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At least 73 records · Page 4

Effect of PVD-coated chromium on the subcooled flow boiling performance of nuclear reactor cladding materials

Here we elucidate the separate effect of a thin Cr coating deposited by physical vapor deposition (PVD) on the subcooled flow boiling performance of zircaloy-4. First, we run flow boiling experiments on prototypical zircaloy-4 surfaces mimicking the scratch pattern and surface roughness of nuclear reactor claddings. Then, we PVD-coat a 0.3 µm thick chromium layer on the same exact surface and repeat the same flow boiling investigations. All experiments are run using deionized water at atmospheric pressure, flowing on a 1 × 3 cm 2 rectangular cross section channel at a rate of 1000 kg/m 2 /s and a subcooling of 10 K. We measure the average temperature of the boiling surface at increasing surface heat fluxes, covering a wide range of heat transfer regimes, from single-phase forced convection to the boiling crisis. We also record high-speed videos of the boiling process, which we postprocess to measure bubble nucleation site density, growth time, departure diameter and frequency. The surface analysis reveals that, while the chromium coating does not seem change the surface roughness and morphology, it improves surface wettability. However, it decreases the critical heat flux. The chromium coating causes an increase of nucleation temperature, bubble departure diameter and growth time, and a reduction of the nucleation site density. The concurrence of these observations indicates that a size reduction of the nucleation sites, conformally covered by the chromium coating, may be the cause of the boiling performance deterioration. We confirm this hypothesis repeating the same analysis on a FeCrAl sample prepared and tested using the same protocol as the zircaloy-4 sample, but with a different initial surface texture.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗

Development of experimental and computational frameworks to predict subcooled flow boiling in the LANL Isotope Production Facility

Cooling is crucial to maintain the integrity of target systems in isotope production facilities. At Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL)’s Isotope Production Facility (IPF), multiple encapsulated targets are stacked and irradiated in tandem with a 100 MeV, ~250μA proton beam. To facilitate effective heat removal, these stacked targets are separated and cooled via a series of water channels. At these beam currents, this high-energy proton beam heats the target system, likely initiating subcooled flow boiling in the cooling channels. However, in-beam monitoring of the IPF target system is not possible due to the extreme radiation environment, and the necessarily significant shielding. To better understand high-power target performance, we developed ex-situ experimental and computational frameworks to predict the behavior of subcooled flow boiling at IPF. Subcooled flow boiling experiments on Inconel 625 samples under IPF conditions (2 bar pressure, 10 GPM flow rate (i.e., 2249 kg/m 2 /s), 85 K subcooling) revealed that IPF's average operating power is at the early stage of boiling with a heat transfer coefficient of 48,000 W/m 2 /s. The proposed modeling framework enables us to predict a complete boiling curve, i.e., single-phase heat transfer, onset of nucleate boiling, two-phase heat transfer, and critical heat flux (CHF), with specification of input boiling parameters up to intermediate heat flux levels. The estimated CHF under IPF conditions is 5.2 MW/m 2 . Experimental data under reduced conditions (2 bar pressure, 1.5 GPM flow rate (i.e., 337 kg/m 2 /s), 45 K subcooling) served as validation cases for the computational modeling. This computational model can be further extended to more complicated systems replicating the real IPF configuration, for instance, to study void distribution as a function of the incident proton beam profile and coolant velocity profile of multiple cooling channels. Finally, the proposed experimental and computational frameworks provide a means to better understand cooling systems in the isotope production facilities at different accelerators, where in-beam monitoring of the cooling process is not available.

07 ISOTOPE AND RADIATION SOURCES↗

Modeling of Cryogenic Heated-Tube Flow Boiling Experiments of Hydrogen and Helium With GFSSP

Accurate modeling of cryogenic boiling heat transfer is vital for the development of extended-duration space missions. Such missions may require the transfer of cryogenic propellants from in-space storage depots or the cooling of nuclear reactors. Purdue University in collaboration with NASA has assembled a database of cryogenic flow boiling data points from heated-tube experiments dating back to 1959, which has been used to develop new flow boiling correlations specifically for cryogens. Computational models of several of these experiments have been constructed in the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP), a network flow code developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The new Purdue-developed correlations cover the full boiling curve: onset of nucleate boiling, nucleate boiling, critical heat flux, and film boiling. These correlations have been coded into GFSSP user subroutines. The fluids modeled are hydrogen and helium. Predictions of wall temperature, heat transfer coefficient, and pressure drop are presented and compared to the test data.

multi-phase flow↗

Modeling of Cryogenic Heated-Tube Flow Boiling Experiments of Nitrogen and Methane with the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program

Accurate modeling of cryogenic boiling heat transfer is vital for the development of extended-duration space missions. Such missions may require the transfer of cryogenic propellants from in-space storage depots or the cooling of nuclear reactors. Purdue University in collaboration with NASA has assembled a database of cryogenic flow boiling data points from heated-tube experiments dating back to 1959, which has been used to develop new flow boiling correlations specifically for cryogens. Computational models of several of these experiments have been constructed in the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP), a network flow code developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The new Purdue-developed correlations cover the full boiling curve: onset of nucleate boiling, nucleate boiling, critical heat flux, and film boiling. These correlations have been coded into GFSSP user subroutines. The fluids modeled are methane and nitrogen. Predictions of wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient are presented and compared to the test data.

Multi-Phase Flow↗

Modeling of Cryogenic Heated-Tube Flow Boiling Experiments of Hydrogen and Helium With the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program

Accurate modeling of cryogenic boiling heat transfer is vital for the development of extended-duration space missions. Such missions may require the transfer of cryogenic propellants from in-space storage depots or the cooling of nuclear reactors. Purdue University in collaboration with NASA has assembled a database of cryogenic flow boiling data points from heated-tube experiments dating back to 1959, which has been used to develop new flow boiling correlations specifically for cryogens. Computational models of several of these experiments have been constructed in the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP), a network flow code developed at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. The new Purdue-developed universal correlations cover the full boiling curve: onset of nucleate boiling, nucleate boiling, critical heat flux, and film boiling. These correlations have been coded into GFSSP user subroutines. The fluids modeled in this study are liquid hydrogen and liquid helium. Predictions of local wall temperature and pressure drop are presented and compared to the test data.

multi-phase flow↗

Recent Ground-based Test Results for the Closed Loop Two-Phase Flow Chilldown Test Module for Future Integration with the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment onboard International Space Station

Effective cryogenic fluid management is important to the success of future manned and unmanned NASA missions, and the transfer line chilldown process is recognized as a key technological challenge. To address this challenge, the Two-phase Flow and Thermal Management Lab (TFTML) at Case Western Reserve University is collaborating with NASA Glenn Research Center to develop, test and deploy a closed loop two-phase flow chilldown test section onboard the International Space Station to be integrated with the current Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) module. The final results of this project will create the first chilldown process database under pure and sustained microgravity conditions and will significantly advance the understanding of the chilldown process for cryogenic fluid management. In the present work, the ground-based test results of the closed loop SS-316 chilldown test section in a horizontal configuration at varying inlet mass flow rates (3-40 g/s) and inlet liquid subcooling (5-35 0C) are presented. The working fluid is PF-5060 and the chilldown curves captured the entire quenching curve involving the different boiling regimes and temperature transition points viz., film boiling, Leidenfrost/re-wetting point, transition boiling, critical heat flux (CHF), nucleate boiling, onset of nucleate boiling (ONB) and single-phase liquid flow regions, when the test section is pre-heated to around 250 0C. The major findings of the present study are, (i) the bottom part of the test section sees a lower re-wetting temperature due to the horizontal flow configuration, (ii) the re-wetting temperatures are relatively unaffected by inlet liquid mass flow rates though the increase in mass flow rates reduce the chilldown time, and (iii) the re-wetting temperatures decrease with decrease in inlet liquid subcooling. Further, preliminary flow visualization studies in a transparent pyrex test section will also be presented to understand the intricate flow boiling regime transitions during the chilldown process.

ISS↗

Experimental investigation of power transient flow boiling

To advance the mechanistic understanding of power transients in flow boiling, experimental investigations are performed to capture the thermal response of four different kinds of cladding materials, including FeCrAls, to Fuchs reactivity initiated accident transients and linear ramp power transients. The transition boiling regime is phenomenologically reflected in power-transient flow boiling, which is different from steady-state boiling. In light of this, the critical heat flux that is usually featured with temperature overshooting does not indicate thermal safety margin of cladding materials as conservatively as the maximum heat flux, which is greater than critical heat flux in the power transient boiling curve. This is physically attributed to the thermal energy deposition on the cladding wall. In addition, the thermal energy released from the cladding wall results in different boiling heat transfer coefficient for the decreasing and increasing power stages respectively during the Fuchs power transient. The maximum heat flux difference gap, which appears due to changes in cladding materials and transient time scales, is appreciable under an intermediate heat convection regime. However, this difference gap is gradually weakened by the progressive increasing of mass flux and/or inlet subcooling due to the enhanced dominance of heat convection over heat conduction. Finally, the small difference gap of maximum heat flux is found to be insignificant under the weak heat convection because of power transient induced annular flow instability.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Tank-Integrated Heat Exchanger for Boil-Off Reduction

The following document details the initial efforts of the Protium Company in developing reduced boil-off and zero boil-off liquid hydrogen tanks using Vapor-Cooled Shielding (VCS) technology. The intention is to improve upon the performance characteristics of traditional vacuum-jacketed dewars by reducing boil-off rate, cooldown time, and total boil-off during cooldown time while integrating the heat exchanger into the wall of the VCS tank. The work carried out during this project was limited, as the grant recipient The Protium Company was acquired by Plug Power Inc. on October 1st 2021, early in the performance period of the grant. As such, the extent of the work completed includes an initial estimation of the dimensions needed for a 0.1%/day boil-off VCS liquid hydrogen tank. These dimensions are derived from data gathered from sizes of previous VCS tanks. The dimensions and estimated boil-off rate for the VCS tank are by no means validated, and no design was generated for a zero boil-off tank.

08 HYDROGEN↗

Transient boiling heat transfer in saturated liquid nitrogen and F113 at standard and zero gravity

Transient and steady state nucleate boiling in saturated LN2 and F113 at standard and near zero gravity conditions were investigated for the horizontal up, vertical and horizontal down orientations of the heating surface. Two distinct regimes of heat transfer mechanisms were observed during the interval from the step increase of power input to the onset of nucleate boiling: the conduction and convection dominated regimes. The time duration in each regime was considerably shorter with LN2 than with F113, and decreased as heat flux increased, as gravity was reduced, and as the orientation was changed from horizontal up to horizontal down. In transient boiling, boiling initiates at a single point following the step increase in power, and then spreads over the surface. The delay time for the inception of boiling at the first site, and the velocity of spread of boiling varies depending upon the heat flux, orientation, body force, surface roughness and liquid properties, and are a consequence of changes in boundary layer temperature levels associated with changes in natural convection. Following the step increase in power input, surface temperature overshoot and undershoot occur before the steady state boiling temperature level is established.

Oker, E.↗

Transport processes in boiling and two-phase systems, including near-critical fluids

Aspects of pool boiling are considered, taking into account nucleate boiling, the nucleate boiling mechanism, film boiling, and the transition between nucleate and film boiling. The characteristics of two-phase flow are also investigated, giving attention to two-phase flow parameters and equations, the flow pattern in two-phase flow, the pressure drop in two-phase flow, heat transfer in two-phase flow, two-phase flow dynamics, the boiling crisis in two-phase flow, the critical flow rate, the propagation of the pressure pulse and the sonic velocity in two-phase media, instrumentation for two-phase flow, and geometry and field effects on boiling and two-phase flow. Near-critical fluids are also considered.

Hsu, Y.-Y.↗

Transition boiling heat transfer and the film transition regime

The Berenson (1960) flat-plate transition-boiling experiment has been recreated with a reduced thermal resistance in the heater, and an improved access to those portions of the transition boiling regime that have a steep negative slope. Tests have been made in Freon-113, acetone, benzene, and n-pentane boiling on horizontal flat copper heaters that have been mirror-polished, 'roughened', or teflon-coated. The resulting data reproduce and clarify certain features observed by Berenson: the modest surface finish dependence of boiling burnout, and the influence of surface chemistry on both the minimum heat flux and the mode of transition boiling, for example. A rational scheme of correlation yields a prediction of the heat flux in what Witte and Lienhard (1982) previously identified as the 'film-transition boiling' region. It is also shown how to calculate the heat flux at the boundary between the pure-film, and the film-transition, boiling regimes, as a function of the advancing contact angle.

Ramilison, J. M.↗

Experimental Investigation of Pool Boiling Heat Transfer Enhancement in Microgravity in the Presence of Electric Fields

Boiling is an effective mode of heat transfer since high heat flux levels are possible driven by relatively small temperature differences. The high heat transfer coefficients associated with boiling have made the use of these processes increasingly attractive to aerospace engineering. Applications of this type include compact evaporators in the thermal control of aircraft avionics and spacecraft environments, heat pipes, and use of boiling to cool electronic equipment. In spite of its efficiency, cooling based on liquid-vapor phase change processes has not yet found wide application in aerospace engineering due to specific problems associated with the low gravity environment. After a heated surface has reached the superheat required for the initiation of nucleate boiling, bubbles will start forming at nucleation sites along the solid interface by evaporation of the liquid. Bubbles in contact with the wall will continue growing by this mechanism until they detach. In terrestrial conditions, bubble detachment is determined by the competition between body forces (e.g. buoyancy) and surface tension forces that act to anchor the bubble along the three phase contact line. For a given body force potential and a balance of tensions along the three phase contact line, bubbles must reach a critical size before the body force can cause them to detach from the wall. In a low gravity environment the critical bubble size for detachment is much larger than under terrestrial conditions, since buoyancy is a less effective means of bubble removal. Active techniques of heat transfer enhancement in single phase and phase change processes by utilizing electric fields have been the subject of intensive research during recent years. The field of electrohydrodynamics (EHD) deals with the interactions between electric fields, flow fields and temperature fields. Previous studies indicate that in terrestrial applications nucleate boiling heat transfer can be increased by a factor of 50 as compared to values obtained for the same system without electric fields. Imposing an external electric field holds the promise to improve pool boiling heat transfer in low gravity, since a phase separation force other than gravity is introduced. The goal of our research is to experimentally investigate the potential of EHD and the mechanisms responsible for EHD heat transfer enhancement in boiling in low gravity conditions.

Herman, Cila↗

Transition from Pool to Flow Boiling: The Effect of Reduced Gravity

Applications of boiling heat transfer in space can be found in the areas of thermal management, fluid handling and control, power systems, on-orbit storage and supply systems for cryogenic propellants and life support fluids, and for cooling of electronic packages for power systems associated with various instrumentation and control systems. Recent interest in exploration of Mars and other planets, and the concepts of in-situ resource utiliLation on Mars highlights the need to understand the effect of gravity on boiling heat transfer at gravity levels varying from 1>= g/g(sub e) >=10(exp -6). The objective of the proposed work was to develop a mechanistic understanding of nucleate boiling and critical heat flux under low and micro-gravity conditions when the velocity of the imposed flow is small. For pool boiling, the effect of reduced gravity is to stretch both the length scale as well as the time scale for the boiling process. At high flow velocities, the inertia of the liquid determines the time and the length scales and as such the gravitational acceleration plays little role. However, at low velocities and at low gravity levels both liquid inertia and buoyancy are of equal importance. At present, we have little understanding of the interacting roles of gravity and liquid inertia on the nucleate boiling process. Little data that has been reported in the literature does not have much practical value in that it can not serve as a basis for design of heat exchange components to be used in space. Both experimental and complete numerical simulations of the low velocity, low-gravity nucleate boiling process were carried out. A building block type of approach was used in that first the growth and detachment process of a single bubble and flow and heat transfer associated with the sliding motion of the bubble over the heater surface after detachment was studied. Liquid subcooling and flow velocity were varied parametrically. The experiments were conducted at 1 g(sub e), while varying the orientation of surface with respect to the gravity vector. In the laboratory experiments, holographic interferometry was used to obtain data on velocity and temperature fields associated with a bubble prior to, and after detachment and during sliding motion. A test rig for conducting experiments in the KC-135 was developed, but experiments could not be conducted due to the unavailability of the aircraft prior to completion of the project. Numerical simulations modeling the micro and macro regions of the bubble were carried out in three dimensions. The results of the experiments were used to validate analytical/numerical models.

Dhir, Vijay K.↗

Numerical Modeling of Boiling in a Heated Tube

This paper presents numerical models of boiling in a heated tube using the Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program (GFSSP), a finite-volume-based general-purpose flow network code developed at NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center. The heated tube is discretized into a one-dimensional array of nodes and branches to represent the flow of liquid and vapor in a tube with a prescribed pressure differential. The solid wall is also discretized into solid nodes and conductors to allow for heat transfer between the wall and the fluid. The conservation equations of mass, momentum, and energy of the fluid are solved simultaneously with the energy conservation equation for the solid wall. Two experimental configurations of fluid flowing in a vertical tube have been simulated, one with water and the other with liquid hydrogen. This paper compares experimental data with numerical predictions based on four different published correlations for boiling heat transfer coefficients. Three of these correlations are applicable to the saturated vertical flow conditions of the experiments. One of them is applicable to film boiling and has been used for the liquid hydrogen experiment, which was in film boiling regime. For the case of boiling water, the predictions of wall temperatures using the boiling heat transfer correlations agreed well with the experimental results. However, in the case of boiling hydrogen larger discrepancies were observed between the experimental data and numerical predictions.

Majumdar, Alok↗

Interface Capturing Simulations on Pool Boiling Performance With Multiple Nucleation Sites

High-fidelity pool boiling simulations can provide a numerical database for improving mechanistic boiling models by allowing for specific evaluation of interactions among bubbles. Previously published pool boiling simulations investigated two nucleation sites in which bubble growth at one site suppressed nucleation at the other site. Based on previous study results, more complicated interface-capturing simulations on pool boiling were conducted using PHASTA code with locally refined unstructured mesh.First, different boundary conditions (BCs) were assessed to support robustness and reproducibility of the boiling model. Then, a scale study was conducted at a larger domain with nine nucleation sites, four of which were activated. Involving more nucleation sites increased the complexity of bubble interactions from surrounding sites. Finally, bubble departure behavior influenced by wall heat flux was investigated. When heat flux was increased, the order of bubble departure changed, but diagonal bubbles always departed after one another. The departure time interval between the first and second bubble reduced as heat flux increased. The corresponding frequency was almost linearly proportional to the heat flux. In addition, bubble departure behavior was found to be greatly influenced by the nucleation site pattern. Multiple nucleation sites resulted in superimposed inhibitive effects from surrounding sites to each bubble, which extensively delayed the departure.The work presented here provides new insight on the fundamental understanding of boiling phenomena, contributes to the development of a 3D multiphase computational fluid dynamics (M-CFD) model, and provides a more comprehensive database for data-driven pool boiling studies.

Fan, Joy↗

Automated bubble analysis of high-speed subcooled flow boiling images using U-net transfer learning and global optical flow

Capturing and analyzing the bubble dynamics is crucial to improving the understanding of boiling heat transfer mechanisms and predicting boiling heat transfer coefficient and boiling crisis. High speed video (HSV) imaging has been used for decades towards this end. Still, there is no universal approach to quantitatively analyze bubble dynamics from HSV images. In this study, we propose a data-driven post-processing approach to segment, track, and identify wall-attached vapor bubbles from HSV images of the boiling process in subcooled flow conditions. Firstly, we employ a transfer learning framework with a U-Net-based convolution neural network (CNN) architecture to detect and segment bubbles in HSV images of diverse contrast and surface texture using very little data (e.g., 10 images) for training. Then, we evaluate the trained CNN model with 100 ground-truth images, and the validation results show that the model accuracy and precision in detecting the optical footprint of bubbles are higher than 90%. Finally, we suggest a criterion to identify a condensing bubble based on the divergence of the bubble displacement, which is calculated from sequential segmented bubble images using a global optical flow code. Using this combination of machine learning and optical flow, we can identify nucleation sites and track the growth of bubbles nucleating at each site to quantify nucleation site density, nucleation frequency, and other fundamental boiling parameters. The proposed system is validated using results obtained on a special heater, which enables both infrared (IR) thermometry and HSV imaging on a metallic surface. We compare the fundamental boiling parameters obtained by the two different diagnostics. The results show good agreement. In conclusion, the difference between the measurements of nucleation site density, averaged nucleation frequency, and averaged growth time performed with the two techniques is always within ± 20% and mostly ± 10% of the values measured with IR thermometry.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Design and test of a compact optics system for the pool boiling experiment

The experiment described seeks to improve the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that constitute nucleate pool boiling. The vehicle for accomplishing this is an investigation, including tests to be conducted in microgravity and coupled with appropriate analyses, of the heat transfer and vapor bubble dynamics associated with nucleation, bubble growth/collapse and subsequent motion, considering the interrelations between buoyancy, momentum and surface tension which will govern the motion of the vapor and surrounding liquid, as a function of the heating rate at the heat transfer surface and the temperature level and distribution in the bulk liquid. The experiment is designed to be contained within the confines of a Get-Away-Special Canister (GAS Can) installed in the bay of the space shuttle. When the shuttle reaches orbit, the experiment will be turned on and testing will proceed automatically. In the proposed Pool Boiling Experiment a pool of liquid, initially at a precisely defined pressure and temperature, will be subjected to a step imposed heat flux from a semitransparent thin-film heater forming part of one wall of the container such that boiling is initiated and maintained for a defined period of time at a constant pressure level. Transient measurements of the heater surface and fluid temperatures near the surface will be made, noting especially the conditions at the onset of boiling, along with motion photography of the boiling process in two simultaneous views, from beneath the heating surface and from the side. The conduct of the experiment and the data acquisition will be completely automated and self-contained. For the initial flight, a total of nine tests are proposed, with three levels of heat flux and three levels of subcooling. The design process used in the development and check-out of the compact photographic/optics system for the Pool Boiling Experiment is documented.

Ling, Jerri S.↗

Marangoni Effects in the Boiling of Binary Fluid Mixtures

Results of very recent experimental studies indicate that during nucleate boiling in some binary mixture, Marangoni effects augment the gravity driven flow of liquid towards the heated surface. With gravity present, it is impossible to separate the two effects. The reduced gravity environment gives an unique opportunity to explore th role of Marangoni effects on the boiling mechanisms free of gravitational body forces that obscure the role of such effects. However, recent experimental results suggest that under reduced gravity conditions, Marangoni effects is the dominant mechanism of vapor-liquid exchange at the surface for some binary mixture. To further explore such effects, experiments have been conducted with water/2-propanol mixtures at three different concentrations under normal gravity with different orientations of the heater surface and under reduce gravity aboard the DC-9 aircraft at NASA Lewis Research Center. The system pressure was sub atmospheric (approx. 8 kP at 1g(n)) and the bulk liquid temperature varied from low subcooling to near saturation. The molar concentrations of 2-propanol tested were 0.015, 0.025, and 0.1. Boiling curves were obtained both for high gravity (approx. 2g(n)) and reduce gravity (approx. 0.01g(n)). For each concentration of 2-propanol, the critical heat flux has been determined in the flight experiments only for reduced gravity conditions. Comparison of boiling curves and CHF obtained under l-g(n) an reduced gravity indicates that boiling mechanism in this mixtures is nearly independent of gravity. The results also indicate that the Marangoni mechanism is strong enough in these mixtures to sustain the boiling under reduced gravity conditions.

Ahmed, Sayeed↗