Characterizing the complex two-phase hydrodynamics in structured packed columns requires a power- ful modeling tool. The traditional two-dimensional model exhibits limitations when one attempts to model the de- tailed two-phase flow inside the columns. The present paper presents a three-dimensional computational fluid dy- namics （CFD） model to simulate the two-phase flow in a representative unit of the column. The unit consists of an CFD calculations on column packed with Flexipak 1Y were implemented within the volume of fluid （VOF） mathe- matical framework. The CFD model was validated by comparing the calculated thickness of liquid film with the available experimental data. Special attention was given to quantitative analysis of the effects of gravity on the hy- drodynamics. Fluctuations in the liquid mass flow rate and the calculated pressure drop loss were found to be quali- tatively in agreement with the experimental observations.
This paper analyzes the entropy generation rate of simple pure droplet combustion in a tempera-ture-elevated air convective environment based on the solutions of flow, and heat and mass transfer between the two phases. The flow-field calculations are carried out by solving the respective conservation equations for each phase, accounting for the droplet deformation with the axisymmetric model. The effects of the temperature, velocity and oxygen fraction of the free stream air on the total entropy generation rate in the process of the droplet combustion are investigated. Special attention is given to analyze the quantitative effects of droplet deformation. The results re-veal that the entropy generation rate due to chemical reaction occupies a large fraction of the total entropy generated, as a result of the large areas covered by the flame. Although, the magnitude of the entropy generation rate per volume due to heat transfer and combined mass and heat transfer has a magnitude of one order greater than that due to chemical reaction, they cover a very limited area, leading to a small fraction of the total entropy generated. The en-tropy generation rate due to mass transfer is negligible. High temperature and high velocity of the free stream are advantageous to increase the exergy efficiency in the range of small Reynolds number (<1) from the viewpoint of the second-law analysis over the droplet lifetime. The effect of droplet deformation on the total entropy generation is the modest.
Unsteady cavitating flow is extremely complicated and brings more serious damages and unignorable problems compared with steady cavitating flow.CFD has become a practical way to model cavitation;however,the popularly used full cavitation model cannot reflect the pressure-change that the bubble experiences during its life path in the highly unsteady flow like cloud cavitating.Thus a dynamic cavitation model(DCM)is proposed and it has been considered to have not only the first-order pressure effects but also zero-order effect and can provide greater insight into the physical process of bubble producing,developing and collapsing compared to the traditional cavitation model.DCM has already been validated for steady cavitating flow,and the results were reported.Furthermore,DCM is designed and supposed to be more accurate and efficient in modeling unsteady cavitating flow,which is also the purpose of this paper.The basic characteristic of the unsteady cavitating flow,such as the vapor volume fraction distribution and the evolution of pressure amplitude and frequency at different locations of the hydrofoil,are carefully studied to validate DCM.It is found that not only these characteristics mentioned above accord well with the experimental results,but also some detailed transient flow information is depicted,including the re-entrant jet flow that caused the shedding of the cavity,and the phenomenon of two-peak pressure fluctuation in the vicinity of the cavity closure in a cycle.The numerical results validate the capability of DCM for the application of modeling the complicated unsteady cavitating flow.
A detailed investigation of a thermodynamic process in a structured packing distillation column is of great impor- tance in prediction of process efficiency. In order to keep the simplicity of an equilibrium stage model and the accu- racy of a non-equilibrium stage model, a hybrid model is developed to predict the structured packing column in cryogenic air separation. A general solution process for the equilibrium stage model is developed to solve the set of equations of the hybrid model, in which a separation efficiency function is introduced to obtain the resulting tri-diagonal matrix and its solution by the Thomas algorithm. As an example, the algorithm is applied to analyze an upper column of a cryogenic air separation plant with the capacity of 17000 m3·h-1. Rigorous simulations are conducted using Aspen RATEFRAC module to validate the approach. The temperature and composition distributions are in a good agreement with the two methods. The effects of inlet/outlet position and flow rate on the temperature and composition distributions in the column are analyzed. The results demonstrate that the hybrid model and the solution algorithms are effective in analvzin~ the distillation process for a a cryogenic structured packing column.
