Particle-laden flows are ubiquitous in many industries including pharmaceutical, petroleum, agricultural, energy, and more. These flows have been a focus of both experimental and computational research with recent contributions coming from investigations pertaining to particle-induced turbulence. This paper presents a numerical investigation of the heat transfer characteristics of compressible, turbulent, particle-laden, internal flows. This research seeks to understand what effect the particle-laden flows contribute to changing the heat transfer environment, i.e., the complex particle, fluid, and wall interactions which include turbophoresis, vortex shedding, wall rebound, and turbulence dissipation. Each of these phenomena dictate the turbulence and the trajectory of the particles within the flow which in turn impact the heat transfer.In this work, we study the heat transfer performance and particle dynamics of a highly mass loaded, compressible, particle-laden flow in a horizontally-oriented pipe using an Eulerian-Eulerian (two-fluid) computational model. An attendant experimental configuration provides the basis for the study. Specifically, a 17 bar co-flow of nitrogen gas and copper powder are modeled with inlet Reynolds numbers of 3x104, 4.5x104, and 6x104 and mass loadings of 0, 0.5, and 1.0. Eight binned particle sizes were modeled to represent the known powder properties. Significant settling of all particle groups are observed in the model result, leading to asymmetric temperature distributions. Wall and core flow temperature distributions are observed to agree with prior experimental measurements. In high Reynolds number cases, the predictions of the multiphase computational model were satisfactorily aligned with the experimental results. Low Reynolds number model predictions were not as consistent with the experimental measurements, indicating opportunities for improved modeling of the pertinent physics. At lower Reynolds numbers, numerical agreement with experimental results is poor in part due to particle settling’s effect on the drag and dispersion models. Future work should resolve the viscous sublayer and include flow dynamics— such as turbulence modification— since they are not explicitly modeled in the present study.

A Numerical Investigation Into the Heat Transfer Performance and Particle Dynamics of a Compressible, Highly Mass Loaded, High Reynolds Number, Particle-Laden Flow

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/HT/HT2021/volume/84874

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