• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.5
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• pp.439-446
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• 2023

In this study, the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted to verify the cooling capacity of the cryocooler used for pre-cooling of hydrogen gas. Based on the experimental results, the effect of the flow rate on a copper pipe attached to the bottom of the cryocooler was investigated. In this study, the temperature data was calculated through the change of boundary condition for heat flux in the copper pipe. In addition, the cooling capacity of the cryocooler for pre-cooling hydrogen gas was considered by calculating the cooling temperature according to the flow rate in the certified operating range. Consequently the pre-cooing system for hydrogen gas was validated with a reasonable accuracy through CFD simulations.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.9
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• pp.126-132
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• 2016

This study numerically investigates the characteristics of chemical reactions and thermal deformation in a steam reformer. These phenomena are significantly affected by the high-temperature burner gas and the process gas conditions. Because the high temperature of the burner gas ranges from 800 to 1000 K, the reformer tubes undergo substantial thermal deformation, eventually resulting in structural failure. Thus, it is necessary to understand the characteristics of the reaction and thermal deformation under the operating conditions to evaluate the reformer tubes for sustainable, stable operation. Extensive numerical simulations were carried out using commercial CFD code (ANSYS FLUENT/MECHANICA Ver. 13.0) while considering three-dimensional turbulent flows and combined heat transfer including conduction, convection, and radiation. Structural analysis considering conjugated heat transfer between solid tubes and fluid flows was conducted using the Fluid-Solid Interaction (FSI) method. The results show that when the injection temperature of the process gas and burner gas decreased, the hydrogen production rate decreased significantly, and thermal deformation decreased by at least 15 to 20%.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.345-352
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• 2011

In the present study, a three-dimensional CFD simulation on aerodynamic lift acting on windshield wiper blades was performed to improve the wiping performance of a vehicle moving at a high speed. To predict the reliable flow characteristics around the windshield wiper system, the computational domain included the full vehicle model with detailed geometry of wiper blades in the wind tunnel. From the numerical results, the drag and lift coefficients of wiper blade were obtained for the performance of windshield wiper. With this aerodynamic characteristics of windshield wiper, the effects of wiping angles and hood tip angle on the wiping performance of the windshield wiper were evaluated.

• Fire Science and Engineering
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.28-33
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• 2010

The present study develops a numerical model based on the computational fluid dynamics technique to analyse the thermal flow characteristics of large scale fire calorimeter and examine the characteristics of primary parameters affecting on the uncertainty of heat release rate measurement. ANSYS CFX version 12.1 which is a commercial CFD package is used to solve the governing equations of the thermal flow field and the eddy dissipation combustion model and P-1 radiation model are applied to simulate the fire driven flow. The numerical results shows that the horizontal duct system with $90^{\circ}$ bend duct was shown relatively high deviated asymmetric flow profiles at the sampling location and the deviation of the velocity field was higher than that of the temperature and species quantities. The present study shows that the computational model can be applicable to optimize the design process and operating condition of the large scale fire calorimeter based on the understanding of the detail flow field.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.901-906
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• 2010

A three-dimensional flow simulation was performed to investigate the flow field in a wind farm on a complex terrain. The present study aims to examine the effects of mountainous terrain and turbine arrangement on the performance of wind power generation. A total of 49 wind turbines was modeled in the computational domain; detailed blade shape of the turbines was considered. Frozen rotor method was used to simulate the rotating operation. The torque acting on the turbine blades was calculated to evaluate the performance of the wind turbines. The numerical results showed details of the flow structure in the wind farm including the velocity deficit in the separated flow regions; this velocity deficit was due to the topographical effect. The effect of the wake induced by the upstream turbine on the performance of the downstream wind turbine could also be observed from the results. The methodology of the present study can be used for selecting future wind-farm sites and wind-turbine locations in a selected site to ensure maximum power generation.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.95-104
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• 2022

Micro hydropower is a readily available renewable energy source that can be harvested utilizing hydrokinetic turbines from shallow water canals, irrigation and industrial channel flows, and run-off river stream flows. These sources generally have low head (<1 m) and low velocity which makes it difficult to harvest energy using conventional turbines. A horizontal-axis screw turbine was designed and numerically tested to extract power from such low-head water sources. The 3-bladed screw-type turbine is placed horizontally perpendicular to the incoming flow, partially submerged in a narrow water channel at no-head condition. The turbine hydraulic performances were studied using Computational Fluid Dynamics models. Turbine design parameters such as the shroud diameter, the hub-to-shroud ratios, and the submerged depths were obtained through a steady-state parametric study. The resulting turbine configuration was then tested by solving the unsteady multiphase free-surface equations mimicking an actual open channel flow scenario. The turbine performance in the shallow channel were studied for various Tip Speed Ratios (TSR). The highest power coefficient was obtained at a TSR of 0.3. The turbine was then scaled-up to test its performance on a real site condition at a head of 0.3 m. The highest power coefficient obtained was 0.18. Several losses were observed in the 3-bladed turbine design and to minimize losses, the number of blades were increased to five. The power coefficient improved by 236% for a 5-bladed screw turbine. The fluid losses were minimized by increasing the blade surface area submerged in water. The turbine performance was increased by 74.4% after dipping the turbine to a bottom wall clearance of 30 cm from 60 cm. The final output of the novel horizontal-axis screw turbine showed a 2.83 kW power output at a power coefficient of 0.63. The turbine is expected to produce 18,744 kWh/year of electricity. The design feasibility test of the turbine showed promising results to harvest energy from small hydropower sources.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.325-332
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• 2014

Growing concerns about harmful influence of radon on human body, many efforts are being made to decrease indoor radon concentration in advanced countries. To develop an indoor radon reduction technology, it is necessary to develop a technology to predict and evaluate indoor inflow and emission of radon. In line with that, the present study performed computational modelling of indoor dispersion of radon emitted from building materials. The computational model was validated by comparing computational results with analytical results. This study employed CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) analysis to evaluate the radon concentration and the airflow characteristics. Air change rate and ventilation condition were changed and several building materials having different radon emission characteristics were considered. From the results, the indoor radon concentration was high at flow recirculation zones and inversely proportional to the air change rate. For the different building materials, the indoor radon concentration was found to be highest in cement bricks, followed by eco-carats and plaster boards in the order. The findings from this study will be used as a method for selecting building materials and predicting and evaluating the amount of indoor radon in order to reduce indoor radon.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.52 no.6
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• pp.826-833
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• 2014

Driven by both environmental and economic reasons, the development of small to medium scale GTL(gas-to-liquid) process for offshore applications and for utilizing other stranded or associated gas has recently been studied increasingly. Microchannel GTL reactors have been prefrered over the conventional GTL reactors for such applications, due to its compactness, and additional advantages of small heat and mass transfer distance desired for high heat transfer performance and reactor conversion. In this work, multi-microchannel reactor was simulated by using commercial CFD code, ANSYS FLUENT, to study the geometric effect of the microchannels on the heat transfer phenomena. A heat generation curve was first calculated by modeling a Fischer-Tropsch reaction in a single-microchannel reactor model using Matlab-ASPEN integration platform. The calculated heat generation curve was implemented to the CFD model. Four design variables based on the microchannel geometry namely coolant channel width, coolant channel height, coolant channel to process channel distance, and coolant channel to coolant channel distance, were selected for calculating three dependent variables namely, heat flux, maximum temperature of coolant channel, and maximum temperature of process channel. The simulation results were visualized to understand the effects of the design variables on the dependent variables. Heat flux and maximum temperature of cooling channel and process channel were found to be increasing when coolant channel width and height were decreased. Coolant channel to process channel distance was found to have no effect on the heat transfer phenomena. Finally, total heat flux was found to be increasing and maximum coolant channel temperature to be decreasing when coolant channel to coolant channel distance was decreased. Using the qualitative trend revealed from the present study, an appropriate process channel and coolant channel geometry along with the distance between the adjacent channels can be recommended for a microchannel reactor that meet a desired reactor performance on heat transfer phenomena and hence reactor conversion of a Fischer-Tropsch microchannel reactor.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.57-65
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• 2015

As information technology fusion is accelerated, the researches to improve the quality and productivity of crops inside a plant factory actively progress. Advanced growth environment management technology that can provide thermal environment and air flow suited to the growth of crops and considering the characteristics inside a facility is necessary to maximize productivity inside a plant factory. Currently running plant factories are designed to rely on experience or personal judgment; hence, design and operation technology specific to plant factories are not established, inherently producing problems such as uneven crop production due to the deviation of temperature and air flow and additional increases in energy consumption after prolonged cultivation. The optimization process has to be set up in advance for the arrangement of air flow devices and operation technology using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) during the design stage of a facility for plant factories to resolve the problems. In this study, the optimum arrangement and air flow of air circulation fans were investigated to save energy while minimizing temperature deviation at each point inside a plant factory using CFD. The condition for simulation was categorized into a total of 12 types according to installation location, quantity, and air flow changes in air circulation fans. Also, the variables of boundary conditions for simulation were set in the same level. The analysis results for each case showed that an average temperature of 296.33K matching with a set temperature and average air flow velocity of 0.51m/s suiting plant growth were well-maintained under Case 4 condition wherein two sets of air circulation fans were installed at the upper part of plant cultivation beds. Further, control of air circulation fan set under Case D yielded the most excellent results from Case D-3 conditions wherein air velocity at the outlet was adjusted to 2.9m/s.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.40 no.3
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• pp.127-138
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• 2016

Diesel vehicles should be equipped with urea-selective catalytic reduction(SCR) system as a high-performance catalyst, in order to reduce harmful nitrogen oxide emissions. In this study, a three-dimensional Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD analysis was used to numerically predict the multiphase flow characteristics of the urea-SCR system, coupled with the chemical reactions of the system's transport phenomena. Then, the numerical spray structure was modified by comparing the results with the measured values from spray visualization, such as the injection velocity, penentration length, spray radius, and sauter mean diameter. In addition, the analysis results were verified by comparison with the removal efficiency of the nitrogen oxide emissions during engine and chassis tests, resulting in accuracy of the relative error of less than 5%. Finally, a verified CFD analysis was used to calculate the interanl flow of the urea-SCR system, thereby analyzing the characteristics of pressure drop and velocity increase, and predicting the uniformity index and overdistribution positions of ammonia.