Thermally and acoustically driven transport in supercritical fluids

Supercritical fluids are fluids at temperature and pressure above their respective critical values. Such fluids are increasingly being used in power generation, refrigeration and chemical process industry. The objectives of the current research were to develop a fundamental understanding of the transport phenomena in near-critical supercritical fluids via high-resolution numerical simulations and careful experiments for improved design of industrial processes and applications that employ supercritical fluids. A set of synergistic experimental and numerical studies were proposed in this research. Four main focus areas under the broad spectrum of supercritical fluid transport were chosen - (a) characterization of thermoacoustic transport, (b) interaction of thermoacoustic transport with natural convection, (c) characterization of acoustically augmented transport and (d) enhancement of mass transport using acoustic waves. A numerical model to simulate thermoacoustic convection in near-critical fluids was developed. In the computational model, the conservation equations were solved along with a real-fluid equation of state for supercritical fluid and variable thermo-physical properties. Thermoacoustic waves in near-critical carbon dioxide were also investigated experimentally on acoustic time scales using a fast response measurement system. The predicted results from the calculation and the measurements provide interesting details regarding the thermal transport mechanisms at near-critical states. The numerical model was applied to investigate the interaction of buoyancy driven flows with thermoacoustic convection in near-critical supercritical fluids. This model can be extensively used for studying the steady-state thermal transport and stability behavior of near-critical fluids. Mechanically driven acoustic waves in supercritical fluid generated by a vibrating wall in a cylindrical resonator were studied both numerically and experimentally. The simulations revealed interesting steady-periodic flow patterns in the resonator filled with near-critical fluid due to the fluctuations caused by the vibrating wall. High-fidelity computational fluid dynamics models of mass transport processes in supercritical fluid extraction systems were also developed. A novel application of acoustically driven transport in supercritical fluid was demonstrated numerically for the supercritical fluid extraction process. The numerical predictions indicated major improvements in the extraction yield due to the application of acoustic waves and can be utilized in the design and optimization of supercritical fluid extraction systems.