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This thesis examines two important physical phenomena that occur when solid fuels are exposed to external radiative heating: (1) the pyrolysis process in reaching ignition conditions and (2) the natural convection around one or more radiatively heated fuel samples. A vegetation fire (bushfire, wildfire, or forest fire) preheating the vegetation which is in its path is a particular example which occurs in nature. However there are many more applications where modelling the pyrolysis process and/or the natural convection is of practical use. For the pyrolysis phenomena, a one-dimensional time dependent pyrolysis model is proposed. The mathematical model is solved numerically and results are used to analyse the influence of the size of a wood-based fuel sample, the heating rate it is exposed to, and its initial moisture content in the process of the sample reaching the conditions where it can produce enough pyrolysate vapour to support a flame (flash point). In many pyrolysis models in the open literature it is assumed that the fuel samples are dry. In the present study it is found that the initial moisture content has a marked effect for a fuel sample reaching its flash point. For the convection phenomena, a two-dimensional steady model, which explores the natural convection around one or more solid fuels, is also presented. The flame front is represented by a radiating panel. This means that the solid fuels receive a non-uniform heating rate depending on their geometry and location in relation to the panel. Changes in temperature and velocity profiles are monitored for varying heating rates and sample sizes (or, equivalently, the Rayleigh number Ra). Additionally, in the case of multiple fuel samples, changes in the distance between the fuels is also taken into account. For multiple fuels in arbitrary locations it is possible that one sample will block some of the radiation from the panel from reaching another sample. This means that the fuel sample will receive a reduced heating rate. This reduction in heating is also incorporated in the natural convection model. Both the pyrolysis and natural convection models are solved numerically using the finite element software package COMSOL Multiphysics. A comparison of COMSOL is performed with benchmark solutions provided by the open literature. A good agreement in the numerical results is observed.

A safety analysis for the McMaster Nuclear Reactor has been carried out for postulated scenarios of loss or termination of forced flow in the reactor core in a state of shutdown, with loss of pool inventory of different magnitudes including core uncovery. Models were developed to evaluate the natural convection flow through the core assemblies for the different conditions within the aforementioned envelope. The flow rate was used to get the temperature or enthalpy rise along the heated channel in order to estimate the corresponding clad temperatures in the given scenarios. The models were constructed from first principles using the one-dimensional momentum conservation law, incorporating the Boussinesq approximation for the single-phase case and the Homogeneous Equilibrium Model assumptions when a two-phase mixture was present. In order to obtain the flow rate and enthalpy rise along the channel, knowledge of the assembly power and inlet temperature is required. The power was calculated using a well known decay power correlation. The pool temperature which was used as the assembly inlet temperature was calculated via a lumped parameter model using a simple energy balance between the core output (again by using the decay-heat profile) and the pool heatup. Heat losses from the pool were neglected and the model allowed for reaching saturation temperature in the pool. In this case, water vaporization was calculated using the latent heat to assess pool inventory loss rate. For all scenarios before core uncovery, the models predict that clad and fuel temperatures remained well below limits associated with clad blistering or melting. Consequently, it is asserted natural convection and acceptable temperatures will be sustained in the McMaster Nuclear Reactor while the core remains covered. In the most severe draining before uncovery, in which the pool drains to just before exposing the core, it takes approximately a week (180 hours) after shutdown for boiling to start in the core’s hottest channel. For core uncovery, the models predict that the clad remains below the blistering temperature for pool height at 9.4% of the heated channel’s height (corresponding to exposing about 61.7 cm of the assembly), and below melting temperature for pool height at 8.1% of the heated channel’s height (corresponding to exposing about 62.5 cm of the assembly). Both heights are below the height of the bottom of the lowest beam tube, at which the worst draining case will end. / Thesis / Master of Applied Science (MASc)

Pressurized water reactor nuclear plants, currently under construction, have been designed with passive containment cooling systems. Turbulent, natural-convective condensation, with high non-condensable mass fraction, on the walls of the containment vessel is a primary heat transfer mechanism in these new plant designs. A number of studies have been completed over the past two decades to justify use of the heat and mass transfer analogy for this scenario. A majority of these studies are founded upon natural-convective heat transfer correlations and apply a diffusion layer model to couple heat and mass transfer. Reasonable success in predicting experimental trends for vertical surfaces has been achieved when correction factors are applied. The corrections are attributed to mass transfer suction, film waviness or mist formation, even though little experimental evidence exists to justify these claims. This work examines the influence of film waves and mass transfer suction on the turbulent, natural-convective condensing flow with non-condensable gas present. Testing was conducted using 0.457 m x 2.13 m and a 0.914 m x 2.13 m condensing surfaces suspended in a large pressure vessel. The test surfaces could be rotated from vertical to horizontal to examine the inclination angle effect. The test facility implements relatively high accuracy calorimetric and condensate mass flow measurements to validate the measured heat and mass transfer rates. Test results show that application of the Bayley (1955) and Al-Arabi and Sakr (1988) heat transfer correlations using the heat and mass transfer analogy is appropriate for conditions in which the liquid film remains laminar. For transitional and wavy film flows, a clear augmentation in heat transfer was observed due to disruption of the gas layer by film waves. This result has implications for the scalability of existing correlations. A new correlation is proposed and results compared to several other datasets.

Laminar natural convection heat transfer from the vertical surface of a cylinder is a classical subject, which has been studied extensively. Furthermore, this subject has generated some recent interest in the literature. In the present investigation, numerical experiments were performed to determine average Nusselt numbers for isothermal vertical cylinders (103 < RaL < 109, 0.5 < L/D <10, and Pr = 0.7) with and without an adiabatic top in a quiescent ambient environment which will allow for plume growth. Results were compared with commonly used correlations and new average Nusselt number correlations are presented. Furthermore, the limit for which the heat transfer results for a vertical flat plate may be used as an approximation for the heat transfer from a vertical cylinder was investigated.

This thesis is concerned with modelling natural convective flows and specifically with their role in electrochemistry. The studies described here demonstrate that many electroanalytical techniques are prone to non-negligible natural convective effects, thus making the standard assumption for purely diffusional mass transport inapplicable. The chosen approach focusses on investigating idealized systems and establishing orders of magnitude for the quantities of interest. The complexity of the observed natural convective flows and their strong dependence on factors such as container geometry serve as compelling arguments for rigorously excluding natural convection in experimental measurements. The text is structured as follows. Chapter 1 introduces the theoretical framework used in the rest of the text and gives an outline of the electrochemical techniques to which the results in later chapters apply. Chapter 2 surveys the literature on natural convection in electrochemistry and emphasizes recent developments. Chapter 3 studies the natural convection induced by the intrinsic heat of an electrochemical reaction, specifically its effect on mass transport in chronoamperometry and cyclic voltammetry. Chapters 4-6 deal exclusively with coupled heat and momentum transport. Chapter 4 considers the thermal convective flows that arise in an idealized cell for scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM) and the surrounding air under conditions of imperfect thermostating. Chapter 5 is dedicated to thermal convection in an SECM cell that is being thermostated from below through a solid substrate. This chapter demonstrates the influence of the spatial distribution of substrate thermal conductivity on the observed flows and highlights this effect by using a simpler model of the SECM cell than Chapter 4. Chapter 6 investigates the thermal convection in a novel thermostated cell for electrochemical measurements. Chapter 7 contains the main conclusions from the studies described in the thesis. Appendices A, B and C provide additional data for Chapters 3, 5 and 6, respectively.

ABSTRACT The natural convection phenomenon in solar energy water trough for stable loading on a wall is studied numerically in this paper. Governing equations are transformed in vorticity-stream equations. Gauss-Seidel method with finite-difference implicit scheme was applied. The effects of the parameters of Rayleigh number, heat pipe length, heat pipe thickness, the distance from heat pipe to down side of water trough and the studied angle of inclination. The results indicate that the heat transfer coefficients increase with the Rayleigh number, the heat pipe length, the heat pipe thickness and the angle of inclination.

A ratiometric laser induced fluorescence (LIF) thermometry applied to micro-scale temperature measurement for natural convection flows. To eliminate incident light non-uniformity and imperfection of recording device, two fluorescence dyes are used: one is temperature sensitive fluorescence dye (Rhodamine B) and another is relatively temperature insensitive fluorescence dye (Rhodamine 110). Accurate and elaborate calibration for intensity ratio verses temperature obtained using an isothermal cuvette, which was controlled by two thermo-bathes. 488nm Ar-ion laser used for incident light and two filter sets used for separating each fluorescence emission. Thermally stratified filed of 10mm channel with micro-scale resolution measured within 1.3?C uncertainty of liner prediction with 23?m x 23?m spatial resolution. Natural convection flows at 10mm channel also observed. The several difficulties for applying to heated evaporating meniscus were identified and a few resolutions were suggested.

Numerical simulations were used to investigate natural convection and radiation interactions in small enclosures of both two and three-dimensional geometries. The objectives of the research were to (1) determine the relative importance of natural convection and radiation, and to (2) estimate the natural convection heat transfer coefficients. Models are generated using Gambit, while numerical computations were conducted using the CFD code FLUENT. Dimensions for the two-dimensional enclosure were a height of 2.54 cm (1 inch), and a width that varied between 5.08 cm and 10.16 cm (2 inches and 4 inches). The three-dimensional model had a depth of 5.08 cm (2 inches) with the same height and widths as the two-dimensional model. The obstruction is located at the centroid of the enclosure and is represented as a circle in the two-dimensional geometry and a cylinder in the three-dimensional geometry. Obstruction diameters varied between .51 cm and 1.52 cm (0.2 inches and 0.6 inches). Model parameters used in the investigation were average surface temperatures, net total heat flux, and net radiation heat flux. These parameters were used to define percent temperature differences, percent heat flux contributions, convective heat transfer coefficients, Nusselt numbers, and Rayleigh numbers. The Rayleigh numbers varied between 0.005 and 300, and the convective heat transfer coefficients ranged between 2 and 25 W/m2K depending on the point in the simulation. The simulations were conducted with temperatures ranging between 310 K and 1275 K on the right boundary. For right boundary temperatures above 800 K, the estimated error on the obstruction temperature is less than 6.1% for neglecting natural convection and conduction from the heat transfer analysis. Lower right boundary temperatures such as 310 K had significant contributions, over 50%, from heat transfer modes other than radiation. For lower right boundary temperatures, a means of including natural convection should be included. When a bulk fluid temperature and average surface temperature values are available, a time average heat transfer coefficient of 6.73 W/m2K is proposed for simplifying the numerical calculations. In the transient right boundary temperature analysis, all modes of heat transfer other than radiation can be neglected to have an error below 8.1%.

Natural convection as a heat transfer mechanism plays a major role in the functioning of many heat transfer devices, such as heat exchangers, energy storage, thermal management and solar collectors. All of these have a large impact on the generation of solar power. Considering how common these devices are not only in power generation cycles, but in a majority of other thermal uses it is clear that increased performance for natural convection heat transfer will have consequences of a high impact. As such, the purpose of this study is to experimentally study the natural convection heat transfer behaviour of a relatively new class of fluids where nano-sized particles are mixed into a base fluid, also known as a nanofluids. Nanofluids have attracted widespread interest as a new heat transfer fluid due to the fact that the addition of nanoparticles considerably increases the thermophysical properties of the nanofluids when compared to those of the base fluid. Furthermore, if these nanoparticles show magnetic behaviour, huge increases in the thermal conductivity and viscosity of the nanofluid can be obtained if the fluid is exposed to a proper magnetic field. With this in mind, the study aimed to experimentally show the behaviour of these so-called magnetic nanofluids in natural convection heat transfer applications. In this study, the natural convection heat transfer of a magnetic nanofluid in a differentially heated cavity is investigated with and without an applied external magnetic field. The effects of volume concentration and magnetic field configuration are investigated. Spherical nanoparticles with a diameter of 20 nm are used with a volume concentration ranging between 0.05% and 0.3%, tested for the case with no magnetic field, while only a volume concentration of 0.1% was used in the magnetic cases. The experiments were conducted for a range of Rayleigh numbers in . The viscosity of the nanofluid was determined experimentally, while an empirical model from the literature was used to predict the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids. An empirical correlation for the viscosity was determined, and the stability of various nanofluids was investigated. Using heat transfer data obtained from the cavity, the average heat transfer coefficient, as well as the average Nusselt number for the nanofluids, is determined. It was found that a volume concentration of 0.05% showed an increase of 3.75% in heat transfer performance. For the magnetic field study, it was found that the best-performing magnetic field enhanced the heat transfer performance by 1.58% compared to the 0.1% volume concentration of the nanofluid with no magnetic field. / Dissertation (MEng)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering / MEng / Unrestricted