REVIEW ARTICLE


Numerical Study on Heat Distribution and Transfer Characteristics of a Manifold in a Coal Mine VAM TFRR Oxidation Bed



Zongli Li1, Yongqi Liu*, 2, Jinhui Han2, Zhiming Wang1
1 School of Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
2 School of Transportation and Vehicle Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, China


© 2015 Li et al

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode). This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the School of Transportation and Vehicle Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zhangzhou Road 12, Zibo 255049, China; Tel: +86-533-2782616; Fax: +86-533-2782616; E-mail: liuyq65@163.com


Abstract

A thermal flow-reversal reactor is candidate for utilizing low concentration ventilation air methane. In this paper, a numerical study is performed by using the FLUENT software to explore the details of the transient preheating and starting process of the thermal flow-reversal reactor oxidation bed. The bed was heated by hot gas, which was transported and distributed through the holes of manifolds to the middle of the bed. The homogeneous porous media and coupled heat transfer models were chosen; and the mass and heat flow distributions passing through the holes, the heat transfer on the outer surface of the manifold and the temperature distribution of the bed were calculated. The results indicate that the heat of the hot gas passing through the holes decreases gradually along the direction of the hot gas flowing in the manifold, causing the temperature of the bed decrease accordingly. The calculated temperatures of the oxidation bed are compared with the tested results. The maximum error between the calculation and the test was 8.9%.

Keywords: Heat flow distribution, mass flow distribution, regenerative oxidation bed, thermal reverse-flow reactor (TFRR), ventilation air methane (VAM).