Thesis (MEng)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the present study, two-phase natural circulation flow in a multi-parallel channel system was investigated using experimental and numerical modelling. The investigation was carried out under different power excitations and various system operations (open system, closed system and heat pipe mode). The multichannel system was equipped at the upper end with a condenser enclosed within a steam drum, while the lower portion of each channel was heated to heat the system. For the numerical modelling, transient one-dimensional conservation equations were derived from first principle for both single- and two-phase fluids and used to computer program the system’s discretised simulation model. Temperatures and mass flow rates of the fluid responses as a result of different power excitations and operations were obtained for both the experimental and numerical modelling. It was observed from the results that the fluid experiences a start-up transient before accomplishing steady-state conditions. It was further noted that the transient duration varies with power excitations and system operation modes and hence with the stability of the system. A rise in power proved not to necessarily increase the fluid mass flow rate, but invited oscillations with higher amplitudes, depending on the system’s mode of operation. Type I instability and low-quality steam oscillations were witnessed at low power and open system operation mode (system open to the atmosphere). Type II instabilities and flashing instability were observed to be associated with medium and high-power excitations for the open system mode of operation. The fluid flow became more stable and less oscillatory at all power excitations for the closed system operation mode (system not open to the atmosphere). However, a sub-cooling effect was evident at higher power, where the two-phase fluid temperatures oscillated in a sinusoidal manner. However, the mass flow rates oscillated with high amplitudes in the forward direction in some channels and assumed a unidirectional flow in other channels. In general, steady-state conditions were obtained earlier when the system was operated as a closed system. For the heat pipe mode of operation, the system transient response in all channels exhibited a geysering instability followed by flashing-induced boiling. In-phase (flow in channels exhibiting the same behaviour) and out-of-phase (flow in channels exhibiting contradictory conduct) behaviour between adjacent channels were observed at all power excitations and system operation modes. Flow reversal in heated channels of a natural circulation system were proven to exists even under equal power excitations. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie studie is tweefasige natuurlike sirkulasievloei in ’n parallelle multikanaalstelsel ondersoek deur middel van eksperimentele en numeriese modellering. Die ondersoek is onder verskillende kragopwekkings en verskeie stelselwerkings (oop stelsel, toe stelsel en hittepypmodus). Die multikanaalstelsel is aan die bopunt met ’n kondensor binne ’n stoomdrom toegerus, terwyl die laer gedeelte van elke kanaal verhit is om die stelsel te verhit. Vir die numeriese modellering, is oorgangseendimensionele behoundsvergelykings vanaf die eerste beginsel vir beide een- en tweefasige vloeistowwe afgelei en dit is gebruik om die stelsel se gediskretiseerde simulasiemodel vir ’n rekenaar te programmeer. Temperature en massavloeitempo’s van die vloeistofrespons as gevolg van verskillende kragopwekkings en -werkings is vir beide die eksperimentele en die numeriese modellering verkry. Dit is in die resultate waargeneem dat die vloeistof ’n aansitoorgang ervaar voor dit vloeiewewigstoestande bereik. Daar is verder waargeneem dat die duur van die oorgang wissel volgens kragopwekkings en stelselwerkingsmodusse en dus op grond van die stabiliteit van die stelsel. ’n Toename in krag het nie noodwendig die vloeitempo van die vloeistofmassa verhoog nie, maar het aanleiding gegee tot ossillasies met groter amplitudes, afhangende van die stelsel se metode van werking. Tipe I-onstabiliteit en stoom-ossillasies van ’n lae intensiteit is teen lae krag en oop stelselwerkingsmodus waargeneem (stelsel oop aan die atmosfeer). Tipe II-onstabiliteit en flitsingsonstabiliteit (flashing instability) is met medium- en hoë kragopwekkings vir die oop stelsel modus van werking waargeneem. Die vloeistofvloei het meer stabiel en minder ossillerend geraak by alle kragopwekkings in die geslote stelsel van werking (stelsel nie oop na die atmosfeer nie). ’n Subverkoelingseffek was egter teen hoër krag duidelik, waar die tweefasige vloeistof se temperature sinusvormig geossilleer het. Die massavloeitempo’s het egter met hoë amplitudes in die vorentoe rigting in sommige kanale gevloei en eenrigtingvloei in ander kanale vertoon. Oor die algemeen is vloei-ewewigstoestande vroeër verkry toe die stelsel as ’n geslote stelsel bedryf is. Vir die hittepypmodus van werking het die stelsel se oorgangsweergawe in alle kanale ’n geysering onstabiliteit getoon, gevolg deur flitsinggeïnduseerde (flashing induced) kook. Gelykfasige gedrag (vloei in kanale vertoon dieselfde gedrag) en ongelykfasige gedrag (vloei in kanale vertoon teenstrydige gedrag) tussen langsliggende kanale is met al die kragopwekkings en stelselwerkingsmodusse waargeneem. Vloei-omkering in die verhitte kanale van ’n natuurlike sirkulasiestelsel is bewys om selfs onder gelyke kragopwekkings te bestaan.

In this thesis heterogeneous bipolar plates are applied to pure hydrogen PEMFC (called HFC) stacks. The experimental methods are adopted to study the performance and characteristics of the cell under certain operational conditions. In order to obtain the permeability of carbon fiber bipolar plates the pressure drops and flow rates are measured on the two sides of the carbon fiber bunch. A test device has been developed to separate the gas of the two sides so that the gas can only flow through the gaps between carbon fibers. Additionally, the gas pressures on the flow channel and the output voltage of each cell in several locations are measured to help us to understand their relationships. The flow characteristics of the gas reactants in these carbon fiber bipolar plates can also be understood from these measurements. A bipolar plate with the parallel or serpentine flow channel can be formed by properly arranging the carbon fiber bunches. However, if the oxidizer is air and only single inlet and outlet in cathode chamber are designed, the oxidizer can always not be supplied sufficiently in high power density. The experimental studies display that the output voltages of cells in the midstream or downstream are far below the output voltage in the upstream. The voltage of cells in the upstream is the highest, the next one is in the downstream, and the lowest one is located in the midstream due to accumulating of nitrogen. The insufficiency of oxidizer occurs more seriously in the parallel flow channel than that in serpentine flow channel in single inlet and outlet design. The distribution of current is not uniform especially near midstream, although this phenomenon can be improved by increasing the air inlet pressure. However, the problems are hard to solve in large MEA if we just increase the inlet pressure. Another strategy is needed to solve this problem. In order to solve the insufficient supply of air in single inlet and outlet design, multiple inlets and outlets are designed. In this design multiple entries can supply enough fresh air driven by fan, and multiple exits can exhaust inert gas by exhausting fan to avoid accumulating in a reactive chamber so that the performance of stack can be improved dramatically.

The importance of cooperative relaying communication in substituting for, or complementing, multiantenna systems is described, and a brief literature review is presented. Amplify-and-forward (AF) and decode-and-forward (DF) relaying are investigated and compared for a dual-hop relay channel. The optimal strategy, source and relay optimal power allocation, and maximum cooperative gain are determined for the relay channel. It is shown that while DF relaying is preferable to AF relaying for strong source-relay links, AF relaying leads to more gain for strong source-destination or relay-destination links. Superimposed and selection AF relaying are investigated for multirelay, dual-hop relaying. Selection AF relaying is shown to be globally strictly outage suboptimal. A necessary condition for the selection AF outage optimality, and an upper bound on the probability of this optimality are obtained. A near-optimal power allocation scheme is derived for superimposed AF relaying. The maximum instantaneous rates, outage probabilities, and average capacities of multirelay, dual-hop relaying schemes are obtained for superimposed, selection, and orthogonal DF relaying, each with parallel channel cooperation (PCC) or repetition-based cooperation (RC). It is observed that the PCC over RC gain can be as much as 4 dB for the outage probabilities and 8.5 dB for the average capacities. Increasing the number of relays deteriorates the capacity performance of orthogonal relaying, but improves the performances of the other schemes. The application of rateless codes to DF relaying networks is studied by investigating three single-relay protocols, one of which is new, and three novel, low complexity multirelay protocols for dual-hop networks. The maximum rate and minimum energy per bit and per symbol are derived for the single-relay protocols under a peak power and an average power constraint. The long-term average rate and energy per bit, and relay-to-source usage ratio (RSUR), a new performance measure, are evaluated for the single-relay and multirelay protocols. The new single-relay protocol is the most energy efficient single-relay scheme in most cases. All the multirelay protocols exhibit near-optimal rate performances, but are vastly different in the RSUR. Several future research directions for fixed-rate and rateless coded cooperative systems, and frameworks for comparing these systems, are suggested. / Communications

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