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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.
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Heat transfer and pressure drop effects on stainless steel inner passage of single tube heat exchanger from water boiling
Fluid acquisition systems for He II transfer devices will utilize gallery arms to ensure that the fluid encounters the pump inlet. In near term experiments such as Superfluid Helium on Orbit Transfer (SHOOT), the preferred configuration consists of several rectangular channels which have one side made from a Dutch weave stainless steel screen having 325 x 2300 wires per inch. The effective pore diameter for this screen is about 5 microns. The present paper reports on measurements of pressure drop across a screen when it is subjected to a flow of liquid helium. The experiment measures the time rate of change of the level in two different helium reservoirs connected by a screen-blocked channel. Results with normal helium are compared with predictions based on the Armour-Cannon (1968) equations. The He II data show considerable deviation from the classical result. A discussion of the He II pressure drop results in terms of two fluid hydrodynamics is included.
Polymeric materials flow at tube entrance, discussing pressure drop and flow birefringent patterns at tapered and sharp entrances
The leak rates through shaft seals with large pressure drops were simulated using gaseous hydrogen, or nitrogen flowing through an annulus with a nonrotating centerbody. The flows were choked. For concentric or eccentric position of the rotor and parallel or convergent tapered flow passages, data and analysis revealed that mass flux or leak rate can be determined from a relation whose normalizing parameters depend on the thermodynamic critical constants of the working fluid and an average flow area expressed in terms of the inlet and exit cross-sectional areas. Using these normalized relations, the flow data for parallel and three convergent tapered shaft seal configurations are in good agreement. Generalization to any simple gas or gas mixture is implied and demonstrated.
The leak rates through shaft seals with large pressure drops were simulated using gaseous hydrogen, or nitrogen flowing through an annulus with a nonrotating centerbody. The flows were choked. For concentric or eccentric position of the rotor and parallel or convergent tapered flow passages, data and analysis revealed that mass flux or leak rate can be determined from a relation whose normalizing parameters depend on the thermodynamic critical constants of the working fluid and an average flow area expressed in terms of the inlet and exit cross-sectional areas. Using these normalized relations, the flow data for parallel and three convergent, tapered, shaft-seal configurations are in good agreement. Generalization to any simple gas or gas mixtures is implied and demonstrated in part.
Heat transfer and friction pressure drop for forced convection of hydrogen and nitrogen through electrically heated tungsten wire mesh
The design of the two-phase flow systems which are anticipated to be utilized in future spacecraft thermal management systems requires a knowledge of two-phase flow and heat transfer phenomena in reduced gravities. This program was funded by NASA headquarters in response to NRA-91-OSSA-17 and was managed by Lewis Research Center. The main objective of this program was to design and construct a two-phase test loop, and perform a series of normal gravity and aircraft trajectory experiments to study the effect of gravity on the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) and onset of instability. The test loop was packaged on two aircraft racks and was also instrumented to generate data for two-phase pressure drop. The normal gravity tests were performed with vertical up and downflow configurations to bound the effect of gravity on the test parameters. One set of aircraft trajectory tests was performed aboard the NASA DC-9 aircraft. These tests were mainly intended to evaluate the test loop and its operational performance under actual reduced gravity conditions, and to produce preliminary data for the test parameters. The test results were used to demonstrate the applicability of the normal gravity models for prediction of the two-phase friction pressure drop. It was shown that the two-phase friction multipliers for vertical upflow and reduced gravity conditions can be successfully predicted by the appropriate normal gravity models. Limited critical heat flux data showed that the measured CHF under reduced gravities are of the same order of magnitude as the test results with vertical upflow configuration. A simplified correlation was only successful in predicting the measured CHF for low flow rates. Instability tests with vertical upflow showed that flow becomes unstable and critical heat flux occurs at smaller powers when a parallel flow path exists. However, downflow tests and a single reduced gravity instability experiment indicated that the system actually became more stable with a parallel single-phase flow path. Several design modifications have been identified which will improve the system performance for generating reduced gravity data. The modified test loop can provide two-phase flow data for a range of operating conditions and can serve as a test bed for component evaluation.
Experimental determination of pressure drop and flow characteristics of dilute gas-solid suspensions in turbulent pipe flow
Water and alkali metal boilers, predicting helical-flow-promoting inserts effect on pressure drop penalties by constant slip model
Pressure drops in highly turbulent He II flow were measured in round tubes, valves, and Venturi flowmeters. Results are in good agreement with single-phase flow correlations for classical fluids. The temperature rise in flow in a round tube was measured, and found to agree well with predictions for isenthalpic expansion. Cavitation was observed in the venturis under conditions of low back pressure and high flow rate. Metastable superheating of the helium at the venturi throat was observed before the helium made a transition to saturation pressure.
A set of computer-program routines has been developed for calculating pressure drops and recoveries of flows through standard venturis, nozzle venturis, and orifices. Relative to prior methods used for such calculations, the method implemented by these routines offers greater accuracy because it involves fewer simplifying assumptions and is more generally applicable to wide ranges of flow conditions. These routines are based on conservation of momentum and energy equations for real nonideal fluids, the properties of which are calculated by curve-fitting subroutines based on empirical properties data. These routines are capable of representing cavitating, choked, non-cavitating, and unchoked flow conditions for liquids, gases, and supercritical fluids. For a computation of flow through a given venturi, nozzle venturi, or orifice, the routines determine which flow condition occurs: First, they calculate a throat pressure under the assumption that the flow is unchoked or non-cavitating, then they calculate the throat pressure under the assumption that the flow is choked or cavitating. The assumption that yields the higher throat pressure is selected as the correct one.
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A simplified model for predicting pressure drop in fluid tuned isolator mounts was developed. The model is based on an exact solution to the Navier-Stokes equations and was made more general through the use of empirical coefficients. The values of these coefficients were determined by numerical simulation of the flow using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) package FIDAP.
The prediction of frictional pressure drop in fully developed, turbulent, annular liquid-vapor flows in zero gravity using simulation experiments conducted on earth is described. The scheme extends the authors' earlier work on dispersed flows. The simulation experiments used two immiscible liquids of identical density, namely, water and n-butyl benzoate. Because of the lack of rigorous analytical models for turbulent, annular flows, the proposed scheme resorts to existing semiempirical correlations. Results based on two different correlations are presented and compared. Others may be used. It was shown that, for both dispersed and annular flow regimes, the predicted frictional pressure gradients in 0-g are lower than those in 1-g under otherwise identical conditions. The physical basis for this finding is given.
Generalization of laws governing heat transfer and pressure drop during transverse flow of gases in contact with finned tube banks
Mathematical model for deriving pressure drop against flow function of counterflow boiler tube in Rankine space power system
The paper reports on measurements of He II pressure drop across two porous SiO2 ceramic filter materials. These materials vary only in porosity, having values of 0.94 and 0.96. The average fiber diameter in both cases is approximately 5 microns. The experiment consists of a glass tube containing a piece of this sponge in one end. The tube is rapidly displaced downward in a bath of helium and the liquid levels are allowed to equilibrate over time producing variable velocities up to 10 cm/sec. The results are compared with those previously obtained using fine mesh screens. Good qualitative agreement is observed for turbulent flow; however, the behavior in the laminar flow regime is not fully understood.
Pressure drop measurements created by spherical particle settling in viscous fluid for wide Reynolds number range