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Natural Convection Supercritical Fluid Systems for Geothermal, Heat Transfer, and Energy Conversion

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Energy Solutions to Combat Global Warming

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Energy ((LNEN,volume 33))

Abstract

Natural convective flow of supercritical fluids has become a hot topic in engineering applications. Natural circulation thermosyphon (or NCL: natural circulation loop) using supercritical/transcritical CO2 can be a potential choice for effectively transportation of heat and mass without pumping devices. This chapter presents a series of numerical/experimental investigations into the fundamental features in a supercritical/transcritical CO2 based natural circulation loop systems as well as possible applications and innovations in engineering fields. New heat transport model aiming at transcritical thermosyphon heat transfer and stability is proposed with supercritical/transcritical turbulence model incorporated. The effects from various system parameters, operation conditions, accident analysis, apparatus developments as well as control strategies are also included with detailed explanations in this chapter. It is clearly found that such novel fluids and systems would be one promising candidate for future development of energy solutions to global warming issues.

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Abbreviations

A :

Area

\( c_{p} \) :

Specific heat capacity

C :

Constant

\( C_{\mu } C_{1\varepsilon } C_{2\varepsilon } C_{3\varepsilon } \) :

Parameters in RNG model equations

D :

Diameter of pipe

E :

Energy

g :

Gravitational acceleration

G k :

Turbulent kinetic energy due to velocity gradients

G b :

Turbulent kinetic energy due to buoyancy

Gr m :

Modified Grash of number

h :

Heat transfer coefficient

H :

Length of vertical pipes

k :

Turbulent kinetic energy

L :

Heating (cooling) length of a pipe

L 0 :

Total length of a horizontal pipe

L 1 :

Adiabatic pipe length on horizontal pipe

NCL :

Natural circulation loop

Nu :

Nusselt number

N G :

Nondimensional loop geometric parameter

P :

External surface force

p :

Pressure of the fluid

Pr :

Prandtl number

Pr t :

Turbulent Prandtl number

Q :

Unsteady heat flux

Q W :

Boundary heat flux

R :

Parameter in RNG turbulence model equations

S :

Strain tensor

t :

Time

T :

Temperature

\( \overline{V} \) :

Dimensional velocity

v :

Nondimensional velocity

x :

X-coordinate location

X :

Dimensionless axial coordinate (X = x/L 0 )

y :

Y-coordinate location

\( \alpha \) :

Thermal diffusivity thermal conductivity parameter

\( \alpha_{k} \,\alpha_{s} \) :

Parameters in RNG model

\( \beta \) :

Volumetric expansion coefficient; parameter in RNG model equations

\( \lambda \) :

Thermal conductivity

\( \varepsilon \) :

Turbulence dissipation rate

\( \mu \) :

Dynamic viscosity

\( \mu_{t} \,\mu_{eff} \) :

Viscosity parameter in RNG model

\( \eta \) :

Parameter in RNG turbulence model

\( \varPhi \) :

Dissipation function, \( \left( { \equiv \left( {\overline{\tau } \cdot \nabla } \right) \cdot \overline{V} } \right) \)

\( \overline{\tau } \) :

Shear tensor, \( \left( { \equiv \left( {\begin{array}{*{20}c} {\tau_{xx} } & {\tau_{xy} } \\ {\tau_{yx} } & {\tau_{yy} } \\ \end{array} } \right)} \right) \)

\( \nu \) :

Kinematic viscosity

b:

Bulk

i:

X-direction

j:

Y-direction

r:

Radial direction, power

ref:

Reference value, bulk value

wall:

Wall value

x:

Local, value of specific axial location

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Acknowledgments

This chapter is a general summary and outlook of the series studies into supercritical natural circulation systems. The support of National Science Foundation of China (No. 51476001) is gratefully acknowledged. The support from Beijing Engineering Research Center of City Heat is also gratefully acknowledged. The authors are thankful for the assists in numerical/experimental analysis from Dr. Bili Deng, Mr. Bin Jiang, Ms. Jia Liu, Mr. Yimin Chen in Renewable Thermal Lab in College of Engineering, Peking University. The authors are also grateful for the discussion/suggestions from Dr. Yuhui Cao in College of Engineering Sciences, University of Chinese Academic of Sciences, from Prof. Hiroshi Yamaguchi and Dr. Yuhiro Iwamoto in Energy Conversion Research Center of Doshisha University (Japan), and from Prof. Shigenao Maruyama, Prof. Atsuki Komiya, and Dr. Junnosuke Okajima in Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University (Japan).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Katahira 2-1-1, Aoba-Ku, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan

    Lin Chen

  2. Department of Energy and Resources Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Xin-Rong Zhang

Authors
  1. Lin Chen
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Lin Chen or Xin-Rong Zhang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, China

    XinRong Zhang

  2. Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ontario, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada

    Ibrahim Dincer

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Chen, L., Zhang, XR. (2017). Natural Convection Supercritical Fluid Systems for Geothermal, Heat Transfer, and Energy Conversion. In: Zhang, X., Dincer, I. (eds) Energy Solutions to Combat Global Warming. Lecture Notes in Energy, vol 33. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26950-4_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26950-4_20

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