Water has been examined for thermocapillary convection while maintained just outside the mouth of a stainless-steel, conical funnel where it evaporated at different but steady rates. Evaporation at a series of controlled rates was produced by reducing the pressure in the vapor-phase to different but constant values while maintaining the temperature of the water a few millimeters below the interface at 3.56+/-0.03 degrees C in each case. Since water has its maximum density at 4 degrees C, these conditions ensured there would be no buoyancy-driven convection. The measured temperature profile along the liquid-vapor interface was found to be approximately axisymmetric and parabolic with its minimum on the center line and maximum at the periphery. The thermocapillary flow rate was determined in two ways: (1) It was calculated from the interfacial temperature gradient measured along the interface. (2) The deflection of a 12.7-microm-diameter, cantilevered probe inserted into the flow was measured and the liquid velocity required to give that deflection determined. The values determined by the two methods agree reasonably. As the vapor-phase pressure was reduced, the thermocapillary flow rate increased until a limiting value was reached. When the pressure was reduced further, certain of the variable relations underwent a bifurcation and the power spectrum of the probe displacement indicated it was a periodic function with frequency locking. These results suggest that thermocapillary flow plays an important role in the energy transport near the interface of evaporating water. In particular, it appears that the subinterface, uniform-temperature layer, reported in earlier studies, results from the mixing produced by the thermocapillary flow. The Stefan boundary condition is often applied to determine the energy flux to an interface where phase change is occurring; however, when there is strong convective flow parallel to the interface, the normal Stefan condition does not give an adequate description of the energy transport.
An investigation on viscosity was conducted 2 weeks after the Al2O3-water nanofluids having dispersants were prepared at the volume concentration of 1-5%. The shear stress was observed with a non-Newtonian behavior. On further ultrasonic agitation treatment, the nanofluids resumed as a Newtonian fluids. The relative viscosity increases as the volume concentrations increases. At 5% volume concentration, an increment was about 60% in the re-ultrasonication nanofluids in comparison with the base fluid. The microstructure analysis indicates that a higher nanoparticle aggregation had been observed in the nanofluids before re-ultrasonication.
A review is presented for the research development of Stirling cycle engines for recovering low and moderate temperature heat. The Stirling cycle engines are categorized into four types, including kinetic, thermoacoustic, free-piston, and liquid piston types. The working characteristics, features, technological details, and performances of the related Stirling cycle engines are summarized. Upon comparing the available experimental results and the technology potentials, the research directions and the possible applications of different Stirling cycle engines are further discussed and identified. It is concluded that kinetic Stirling engines and thermoacoustic engines have the greatest application prospect in low and moderate temperature heat recoveries in terms of output power scale, conversion efficiency, and costs. In particular, kinetic Stirling engines should be oriented toward two directions for practical applications, including providing low-cost solutions for low temperatures, and moderate efficient solutions with moderate costs for medium temperatures. Thermoacoustic engines for low temperature applications are especially attractive due to their low costs, high efficiencies, superior reliabilities, and simplicities over the other mechanical Stirling engines. This work indicates that a cost effective Stirling cycle engine is practical for recovering small-scale distributed low-grade thermal energy from various sources.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.