Mechanical Engineering Faculty Research

Title

Flows in a Lower Half Heated Upper Half Cooled Cylindrical Model Reactor Loaded with Porous Media

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Fall 9-2007

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental and numerical investigation on the natural convection flow in a cylindrical model hydrothermal reactor. The flow is visualized non-intrusively and simulated with a conjugate computational model. Results show that the flow structure consists of wall layers and core flows. In the lower half, the flows are steady due to the porous media. The three-dimensional unsteady upper core flow is driven by the streams originated from the wall layer collision. The thermal condition in the upper half core region is mainly determined by the total heat flow rate specified on the lower sidewall; while the variations of porous media parameters, in the normal range for hydrothermal crystal growth process, have minor effects.

Publication Title

Heat and Mass Transfer

Volume

43

Issue

11

First Page

1201

Last Page

1211

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