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Research Paper
H I G H L I G H T S
A distributed parameter model for SuperORV heat transfer tube was developed.
Temperature and heat transfer coecient proles along tube length were estimated.
The effects of operating parameters on thermal performance were discussed.
The effects of inner n or twisted tape insert on thermal performance were studied.
A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T
Article history: As one of the most widely-used liqueed natural gas (LNG) vaporizer, super open rack vaporizer (SuperORV)
Received 27 June 2015 consists of panel-shaped heat transfer tubes with duplex tube conguration. In this paper, an energy balance-
Accepted 17 September 2015 based distributed parameter model for predicting the thermal performance of SuperORV heat transfer
Available online 8 October 2015
tube was developed, where introduces numerous empirical correlations. The results from the model exhibit
a good agreement with the experimental data, which implies the calculation model is reliable. Based on
Keywords:
this, the heat transfer process of SuperORV heat transfer tube was simulated numerically, the bulk uid
LNG
and metal temperature proles along the heat transfer tube was obtained at the condition with ice for-
SuperORV
Heat transfer tube mation and heat transfer enhancement measures, the thermal performance of SuperORV heat transfer
Distributed parameter model tube was analyzed, and the effects of operating parameters and heat transfer enhancement measures
Thermal performance on the thermal performance were discussed. The results show that the operating parameters have im-
portant effects on the thermal performance of heat transfer tube, and the heat transfer enhancement
measures can improve the heat transfer performance markedly. The required minimum tube length while
both inner n and twisted tape insert were applied is shortened by 60% compared with that without
heat transfer enhancement measures.
2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.09.047
1359-4311/ 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
28 J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735
ns outside the heat transfer tubes are also choked with thick ice important effects on the vaporization eciency and reliably of va-
layer until their conguration becomes almost invisible, which causes porizer. In this paper, a distributed parameter model for predicting
an effective decrease of heat transfer area [5]. thermal performance of heat transfer tube is developed, which in-
Therefore, a new type of open rack vaporizer (namely SuperORV) troduces numerous empirical correlations of heat transfer. Based
was jointly developed by Osaka Gas and Kobe Steel (Japan), which on the results from the model, a thermal performance analysis of
consists of panel-shaped heat transfer tubes similar to convention- superORV heat transfer tube was conducted, the structure design
al ORV except that the lower part of the tube panels has duplex tube for superORV heat transfer tubes was estimated, and the effects of
conguration. Compared with conventional ORV, the vaporizing ca- operating parameters such as LNG pressure and ow rate, seawater/
pacity of SuperORV was improved evidently and the seawater rate LNG ow rate ratio, LNG ow distribution ratio between annular
required for vaporization was reduced owing to the duplex tube con- channel, and inner tube and heat transfer enhancement measures
guration. As well, the required installation space for SuperORV is on the heat transfer performance were discussed.
reduced and the operation cost was also cut down. The duplex tube
conguration of SuperORV heat transfer tube is characterized with 2. Physical and mathematical models
the annuli between outer and inner tubes, which enhances the heat
transfer between LNG and seawater available by suppressing icing 2.1. Description of physical problem
of seawater on the outside surfaces of heat transfer tubes, and the
length and thickness of ice layer decrease remarkably since the ns Fig. 1 illustrates the geometry of superORV heat transfer tube.
on the heat transfer tubes are maintained in good temperature As shown in Fig. 1, the lower half of the heat transfer tube is de-
condition. signed to be a duplex tube conguration differently from the upper
The heat transfer performance of superORV heat transfer tube section. The lower and upper parts of the heat transfer tube are called
was compared with that of conventional ORV heat transfer tube by vaporizing section and heating section respectively. The vapor-
Morimoto et al. [5], and it was found that SuperORV heat transfer izing section consists of an outer tube with petal-shaped internal
tube can contribute to not only lowering the cost for gas produc- n and similar triangular external n, and an inner tube with double
tion, but also saving energy. The results of pilot plant tests indicate twisted tape inserts. The heating section is only a circular tube with
that superORV increases LNG vaporizing rate per heat transfer tube petal-shaped internal n and similar triangular external n, where
3 to 5 times, reduces the operating cost, construction cost and in- cross-shaped twisted tape inserts are applied.
stallation space by 15%, 10%, and 40% respectively, and seawater was LNG with low temperature of 162 C is distributed to different
reduced by approximately 15%. heat transfer tubes by the distribution header at the bottom of va-
With the aim to reveal and improve the performance of LNG va- porizer. The LNG ows upward inside heat transfer tubes while
porizer, numerous researchers respectively conducted a series of seawater ows downward along the outside surfaces of heat trans-
experimental study and numerical simulation. Jeong et al. [6] com- fer tubes. At vaporizing section, some of the cryogenic LNG ows
pared the characteristics of two types of longitudinal n air- into the annular channel between outer tube and inner tube, and
heating vaporizers experimentally by analyzing the inletoutlet is heated by external falling seawater lm and vaporized rapidly,
enthalpy difference and the outlet uid temperature at different and the other directly enters inner tube and is heated by absorb-
length scales and ambient conditions. A CFD analysis on longitu- ing the heat from outside NG until gasied to the saturated vapor.
dinally nned tube of air-heating vaporizer was conducted by Jeong The superheated NG from the annular channel and the saturated
et al. [7], the natural convection heat transfer for natural convec- NG owing out of the inner tube are mixed and further heated in
tion outside the tube was estimated, and corresponding heat transfer heating section. After adequate heat absorption in heating section,
correlation was proposed. Jeong et al. [8] also carried out a numer- it turns to superheated vapor with ambient temperature, and at last
ical analysis of vaporizer for obtaining optimum design of assembles together in collection header at the top of vaporizer.
longitudinal n air-heating vaporizer and the prediction frost deposit Outside and inside ns for the external tube, as well as a twisted
formation on vaporizer n, and proposed the optimum vaporizer
geometry at the conditions of considering the frost thickness and
without frost deposit presence. Pu et al. [3] developed a thermal
model for intermediate uid vaporizer based on the energy balance
among evaporator, condenser and thermolator, which considered
the mutual coupling and constraints fully. On this basis, the heat
transfer performance of vaporizer, and the effects of operating pa-
rameters, such as seawater temperature and ow rate, LNG pressure
and ow rate were also investigated. Himoto [9] analyzed the con-
ventional designs of submerged combustion vaporizer, including the
process and major factors impacting emissions, and systematical-
ly studied its advanced designs that have been newly developed to
reduce NOx and CO emissions in exhaust gases. Hisada and Sekiguchi
[10] established highly endurable structures through a variety of
tests or nite element method analysis to develop best-suited shapes
(such as sizes and internal/external surface shapes) of ORV heat
transfer tubes by using numerical analysis and thermal stress design.
Jin et al. [11] built a distributed parameter model to simulate the
LNG evaporating process in a SuperORV heat transfer tube, and ob-
tained some signicant results by heat transfer performance analysis.
Complex heat transfer phenomena occur inside the heat trans-
fer tubes of superORV. Whereas, above review shows that previous
studies have mainly focused on air-heating vaporizer and few studies
reported the thermal performance of superORV heat transfer tube,
which is a key indicator for the thermal design of vaporizer and has Fig. 1. Geometry of superORV heat transfer tube.
J. Pan et al./Applied Thermal Engineering 93 (2016) 2735 29
tape insert in inner tube, are used to further improve the heat trans- hsw 2
h1sw
fer eciency of heat transfer tube. msw = ( do + 2b ) sw 1
( Tsw1 T01 )
z
2 k ( T01 T11 )
( do + 2b ) sw ( Tsw T0 ) =
1 1 1
2.2. Mathematical model ln (1 + 2b do ) (2)
Based on the steady-state heat transfer theory, a distributed pa- ( do + 2b ) 1
sw ( T 1
sw T 1
0 ) = di i1 ( Tl1 Tg1 )
h2 h1g
rameter model was developed for the vaporizing section under icing mg g = di i1 ( Tl1 Tg1 )
condition, on the assumption that the ow pressure drop along the z
heat transfer tube, the axial and circumferential heat transfer, the
At no icing condition, the heat transfer equations of vaporizing
radial thermal resistance of internal and external tube wall, and the
section, with 5 independent unknown variables of z , T11, T21, hsw2
,
effects of formed ice layer on heat transfer area are ignored. Based
hg2 , were given by:
on above assumption, Fig. 2 shows the heat ow transfer process
of vaporizing section with ice layer presence. hsw 2
h1sw
This model consists of some discretized equations derived from msw = d1,o sw 1
( Tsw1 T11 )
z
the energy balance of heat transfer tube, which illustrates that: (1)
d1,o sw ( Tsw T0 ) = d1,i1,i ( T1 Tg )
1 1 1 1 1 1
the increase of seawater enthalpy, the convective heat transfer rate
h hg
2 1
from the seawater to the external surface of ice layer, the heat trans- mg g = d1,i11,i ( T11 Tg1 ) d2,o 21,o ( Tg1 T21 ) (3)
fer rate through the ice layer by thermal conduction, and the z
convective heat transfer rate from the internal surface of outer tube d2,o 21,o ( Tg1 T21 ) = d2,i 21,i ( T21 Tl1 )
to the NG in annular channel are equal; (2) the enthalpy changes
hl hl
2 1
ml z = d2,i 2,i ( T2 Tl )
1 1 1
of the NG owing in annular channel and the LNG inside inner tube
are respectively equal to the sum of the heat transfer rates through
its boundaries; (3) the heat ow transferred from NG to inner tube and the heat transfer equations of heating section without ice layer
wall is equal to that from inner tube wall to LNG. The proposed presence were obtained by the same way:
discretized equations are expressed as follows:
hsw 2
h1sw
hsw 2
h1sw msw = do sw 1
( Tsw1 T11 )
= ( d1,o + 2b ) sw
1
( Tsw1 T01 ) z
msw z do sw ( Tsw T0 ) = di i ( T1 Tg )
1 1 1 1 1 1
(4)
2 k ( T01 T11 ) h hg
2 1
( d1,o + 2b ) sw ( Tsw T0 ) = m = di i1 ( T11 Tg1 )
1 1 1
g
ln (1 + 2b d1,o ) g z
( d1,o + 2b ) sw
1
( Tsw T0 ) = d1,i11,i ( T11 Tg1 )
1 1
(1) where only 3 independent unknown variables exist, including z ,
hg hg
2 1
Nu = 0.023Re0.8 Pr n (5)
where n = 0.4 for heating the uid and n = 0.3 for cooling the uid,
and the scope of application is l/d > 60, Re > 104, 0.7 < Pr < 120.
1 for Xtt1 0.1 The detailed denition for the correlation can be found in
F ( Xtt ) = 1
0.736 (9) Ref. [12].
2.35 0.213 + for Xtt1 > 0.1
Xtt
2.3.6. Heat transfer for seawater falling lm ow
and the single-phase coecient for liquid alone hl is calculated using The thickness of ice layer on the outside surfaces of heat trans-
the DittuseBoelter equation, fer tube is seen to be invariable at steady state conditions. Thereby,
seawater only released its explicit heat to the NG in heat transfer
l = 0.023 l Rel0.8 Prl0.4
k
(10) tube by convective heat transfer. The Wilke formula [13] was applied
d
to the convective heat transfer of seawater side, which are given
The microscopic contribution to the overall heat transfer coef- by
cient is determined by applying the following correction:
* = 0.00681Re0.43 Pr 0.344 (18)
1
k c 0.79 0.45
0.49 2 where the dimensionless heat transfer coecient * is dened by
hmic = 0.00122 0.5 0.29 0.24 0.24 [Tw Tsat ( pl )] [ psat ( Tw ) pl ] S
l pl l 0.24 0.75
l hlv v
* = ( h ) ( 2 g )
13
(11)
where
The applicable range of the above formula is Re > 3200,
S ( Retp ) = (1 + 2.56 106 Re1tp.17 )
1
(12) 5 < Pr < 210.
comparison between the calculated tube length and the experi- Table 2
mental data from Ref. [10]. The enhancement mechanism of twisted Basic technical parameters for numerical simulation.
tape insert on heat transfer can be attributed to the following three Parameter Value
aspects: smaller hydraulic diameter, stronger secondary ow and LNG mass ow rate (kg/s) 0.0972
good thermal contact between tape and tube wall [14]. In the present Inlet temperature of LNG (K) 130
model, a twisted tape with a helix angle of 45 was chosen for inner Seawater outlet temperature (K) 277.65
tube, which can improve the Nusselt number to 1.8 times for tur- Seawater pressure (MPa) 0.1
Required outlet temperature of NG (K) 275
bulent ow according to Ref. [15]. The petal-shaped internal n in Seawater freezing point (K) 271.25
outer tube was equivalent to rectangular straight n with the n Thermal conductivity of ice (W m1 K1) 2.22
height of 3.0 mm and the n base thickness of 2.2 mm, and its en-
hancement effects can be evaluated by n eciency and increased
surface area. The n eciency of rectangular straight n is calcu-
temperature was supposed to be the freezing point of seawater
lated by
which is generally considered to be 271.25 K (1.9 C). The thermal
tanh ( mH ) conductivity of ice was postulated to be 2.22 W m1 K1, and the at-
f = (19) mospheric pressure of 0.1 MPa was adopted as the outlet pressure
mH
of seawater.
and
4. Results and discussion
2 H +
mH = (20)
k 2 4.1. Model validation and heat transfer performance analysis
3. Solution procedure To assess the predictive accuracy of the proposed model, a nu-
merical simulation for the thermal performance of conventional ORV
A FORTRAN code based on above-mentioned distributed pa- heat transfer tube was conducted. Fig. 4 shows the comparison
rameter models was developed to calculate the thermal performance between the calculation results and the data from the experi-
of SuperORV heat transfer tube numerically. In the calculation, ments in Ref. [10]. Most of the calculation results are in good
methane as the main composition was used to replace the LNG and agreement with the experimental data, which implies that the nu-
NG, and its thermal properties of methane were computed with a merical simulation with this model is reliable. As illustrated in Fig. 4,
code in the REFPROP package developed by the National Institute
of Standards and Technology (US) [16]. Because the salt content of
seawater is very little, a subroutine for thermodynamic properties
of water and steam based on IAPWS-IF97 was applied in the thermal
properties calculation of seawater.
In the iterative solution of models, the SuperORV heat transfer
tube was divided into different heat transfer elements along the ow
direction based on constant enthalpy difference. For each element,
the outlet parameters can be calculated from the inlet parameters
according to the energy conservation equations, and numerous heat
transfer correlations and thermal properties data. Then, they were
applied in the calculation of next element as the inlet parameters.
At last, the data for all elements can be obtained by the model
solution.
The thermal performance calculation and analysis of SuperORV
heat transfer tube was carried out for the following two cases, dif-
fering by whether these form ice layers on the outside surfaces of
outer nned tube. The superheated NG owing out of the annular
channel and the saturated NG from the inner tube converge in the
heating section. The temperature of the mixed NG at the inlet of
the heating section was derived from its enthalpy which was pos-
tulated to be the sum of those of the NG out of the inner tube and
the annular channel.
The basic geometrical and technical parameters available for the
numerical calculation of heat transfer tube are respectively sum-
marized in Table 1 and Table 2, and the calculation procedure is
illustrated in Fig. 3. In the present calculation, the ices surface
Table 1
Basic geometrical parameters of SuperORV heat transfer tube.
Parameter Value
Fig. 4. Temperature proles in conventional ORV heat transfer tube. Fig. 6. Heat transfer coecient proles in SuperORV heat transfer tube.
5. Conclusions
Acknowledgements
Nomenclature