IIR document

Numerical simulation of solid-liquid transition of carbon dioxide in pillow plate heat exchangers.

Number: 814

Author(s) : MASTANI JOYBARI M., SELVNES H., SEVAULT A., HAFNER A.

Summary

Interest in low-temperature refrigeration (at temperatures below -50 °C) has grown in recent years, especially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, this high demand is exerting stress on the electrical grid. Generally, latent heat storage in phase change materials (PCMs) can be used to relieve the stress. Nevertheless, there is a shortage of suitable/reliable PCMs for such temperatures. Due to its desirable properties, carbon dioxide has the potential to be used as the PCM for temperatures around -55 °C. To this end, the heat exchanger should withstand high pressures. Pillow plate heat exchangers (PPHXs) meet this criterion and have recently gained research attention. Therefore, in this study, the solid-liquid transition of carbon dioxide in PPHXs was numerically studied to analyse the impact of storage orientation as well as plate distance. The commercial software ANSYS Fluent was used for simulating a periodic segment of the storage. It was found that the orientation did not have a meaningful impact on the solidification, whereas higher plate distance caused a weak natural convection. According to the results, to achieve a more uniform solidification, it is recommended that the neighbouring plates have an offset of half pitch distance in both transversal and longitudinal directions. The results of this study lay the foundation for further progress in this field especially for developing an experimental prototype followed by real life implementation of the system.

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Pages: 10

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Details

  • Original title: Numerical simulation of solid-liquid transition of carbon dioxide in pillow plate heat exchangers.
  • Record ID : 30031319
  • Languages: English
  • Subject: Technology
  • Source: Proceedings of the 26th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration: Paris , France, August 21-25, 2023.
  • Publication date: 2023/08/21
  • DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18462/iir.icr.2023.0814

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