<p>This thesis deals with modeling of two types of fuel cells:the polymer electrolyte fuel cell (PEFC) and the directmethanol fuel cell (DMFC), for which we address four majorissues: a) mass transport limitations; b) water management(PEFC); c) gas management (DMFC); d) thermal management.</p><p>Four models have been derived and studied for the PEFC,focusing on the cathode. The first exploits the slenderness ofthe cathode for a two-dimensional geometry, leading to areduced model, where several nondimensional parameters capturethe behavior of the cathode. The model was extended to threedimensions, where four di.erent flow distributors were studiedfor the cathode. A quantitative comparison shows that theinterdigitated channels can sustain the highest currentdensities. These two models, comprising isothermal gasphaseflow, limit the studies to (a). Returning to a two-dimensionalgeometry of the PEFC, the liquid phase was introduced via aseparate flow model approach for the cathode. In addition toconservation of mass, momentum and species, the model wasextended to consider simultaneous charge and heat transfer forthe whole cell. Di.erent thermal, flow fields, and hydrodynamicconditions were studied, addressing (a), (b) and (d). A scaleanalysis allowed for predictions of the cell performance priorto any computations. Good agreement between experiments with asegmented cell and the model was obtained.</p><p>A liquid-phase model, comprising conservation of mass,momentum and species, was derived and analyzed for the anode ofthe DMFC. The impact of hydrodynamic, electrochemical andgeometrical features on the fuel cell performance were studied,mainly focusing on (a). The slenderness of the anode allows theuse of a narrow-gap approximation, leading to a reduced model,with benefits such as reduced computational cost andunderstanding of the physical trends prior to any numericalcomputations. Adding the gas-phase via a multiphase mixtureapproach, the gas management (c) could also be studied.Experiments with a cell, equipped with a transparent end plate,allowed for visualization of the flow in the anode, as well asvalidation of the two-phase model. Good agreement betweenexperiments and the model was achieved.</p><p><b>Keywords:</b>Fuel cell; DMFC; PEFC; one-phase; two-phase;model; visual cell; segmented cell; scale analysis; asymptoticanalysis.</p>

<p>Consider a mixture of two immiscible, incompressible fluids e.g. oil and water. Since the fluids do not mix, an interface between the two fluids will form and move in time. The motion of the two fluids can be modelled by the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations for two phase flow with surface tension together with a representation of the moving interface. The parameters in the Navier-Stokes equations will depend on the position and other properties of the interface. The interface should move with the velocity of the flow at the interface. Since the fluids are incompressible, the density of each fluid is constant. Mass conservation then implies that the volume occupied by each of the two fluids should not change with time. The object of this thesis has been to develop a new numerical method to simulate incompressible two phase flow accurately that conserves mass and volume of each fluid correctly.</p><p>Numerical simulations of incompressible two phase flow with surface tension have been a challenge for many years. Several methods have been developed and used prior to the work presented in this thesis. The two most commonly used methods are volume of fluid methods and level set methods. There are advantages and disadvantages of both of the methods.</p><p>In volume of fluid methods the interface is represented by a discontinuity of a globally defined function. Because of the discontinuity it is hard both to move the interface as well as to calculate properties of the interface such as curvature. Specially designed methods have to be used, and all these methods are low order accurate. Volume of fluid methods do however conserve the volumes of the two fluids correctly.</p><p>In level set methods the interface is represented by the zero contour of the globally defined signed distance function. This function is smooth across the interface. Since the function is smooth, standard methods for partial differential equations can be used to advect the interface accurately. A reinitialization is however needed to make sure that the level set function remains a signed distance function. During this process the zero contour might move slightly. Because of this, the volume conservation of the method becomes poor.</p><p>In this thesis we present a new level set method. The method is designed such that the volume of each fluid is conserved, at least approximately. The interface is represented by the 0.5 contour of a regularized characteristic function. As for standard level set methods, the interface is moved first by an advective step, and then reinitialized. Unlike traditional level set methods, we can formulate the reinitialization as a conservation law. Conservative methods can then be used to move and to reinitialize the level set function numerically. Since the level set function is a regularized characteristic function, we can expect good conservation of the volume bounded by the interface.</p><p>The method is discretized using both finite differences and finite elements. Uniform and adaptive grids are used in both two and three space dimensions. Good convergence as well as volume conservation is observed. Theoretical studies are performed to investigate the conservation and the computational time needed for reinitialization.</p>

When a lander approaches a dusty surface, the plume from the descent engine impinges on the ground and entrains loose regolith into a high velocity spray. This problem exhibits a wide variety of complex phenomena such as highly under-expanded plume impingement, transition from continuum to free molecular flow, erosion, coupled gas-dust motions, and granular collisions for a polydisperse distribution of aerosolized particles. The focus of this work is to identify and model the important physical phenomena and to characterize the dust motion that would result during typical lunar landings. A hybrid continuum-kinetic solver is used, but most of the complex physics are simulated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. A descent engine of comparable size and thrust to the Lunar Module Descent Engine is simulated because it allows for direct comparison to Apollo observations. Steady axisymmetric impingement was first studied for different thrust engines and different hovering altitudes. The erosion profiles are obtained from empirically derived scaling relationships and calibrated to closely match the net erosion observed during the Apollo missions. Once entrained, the dust motion is strongly influenced by particle-particle collisions and the collision elasticity. The effects of two-way coupling between the dust and gas motions are also studied. Small particles less than 1 µm in diameter are accelerated to speeds that exceed 1000 m/s. The larger particles have more inertia and are accelerated to slower speeds, approximately 350 m/s for 11 µm grains, but all particle sizes tend obtain their maximum speed within approximately 40 m from the lander. The maximum particle speeds and erosion rates tend to increase as the lander approaches the lunar surface. The erosion rates scale linearly with engine thrust and the maximum particle speed increases for higher thrust engines. Dust particles are able to travel very far from the lander because there is no background atmosphere on the moon to inhibit their motion. The far field deposition is obtained by using a staged calculation, where the first stages are in the near field where the flow is quasi-steady and the outer stages are unsteady. A realistic landing trajectory is approximated by a set of discrete hovering altitudes which range from 20 m to 3 m. Larger particles are accelerated to slower speeds and are deposited closer to the lander than smaller particles. Many of the gas molecules exceed lunar escape speed, but some gas molecules become trapped within the dust cloud and remain on the moon. The high velocity particulate sprays can be damaging to nearby structures, such as a lunar outpost. One way of mitigating this damage is to use a berm or fence to shield nearby structures from the dust spray. This work attempts to predict the effectiveness of such a fence. The effects of fence height, placement, and angle as well as the model sensitivity to the fence restitution coefficient are discussed. The expected forces exerted on fences placed at various locations are computed. The pressure forces were found to be relatively small at fences placed at practical distances from the landing site. The trajectories of particles that narrowly avoid the fence were not significantly altered by the fence, suggesting that the dust motion is weakly coupled to the gas in the near vicinity of the fence. Future landers may use multi-engine configurations that can form 3-dimensional gas and dust flows. There are multiple plume-plume and plume-surface interactions that affect the erosion rates and directionality of the dust sprays. A 4-engine configuration is simulated in this work for different hovering altitudes. The focusing of dust along certain trajectories depends on the lander hovering altitude, where at lower altitudes the dust particles focus along symmetry planes while at higher altitudes the sprays are more uniform. The surface erosion and trenching behavior for a 4-engine lander are also discussed. / text

The diffusion absorption refrigeration (DAR) cycle is a promising technology for fully thermally driven cooling. It is well suited to applications in medicine refrigeration and air-conditioning in off-grid settings. However, design and engineering knowhow for the technology is limited; therefore, system development has historically been an iterative and expensive process. Additionally, conventional system designs require high-grade energy input for operation, and are unsuitable for low-temperature solar- or waste-heat activated applications. In the present effort, component- and system-level DAR engineering analyses are performed. Detailed bubble-pump generator (BPG) component models are developed, and are validated experimentally and with direct simulations. Investigations into the BPG focus on the Taylor flow pattern in the intermediate Bond number regime, which has not yet been thoroughly characterized in the literature, and has numerous industry applications, including nuclear fuel processing and well dewatering. A coupling-fluid heated BPG design is also investigated experimentally for low-source-temperature operation. Phase-change simulation methodologies are developed to rigorously study the continuously developing flow pattern in this BPG configuration. Detailed component-level models are also formulated for all of the other DAR heat and mass exchangers, and are integrated to yield a complete system-level model. Results from these modeling studies are applied to develop a novel fully passive low-source-temperature (110 - 130°C) DAR system that delivers refrigeration grade cooling. This design achieves operation at target conditions through the use of alternate working fluids (NH3-NaSCN-He), the coupling-fluid heated BPG, and a novel absorber configuration. The complete DAR system is demonstrated experimentally, and evaluated over a range of operating conditions. Experimental results are applied to assess and refine component- and system- level models.

The aim of the work is to investigate heat transfer of the staggered tube bank to downward statically stable foam flow.

As a result of the problem of hydrate in multiphase pipelines in offshore production is becoming more and more severe with the increasing of the water depth, the study on oil-gas-water-hydrate has became a hot point of multiphase flow. In this paper, the hydrate particle and liquid phase was treated as pseudo-fluid, the steady hydraulic, thermodynamical and phase equilibrium calculation method of gas-hydrate slurry was developed. Comparison was carried out between calculated data and experimental data from flow loop in our laboratory. With strict flash calculation the following items were determined: the amount of hydrate; phase number; the location that hydrate appeared; flowrate and molar component of gas phase and liquid phase. Then thermodynamic quantities were carried out with proper relational expression. When Compositional model is used to simulate two phase flow, it is required to couple mass, momentum, energy equation and equation of state. In the other word, the parameters in these four equations are interacted. However they are all the functions of p, T and z. In steady condition, it’s assumed that the composition of fluid is unchangeable along the pipeline and the flow can be described by pressure and temperature. In this paper, calculation method of gas-liquid two phase flow which respectively was improved. Liquid holdup and pressure drop were calculated by momentum equation. Enthalpy balance equation was substituted by explicit formulation of temperature calculation which meant that the loop of temperature was not required.

In modern microprocessors, thermal management has become one of the main hurdles in continued performance enhancement. Cooling schemes utilizing single phase microfluidics have been investigated extensively for enhanced heat dissipation from microprocessors. However, two-phase fluidic cooling devices are becoming a promising approach, and are less understood. This study aims to examine two-phase flow and heat transfer within a pin-fin enhanced micro-gap. The pin-fin array covered an area of 1cm x 1cm and had a pin diameter, height and pitch of 150μm, 200μm and 225μm, respectively, (aspect ratio of 1.33). This study covers both uniformly and partially heated scenarios. The working fluid used was R245fa. The average heat transfer coefficient and high speed flow visualization results indicated a rapid transition to the annular flow regime with a strong dependence on heat flux. Also, unique, conically-shaped two-phase wakes were observed, demonstrating the lateral spreading capability of the pin-fin array geometry.

Aquesta tesi centra els seus esforços en l'àmbit de la microfluídica, un camp relativament recent dins de la Mecànica de Fluids, amb un futur prometedor i amb un ritme d'investigació intens en les seves diferents especialitzacions. En aquest sentit, la tesi presenta dos aportacions científiques principals. Primer, aporta una eina numèrica d'elaboració pròpia per realitzar simulacions de fluxos reactius en microcanals. Eina que s'aplica satisfactòriament a la identificació dels principals processos de transport involucrats en la oxidació parcial del metà per a produir gas de síntesi, i a l'estudi de l'efecte que tenen alguns paràmetres d'operació en aquest procés reactiu. Segon, estén el coneixement dels fluxos multifàsics en microunions en T, estudiant experimentalment fluxos de dues fases amb fluids principalment miscibles i en condicions supercrítiques, que son portats al seu equilibri vapor-líquid. Durant aquest estudi, a més, reporta un succés inesperat que presenta futurs reptes en l'aplicació d'aquest tipus de fluxos multifàsics. / The present thesis focuses on microfluidics, a relatively recent field of Fluid Mechanics with promising expectations and with an intense scientific interest on its different areas. In this regard, the thesis aims to provide two main scientific contributions. First, it presents an in-house numerical tool to carry out simulations of reactive flows within microchannels. The tool is successfully applied to the identification of the main transport phenomena involved on the partial oxidation of methane to produce synthesis gas, and to the analysis of the effect of several operating parameters on this reactive process. Second, it extends the knowledge on multiphase flows in microfluidic T-junctions with an experimental study of two-phase flows of mixtures of potentially miscible fluids, in supercritical conditions and in vapour-liquid equilibrium. In this study it is also reported an unexpected phenomenon, which brings new challenges to the application of these kind of multiphase flows.

Bubble nucleation at subcooled flow boiling condition in a horizontal annular channel with a square cross section by the use of high-speed camera is investigated. The channel represents a scaled-down version of a single rod of CANDU reactor core. The experiments were performed by the use of water at pressures between 1-3 atm, constant heat flux of 0.124 MW/m2, liquid bulk subcooling of 32-1oC and mean flow velocities of 0.3-0.4 m/s. Bubble lift-off diameters were obtained from direct high speed videography. The developed model for the bubble lift-off diameter was obtained by analyzing the forces acting on a bubble. Furthermore, a model for the bubble growth rate constant was suggested. The proposed model was then compared to experimental data and it has shown a good agreement with the experimental data. Additionally, the effects of liquid bulk subcooling, liquid pressure and mean flow velocity on bubble lift-off diameter were investigated.

The remediation of soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) is endorsed by environmental protection agencies worldwide. Recent studies demonstrated the removal of these contaminants from soil utilizing polymer beads, with subsequent PAH release and degradation in solid-liquid two phase partitioning bioreactors (TPPBs). Although such a process was successful, significant mass transport limitations involving PAH release from the polymers hampered productivity. The current work examined the possibility of applying sonication in solid-liquid partitioning systems to enhance delivery and degradation of PAHs. Small scale physical testing revealed delivery rates of PAHs from Desmopan, increased by 5 fold under intermittent sonication relative to non-sonicated conditions. Enhancements were also displayed as shifts to higher release equilibria under sonicated conditions, agreeing with sonochemistry concepts. Improvements were demonstrated across a range of polymers, suggesting that sonication could enhance PAH release with any polymers deemed feasible for environmental applications. A PAH-degrading microbial consortium was enriched, and it was demonstrated that sonication also improved the rate of phenanthrene degradation delivered from Desmopan by four times, confirming transport improvements while minimizing cellular inactivation effects. A mass transport analysis showed that without sonication, delivery of PAHs was restricted by the external resistance at the solid-liquid interface. Ultrasound was shown to enhance both external and internal transport properties, allowing rates not achievable through increased liquid mixing. Diffusivities quantified with and without ultrasound decreased as a function of permeant molecular size. Additionally, partitioning coefficients under sonicated and non-sonicated conditions decreased with PAH molecular size. Finally, an examination of permeant property data demonstrated that polarizability was the best descriptor of thermodynamic and transport behaviour in solid-liquid systems. The possibility of inducing equivalent improvements was investigated in a bench scale TPPB, in which sonic exposure improved degradation rates of phenanthrene by 2.7 fold when delivered from Desmopan. A window of on/off operation for ultrasonic cycling was also demonstrated, providing potential for optimizing sonication via rational selection of exposure times. DNA analysis also revealed that the consortium composition was maintained in the presence of sonication and also demonstrated that the consortium was comprised of bacteria belonging to the Pandoraea, Sphingobium, and Pseudoxanthomonas genera. / Thesis (Master, Chemical Engineering) -- Queen's University, 2009-08-26 13:04:26.229