Graduation Year

2004

Document Type

Thesis

Degree

M.S.M.E.

Degree Granting Department

Mechanical Engineering

Major Professor

Muhammad M. Rahman, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Thomas Eason, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Autar K. Kaw, Ph.D.

Keywords

spray cooling, cone angle, mixing length, liquid-gas interface, atomizer

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation is to analyze the flow pattern of cooling fluids in the 3D "twister-effect" mixing chamber and to approximate the free surface behaviors exiting the 2D spray nozzle. The cone angle and free surface height located at the end of the free surface are two significant factors to determine the spraying area on a heated plane. This process is a reasonable representation of many industrial cooling application. The whole system consists of 4 inlet tubes connected to the top of the mixing chamber, and the spray nozzle is located under the chamber. Four different refrigerants, like FC-72, FC-77, FC-87 and methanol were used for the turbulent flow simulations. According to different fluid properties, the cone angle, free surface, pressure drop and Reynolds number can be investigated at different flow rates. First, at a certain volumetric flow rates, the velocities in x, y, z directions were found on the positive x-axis (0 degree), y-axis (90 degrees), negative x-axis (180 degrees) and y-axis (270 degrees) at 8.0 x 10-4m below the top of chamber. After the transformations, the interpolated and averaged radial, circumferential and axial velocities were used in the 2D nozzle simulations. Finally, the cone angle, the radial locations of the free surface and the pressure drop were obtained in each scenario. As the results, higher volumetric flow rate produced higher free surface height and cone angle. Also, FC-87 created the highest free surface height and cone angle among all four working fluids in both volumetric flow rates. It means that FC-87 can produce the largest spraying area on the heated surface. Fluctuation, spinning and eddy circulation can be found in the velocity plot because of the turbulent flow syndromes. When comparing two different nozzle designs, it was found that the nozzle without mixing chamber gave a larger cone angle and free surface height. Alternatively, the design in this investigation produced a relatively narrow jet concentrated to the stagnation zone.

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