Browsing by Author "Thimmaiah, S."

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Comparative computational appraisal of supercritical CO2-based natural circulation loop: effect of heat-exchanger and isothermal wall
(Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2020) Thimmaiah, S.; Wahidi, T.; Yadav, A.; Mahalingam, A.
Natural circulation loop (NCL) is a geometrically simple heat transfer device in which fluid flow occurs due to density gradient of loop fluid, induced by the temperature difference between the source and the sink. NCL has an inherent problem of instability caused by the combined effect of buoyancy, friction and inertia forces at varying operating conditions, and hence it requires an elegant solution of instability. The primary objective of the present work is to do a comparative study on the dynamic performance between two different configurations of NCL based on supercritical CO2, i.e. (i) NCL with isothermal heater and a cold heat-exchanger (ISO-CHX), and (ii) NCL with hot and cold heat-exchangers (HHX-CHX). To explore these NCLs, two-dimensional transient computational fluid dynamics studies have been carried out on the stability of supercritical CO2-based natural circulation loop. Results are obtained for different operating pressures and temperatures in the form of mass flow rate and velocity variation with respect to time. Results show the higher instabilities in both side heat-exchanger loop than an isothermal heater with heat-exchanger loop. At a lower rate of heat input at source in the HHX-CHX loop, the mass flow is bidirectional, whereas it is unidirectional in the ISO-CHX loop at all level of heat input. It is also observed that as pressure increases, flow instability also increases. Obtained results are validated with the published experimental and numerical data and found in good agreement. © 2020, Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest, Hungary.
Numerical assessment of stability behaviour in supercritical CO2 based NCLS configured with heater, heat exchanger and isothermal wall as heat sources
(Yildiz Technical University, 2023) Thimmaiah, S.; Wahidi, T.; Yadav, A.K.; Mahalingam, A.
Three-dimensional numerical analysis is presented in this study to assess the transient and stability behaviour of supercritical CO2 (sCO2) based NCLs configured with three different types of heat sources, i.e., heater, a hot heat exchanger (HHX) and isothermal wall (ISO) at the source, and a cold heat exchanger (CHX) at the sink in all three NCLs. Unsteady threedimensional conservation equations (mass, momentum and energy equations) are solved to assess the transient and stability behaviour of sCO2 mass flow rate, temperature and velocity as a function of time. Further, the effect of pressure on sCO2 mass flow rate is also assessed to compare the loops performance. Performance of the loop has been studied for various heat inputs at the source by keeping constant mass flow rate and temperature at the sink. It is observed that for any boundary condition at the source, the loop experiences some initial disturbances or instabilities before reaching the steady-state. However, the time needed to attain a steady-state varies with the nature of heat input employed at the source. Results show a higher magnitude of instabilities in the Heater-CHX loop than HHX-CHX and ISO-CHX loops, and these instabilities mitigate at a faster rate in the ISO-CHX loop at all levels of heat input and operating pressure of the loop. It is also observed that as loop fluid operating pressure increases, the instability of the system decreases and the loop fluid mass flow rate increases. Further, the Nusselt number in the Heater-CHX loop is more than other loops because of its high turbulent kinetic energy. The findings of this study are validated with the published experimental and numerical data and found a good agreement © Copyright 2021, Yıldız Technical University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
Numerical Instability Assessment of Natural Circulation Loop Subjected to Different Heating Conditions
(Springer Science and Business Media Deutschland GmbH, 2022) Thimmaiah, S.; Wahidi, T.; Yadav, A.K.; Arun, M.
Natural circulation loop (NCL) is a passive system in which the driving action of the buoyancy force establishes fluid circulation by overcoming the frictional force without the help of any external power source. NCLs are prone to several kinds of instabilities due to the nonlinearity of the natural convection process. In fact, it is an inability of NCLs to sustain themselves against small perturbations to which any physical system is subjected. This instability in fluid flow creates flow oscillation, chaotic non-linear dynamic behaviour and flow reversal. In this article, three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulations have been carried out for a range of supercritical pressures (80Â bar to100 bar) and heat inputs (250Â W to 2500Â W) to do the comparative investigation of instability phenomenon in supercritical CO2-based regular natural circulation loop configured with two different types of heat sources, i.e. heater and isothermal wall at the source with a cold heat exchanger (CHX) at sink. Results show higher instabilities for heater-exchanger loop (Heater-CHX) than an isothermal heater with heat-exchanger loop (ISO-CHX). With an increase in heat input, loops attain stability at a faster rate for a given operating pressure. At a lower heat input, both the loops show bidirectional fluctuation, whereas it is unidirectional at high heat input. Nusselt number shows that the Heater-CHX loopâ€™s heat transfer capability is more compared to ISO-CHX loops. Obtained results are validated with the existing correlations, and a good agreement is obtained. Â© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.