Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-v5vhk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-02T08:42:07.555Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Thermoacoustic heating and cooling in near-critical fluids in the presence of a thermal plume

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 June 1999

BERNARD ZAPPOLI
Affiliation:
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31405 Toulouse Cedex 04, France Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, UMR CNRS/INP-UPS 5502, LM2F, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France
ARNAUD JOUNET
Affiliation:
Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, UMR CNRS/INP-UPS 5502, LM2F, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France
SAKIR AMIROUDINE
Affiliation:
Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales, 18 Avenue Edouard Belin, 31405 Toulouse Cedex 04, France
ABDELKADER MOJTABI
Affiliation:
Institut de Mécanique des Fluides de Toulouse, UMR CNRS/INP-UPS 5502, LM2F, Université Paul Sabatier, 118 Route de Narbonne, 31062 Toulouse Cedex, France

Abstract

This work brings new insight to the question of heat transfer in near–critical fluids under Earth gravity conditions. The interplay between buoyant convection and thermoacoustic heat transfer (piston effect) is investigated in a two-dimensional non-insulated cavity containing a local heat source, to reproduce the conditions used in recent experiments. The results were obtained by means of a finite-volume numerical code solving the Navier–Stokes equations written for a low-heat-diffusing near-critical van der Waals fluid. They show that hydrodynamics greatly affects thermoacoustics in the vicinity of the upper thermostated wall, leading to a rather singular heat transfer mechanism. Heat losses through this wall govern a cooling piston effect. Thus, the thermal plume rising from the heat source triggers a strong enhancement of the cooling piston effect when it strikes the middle of the top boundary. During the spreading of the thermal plume, the cooling piston effect drives a rapid thermal quasi-equilibrium in the bulk fluid since it is further enhanced so as to balance the heating piston effect generated by the heat source. Then, homogeneous fluid heating is cancelled and the bulk temperature stops increasing. Moreover, diffusive and convective heat transfers into the bulk are very weak in such a low-heat-diffusing fluid. Thus, even though a steady state is not obtained owing to the strong and seemingly continuous instabilities present in the flow, the bulk temperature is expected to remain quasi-constant. Comparisons performed with a supercritical fluid at initial conditions further from the critical point show that this thermalization process is peculiar to near-critical fluids. Even enhanced by the thermal plume, the cooling piston effect does not balance the heating piston effect. Thus, overall piston-effect heating lasts much longer, while convection and diffusion progressively affect the thermal field much more significantly. Ultimately, a classical two-roll convective-diffusive structure is obtained in a perfect gas, without thermoacoustic heat transfer playing any role.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)