No description available.

No description available.

A cooling system for high heat flux applications is examined using microchannel evaporators with water as the working fluid and boiling as the heat transfer mechanism. Experimental studies are performed using single channel microevaporators allowing for better control of the flow mechanics unlike other investigations where multiple, parallel, flow channels can result in a non-uniform distribution of the working fluid. High-speed flow visualizations are performed in conjunction with heat transfer and pressure drop measurements to support the quantitative experimental data. Flow patterns associated with a range of boundary conditions are characterized and then presented in the form of novel flow regime maps that intrinsically reflect the physical mechanisms controlling two-phase pressure distributions and heat transfer behavior. Given the complexity associated with modeling of boiling heat transfer and the lack of a universal model that provides accurate predictions across a broad spectrum of flow conditions, flow regime maps serve as a valuable modeling aid to assist in targeted modeling over specific flow regimes. This work represents a novel and original contribution to the understanding of boiling mechanisms for water in microchannels. The flow patterns in this work are found to be closely coupled with mass flux, heat flux, and channel size; where re-wetting and pressure oscillations play a crucial role, and are likely responsible for its development and evolution. Reversed flow, typically attributed to a non-uniform fluid distribution in multiple channel microevaporators by other researchers, is shown to be a result of the upstream expansion of confined bubbles. During flow boiling, the pressure drop in the microchannel increases with the heat flux for a constant flow rate due to the significant acceleration effects associated with smaller channels, unlike in single-phase flow where the pressure drop is constant. Water flow boiling in rectangular microchannels, although not extensively explored in the published literature, provides an extremely high cooling capacity, with dissipation rates approaching 440 W/cm², making this an ideal candidate for cooling of next generation electronic systems. Single-phase flow studies revealed that pressure and heat transfer coefficient macroscale models are transferable to microchannels with hydraulic diameters down to 200 µm, when the entrance effects and minor losses are properly considered. These studies include laminar developing flow conditions not commonly considered in the literature and fully developed flow. Since the applicability of macroscale theories to microchannels is often questioned, this investigation helps clarify this issue for microchannels within the range of experimental conditions explored in this work. Finally, new correlations for the hydrodynamic entrance length are proposed for rectangular microchannels and good agreement is found when compared with published experimental data over a wide range of Reynolds number. These correlations are more accurate, and original in the sense that they incorporate the effects of channel aspect ratio, and include creeping flow conditions which are currently unavailable for rectangular microchannels. This work represents a major advance in the development of new cooling systems for high heat flux applications requiring dissipation rates in excess of 100 W/cm².

A cooling system for high heat flux applications is examined using microchannel evaporators with water as the working fluid and boiling as the heat transfer mechanism. Experimental studies are performed using single channel microevaporators allowing for better control of the flow mechanics unlike other investigations where multiple, parallel, flow channels can result in a non-uniform distribution of the working fluid. High-speed flow visualizations are performed in conjunction with heat transfer and pressure drop measurements to support the quantitative experimental data. Flow patterns associated with a range of boundary conditions are characterized and then presented in the form of novel flow regime maps that intrinsically reflect the physical mechanisms controlling two-phase pressure distributions and heat transfer behavior. Given the complexity associated with modeling of boiling heat transfer and the lack of a universal model that provides accurate predictions across a broad spectrum of flow conditions, flow regime maps serve as a valuable modeling aid to assist in targeted modeling over specific flow regimes. This work represents a novel and original contribution to the understanding of boiling mechanisms for water in microchannels. The flow patterns in this work are found to be closely coupled with mass flux, heat flux, and channel size; where re-wetting and pressure oscillations play a crucial role, and are likely responsible for its development and evolution. Reversed flow, typically attributed to a non-uniform fluid distribution in multiple channel microevaporators by other researchers, is shown to be a result of the upstream expansion of confined bubbles. During flow boiling, the pressure drop in the microchannel increases with the heat flux for a constant flow rate due to the significant acceleration effects associated with smaller channels, unlike in single-phase flow where the pressure drop is constant. Water flow boiling in rectangular microchannels, although not extensively explored in the published literature, provides an extremely high cooling capacity, with dissipation rates approaching 440 W/cm², making this an ideal candidate for cooling of next generation electronic systems. Single-phase flow studies revealed that pressure and heat transfer coefficient macroscale models are transferable to microchannels with hydraulic diameters down to 200 µm, when the entrance effects and minor losses are properly considered. These studies include laminar developing flow conditions not commonly considered in the literature and fully developed flow. Since the applicability of macroscale theories to microchannels is often questioned, this investigation helps clarify this issue for microchannels within the range of experimental conditions explored in this work. Finally, new correlations for the hydrodynamic entrance length are proposed for rectangular microchannels and good agreement is found when compared with published experimental data over a wide range of Reynolds number. These correlations are more accurate, and original in the sense that they incorporate the effects of channel aspect ratio, and include creeping flow conditions which are currently unavailable for rectangular microchannels. This work represents a major advance in the development of new cooling systems for high heat flux applications requiring dissipation rates in excess of 100 W/cm².

A four quadrant general single-phase bi-directional DC/DC converter was designed and constructed for high effect systems. The target application for the DC/DC converter was to be used to transfer energy between different energy storages, a miniature DC power grid and the high voltage AC power city grid. The converter is capable of step-up and step-down operations in both directions i.e. it is bi-directional at varying voltage levels. Different DC/DC topologies were investigated, and thereafter simulations were performed in LTspice and Simulink to ensure its capabilities and functionalities. The result of the simulations was a two layered PI-regulator, controlling both the external DC-grid voltage and inductor current through the converter. Once a suitable topology and control strategy was found, a suitable power transistor investigated and a PCB driver card were developed with KiCad. The final converter is capable to seamlessly change between its four modes and controlling voltages up to 1200 V and currents up to 200 A.

Theoretical, numerical and experimental investigations have been successfully carried out to characterise the thermal performance of an air-to-water multi-pass heat exchanger equipped with thermosyphon technology. Air and water are the heat source and the heat sink on the evaporator and condenser, respectively. Evaporator and condenser are connected by six thermosyphons, through which thermal energy is transferred. The investigation was performed for two multi-pass configurations at various inlet conditions: a range of air inlet temperatures (100, 150, 200 and 250°C) and mass flow rates (0.05, 0.08, 0.11 and 0.14 kg/s). The water inlet conditions were kept constant (a temperature of 15°C and a mass flow rate of 0.08 kg/s). The theoretical model was built by applying the thermal resistance analogy with the aid of convection, boiling and condensation correlations found in the literature. It was found that the thermal resistances in the first pass act in parallel mode along the ones in the second pass. Similarly, in the case of three passes. Also, the external convective thermal resistance were found to be the major contributor to the overall thermal resistance in the entire heat exchanger. ANSYS Fluent was the numerical tool used to investigate the shell-side convective heat transfer for two multi-pass configurations. The CFD model has been experimentally validated. The two-phase change processes inside the thermosyphons were not modelled during the simulation. Instead, the thermosyphons were treated as solid rods with a constant thermal conductivity, which was calculated. The overall rate of heat transfer was obtained by both CFD and a theoretical model, and the results lay within 15% of the experimental data. The numerical predictions demonstrated that the K-ε Realizable turbulence model with scalable wall function is a reliable tool for predicting heat transfer and fluid flow in such types of heat exchangers. This investigation will add a great knowledge to the academia in terms of both experimentation and modelling in the area of multi-pass thermosyphons-based heat exchangers. Also, it provides the industries with a cost effect design tool for future modelling of similar heat exchanger systems.

This research explored the use of CFD simulations to study single phase flows through structured packing. Flow rates were chosen to approximate those used in the vapor phase of industrial distillation columns. The results were evaluated against experimental results obtained with the same packing model and packed height. Several novel methods were employed to quickly obtain high validity results. A high-fidelity, digital copy of an actual packing element was created in seven hours through CT scanning. The meshing strategy employed adaptive, polyhedral meshing algorithms which resulted in high quality volume meshes with 80 percent less mesh elements than would be required with traditional tetrahedral meshing. Meshing and computation were performed on the TACC clusters. The permitted meshing with up to 57 million volume cells in less than 30 hours while simulations employing a realizable k-[epsilon] model converged in approximately two days using up to 544 processors. Nitrogen simulation predictions were found to be, on average, 7 percent below experimental measurements with water simulations showing considerably more error (~40%). The error is likely attributable a discrepancy between the simulation and experimental geometries. This discrepancy is due to an oversight in sample preparation and not a flaw in the CT scanning process of geometry creation. The volume of data generated in CFD simulation was found to be very valuable for understanding and benchmarking packing performance. Streamlines and contour plots were used to analyze the variation in performance both locally and throughout the packing stack. Significant variation was observed in flow pattern, velocity distribution, and pressure profiles throughout the column. However, the joint regions were found to be most adverse to column energy efficiency. / text

Η παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία πραγματεύεται τη μελέτη και κατασκευή μονοφασικών ανορθωτικών διατάξεων για εργαστηριακούς σκοπούς. Η εργασία αυτή εκπονήθηκε στο Εργαστήριο Ηλεκτρομηχανικής Μετατροπής Ενέργειας του Τμήματος Ηλεκτρολόγων Μηχανικών και Τεχνολογίας Υπολογιστών της Πολυτεχνικής Σχολής του Πανεπιστημίου Πατρών. Σκοπός είναι η κατασκευή των τριών ελεγχόμενων μονοφασικών ανορθωτών με θυρίστορ, δηλαδή του ανορθωτή ενός παλμού, του ανορθωτή δύο παλμών με μετασχηματιστή μεσαίας λήψης και της ανορθωτικής γέφυρας με τέσσερα θυρίστορ. Απώτερος στόχος είναι η πραγματοποίηση μετρήσεων τάσης και ρεύματος σε διάφορα σημεία των διατάξεων καθώς και η επικοινωνία της κατασκευής με ηλεκτρονικό υπολογιστή μέσω του οποίου θα πραγματοποιείται ο έλεγχος των διατάξεων και θα προβάλλονται οι μετρήσεις, ώστε να χρησιμοποιηθεί η διάταξη για εργαστηριακούς σκοπούς. Αρχικά εξετάζεται η δυνατότητα που υπάρχει να υλοποιηθούν και οι τρείς μονοφασικές ανορθωτικές διατάξεις με χρήση τεσσάρων μόνο θυρίστορ και ενός γενικού κυκλώματος ισχύος αντί να κατασκευαστούν τρείς ξεχωριστοί μετατροπείς. Για τον σκοπό αυτό μπορούν να χρησιμοποιηθούν ρελέ τα οποία μεταβάλλουν την τοπολογία του κυκλώματος ισχύος ανάλογα με το ποιά ανορθωτική διάταξη είναι επιθυμητό να υλοποιείται κάθε φορά. Στη συνέχεια εξετάζονται θέματα που αφορούν την επικοινωνία της διάταξης με το χρήστη και με τον ηλεκτρονικό υπολογιστή, με σκοπό την επιλογή του τρόπου λειτουργίας της καθώς και της γωνίας έναυσης των μετατροπέων, την παλμοδότηση των θυρίστορ, τον έλεγχο των ρελέ του κυκλώματος ισχύος και την τροφοδοσία των τυλιγμάτων τους, καθώς και τη χρήση μετρητικών στοιχείων τάσης και ρεύματος για την πραγματοποίηση ηλεκτρικών μετρήσεων στο κύκλωμα ισχύος. Για τη διεκπεραίωση των περισσοτέρων από αυτές τις λειτουργίες, κυρίαρχο ρόλο έχει ο μικροελεγκτής DSPIC30F4011. Το επόμενο βήμα είναι η δημιουργία ενός εικονικού οργάνου (VI) στην εφαρμογή LabVIEW μέσω του οποίου πραγματοποιείται ο έλεγχος της κατασκευής μέσω ηλεκτρονικού υπολογιστή και προβάλλονται οι μετρήσεις που προέρχονται από τα μετρητικά στοιχεία του κυκλώματος ισχύος. Τέλος, κατασκευάζονται οι διατάξεις στο εργαστήριο και στη συνέχεια πραγματοποιούνται μετρήσεις με σκοπό την επιβεβαίωση και την αξιολόγηση της λειτουργίας της κατασκευής. / This thesis deals with the design and construction of single-phase rectifier devices for laboratory purposes . The work was conducted in Electromechanical Energy Conversion Laboratory , Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering of the University of Patras . The aim is the construction of the three single phase controlled thyristor rectifiers, the one pulse rectifier , the two pulses rectifier with split-winding transformer and the four thyristors bridge rectifier. The uppermost goal is to perform measurements of voltage and current at various points of the power circuit and to carry out construction-computer communication through which the construction can be controlled and electrical measurements can be viewed.

Liquid cooled small channel heat sinks have become a promising heat dissipation method for future high power electrical devices. Traditional mini and microchannel heat sinks consist of a single layer of low-aspect ratio rectangular channels. The alternative new heat sinks are fabricated by stacking many channels together to create multiple layer channels. These multilayer heat sinks can achieve high heat flux due to high heat transfer coefficients from small channels and large surface area from multilayer structure. In this research, multilayer copper and silicon carbide (SIC) minichannel heat sinks were tested in single-phase flow. It was shown that multilayer heat sinks have significant advantages over single-layer equivalents with reductions both in thermal resistance and pressure drop. A 3-D resistance network model for single and multilayered heat sinks was developed and validated. Parametric study and optimization on copper and SiC heat sinks with respect to channel geometries, number of layers, and heat sink conductivity were conducted by using the model.Both copper and SiC heat sinks were also tested in two-phase flow. In experiments, the multilayer copper heat sinks achieved smaller average surface temperature than their single-layer counterpart at low heat flux. However the multilayer copper heat sinks gradually lost stability at high heat flux, which lead to increased surface temperature. The redistribution of flow in different layers caused by pressure discrepancy in different layers was believed to be the cause. A three-zone model, which dividing the flow in small channels into three distinguishing parts: single-phase flow, subcooled boiling flow, and saturated boiling flow, was proposed to describe the different two-phase flow regimes. In each zone, the local heat transfer coefficient was computed by corresponding correlation. Several boiling correlations combined with the resistance network model were used to compute the heat sink surface temperature distributions, which were compared with experimental results. It was found the classical boiling correlations for macro channels are not suitable for the minichannels, frequently overestimating the boiling heat transfer coefficient. Boiling correlations for small channels are more consistent with experimental data and the predictions of Yu's correlation match the experimental results best.

This Master of Applied Science thesis presents a single phase grid connected DC/AC inverter with reactive power (VAR) control for residential photovoltaic (PV) applications. The inverter, utilizing the voltage sourced inverter (VSI) configuration, allows the local residential PV generation to actively supply reactive power to the utility grid. A low complexity grid synchronization method was introduced to generate the parallel and orthogonal components of the grid voltage in a highly computationally efficient manner in order to create a synchronized current reference to the current control loop. In addition, the inverter is able to use a small long life film type capacitor on the DC-link by utilizing a notch filter on the voltage control loop. Simulations were performed on PSCAD/EMTDC platform and a prototype was also developed in the lab to prove the effectiveness of the controllers and the grid synchronization method.