Browsing by Author "Mehring, Carsten"

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Open Access
Effect of dissolved carbon dioxide on cavitation in a circular orifice
(2024) Safaei, Sina; Mehring, Carsten
In this work, we investigate the effect of dissolved gas concentration on cavitation inception and cavitation development in a transparent sharp-edged orifice, similar to that previously analyzed by Nurick in the context of liquid injectors. The working liquid is water, and carbon dioxide is employed as a non-condensable dissolved gas. Cavitation inception points are determined for different dissolved gas concentration levels by measuring wall-static pressures just downstream of the orifice contraction and visually observing the onset of a localized (vapor) bubble cloud formation and collapse. Cavitation onset correlates with a plateau in wall-static pressure measurements as a function of a cavitation number. An increase in the amount of dissolved carbon dioxide is found to increase the cavitation number at which the onset of cavitation occurs. The transition from cloud cavitation to extended-sheet or full cavitation along the entire orifice length occurs suddenly and is shifted to higher cavitation numbers with increasing dissolved gas content. Volume flow rate measurements are performed to determine the change in the discharge coefficient with the cavitation number and dissolved gas content for the investigated cases. CFD analyses are carried out based on the cavitation model by Zwart et al. and the model by Yang et al. to account for non-condensable gases. Discharge coefficients obtained from the numerical simulations are in good agreement with experimental values, although they are slightly higher in the cavitating case. The earlier onset of fluid cavitation (i.e., cavitation inception at higher cavitation numbers) with increasing dissolved carbon dioxide content is not predicted using the employed numerical model.
Open Access
Performance evaluation of wire cloth micro heat exchangers
(2020) Fugmann, Hannes; Martens, Sebastian; Balzer, Richard; Brenner, Martin; Schnabel, Lena; Mehring, Carsten
The purpose of this study is to validate a thermal-hydraulic simulation model for a new type of heat exchanger for mass, volume, and coolant/refrigerant charge reduction. The new heat exchanger consists of tubes with diameters in the range of 1 mm and wires in the range of 100 μm, woven together to form a 200×200×80 mm3 wire cloth heat exchanger. Performance of the heat exchanger has been experimentally evaluated using water as inner and air as outer heat transfer medium. A computational thermal and fluid dynamic model has been implemented in OpenFOAM®. The model allows variation of geometry and operating conditions. The validation of the model is based on one single geometry with an opaque fabric and air-side velocities between 1 and 7 m/s. The simulated and measured pressure drops are found to be in good agreement with a relative difference of less than 16%. For the investigated cases, the effective heat transfer coefficients are in very good agreement (less than 5%) when adapting the contact resistance between tubes and wires. The numerical model describes the fluid flow and heat transfer of the tested heat exchanger with adequate precision and can be used for future wire cloth heat exchanger dimensioning for a variety of applications.