle fluide permet de contrôler le débit d’injection de liquide dans la section test, la température d’injection ainsi que la pression. La section test est placée verticalement, le liquide est injecté par le bas à une température proche de la saturation. Dans une première série d’expériences, la puissance thermique dissipée globalement par un ensemble de cylindres chauffants est augmentée de façon progressive jusqu’à atteindre l’assèchement d’une zone du milieu poreux. Les résultats montrent deux types de phénoménologies dans le déclenchement de la crise d’ébullition. Pour des débits d’injection faibles (densités de flux massique de l’ordre de 4 kg.m^-2.s^-1 maximum), l’atteinte de la puissance d’assèchement se traduit par un lent recul du front diphasique jusqu’à sa stabilisation en haut de la zone chauffée ; en aval de la zone chauffée, l’écoulement est monophasique vapeur. Pour des débits d’injection plus élevés, la crise d’ébullition apparaît autour d’un des éléments chauffants, conduisant à une ébullition en film localisée, tandis qu’un écoulement diphasique liquide-vapeur continue de parcourir l’aval de la section test. Les visualisations de ces expériences permettent d’identifier qualitativement la structure des écoulements. D’autres expériences consistent à mesurer le flux critique local autour d’un cylindre choisi, pour différentes configurations d’écoulements. Le débit d’injection est fixé. Une puissance de chauffe est imposée à une ligne horizontale de cylindres en amont du cylindre choisi. Les résultats montrent que le flux critique sur ce cylindre diminue en fonction de la puissance délivrée à la ligne chauffée. La distance du cylindre étudié à la ligne chauffée semble avoir peu d’influence sur le flux critique. Des visualisations expérimentales sont utilisées pour caractériser l’écoulement diphasique en aval de la ligne chauffée, dans le but de mettre en relation le flux critique local avec des paramètres hydrodynamiques (saturations, vitesses des phases). Les images obtenues sont difficiles à exploiter. Afin de calibrer les paramètres des algorithmes de traitement d’images, nous avons reproduit une cellule d’essai de géométrie identique à l’originale, mais où l’on injecte du gaz par une ligne de cylindres en amont de la section test dans une configuration d’écoulement diphasique isotherme. Dans ce dispositif, le débit d’injection de gaz est contrôlé et mesuré. Les visualisations obtenues servent alors de références auxquelles sont comparées les visualisations d’ébullition convective. / This work is motivated by the need to better understand the phenomena occurring while some water is injected into a heated porous debris bed. This reflooding operation is a part of the planned mitigation procedure used during a Loss Of Coolant Accident (LOCA) that may occur into a nuclear power plant and results into a severe core damage. Our experimental study aims to characterize the boiling crisis that can happen in a boiling flow taking place within a heatgenerating model porous medium. The test section is a two-dimensional model porous medium, composed of an array of 276 cylinders placed between two ceramic plates spaced from one another by 3 mm, one of which is transparent and allows visualizations of the flow. The 2 mm diameter cylinders are Pt100 resistance temperature detectors that perform a dual function: they act as heating elements (heated by Joule effect) and are also used as temperature probes. A fluid loop allows controlling the liquid injection flow rate, its inlet temperature as well as its pressure. The test section is held vertically, the liquid injected from bottom at a temperature close to the saturation temperature. In a first series of experiments, the thermal power applied to a bundle of heating cylinders is progressively increased until a dry zone is detected in the porous medium. Two kinds of phenomenology are observed during these “dryout experiments”. First, at low liquid injection rate (4 kg.m^-2.s^-1 maximum mass flux), reaching the dryout power results into a liquid front receding down to the upper limit of the heated zone, while downstream the heated zone, the porous medium is vapour-saturated. Second, at higher flow rate, the boiling crisis happens at the surface of a single heating element, resulting in a local film boiling, whereas a two-phase flow still go through the whole test section. High-speed visualizations allow characterizing the flow regimes. Other experiments focus on determining the local critical heat flux on a given cylinder, for different upstream flow configurations. The inlet liquid flow rate is fixed. A thermal power is uniformly applied to a line of heating cylinders, upstream the cylinder under study. Results show that the local critical heat flux decreases as the power applied to the heated line increases. The distance from the cylinder under study to the heated line seems not to have a significant effect on the critical heat flux. Visualizations are used to characterize the two-phase flow upstream the heated line, aiming at expressing the critical heat flux as a function of the hydrodynamic parameters (saturations, phase velocities). The image analysis is particularly challenging. In order to calibrate the image processing parameters, we use a second model porous medium with the same geometry as the heat generating one, but where an isothermal two-phase flow is obtained by injecting gas into the liquid flow rather than generated by boiling. The gas injection flow rate is controlled and measured. Isothermal two-phase flow visualizations provide a reference case and are compared to flow boiling visualizations.

Ce travail de thèse porte sur l’étude, numérique et expérimentale, des mécanismes physiques intervenant lors de l’ébullition nucléée. L’étude numérique a été conduite avec un code de simulation numérique directe utilisant une méthode "level set". Cette méthode a été évaluée à travers la simulation de la croissance de bulles dans un liquide surchauffé et de bons accords ont été observés entre nos simulations et les résultats théoriques. Puis, des modèles ont été intégrés à l’outil numérique, afin de simuler la dynamique de la ligne de contact sans changement de phase. Par la suite, ces modèles ont été validés lors de la simulation de cas tests d’étalement de gouttes sur une plaque. Enfin, des simulations de croissance de bulles sur paroi ont été réalisées en considérant le flux provenant de la micro-couche. Parallèlement, une étude sur l’ébullition nucléée, en l’absence de gaz incondensables, a été conduite en microgravité, à l’aide d’une expérience en fusée sonde : SOURCE 2. Une analyse comparative a été menée sur les échanges thermiques obtenus en 1G et en 0G. Puis, l’influence de la configuration de l’ébullition sur les transferts thermiques, en microgravité, a été étudiée. Enfin, l’outil numérique a été utilisé afin de simuler un cas test défini à partir d’une séquence de l’expérience menée en microgravité. Nous avons simulé le remplissage et la pressurisation de la cellule d’essai et un bon accord a été obtenu entre les résultats numériques et les données expérimentales. / In this work, we study different phenomena that occur during nucleate boiling. Firstly, we numerically investigate nucleate boiling by using two phase flow direct numerical simulation based on a level set / Ghost Fluid method. Nucleate boiling on a plate is not only a thermal issue, but also involves multiphase dynamics issues at different scales and at different stages of bubble growth. As a consequence, we divide the whole problem and investigate separately the different phenomena considering their nature and the scale at which they occur. First we analyse the boiling of a static bubble immersed in an overheated liquid. Then, we implement a method that makes it possible to take into account the contact angle hysteresis model. Finally, considering the evaporation of the micro-layer, we perform simulations of bubble growth on a plate. Besides, an experimental study has been performed in the framework of a sounding rocket experiment : SOURCE 2, driven by ESA (European Spatial Agency) in which several partners are involved. For SOURCE 2, a single species configuration is used. No desorption and no thermo-capillary convection occur, the change in the bubble size is only due to vaporisation. Using this device, a comparison between heat transfer on ground and heat transfer in microgravity was performed and the influence of boiling configuration on heat transfer was studied. Finally a sequence of the experiment on the sounding rocket has been numerically simulated. It concerns the filling and the pressurisation of a small reservoir in microgravity. A good agreement was obtained between the simulations and the experimental results.