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Research Papers: Evaporation, Boiling, and Condensation

J. Heat Transfer. 2018;141(1):011501-011501-9. doi:10.1115/1.4041323.

Evaporation of layers of aqueous solutions of salts (LiBr, CaCl2, NaCl, MgCl2, BaCl2, and CsCl) is studied experimentally. Experimental data are compared with evaporation of the water layer. The solution is placed on a horizontal surface of a cylindrical heating section. Experiments on surface crystallization of salts are carried out. For aqueous solutions of salts LiBr, LiCl, and CaCl2, there is an extremum for the heat transfer coefficient αl. For water and for solutions of salts NaCl and CsCl, the extremum is absent. The first factor is a decreasing function of time, and the second factor is an increasing function of time. For the water layer, both factors continuously increase with time, and the maximum evaporation rate corresponds to the final stage of evaporation. The heat balance for interface layer is made up. The role of the free gas convection in the heat balance strongly depends on the salt concentration and varies with the rise of evaporation time. For low salt concentrations the influence of free convection in the gas phase on heat transfer in the liquid phase can be neglected; however, for high concentrations this effect is comparable with other factors. The curves for the rate of crystallization have been built. More than two time differences between the experiment and the calculation are associated with the kinetics of dendritic structures.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

Research Papers: Micro/Nanoscale Heat Transfer

J. Heat Transfer. 2018;141(1):012401-012401-5. doi:10.1115/1.4040611.

Nanostructured semiconducting materials are promising candidates for thermoelectrics (TEs) due to their potential to suppress phonon transport while preserving electrical properties. Modeling phonon-boundary scattering in complex geometries is crucial for predicting materials with high conversion efficiency. However, the simultaneous presence of ballistic and diffusive phonons challenges the development of models that are both accurate and computationally tractable. Using the recently developed first-principles Boltzmann transport equation (BTE) approach, we investigate diffusive phonons in nanomaterials with wide mean-free-path (MFP) distributions. First, we derive the short MFP limit of the suppression function, showing that it does not necessarily recover the value predicted by standard diffusive transport, challenging previous assumptions. Second, we identify a Robin type boundary condition describing diffuse surfaces within Fourier's law, extending the validity of diffusive heat transport in terms of Knudsen numbers. Finally, we use this result to develop a hybrid Fourier/BTE approach to model realistic materials, obtaining good agreement with experiments. These results provide insight on thermal transport in materials that are within experimental reach and open opportunities for large-scale screening of nanostructured TE materials.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Heat Transfer. 2018;141(1):012402-012402-10. doi:10.1115/1.4041497.

In this attempt, melting heat transfer characteristic of unsteady squeezed nanofluid flows in non-Darcy porous medium is interrogated. The nanofluid model incorporates Brownian diffusion and thermophoresis to characterize the heat and mass transport in the presence of thermal and solutal stratification. Similarity solutions are implemented to acquire nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations which are then evaluated using Homotopic technique. Flow behavior of involved physical parameters is examined and explanations are stated through graphs. We determine and analyze skin friction coefficient, Nusselt and Sherwood numbers through graphs. It is evident that larger melting parameter results in decrement in temperature field, while horizontal velocity enhances for higher melting parameter. Moreover, temperature and concentration fields are dominant for higher Brownian diffusion parameter.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster

Research Papers: Natural and Mixed Convection

J. Heat Transfer. 2018;141(1):012501-012501-10. doi:10.1115/1.4040954.

Natural convection heat transfer from horizontal solid cylinders has been studied numerically by varying the Rayleigh number in the range of $(104≤Ra≤108)$ and $(1010≤Ra≤1013)$ for both laminar and turbulent flows, respectively. The computations were carried out for three different geometries of three, six, and ten cylinders in a stack arranged in a triangular manner having same characteristic length scale. The present numerical investigation on natural convention is able to capture a very interesting flow pattern and temperature field over the stack of horizontal cylinders which has never been reported in the literature so far. Visualization of plume structure over the horizontal cylinders has also been obtained pictorially in the present work. From the numerical results, it has been observed that the total heat transfer is marginally higher for three-cylinder stack in the laminar range. In contrast, for turbulent flow, starting from Ra = 1010, heat transfer for six-cylinder case is higher but when Ra exceeds 5 × 1011, heat transfer for ten cylinders stack is marginally higher. The average surface Nusselt number is higher for the stack of three cylinders compared to six- and ten-cylinder cases for all range of Ra in both laminar and turbulent regimes. A correlation for the average Nusselt number has also been developed as a function of Rayleigh number which may be useful for researchers and industrial purposes.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster
J. Heat Transfer. 2018;141(1):012502-012502-18. doi:10.1115/1.4039915.

This work presents a study of double-diffusive free convection in a porous square cavity under turbulent flow regime and with aiding drive. The thermal nonequilibrium model was employed to analyze the energy and mass transport across the enclosure. Governing equations were time- and volume-averaged according to the double-decomposition concept. Analysis of a modified Lewis number, Lem, showed that for porous media, this parameter presents opposite behavior when varying the thermal conductivity ratio or the Schmidt number, while maintaining the same value for Lem. Differently form free flow, the existence of the porous matrix contributes to the overall thermal diffusivity of the medium, whereas mass diffusivity is only effective within the fluid phase for an inert medium. Results indicated that increasing Lem through an increase in Sc reduces flow circulation inside porous cavities, reducing Nuw and increasing Shw. Results further indicate that increasing the buoyancy ratio N promotes circulation within the porous cavity, leading to an increase in turbulence levels within the boundary layers. Partial contributions of each phase of the porous cavity (solid and fluid) to the overall average Nusselt number become independent of n for higher values of the thermal conductivity ratio, ks/kf. Further, for high values of ks/kf, the average Nusselt number drops as N increases.

Commentary by Dr. Valentin Fuster