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The "Water-Blow" Pulsation generator has been used to produce pulsing fluid flow in an off-the-shelf industrial single pass heat exchanger containing 5/8 in. 0. D. tubes, 37 inches long. Experimental results showed that heat transfer from steam to flowing water could be enhanced by as much as 100%, although a more practical enhancement would likely be about 40%. From the experimental results it was estimated that pulsing air requirement (standard cu. ft. air per cu. ft. water) increased linearly from about 0 to 4.0 over a range of heat transfer enhancement from 0 to 40%. Two factors which influenced pulsing air requirement were the air surge volume sizes and the pressure fluctuations which occurred therein. / Thesis / Master of Engineering (ME)

An experimentally obtained comparison between the breakup of water droplets in the flow field behind both a detonation wave and shock wave is considered. The experiments presented here were completed to support ongoing research efforts into droplet breakup mechanisms at different Mach and Weber numbers. The physical features of the droplets are observed using a high-speed camera and shadowgraph imagery. Droplets are roughly between 2-3 mm in diameter and are struck by detonation waves of Mach 5-6 and shock waves induced by deflagration combustion events of Mach 1-2. The Weber number of these experiments ranges from 5(10^3) to 90(10^3). These experiments were initiated in a detonation tube using four separate mixtures to allow for the creation of shock waves in the detonation tube, which consisted of hydrogen and oxygen or methane and oxygen at different equivalence ratios and once with the addition of nitrogen. Additionally, the breakup of these droplets is compared by non-dimensionalizing the displacement of fluid at the equator of the droplet, which is further compared to predictions made by the Taylor Analogy Breakup model. Attempts are made to determine the influence of factors other than Weber number on the deformation of a water droplet, while also considering the effects of Weber number.

This proposes a model for a microwave heated fluidized bed by ceramic pellets to highlight the possibility to obtain a temperature gradient between the gas and the pellets. After a review of the recent work on microwave effects on chemical reactions, a short description of fluidization is given for a better understanding of the phenomena, followed by a development of a model of the heat transfer processes taking place in the fluidized bed. A parameter study describes the trends that should be expected despite the numerous restrictions and assumptions. Also, a set of parameters is proposed for optimal conditions that are close to the real conditions often encountered in practice. Numerous figures and tables are added, completing the main argument advanced in the thesis: it is possible to obtain a temperature difference between the gas and the pellets of a chemical bed reactor heated by microwaves by carefully choosing the following parameters: pellet diameter, bed height, gas velocity, pellet density and electric field. / Master of Science

Heat insulation is the process of blocking the transfer of thermal energy between objects at different temperatures. Heat transfer occurs due to conduction, convection, or radiation, as well as any combination of these three mechanisms. Fibrous insulations can completely suppress the convective mode of heat transfer for most applications, and also help to reduce the conductive and radiative modes to some extent. In this study, an attempt has been made to computationally predict the effects of microstructural parameters (e.g., fiber diameter, fiber orientation and porosity) on the insulation performance of fibrous materials. The flexible simulation method developed in this work can potentially be used to custom-design optimal multi-component fibrous insulation media for different applications. With regards to modeling conductive heat transfer, a computationally-feasible simulation method is developed that allows one to predict the effects of each microstructural parameter on the transfer of heat across a fibrous insulation. This was achieved by combining analytical calculations for conduction through interstitial fluid (e.g., air) with numerical simulations for conduction through fibrous structures. With regards to modeling radiative heat transfer, both Monte Carlo Ray Tracing and Electromagnetic Wave Theory were implemented for our simulations. The modeling methods developed in this work are flexible to allow simulating the performance of media made up of different combinations of fibers with different materials or dimensions at different operating temperatures. For example, our simulations demonstrate that fiber diameter plays an important role in blocking radiation heat transfer. In particular, it was shown that there exists an optimum fiber diameter for which maximum insulation against radiative transfer is achieved. The optimum fiber diameter is different for fibers made of different materials and also depends on the mean temperature of the media. The contributions of conduction and radiation heat transfer predicted using the above techniques are combined to define a total thermal resistance value for media with different microstructures. Such a capability can be of great interest for design and optimization of the overall performance of fibrous media for different applications.

Convective heat transfer to CO2 flowing upward in electrically heated vertical tubes at supercritical pressures was studied for wall heat fluxes q within ranges that included values corresponding to the onset of heat transfer deterioration (HTD). The inlet pressure was P = 8.35 MPa, the mass flux was in the range 200 kg/m2s ≤ G ≤ 1500 kg/m2s, and the inlet temperature was in the range 0 ◦C ≤ Tin ≤ 35 ◦C. Wall temperature measurements were collected in three tubular test sections, having inner diameters of D = 4.6, 8, and 22 mm. The abilities of three different HTD identification methods to separate the entire data set into deteriorated and normal heat transfer modes were tested. Two types of buoyancy parameters were tested as HTD detection methods, and correction factors for changes in mass flux were devised. The minimum heat flux at HTD onset was found to follow a power law of mass flux with the same exponent for all three sections and the same proportionality coefficient for the two smaller sections but a smaller one for the larger test section. For heat flux values that were larger than this minimum, HTD was found to occur only within a limited range of Tin, whose width increased with increasing heat flux. The heat transfer coefficient for normal heat transfer was expressed as an exponential function of the diameter.

The surface area and radiative properties of an object influence the rate of radiative emission from the object's surface and the rate of radiative absorption into the surface. Control of these variables would allow for the radiative heat transfer behavior of the surface to be manipulated in real time. Origami tessellations, being a repeated pattern of linked, dynamic surfaces, provide a framework by which dynamic control of apparent radiative properties and surface area is possible. The panels within a tessellation form cavities whose aspect ratio varies as the device actuates. The cavity effect suggests that the apparent radiative properties of the cavity openings will vary as a function of aspect ratio. The apparent absorptivity of an accordion tessellation formed from folded shim stock is shown experimentally to increase by 10x as the tessellation actuates from fully extended to within 10\% of a completely-folded state. Analytical models and Monte Carlo ray tracing are used to quantify the apparent radiative properties of an infinite V-groove for a variety of conditions, including specular or diffuse reflection and diffuse or collimated incident irradiation. For a diffuse V-groove, apparent radiative properties increase with increasing V-groove aspect ratio but do not approach unity. Highly reflective surfaces exhibit the largest relative increase in apparent radiative properties with actuation. Closed-form correlations achieve an average relative error of 2.0\% or less. For a specular V-groove, apparent radiative properties approach unity as the V-groove collapses towards an infinite aspect ratio. The apparent absorptivity for a V-groove exposed to collimated irradiation shows significant variations over small actuation distances, increasing by 5x over a small actuation range. For certain conditions the apparent absorptivity of a V-groove subject to collimated irradiation decreases as the aspect ratio increases.For an isothermal accordion tessellation the net radiative heat exchange continuously decreases as the surface is collapsed for most conditions, indicating that the reduction in apparent surface area generally dominates the increase in apparent radiative properties. Net radiative heat transfer values decrease by 7x for collimated irradiation and specular reflection over small actuation distances. Specular V-grooves subject to collimated irradiation occasionally show an increase in net radiative heat transfer as the device collapses. A non-isothermal dynamic radiative fin achieves a 3x reduction in heat transfer as the fin collapses; this value can be increased with the use of highly conductive materials and by increasing the length of the fin. The fin efficiency of a collapsible fin increases as the fin collapses. An experimental prototype of a collapsible fin is developed and tested in a vacuum environment, achieving a 1.32x reduction in heat transfer for a limited actuation range, where a numerical model suggests this prototype may achieve a 2.23x reduction in heat transfer over the full actuation range.

An average heat transfer coefficient, h_bar, is often used to solve heat transfer problems. It should be understood that this is an approximation and may provide inaccurate results, especially when the temperature field is of interest. The proper method to solve heat transfer problems is with a conjugate approach. However, there seems to be a lack of clear explanations of conjugate heat transfer in literature. The objective of this work is to provide a clear explanation of conjugate heat transfer and to determine the discrepancy in the temperature field when the interface boundary condition is approximated using h_bar compared to a local, or variable, heat transfer coefficient, h(x). Simple one-dimensional problems are presented and solved analytically using both h(x) and h_bar. Due to the one-dimensional assumption, h(x) appears in the governing equation for which the common methods to solve the differential equations with an average coefficient are no longer valid. Two methods, the integral equation and generalized Bessel methods are presented to handle the variable coefficient. The generalized Bessel method has previously only been used with homogeneous governing equations. This work extends the use of the generalized Bessel method to non-homogeneous problems by developing a relation for the Wronskian of the general solution to the generalized Bessel equation. The solution methods are applied to three problems: an external flow past a flat plate, a conjugate interface between two solids and a conjugate interface between a fluid and a solid. The main parameter that is varied is a combination of the Biot number and a geometric aspect ratio, A_1^2 = Bi*L^2/d_1^2. The Biot number is assumed small since the problems are one-dimensional and thus variation in A_1^2 is mostly due to a change in the aspect ratio. A large A_1^2 represents a long and thin solid whereas a small A_1^2 represents a short and thick solid. It is found that a larger A_1^2 leads to less problem conjugation. This means that use of h_bar has a lesser effect on the temperature field for a long and thin solid. Also, use of ¯ over h(x) tends to generally under predict the solid temperature. In addition is was found that A_2^2, the A^2 value for the second subdomain, tends to have more effect on the shape of the temperature profile of solid 1 and A_1^2 has a greater effect on the magnitude of the difference in temperature profiles between the use of h(x) and h_bar. In general increasing the A^2 values reduced conjugation.

The extreme operating conditions in deepwater drilling lead to serious relative problems. The knowledge of subsea temperatures is of prime interest to petroleum engineers and geo-technologists alike. Petroleum engineers are interested in subsea temperatures to better understand geo-mechanisms; such as diagenesis of sediments, formation of hydrocarbons, genesis and emplacement of magmatic formation of mineral deposits, and crustal deformations. Petroleum engineers are interested in studies of subsurface heat flows. The knowledge of subsurface temperature to properly design the drilling and completion programs and to facilitate accurate log interpretation is necessary. For petroleum engineers, this knowledge is valuable in the proper exploitation of hydrocarbon resources. This research analyzed the thermal process in drilling or completion process. The research presented two analytical methods to determine temperature profile for onshore drilling and numerical methods for offshore drilling during circulating fluid down the drillstring and for the annulus. Finite difference discretization was also introduced to predict the temperature for steady-state in conventional riser drilling and riserless drilling. This research provided a powerful tool for the thermal analysis of wellbore and rheology design of fluid with Visual Basic and Matlab simulators.

The fundamental physics governing wildland fire spread are still largely misunderstood. This thesis was motivated by the need to better understand the role of radiative and convective heat transfer in the ignition and spread of wildland fires. The focus of this work incorporated the use of infrared thermographic imaging techniques to investigate fuel particle response from three different heating sources: convective dominated heating from an air torch, radiative dominated heating from a crib fire, and an advancing flame front in a laboratory wind tunnel test. The series of experiments demonstrated the uniqueness and valuable characteristics of infrared thermography to reveal the hidden nature of heat transfer and combustion aspects which are taking place in the condensed phase of wildland fuelbeds. In addition, infrared thermal image-based temperature history and ignition behavior of engineered cardboard fuel elements subjected to convective and radiative heating supported experimental findings that millimeter diameter pine needles cannot be ignited by radiation alone even under long duration fire generated radiant heating. Finally, fuel characterization using infrared thermography provided a better understanding of the condensed phase fuel pyrolysis and heat transfer mechanisms governing the response of wildland fuel particles to an advancing flame front.