Shell and tube heat exchangers (STHEs) are the most common type of heat exchanger in preheat trains (PHT) of oil refineries and in chemical process plants. Most commercial design software tools for STHE assume uniform distribution over all tubes of a tube bundle. This leads to various challenges in the operation of the affected devices. Flow maldistribution reduces heat duty of STHE in many applications and supports fouling buildup in fluids that tend to particle, bio, and crystallization fouling (Verein Deutscher Ingenieure, ed., 2010, Heat Atlas, 2nd ed., VDI-Buch., Springer-Verlag). In this article, a fluid mechanics study about tube side flow distribution of crude oil and related hydrocarbons in two-pass PHT heat exchangers is described. It is shown that the amount of flow maldistribution varies significantly between the different STHE designs. Therefore, a parameter study was conducted to investigate reasons for maldistribution. For instance, the nozzles diameter, type, and orientation were identified as crucial parameters. In consequence, simple design suggestions for reducing tube side flow maldistribution are proposed.

<p>This study comprises experimental investigations and theoretical/empirical analyses of three forced-convective (pumped) boiling schemes: (i) confined round single jet and jet array impingement boiling, and flow boiling through conventional-sized (ii) concentric circular annuli and (iii) rectangular channels. These schemes could be utilized in the thermal management of various applications including high-heat-flux electronic devices, power devices, electric vehicle charging cables, avionics, future space vehicles, etc.</p>

<p>  </p> <p>Part I studies the lubricant sprays and droplets in a rotary compressor. Air conditioning (AC) systems are now widely used in residential and commercial environments, while the compressor is the most important element in the AC system, and rotary compressors are often used in split AC appliances, whose number is estimated to reach 3.7 billion in 2050. In a rotary compressor, the lubricant oil atomizes into small droplets due to the differential pressure in and out of the cylinder. Part of the lubricant oil droplets carried by the refrigerant vapor will ultimately exhaust from the compressor through the discharge pipe. The ratio of the discharged oil volume to the total oil volume is characterized as the Oil Discharge Ratio (ODR). High ODR will reduce the reliability of the compressor and deteriorate the heat transfer of the condenser and the evaporator, resulting in decreased efficiency. Thus, controlling the ODR is a key issue for the design of the rotary compressor.</p> <p>In Part I, rotary compressors were modified to provide optical access into its internal space, i.e., the lower cavity (refers to the space between the cylinder and the motor), above the rotor/stator, and at the discharge tube level. The modified rotary compressors’ operation was supported by a test rig which provided a wide range of operating conditions, e.g., pressure and frequency. Thus, in-situ optical measurements, e.g., shadowgraph and holograph, can be performed to visualize the lubricant sprays and droplets in the rotary compressor. An image processing routine containing the Canny operator and Convolutional Neural-Network was developed to identify droplets from high-resolution shadowgraph images, while Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Optical Flow Velocimetry (OFV) were applied to calculate the spray and droplet’s velocities with time-resolved shadowgraph images. Parallel Four-Step Phase Shifting Holograph (PFSPSH) located the droplets’ positions in a three-dimensional volume under the specific operating condition.</p> <p>Both primary and secondary atomization were observed in the rotary compressor, while primary atomization is the major source of droplet production. The droplet size distributions versus the frequency, vertical direction, radial direction, and pressure are obtained. It is observed that the droplet characteristic mean diameters increase with the frequency and pressure. They also become larger in the outer region above the rotor/stator and keep constant in the radial direction at the discharge tube level. The penetration velocity of the lubricant spray is calculated in the lower cavity. An outward shift of the jet core combined with an outward velocity component was observed. Additionally, horizontal swirling velocity above the rotor/stator and at the discharge tube level and the vertical recirculation velocity above the rotor/stator are characterized. The volume fraction of droplets was also characterized under the specific operating condition. The results provide detailed experimental data to set up the boundary conditions used in CFD. They also show that the droplets in the upper cavity are mostly from the discharge process of the cylinder in the lower cavity. The results support a droplet pathway model in the rotary compressor, which can guide the optimization of future rotary compressors.</p> <p>Evaporation is commonly seen in hydrology, agriculture, combustion, refrigeration, welding, etc. And it always accompanies heat and mass transfer at the liquid-gas interface and is affected by the substance’s properties, the environment’s pressure, temperature, convection, and so on. PFSPSH in Part I aims to retrieve the phase information for holograph reconstruction. Part II further explores the application of the PFSPSH technology in Part I to observe the evaporation process of acetone, where the phase disturbance caused by the vapor is used to reconstruct the vapor concentration in space. The method is called Parallel Four-Step Phase Shifting Interferometer (PFSPSI). The first case studies the evaporation process of the acetone contained in a liquid pool with uniform air flow in a low-speed wind tunnel. The mole fractions of the acetone vapor near the liquid-air interface with different air speeds are characterized. The second case studies the evaporation process of acetone droplets levitated by an ultrasound levitator. The mole fraction of the acetone vapor near the liquid-air interface is characterized by assuming an axisymmetric field and using the analytical solution of the inverse Abel transform. The asymmetric pattern of the acetone vapor field is observed, which is considered due to the drastic sound pressure change at the stand wave location produced by the ultrasound levitator. The mass transfer of the evaporation process by the vapor’s mole fraction is calculated and compared with the mass transfer calculated by the droplet size change. It is observed that the mass transfer by the vapor’s mole fraction is generally smaller than the mass transfer calculated by the droplet size change, which can be explained by the convection process induced by the acoustic streaming.</p>

<p dir="ltr">For additive manufacturing to be a viable method to build metal parts for industries such as nuclear, the manufactured parts must be of higher quality and have lower variation in said quality than what can be achieved today. This high variation in quality bars the techniques from being used in high safety tolerance fields, such as nuclear. If this obstacle could be overcome, the benefits of additive manufacturing would be in lower cost for complex parts, as well as the ability to design and test parts in a very short timeframe, as only the CAD model needs to be created to manufacture the part. In this study, work to achieve this lower variation of quality was approached in two ways. The first was in the development of surrogate models, utilizing machine learning, to predict the end quality of additively manufactured parts. This was done by using experimental data for the mechanical properties of built parts as outputs to be predicted, and in-situ signals captured during the manufacturing process as inputs to the model. To capture the in-situ signals, cameras were used for thermal and optical imaging, leveraging the natural layer-by-layer manufacturing method used in AM techniques. The final models were created using support vector machine and gaussian process regression machine learning algorithms, giving high correlations between the insitu signals and mechanical properties of relative density, elongation to fracture, uniform elongation, and the work hardening exponent. The second approach to this study was in the development of a reduced order model for a computer simulation of an AM build. For project, a ROM was built inside the MOOSE framework, and was developed for an AM model designed by the MOOSE team, using proper orthogonal decomposition to project the problem onto a lower dimensional subspace, using POD to design the reduced basis subspace. The ROM was able to achieve a reduction to 1% the original dimensionality of the problem, while only allowing 2-5% relative error associated with the projection.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Powder Sprays such as Direct Energy Deposition and Cold Spray are rapidly growing and promising manufacturing methods in the Additive Manufacturing field, as they allow easy and localized delivery of powder to be fused to a substrate and consecutive layers. The relatively small size of nozzles allows for these methods to be mounted on CNC machines and Robotic Arms for the creation of complex shapes. However, these manufacturing methods are inherently stochastic, and therefore differences in powder size, shape, trajectory, and velocity can drastically affect whether they will deposit on a substrate. This variation results in an inherent reduction of deposition efficiency, leading to waste and the need for powder collection or recycling systems. The design of the nozzles can drastically affect the variation of powder trajectory and velocity on a holistic level, and thus understanding the gas-powder flow of these nozzles in respect to the features of said nozzles is crucial. This paper proposes and examines how changes in the nozzle geometry affect gas-powder flow and powder focusing for Direct Energy Deposition and Cold Spray. In addition, a new Pulsed Cold Spray nozzle design is proposed that will control the amount of gas and powder used by the nozzle via solenoid actuation. By making these changes to the nozzle, it is possible to improve deposition efficiency and reduce powder/gas waste in these processes, while also allowing for improved coating density. Furthermore, the research done in this thesis will also focus on novel applications to powder spray manufacturing methods, focusing on polymer metallization and part identification.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Interest in using detonation-based combustion cycles for use propulsion and power generation has gained considerable attention in the last 10 years or so. The rotating detonation engine (RDE), in particular, has garnered the most attention as a possible replacement for current generation combustion systems. RDEs are continuous flow devices that typically operate in a non-premixed fashion. Reactants are injected into an annular combustion chamber that is usually several millimeters wide. One or more detonation waves propagate azimuthally around the annulus, consuming the reactants. The products then expand out of the combustor where it can produce thrust or be passed into a turbine. The detonation wave front in RDEs travel at speeds between 1-3 km/s which poses additional complexity beyond traditional combustors. There are large gaps in the research community for RDEs that use one or more liquid based propellants. Questions regarding liquid breakup, atomization, breakup, recovery all remain unanswered both experimentally and numerically. This work seeks to understand these fundamental physical phenomena that drive these devices by applying advanced, high-speed laser and other optical diagnostics. </p><p dir="ltr"> A 120 mm nominal diameter rotating detonation combustor that operates on non-premixed hydrogen-air was modified to remove a hydrogen orifice and was replaced with a single liquid fuel injector. This simple, yet important, modification enables the study of a one-way coupling between a liquid fuel jet and a detonation wave at relevant spatio-temporal scales. Planar laser-induced fluorescence was performed at rates up to 1 MHz to quantify the quasi-steady jet dynamics and the recovery behavior of the single liquid jet. Long-duration PLIF imaging lasting 30-40 detonation periods at 300 kHz was also performed for statistical significance. A diesel liquid-in-crossflow injector was observed to breakup or be removed from the PLIF plane within only a few microseconds. After the detonation wave passes through the spray there is a significant dwell period can last between 20-40% of the detonation period before the new fuel is issued into the channel. The quasi-steady liquid jet trajectory was also compared to a jet-in-crossflow from literature and there is decent agreement in the jet near-field. </p><p dir="ltr"> The same hardware scheme with a different liquid fuel injector was tested in conjunction with an alternative imagine scheme. The first technique was able to capture details in the radial-axial plane but could not resolve any motion in the azimuthal direction. A volume-based illumination scheme was used for LIF to image a liquid fuel jet in the azimuthal-axial plane. For this experiment the location of the liquid fuel jet was moved into a different position and as a result experiences significantly different behavior than the jet in crossflow. The breakup and evaporation process takes place over a much longer period of time and there is no pause of liquid fuel injection. Similarly, LIF was performed at 300 kHz for 30 detonation cycles to enable sadistically quantification and phase averaging. Filtered OH* and CH* chemiluminescence imaging was also performed over the same field of view as the LIF imaging. Estimation of the velocity field was calculated using optical flow from the Jet-A LIF images. The velocity results agree well with the recovery analysis from the PLIF measurements.</p><p dir="ltr"> Using the same liquid fuel injection scheme, Jet-A droplet diameter and velocity was measured <i>in-situ</i> during a hot-fire experiment using phase Doppler interferometry (PDI). Although a point technique, PDI was used to measure thousands of droplets during a single test at multiple locations and with multiple conditions. As a means of comparison, cold flow experiments were performed with water in the exit plume. Droplet diameters were measured between 1-20 µs in both cases. PDI results were compared with the optical flow results and there is agreement in median velocities and some differences in the minimum and maximum velocity values. Possible sources of error in the diameter measurement are discussed as well.</p>

<p dir="ltr">With increasing demand for reduced carbon emissions and increased fuel costs, novel aircraft designs are being developed that reduce the wetted area of the aircraft leading to complex inlet installations for engine integrations. With this, an understanding of the effects of inlet distortion on the compression system is paramount. One key parameter that defines the response of the compression system to inlet distortions is that of the critical angle of distortion. This is the circumferential angle that a distortion must occupy before performance and stability of the compression system is changed. This effort investigates the mechanism by which the critical angle of distortion alters the performance and stability of a high-speed centrifugal compressor. With this, a more accurate estimate of the critical angle of distortion for compressors is developed that allows for characterization of this angle without the need for copious simulations and experimental test campaigns. This investigation was driven by computational fluid dynamic simulations that were utilized to determine the critical angle of inlet distortion. Once this was understood, inlet distortion screens were designed via use of porous inlet-only CFD models to generate similar distortion profiles to those used in the CFD campaign. Finally, these screens were tested and the distortion profiles of the screens investigated along with the performance and stability changes of the compressor due to increasing distortion extents.</p><p dir="ltr">To determine the critical angle of distortion for the centrifugal compressor investigated, a computational fluid dynamics study of the compressor was conducted. In this effort, pure once-per-rev total pressure distortions were delivered to the compression system with the extent varied in terms of number of impeller main blade pitches. The effects of this on performance and machine static pressure rise characteristics was analyzed. These simulations were conducted using a full-annulus transient model to allow for distortion propagation through the passages to be as realistic as possible. The critical angle of distortion of the compressor was found to correspond to 4.5 pitches (or 95.3°) as at this point the compressor efficiency and total pressure ratio were exponentially deteriorated for any increase in distortion extent.</p><p dir="ltr">With knowledge of the critical angle, an understanding of the mechanism by which this alters performance was presented in terms of reduced frequency. Advective, acoustic, and relative acoustic definitions of reduced frequency were analyzed to determine which correlated best with physical flow disturbances from the inlet distortion propagation through the impeller passage. Furthermore, rothalpy was investigated as a tool to track distortion through the passage as it is maintained along a streamline but contains information of the relative frame temporal pressure gradient due to disturbances in the absolute frame. Utilizing distortion tracking and reduced frequencies, the critical angle of inlet distortion was found to correlate with the acoustic reduced frequency. For acoustic reduced frequencies below unity, the compressor performance was degraded.</p><p dir="ltr">With an understanding of the critical extent, inlet-only simulations were conducted to generate designs of total pressure screens to precipitate similar total pressure distortion profiles to the compressor for a design of experiment. These designs were evaluated experimentally using rotatable inlet rakes upstream of the compressor. A comparison between the experimental and CFD data for these distortion profiles showed discrepancies, which were investigated. The findings from this allowed an outline of best practices for future design work for generating total pressure distortion profiles using porous inlet-only models for design of experimental testing of inlet distortion related effects.</p><p dir="ltr">Finally, the centrifugal compressor’s response to the designed inlet distortion screens was analyzed. The compressor was mapped from choke to surge at 80%, 90%, and 100% speed. These corresponded to subsonic, transonic, and supersonic inlet relative Mach numbers for the impeller. The compressor was found to be sensitive above the critical distortion extent with efficiency and stage total pressure ratio degraded. Surge margin was enhanced by use of the screens at 100% speed, but severely degraded at 80% and this was found to correlate with the work characteristic slope. The typical understanding of a more negative work characteristic slope being a more stable operating condition for the compressor was found to be untrue for the distortion screens tested. The compressor entered instability at the same value of work coefficient for all distortion conditions, which lead to a more positive slope of the work characteristic allowing for a wider operating range in terms of flow coefficient.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The foundation of numerical codes used in engineering analyses of two-phase flows is the two-fluid model (TFM). However, the TFM codes use artificial regularization to remove the high frequency ill-posed instability in the numerical solution. This work demonstrates that incorporating variational inertial coupling terms to the numerical two-fluid model code, makes it more complete, objective and well-posed without the need for any regularization. The variational TFM is implemented in an industrial CFD code and the two-fluid Burgers problem is used to verify the numerical TFM against analytic solutions.</p>

The design and optimization of entrained flow gasifiers is conducted more and more via computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A detailed resolution of single coal particles within such simulations is nowadays not possible due to computational limitations. Therefore the coal particle conversion is often represented by simple 0-D models. For an optimization of such 0-D models a precise understanding of the physical processes at the boundary layer and within the particle is necessary. In real gasifiers the particles experience Reynolds numbers up to 10000. However in the literature the conversion of coal particles is mainly regarded under quiescent conditions. Therefore an analysis of the conversion of single particles is needed. Thereto the computational fluid dynamics can be used. For the detailed analysis of single reacting particles under flow conditions a CFD model is presented. Practice-oriented parameters as well as features of the CFD model result from CFD simulations of a Siemens 200MWentrained flow gasifier. The CFD model is validated against an analytical model as well as two experimental data-sets taken from the literature. In all cases good agreement between the CFD and the analytics/experiments is shown. The numerical model is used to study single moving solid particles under combustion conditions. The analyzed parameters are namely the Reynolds number, the ambient temperature, the particle size, the operating pressure, the particle shape, the coal type and the composition of the gas. It is shown that for a wide range of the analyzed parameter range no complete flame exists around moving particles. This is in contrast to observations made by other authors for particles in quiescent atmospheres. For high operating pressures, low Reynolds numbers, large particle diameters and high ambient temperatures a flame exists in the wake of the particle. The impact of such a flame on the conversion of the particle is low. For high steam concentrations in the gas a flame appears, which interacts with the particle and influences its conversion. Furthermore the impact of the Stefan-flow on the boundary layer of the particle is studied. It is demonstrated that the Stefan-flow can reduce the drag coefficient and the Nusselt number for several orders of magnitude. On basis of the CFD results two new correlations are presented for the drag coefficient and the Nusselt number. The comparison between the correlations and the CFD shows a significant improvement of the new correlations in comparison to archived correlations. The CFD-model is further used to study moving single porous particles under gasifying conditions. Therefore a 2-D axis-symmetric system of non-touching tori as well as a complex 3-D geometry based on the an inverted settlement of monodisperse spheres is utilized. With these geometries the influence of the Reynolds number, the ambient temperature, the porosity, the intrinsic surface and the size of the radiating surface is analyzed. The studies show, that the influence of the flow on the particle conversion is moderate. In particular the impact of the flow on the intrinsic transport and conversion processes is mainly negligible. The size of the radiating surface has a similar impact on the conversion as the flow in the regarded parameter range. On basis of the CFD calculations two 0-D models for the combustion and gasification of moving particles are presented. These models can reproduce the results predicted by the CFD sufficiently for a wide parameter range.

<div>A growing global population and improved standard of living in developing countries have resulted in an unprecedented increase in energy demand over the past several decades. While renewable energy sources are increasing, a huge portion of energy is still converted into useful work using heat engines. The combustion process in diesel and petrol engines releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases as an unwanted side-effect of the energy conversion process. By improving the efficiency of internal combustion engines, more chemical energy stored in petroleum resources can be realized as useful work and, therefore, reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases. This research focused on improving the thermal efficiency of opposed-piston engines, which, unlike traditional reciprocating engines, do not use a cylinder head. The cylinder head is a major source of heat loss in reciprocating engines. Therefore, the opposed-piston engine has the potential to improve overall engine efficiency relative to inline or V-configuration engines.</div><div><br></div>The objective of this research project was to further improve the design of opposed-piston engines by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling to optimize the engine geometry. The CFD method investigated the effect of intake port geometry and exhaust piston lead angle on the scavenging process and in-cylinder turbulence. After the CFD data was analyzed, scavenging efficiency was found insensitive to transfer port geometry and exhaust piston lead angle with a maximum change of 0.61%. Trapping efficiency was altered exclusively by exhaust piston lead angle and changed from 18% to 26% as the lead angle was increased. The in-cylinder turbulence parameters of the engine (normalized swirl circulation, normalized tumble circulation, and normalized TKE) experienced more complex relationships. All turbulence parameters were sensitive to changing transfer port geometry and exhaust piston lead angle. Some examples of trends seen during the analysis include: an increase in normalized swirl circulation from 0.01 to 4.45 due to changes in swirl angle, a change in normalized tumble circulation from -28.52 to 21.11 as swirl angle increased, and an increase in normalized tumble circulation from 14.20 to 33.68 as exhaust piston lead angle was increased. Based on the present work, an optimum configuration was identified for a swirl angle of 15°, a tilt angle of 10°, and an exhaust piston lead angle of 20°. Future work includes expanding the numerical model’s domain to support a complete cylinder-port configuration, adding combustion products to the diffusivity equation in the UDF, and running additional test cases to describe the entire input space for the sensitivity analysis.<br>