Faculty Publications
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Item 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.Item Stability enhancement of supercritical CO2 based natural circulation loop using a modified Tesla valve(Elsevier B.V., 2020) Wahidi, T.; Chandavar, R.A.; Yadav, A.K.This article deals with the comparative investigation of instability phenomenon in supercritical CO2 based regular natural circulation loop and a new modified Tesla natural circulation loop. Two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics simulation is carried out for square loops. Fluid flow behaviour and performance of both the loops are determined over a range of pressures (80–100 bar) and heat inputs (500–2000 W). Results show that the use of a modified Tesla valve leads to better stabilization for all supercritical pressures and heat inputs. It is also found that loop with Tesla mitigates the temperature and velocity oscillations without reducing the heat transfer performance. A good agreement with existing correlations is also obtained in the present study. The unidirectional fluid flow circulation achieved in loop with Tesla valve, makes it an efficient technique to combat instability. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.Item Supercritical CO2 flow instability in natural circulation loop: CFD analysis(Elsevier Ltd, 2021) Wahidi, T.; Chandavar, R.A.; Yadav, A.K.Three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation on a supercritical CO2 based natural circulation loop (scCO2-NCL) is carried out to explore the effects of various parameters (i.e., pressure and heat inputs) on the loop's transient and stability behaviour. Results show that for supercritical CO2, there is a threshold point that decides the flow's nature. Lower than threshold heat inputs flow shows repetitive-reversal flow while at higher heat input the flow changes to stable or single-direction flow. With an increase in heat input, the system attains stability for a given operating pressure. In addition, a possible mechanism for continuous flow oscillation and measurement of instability with different pressure in unstable loops is also proposed in this study. It is found that the Nusselt number decreases with an increase in operating pressure for given heat input. Obtained simulation results are validated with the two existing correlations and found a good agreement. © 2021 Elsevier Ltd