EFFECT OF PLUME DYNAMICS FOR HEAT TRANSFER ENHANCEMENT AT SOLID-LIQUID INTERFACE

The present paper analyzes the effects of plumes for heat transfer enhancement at solid-liquid interface taking both smooth and grooved surfaces. The experimental setup consists of a tank of dimensions 265 x 265 x 300 (height) containing water. The bottom surface was heated and free surface of the water was left open to the ambient. In the experiments, the bottom plate had either a smooth surface or a grooved surface. We used 90 V-grooved rough surfaces with two groove heights, 10mm and 3mm. The experiment was done with water layer depths of 90mm and 140mm, corresponding to values of aspect ratio(AR) equal to 2.9 and 1.8 respectively. Thymol blue, a pH sensitive dye, was used to visualize the flow near the heated plate. The measured heat transfer coefficients over the grooved surfaces were higher compared that over the smooth surface. The enhanced heat transport in the rough cavities cannot be ascribed to the increase in the contact area, rather it must be the local dynamics of the thermal boundary layer that changes the heat transport over the rough surface.

Application of Electrical Resistance Tomography System to Monitor Gas/Liquid Two-Phase Flow in a Horizontal Pipe

The Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) technique possesses great potential in monitoring widely exiting industrial two/multi-phase flow. For vertical pipe flow and inclined pipe flow, some application studies with exciting results have been reported, but there is rarely a paper regarding the application of ERT to horizontal gas/liquid pipe flow. This paper addresses this issue and proposes a smart method, Liquid Level Detection method, to conventional ERT system. The enhanced ERT system using the new method can monitor horizontal pipe flow effectively and its application is no longer restricted by the flow conditions. Some experimental results from monitoring an air/water slug pipe flow are presented.

Experimental study on two-phase gas-liquid flow patterns at normal and reduced gravity conditions

Experimental studies have been performed for horizontal two-phase air-water flows at normal and reduced gravity conditions in a square cross-section channel. The experiments at reduced gravity are conducted on board the Russian IL-76 reduced gravity airplane. Four flow patterns, namely bubble, slug, slug-annular transition and annular flows, are observed depending on the liquid and gas superficial velocities at both conditions. Semi-theoretical Weber number model is developed to include the shape influence on the slug-annular transition. It is shown that its prediction is in reasonable agreement with the experimental slug-annular transition under both conditions. For the case of two-phase gas-liquid flow with large value of the Froude number, the drift-flux model can predict well the observed boundary between bubble and slug flows.

On the Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Regimes and their Recognition Methods

气液两相流体系是一个复杂的多变量随机过程体系,流型的定义、流型过渡准则和判别方法等方面的研究是多相流学科目前研究的重点内容。本文就与气液两相流流型及其判别有关的研究状况进行了回顾和评述,力图反映近年来气液两相流流型及其判别问题研究的状态和趋势。

Linear Stability Analysis of Convection in Two-Layer System with an Evaporating Vapor-Liquid Interface

Classical theories have successfully provided an explanation for convection in a liquid layer heated from below without evaporation. However, these theories are inadequate to account for the convective instabilities in an evaporating liquid layer, especially in the case when it is cooled from below. In the present paper, we study the onset of Marangoni convection in a liquid layer being overlain by a vapor layer.A new two-sided model is put forward instead of the one-sided model in previous studies. Marangoni-Bénard instabilities in evaporating liquid thin layers are investigated with a linear instability analysis. We define a new evaporation Biot number, which is different from that in previous studies and discuss the influences of reference evaporating velocity and evaporation Biot number on the vapor-liquid system. At the end, we explain why the instability occurs even when an evaporating liquid layer is cooled from below.

Gamma-Ray Attenuation Technique For Measuring Void Fraction In Horizontal Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow

The measurement of void fraction is of importance to the oil industry and chemical industry. In this article, the principle and mathematical method of determining the void fraction of horizontal gas-liquid flow by using a single-energy gamma-ray system is described. The gamma-ray source is the radioactive isotope of Am-241 with gamma-ray energy of 59.5 keV. The time-averaged value of the void fraction in a 50.0-mm i.d. transparent horizontal pipeline is measured under various combinations of the liquid flow and gas flow. It is found that increasing the gas flow rate at a fixed liquid flow rate would increase the void fraction. Test data are compared with the predictions of the correlations and a good agreement is found. The result shows that the designed gamma-ray system can be used for measuring the void fraction in a horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow with high accuracy.

Pressure Drop Studies of Gas-Liquid Bubbly Flow in Vertical Upward Pipeline

This paper describes the experimental and theoretical studies of gas-liquid bubbly flow in vertical upward pipeline carried out at Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Bubbly flow in a vertical pipe with a 3 m long and 5 cm inner diameter plexiglass pipe was experimentally investigated, and studies carried out on the relationship between superficial velocities of the liquid and gas phases and pressure gradient is described. The developed drift-flux model applied to gas-liquid bubbly flow is presented, and the results are compared against the experimental data measured by ours in air/water vertical pipes.

Influence of Rayleigh-Taylor Instability on Liquid Propellant Reorientation in a Low-Gravity Environment

A computational simulation is conducted to investigate the influence of Rayleigh-Taylor instability on liquid propellant reorientation flow dynamics for the tank of CZ-3A launch vehicle series fuel tanks in a low-gravity environment. The volume-of-fluid (VOF) method is used to simulate the free surface flow of gas-liquid. The process of the liquid propellant reorientation started from initially flat and curved interfaces are numerically studied. These two different initial conditions of the gas-liquid interface result in two modes of liquid flow. It is found that the Rayleigh-Taylor instability can be reduced evidently at the initial gas-liquid interface with a high curve during the process of liquid reorientation in a low-gravity environment.

Proton transfers at the air-water interface

Proton transfer reactions at the interface of water with hydrophobic media, such as air or lipids, are ubiquitous on our planet. These reactions orchestrate a host of vital phenomena in the environment including, for example, acidification of clouds, enzymatic catalysis, chemistries of aerosol and atmospheric gases, and bioenergetic transduction. Despite their importance, however, quantitative details underlying these interactions have remained unclear. Deeper insight into these interfacial reactions is also required in addressing challenges in green chemistry, improved water quality, self-assembly of materials, the next generation of micro-nanofluidics, adhesives, coatings, catalysts, and electrodes. This thesis describes experimental and theoretical investigation of proton transfer reactions at the air-water interface as a function of hydration gradients, electrochemical potential, and electrostatics. Since emerging insights hold at the lipid-water interface as well, this work is also expected to aid understanding of complex biological phenomena associated with proton migration across membranes.

Based on our current understanding, it is known that the physicochemical properties of the gas-phase water are drastically different from those of bulk water. For example, the gas-phase hydronium ion, H₃O⁺(g), can protonate most (non-alkane) organic species, whereas H₃O⁺(aq) can neutralize only relatively strong bases. Thus, to be able to understand and engineer water-hydrophobe interfaces, it is imperative to investigate this fluctuating region of molecular thickness wherein the ‘function’ of chemical species transitions from one phase to another via steep gradients in hydration, dielectric constant, and density. Aqueous interfaces are difficult to approach by current experimental techniques because designing experiments to specifically sample interfacial layers (< 1 nm thick) is an arduous task. While recent advances in surface-specific spectroscopies have provided valuable information regarding the structure of aqueous interfaces, but structure alone is inadequate to decipher the function. By similar analogy, theoretical predictions based on classical molecular dynamics have remained limited in their scope.

Recently, we have adapted an analytical electrospray ionization mass spectrometer (ESIMS) for probing reactions at the gas-liquid interface in real time. This technique is direct, surface-specific,and provides unambiguous mass-to-charge ratios of interfacial species. With this innovation, we have been able to investigate the following:

1. How do anions mediate proton transfers at the air-water interface?

2. What is the basis for the negative surface potential at the air-water interface?

3. What is the mechanism for catalysis ‘on-water’?

In addition to our experiments with the ESIMS, we applied quantum mechanics and molecular dynamics to simulate our experiments toward gaining insight at the molecular scale. Our results unambiguously demonstrated the role of electrostatic-reorganization of interfacial water during proton transfer events. With our experimental and theoretical results on the ‘superacidity’ of the surface of mildly acidic water, we also explored implications on atmospheric chemistry and green chemistry. Our most recent results explained the basis for the negative charge of the air-water interface and showed that the water-hydrophobe interface could serve as a site for enhanced autodissociation of water compared to the condensed phase.

A New Criterion Number for the Boundary Conditions at the Solid/Liquid Interface in Nanoscale

A simple, but important three-atom model was proposed at the solid/liquid interface, leading to a new criterion number, lambda, governing the boundary conditions (BCs) in nanoscale. The solid wall is considered as the face-centered-cubic (fcc) structure. The fluid is the liquid argon with the well-known LJ potential. Based on the concept, the two micro-systems have the same BCs if they have The same criterion number. The degree of the locking BCs is enhanced when lambda equals to 0.757. Such critical criterion number results in the substantial epitaxial ordering and one, two, or even three liquid layers are locked by the solid wall, depending on the coupling energy scale ratio of the solid and liquid atoms. With deviation from the critical criterion number, the flow approaches the slip BCs and there are little ordering structures within the liquid. Always at the same criterion number, the degree of the slip is decreased or the locking is enhanced with increasing the coupling energy scale ratio of the solid and liquid atoms. The above analysis is well confirmed by the molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. The slip length is well correlated in terms of the new criterion number. The future work is suggested to extend the present theory for other microstructures of the solid wall atoms and quasi-LJ potentials.

On-line introduction of high-pressure gas-liquid sample for capillary gas chromatographic analysis

An on-line sample introduction technique in capillary gas chromatograph (CGC) for the analysis of high-pressure gas-liquid mixtures has been designed and evaluated. A sample loop of 0.05 muL and a washing solvent loop of 0.5 muL are mounted on a 10-port switching valve, which serves as the injection valve. A capillary resistor was connected to the vent of sample loop in order to maintain the pressure of the sample. Both the sample and the washing solvent are transferred into the split-injection port through a narrow bore fused silica capillary inserted into the injection liner through a septum. The volume of the liner is used both as the pressure-release damper and evaporation chamber of the sample. On-line analysis of both reactants and resultants in ethylene olimer reaction mixture at 5 MPa was carried out, which demonstrated the applicability of the technique. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.