Experimental investigation of heat transfer and second law analysis in a pebble bed channel with internal heat generation

摘要

This paper studies experimentally the forced convection heat transfer of turbulent flow in a cylindrical pebble bed channel with internal heat generation. Exergy and entropy generation analyses are performed to optimize energy conversion in the system identify the destruction of exergy in the pebble bed channel. Stainless steel spheres are used in stacked pebble bed channel. Internal heating is generated uniformly by electromagnetic induction heating method in metallic spheres. Dry air is used as the working fluid in the process of cooling of the heated spheres. The experiment is performed for turbulent flow regimes with Reynolds (Re_d) number (based on the diameter of the spheres) in the range of 920-2570, which is equal to Reynolds (Re) number, based on channel diameter, in the range of 4500-10,000. The effects of different parameters, including spheres diameter (d = 5.5, 6.5 and 7.5 mm), inlet volumetric flow rate (V̇) and internal heat generation (Q) on the forced convection heat transfer, exergy transfer and entropy generation are studied. For second law and exergy analyses, mean exergy transfer Nusselt number (Nu_e) and entropy generation number (N_s) are investigated. Results show that for a fixed d and Q, the mean exergy transfer Nusselt number (Nu_e) decreases with the increase of Re_d number until it becomes zero for a critical Re_d number. This critical Re_d number found to be about 1450, 1800 and 2300 for d = 5.5, 6.5 and 7.5 mm, respectively. Further increase in the Re_d number, decreases Nu_e to negative values. It is found for spheres with diameter of d = 5.5 mm and for a fixed Q, as Re_d increases, the entropy generation number N_s increases monotonically. While, for d > 5.5 mm and fixed Q, the entropy generation number (N_s) decreases with the increase of Re_d number up to a critical Re_d value that makes N_s to be minimum. Further increase in Re_d number, increases N_s. It is also found that for Re_d > 1800, among the sphere diameters studied in this work, balls with highest diameters yield the minimum entropy generation in the system.